Ever felt that managing an international team is more about dealing with cultural misunderstandings than getting the work done?
As HR professionals, you may find it challenging to deal with a diversified workplace, which includes different time zones, languages, and cultural differences. However, in the modern world saturated with technology and global connections, handling these tasks is essential. It is important to learn how to effectively leverage cultural differences and put them to the service of social innovation.
This blog covers the best practices to follow in cross-cultural team management and transform your global workforce into a unified, productive team.
What is Cross-Cultural Team Management?
Cross-cultural team management means the process of managing teams that comprise members originating from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is about acknowledging cultural diversity where employees learn to appreciate each other, despite having different languages, ways of working, and cultural practices.
The main goal of this approach is to leverage cultural differences as an advantage for managing global teams by promoting cross-cultural understanding to build effective teams.
Why Does Cross-Cultural Team Management Matter?
The potential of cross-cultural teams to enhance organisational performance cannot be overemphasised. As HR professionals, you need to grasp the following importance of managing cross-cultural teams effectively:
1. Promotes Innovation
Inclusion fosters change as diversified teams have different thoughts and opinions on how to solve a problem. The combination of different views always leads to unique solutions which could not be obtained with a rather similar team.
2. Amplified Global Reach
Companies capable of leveraging their personnel diversity can also efficiently approach the global market. Employees from different cultures provide various input into local preferences. Thus, it makes it even easier to fine-tune the products and services to different regions they intend to be marketed.
3. Intensifies Stronger Teams
A cross-cultural work environment is acceptable in organisations that consider cultural differences an asset to encourage a high level of trust and cooperation among the teams. People at such workplaces are valued and appreciated, thus can boost productivity and retention.
4. Boosts Organizational Flexibility
Multicultural teams are more adaptable to changes and the state of flux. They provide diverse points of view that can be useful for advancing ideas in struggling situations.
5. Engages Top Talent
Companies that appreciate a Culture of Diversity are at the top of the list of preferred employers. Engaging a diverse workforce allows you to create suitable conditions for like-minded people from different corners of the world to apply for a job, making your organisation more professional and competitive.
7 Best Practices To Master Cross-Cultural Team Management
Awareness of managing cross-cultural teams is not enough to bridge the gaps between diversified cultures; it demands hands-on approaches to make the best of it. Here are some best practices for cultural diversity to assist you in leading your cross-cultural international teams:
1. Promote Cross-Cultural Awareness:
Failure to respect the work culture results in misunderstanding. Sometimes working on the gaps is the first step towards bringing the team together.
- Provide seminars and workshops of cultural training through which employees can learn workplace culture.
- Appreciate every cultural event at the workplace and actively engage in different cultural festivals or heritage appreciation month.
2. Build Cross-Cultural Communication:
Communication is the key factor of any working team. When the cultural dimensions are misunderstood, then it results in miscommunication.
- Simplify communication together with clarity. Avoid using idioms or idiomatic expressions; some may find it hard to understand them.
- Encourage employees to ask questions and to clarify their doubts by developing a successful interactive and comfortable system.
- Use visual aids like charts, diagrams, and other graphical tools to overcome language barriers.
3. Introduce Common Goals & Values:
Team cohesion requires a commonality of intent, particularly when members represent diverse cultural backgrounds.
- Define shared objectives to make sure that every team member knows what to do to accomplish such group objectives.
- Reinforce core values to the team and schedule behavioural sessions to teach politeness, collaboration and cooperation.
Rather than bringing a standard, rigid system to fit in, embrace the strength of each team member and value their unique contributions.
- Do inclusive hiring by selecting candidates who look at things from a different angle while working towards the stated goals of the team.
- Encourage cultural expression where anyone from the team can bring and follow their culture to the workplace.
5. Strengthen Diversified Team Cultures
Inherent the team building activities which then foster the trust and understanding of team members while working in a culturally diverse environment.
- Arrange interesting events and activities of different cultural backgrounds. Let’s say; food festivals where participants are offered meals from different countries or quiz nights where people can play in different languages.
- For remote working teams, use technology, collaborative platforms and online games for distributed employees to engage them.
6. Adapting Management Style
Leadership should be flexible enough to adapt cultural attitudes toward global team management, administration, and decision-making.
- Lead with empathy – Learn the ethical backgrounds of your employees and pay attention to their requirements.
- Do not set fixed forms of feedback, management, and expectations, but adapt to the organizational cultures and tailor your approach towards employees.
7. Employ Collaborative Technologies:
Technology levels the geographic and cultural barrier where people can communicate and collaborate more easily.
- Employ collaborative platforms where people connect with time differences – tools like Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams work.
- Use shared workspaces like Google Workspace or Trello that allow everyone to make updates visible to the whole team.
Socialisation of Cross-cultural Management
Cross-cultural team management doesn’t have to feel like an uphill battle. Hence, by ‘doing diversity,’ by promoting Cross-cultural communication and adapting leadership styles to cultural differences, cultural barriers can be leveraged for organisational development.
Introducing cross-cultural team management does not have to be a big overhaul, but little changes will scale your team’s potential and your organisation’s success.
Begin now and experience global teamwork like never before!