28 March 2024|leadership skills
There are always challenges in leading a team well, but what can you do to ease those challenges connected with geographical locations as a team lead? What can you do as a team lead to negate the challenges connected with your teams geography? Practical tips for a team lead.
How to team lead across continents and time zones
This article could be especially relevant if:
• You are a team lead, and your team is spread across continents and time zones.
• A significant number of your team works in their second or third language.
• There has been a recent change in your role. (For example, a promotion, a new job, an international move).
• Your company has acquired another company.
• Your company has been acquired.
• Your company merged with another company.
Changes to make when your team is global
You are already an experienced team leader, so keep doing what you do well and use all the techniques you have learnt over time. Then, add these five strategies to keep your global team’s success high.
1. Global data
Firstly, make sure that you are always aware of time for each of your team members. So, not just what time it is in their part of the world, but also what is the season, are there national holidays coming up, is there about to be an election, is there severe weather at the moment. Keep this information in mind when you communicate, and you will be automatically more empathetic.
For example, if you have been experiencing a lot of rain and grey weather, don’t mention this in a negative way to someone who is living somewhere facing drought. If you mention it, be tactful.
Similarly, if it is the morning where you are, don’t enthusiastically discuss a new project with a long and urgent to do list to someone who is into the evening in their time zone. If you do, then acknowledge their time and make it clear that you are not expecting an answer until the next day.
Experienced team leaders have sites bookmarked for national holidays, news stories, weather, sports results etc. for all countries under their remit. If you, as the team lead, reference that a particular team won at the weekend, or that there is an election in 2 weeks, there will be an immediate connection across the globe. Of course, anyone will know that this information is easily available, but we are all human, and so don’t think like this but instead appreciate the gesture.
Key takeaways
Keep time and season in mind.
Keep global news in your feed.
2. Intensity of relationships
The questions we use as a Team Lead as part of the initial greeting need to vary depending on the culture of the person we are speaking to. Some of your team members are going to be happy with:
‘How are you?’.
Whereas others will appreciate a more detailed or wider question. For example:
‘How are your children?’,
‘How are your parents?’
Key takeaways
As a Team Lead share something about your own family or friends and gauge the reaction.
3. Language
Look at a list of your team members and then divide them into who is working in their first language, and who in their second, third or nth language. Then look further and consider the languages you yourself speak, even if it is only at a basic level. How many of your team members could you at least greet in their mother tongue? Then consider the people you have remaining and learn at least something about their first language. You don’t need to spend much time and there are lots of online resources to help with this.
It is a very good exercise as the next time you are on a call with them, you will be aware not only that they are speaking their second language, but also that they may be working with a different alphabet and/or a language which has no overlap with yours.
Key takeaways
Know the first language of all your team members.
Learn one or two words in each of the languages.
4. Feedback to you
As a team leader you have made it clear that ‘your door is always open’, that you are willing to help whenever needed, and you want to know immediately if your team have problems, and that mistakes and errors are learning experiences.
Your message can be given more than once and emphasised.
However, don’t assume everyone will respond to you with the same ease and frequency. This is because some will not have understood your message in the way you intended it. For example, if one of your team members comes from a culture where loss of face is important, they are more likely to hesitate or avoid telling you about an error or a delay.
The best way to overcome this is to use stories and real-world examples. Give an example of something which happened to you, who you told, and how it was resolved. Or give an example about a project which was delayed because issues were not highlighted fast enough, and how it could have been handled differently.
Key takeaways
Spend more time on an individual basis.
Encourage feedback gently.
Share your own experience with errors made and the solutions.
5. Fairness
If you have a team across different time zones and <90% operating in their second language, you may default to tasking team members from your own country or time zone, and who have the same language. This is understandable and will happen more when you are under pressure of workload, or a deadline is approaching. So, monitor yourself regularly for fairness, and make sure that you don’t automatically give tasks to those in the team who are nearest to you in terms of geography, similar work styles or language. This monitoring needs to be built into the team’s development too.
Key takeaways
• Monitor yourself regularly for fairness.
• Give tasks to the most appropriate team members.
• Avoid availability bias.
• Work on getting to know better the team members who are furthest in geography, language, or culture from yourself.
Conclusion
Leading a global team can be exciting and enrich your life and CV. If you work at including and involving everyone appropriately, yours will be a very successful team.
Further reading
Leading Global Teams Effectively Harvard Business Review article
Practical tips to think about before a global video call
If you would like to learn more about how to team lead globally and across continents or discuss one on one coaching, book a half hour situation appraisal to discuss your needs with our Director, Caroline Gregory via our contact form.