Leading Global Virtual Teams - The Art of Paradox Management

As global business environments become more complex, the ability to harness the diverse skills of team members around the globe becomes business-critical. Senior TMA World Consultant Russell Harlow looks at the 'core' leadership skills needed to lead a team of individuals in different countries from different cultural backgrounds. This is an abridged version of an article published in June 2008 in Training Zone.

For further information on TMA World's approach to leading global virtual teams, please contact Russell Harlow at rharlow@tmaworld.com.

Successfully leading any team requires a strong set of 'core' leadership skills - setting a clear vision, providing alignment between personal and organizational goals, and so on.

But what about leading a team of individuals based in different countries and who come from different cultural backgrounds?

On today's global stage, since our actions are scrutinised by a wider range of 'lenses', leaders of global virtual teams need to be much more self-aware and context-aware. Self-awareness is crucial as people from different cultural backgrounds often have very different perceptions of what an effective leader is and does; context-awareness is essential as the lack of physical immediacy of working in the same location means one can easily become disconnected with the everyday concerns of others.

Therefore, global leaders face the question: how do you manage the paradox of closeness and distance, both metaphorically and physically?

Traditionally leaders recognised the value of creating distance from their followers in order to take the necessary helicopter view and to be able to set direction keeping the big picture in mind. They have also known that there are times when closeness is required to build trusting relationships. And yet, now, the physical distance between members of global teams requires leaders to be even 'closer' to their people as the bonds of virtual trust are so much more fragile and the need to avoid 'out-of sight, out-of-mind' behaviours becomes crucial.

If we are not culturally sensitive, our actions as leaders may inadvertently be misunderstood. Worse, well-intentioned attempts at trying to get 'closer' to people may create tensions and, therefore, distance others from us. For example, giving positive feedback and praise to an individual in front of others in a group-oriented culture may not be well-received as the individual feels the 'pressure' of being made to "stand out" from the group.

Global team leaders should keep the following in mind:

• Demonstrate coordination not control
  Look for ways to encourage self-control in others without being controlling. It's a difficult tightrope to walk but look out for the signals - if you hear things like 'we feel our hands are tied" or "decisions are always made elsewhere, what influence do we have?' then you have probably erred too much on Control. If you hear 'We have no idea what the team in X is doing?' then you have probably erred on not enough Coordination.
• Use honesty not manipulation
  Honesty helps to build trust and in the 'fuzzy' world of globally dispersed teams, people are much more sensitive to 'sugar-coating' or superficial words about honesty. Leaders need to take regular doses of mindfulness - the ability to 'stand outside' of oneself and hear and see how your words and actions are being received by others.
• Adapt, not adopt
  When leading multicultural teams, it is important to first understand the personal and cultural values and viewpoints of all members. Cultural Intelligence, as we refer to it with our clients, is the ability to adapt one's mindset and behaviours in order to connect with these other views but not at the expense of one's own values and viewpoints. Global leaders should strive to be themselves at all times but never arrogant to the point of ignoring those at a distance from us, culturally or geographically.

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