Excelling on global teams

By: Grayson Jones Leverenz (MBA ’06)

As the business world consolidates from tough economic times and flattens thanks to technology innovation, a growing number of people will find themselves part of global teams. Having strong intercultural communication skills as part of your managerial toolkit will help to differentiate you, and propel you to success as the future of business unfolds.

Here are 5 ways to excel on a global team:

1. Do your homework. Start by discovering what to expect from each of your coworkers. Explore general cultural dimensions (e.g. time orientation), and compare them to your cultural norms.

2. Build trust and establish ground rules. Get your global team up and running by dedicating the first meeting to building relationships and establishing ground rules.

Create a comfortable environment that welcomes everyone from around the world, have people introduce themselves and share their role on the team. Consider including a cultural ice breaker to highlight the strengths of the team’s diversity.

Then, document a code of conduct to help the team perform effectively.  Start off with the following, and add as necessary for your specific team.

• Time and agenda management: Will meetings start and end as scheduled, or go until all topics are covered? 
• Contributions and opinions: Will every member contribute at the meetings, or only the most senior?
• Decision making: Will decision making be consensus driven, or will senior team members make the decisions?
• Conflict resolution: Will team members resolve conflict by approaching one another as individuals, or will there be a mediator?

3. Listen carefully. When working on a global team, most people know it is important to be considerate of team members communicating in a second language by speaking slowly. It is also important to listen for meaning deeper than the spoken words using your newfound cultural knowledge as a guide. Some cultures do not like to say no, even when a request is impossible. If you listen for cues, then you may save time and face.

4. Ask for clarification. If you are ever unclear about something that was said, clarify. Ask in a non-confrontational way, but definitely ask. You may want to say, “Just to make sure I understand, are you saying…” and restate what you heard. Then, go back to #3 if you don’t hear a solid yes.

5. Have patience. It takes time to establish trust on any new team, and working interculturally magnifies that fact. Having patience and confidence in the practices above will pay off in the end when your team delivers innovative ideas crafted by global thinking.  

Grayson Jones Leverenz is founder of MBA in the USA, an organization aimed at helping international MBA students with their educational experience.