Buenos dias….Bonjour….Guten morgen….Buona mattina….Good morning….
Let the international virtual team meeting begin!
Pressure to compete increasingly requires business people to collaborate in teams around the world. But to keep costs down, team members rarely gather in one location to meet face-to-face - it's just too expensive and time consuming to bring teams together.
So what's the solution? Virtual teams.
Ninety percent of US corporations are using virtual teams. Why? "Compared to co-located teams, virtual international teams can be more creative, and generate more and better alternatives to problems," says Joseph DiStefano of IMD, one of the world's leading business schools.
But the virtual team solution is not without its challenges. As all leaders know, managing and motivating employees is difficult in the best of times, when their offices are only down the hall. Speaking 4 different languages and practicing 10 different cultures, the potential for cross-cultural and linguistic miscommunication is huge. But the threat to your business of not creating global teams is even greater.
A good place to begin is with an assessment of your leadership style. This will help you identify areas where you might need to develop some "international competencies." In addition to the typical leadership skills, leaders managing international virtual teams must:
- Be comfortable working with dispersed employees
- Have exemplary networking skills
- Be able to maintain the team's focus across many time zones and conflicting business priorities
- Be able to manage (and leverage) cultural differences
- Be able to establish trust quickly and maintain it
- Be comfortable leading "democratically" through empowerment and coordination, rather than directing
If you work on developing virtual leadership skills, and minimizing fatal flaws you will be well on your way to reaping the rewards of leading a high performing international virtual team.
Good luck! Bonne chance! Buona Fortuna! Viel Glueck! Buena Suerte!
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Signals of
Low Trust Teams |
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Lack of commitment |
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Excessive focus on rules and procedures |
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Inequitable, irregular, and unpredictable communication |
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Lack of response to email/voice mail |
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Lack of positive feedback from team members |
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