How to Manage Your Team through Many Cultures and Time Zones

In SFI business, managing a team with many cultures and time zones is where your real leadership qualities come to the fore. Luckily for us, SFI is a 24/7 business online and the available tools do help a great deal to overcome cultural, language and time zone barriers. Taking full advantage of the tools provided, to manage your team successfully, you simply need to do the following.

 

1. Relate with all your Team Members as business partners and not as employees or dependents.
2. Lead by example always.
3. Respect their individual sensibilities as in culture and language barriers then find acceptable ways around them.
4. Appreciate individual differences and find ways to work with all persons irrespective of these differences.
5. Be open and receptive to all types of ideas and suggestions from your Team Members.
6. Be a reliable source of information and tips for the benefit of your Team Members.
7. Find credible ways to motivate and encourage your Team Members.
8. Communicate regularly with your Team Members in ways acceptable to them but be extremely temperate in your language.
9. Recognize and take time zones into account when making requests/demands from your Team Members.
10. Encourage them and show them how to be Team Leaders themselves irrespective of where they are and what their backgrounds are.
11. Encourage a two-way communication irrespective of language differences by using language translation tools provided.

I believe the foregoing can serve as credible ways to manage your team even with many cultures and time zones to navigate.