Global leadership

Whatever happened to the 9am – 5pm job? Do you still work those hours? I bet the answer is no if you have to work with a global team.  In the spirit of being accommodating, employees are working earlier hours or later hours to meet with their global peers.  I’ve installed and bookmarked an international clock on my laptop to help me with international time management. You would hate to call someone at 11pm (their time) to ask about a PC password. 

Globalization is here to stay.  Companies are developing teams in countries that are in emerging markets.  Wikipedia describes emerging markets as nations with social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. The economies of China and India are considered to be the largest. The eight largest emerging and developing economies are China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, and Turkey.

In this fast-paced global society, it’s important that leaders create an effective team to help their team succeed.  Leading a global team is all about partnership, trust, and communication. Typically, global employees will have a supervisor in their county that they report to. As the US leader of the team, it’s important that  communicate with their global employees.  It’s important that global leaders understand how their global team communicates. Depending on the culture, you could be working with global employees that are very direct or reluctant to share bad news.  Regardless of the cultural communication traits, it’s important that you communicate your specific goals, objectives, and expectations.

The best action you could take as a global leader is to visit or live in the country with your team.  You would benefit from the experience an learn more about the culture and the people you work with on your team.    Your international experience will help you improve on your soft skills too. I'm willing to bet that your relationship with your global team would improve after your visit.  You would no longer be the voice on the phone asking about deadlines or problems.  Your global team would see you as someone who was willing to try the unique cultural dish at dinner and the leader that attempted to speak the language during a meeting.  Try it and see what happens. 

How do you lead your global team?  Are you considering an international assignment?