Do you have what it takes to lead global teams?

In my previous post I mentioned that when leading dispersed teams it’s all about communication. But there are some other key drivers that are reshaping the leadership landscape. When you are leading global or multicultural teams there are some specific proficiencies and abilities that are mandatory for success.

The Institute for Future has recently published a report about the ten skills for the future of workforce. Not surprisingly, the first of them is sense-making, a skill that help us create unique insights critical to decision making. From my point of view this is the most important ingredient of leadership. Simon Sinek calls this concept "Start with why". He explains that “in business it doesn´t matter what you do, it matters why you do it. If every organization started with WHY decisions would be simpler, loyalties would be greater and trust would be a common currency. If leaders were diligent about starting with WHY, optimism would reign and innovation would thrive”.

Accenture has also developed a vision about this issue. In the report “Global Leadership Teams, the view from the top” they discerned three key attributes that top top leaders must have if they are to manage the complexity and the tensions that face global companies: 

Clarity of focus: “A leadership charter and a set of operating principles may never need to be written down if they are unambiguous and easily understood. But they do need to be communicable so that new members and other layers of the organization can quickly assimilate them as a guide to action”

Agility: “The key to that agility is having the right people in the room at the right time.”

A foot in the future: “To be able to change ahead of the curve, to be prepared for the widest range of eventualities, global leadership teams must be confronted by challenging ideas and people”

In summary, “having a clear sense of purpose, the right people in the room and the ability to change ahead of the curve will be the hallmarks of successful truly global leadership teams”.

I assume that all this may seem very easy, but in practice it is really hard to achieve. So the question is: do you have what it takes to lead global teams?

Leading dispersed teams: it’s all about communication

Dispersed teams can be described as ‘teams working together apart’. These teams have members who are not in the same place and they come from different countries, cultures and time zones. 

Managing geographically-dispersed teams is not an easy issue. Probably the most difficult task is to create a deep sense of belonging to the team among the different members and at the same time keep a high productivity performance. For that purpose it is mandatory to have a clear strategy, very solid values and a strong leadership. The team members need to know and understand what they are doing together. If they understand only their own work, they will always just be individual contributors. So it is necessary finding some time to be together to share knowledge and experience and, of course, to socialize.

Team members located together have opportunities to socialize throughout the day. Virtual teams don’t, so it is more important for the manager to look for ways they can be together. This might include getting  time in a face-to-face meetings.

According to some researches face-to-face meetings are best when occurring at predictable times and intervals. This allows team members to plan their time and interactions, reserving discussion of certain complex or delicate issues for those in-person interactions.

Therefore it seems very clear that the key for dispersed team members commitment is communication. You need to be extremely proactive in your communications to make sure everyone understands what is expected. The communication lines on a this kind of team must be opened up especially wide.

Communication is all about conversations. So the first task for a team leader is listening to the team and give all the members opportunities to express their opinions and feelings. The leader must build a safe and confident atmosphere to be sure  the conversations and feedback are sincere and honest.

It is also very recommended to conduct periodic employee satisfaction surveys to truly understand the issues that concern people and to design an action plan to deal with the improvement areas.

Some interesting articles on managing virtual and dispersed teams are:

Working together… when apart (Wall Street Journal)

Managing virtual teams (Harvard Business Review)

10 tips for virtual management teams (Tech Republic)

The role of the leader in the innovation process

One way for organizations to become more innovative is to capitalize on their employees’ ability to innovate. Employees can help to improve business performance through their ability to generate ideas for new and better products, services or work processes. But the challenge is to put this theory into practice.

In order to realize a continuous flow of innovations, employees need to be both willing and able to innovate. For that reason it is imperative to create a good working atmosphere and provide the right tools and skills.

Probably the most important ingredient for both things is the leader as enabler and enhancer of innovative behaviours among the employees. Leading by example is the best way to promote this kind of behaviour as far as leaders have a powerful source of influence on any work behaviour. In addition to that the leader must promote employees’ interaction with others in the workplace.

Innovation theorists often describe the innovation process as being composed of two main phases: ideas generation and implementation. For the first one the leader must reinforce the creativity capabilities of the team. The goal is to find good ideas that can be productive for the firm and implemented in the short-medium term. The leader should stimulate team members to view problems in new ways and help them to develop to their full potential.

Most companies however fail in the implementation (when ideas should become real products, services or processes). The role of the leader in this point is key. He should act as a real organizational facilitator and help the team to implement the new idea.

Finally there's another important task for the leader: expectations management. The leader must ensure that everyone understands that innovation is not just finding great ideas. Make small improvements in processes is another useful form of innovation.