7 factors to successfully lead global teams

7 Factors to Successfully Lead Global teams Presented By: Dave Cornelius, MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, Six Sigma BB, ITIL V3

Date: Saturday, August 4, 2012

Copyright Dave Cornelius & Info Intel, Inc.

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About Dave Cornelius

¤  I volunteer as the PMI-OC VP of Communications on the Board of Governors

¤  Sr. Manager at Cognizant Technology Solutions; Support corporate leaders with current state assessment and strategic directions.

¤  I have been involved with business transformation through IT and Business Process Improvement (BPI) methods for the past 29 years.

¤  Global team leadership experience has been from the United States leading teams in other countries

¤  My first time was in the mid-90’s

¤  Traverse many time zones simultaneously (Last assignment: PST, EST, England, India)


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7 Factor Topics

¤  Cultural Intelligence

¤  Communication

¤  Leadership

¤  Partnership

¤  Conflict Management

¤  Best Practices

¤  Delivering the Promise/Business Value


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Learning Objectives

¤  Learners will be able to prepare a plan to lead global teams: ¤  Apply cultural intelligence ¤  Increase team communications ¤  Demonstrate leadership ¤  Build partnership ¤  Manage conflict ¤  Leverage best practices ¤  Deliver the promise/business value


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Learning Outcomes

¤  At the conclusion of this presentation, you will be able to create a plan to lead global teams.

¤  The knowledge obtained in this learning opportunity is not limited to leading global teams. These principles are applicable to leading teams anywhere.


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Team Goals

¤  You will work in teams of three to seven members.

¤  Seven countries were preselected to establish a global partnership.

¤  You must select a global partner and create strategic and tactical approach to address the 7 Factors.

¤  At the end of the class each team will present a 3-5 minutes Global Team Leadership Plan.


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Scenario

¤  You currently lead a team in the United States and must select a global partner from one of the following seven countries: ¤  India ¤  China ¤  Qatar ¤  Brazil ¤  Mexico ¤  Israel ¤  Vietnam


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Definitions

¤  Cultural Intelligence – Knowledge about other cultures and accepting the differences

¤  Communications – Connecting, sharing and exchanging information

¤  Leadership – Influencing others to follow your vision

¤  Partnership – Collaboration and trust

¤  Conflict Management – Managing differences with emotional intelligence

¤  Best Practices – Doing things consistently, in a measureable way

¤  Deliver the Promise/Business Value – Financial and efficiency benefits to the organization


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Leading Global Team Challenges

¤  Globalization creates the appearance of a smaller and flat world, but introduce cultural diversity and it is not so flat after all (Amiri, Moghimi, & Kazemi, 2010).

¤  Organizations source complex and strategic projects to low cost offshore operations, hoping for results at a lower cost.

¤  Managing the project constraints of Scope, Quality, Budget, Schedule, Resources, and Risk requires collaboration between team members with different cultural experiences.

¤  The more diverse the project team members, the leaders will require more multinational skills and.


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Cultural Intelligence ¤  Cultural Intelligence or Cultural

Quotient pertains to the ability to understand the differences and similarities in people (Harvard Business Review, 2004).

¤  “Cultural intelligence is the ability to ‘read’ and understand different ways of being –in-the-world and to apply that understanding to achieving goals” (Brake, 2008, p. 146).

¤  Companies have indigenous cultures that require new team members to learn how to navigate. It takes a few weeks and sometimes months to decipher cultural codes.


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Behaviors for Cultural Intelligence

¤  Personal adaptation – feeling comfortable and well adjusted to a foreign setting

¤  Practical efficacy and capacity for task completion in a foreign setting

¤  Successful interpretation of and sending of signals (gestures, words, actions)

¤  Meta-cognition, which is an ability to be self-monitor, process feedback and do continuous change


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Source: Thomas 2008

Cultures to Manage

¤  World – The cultures of countries shape the character and competencies of individuals. (United States)

¤  National – Shape the values and character of the leaders. (Colin Powell)

¤  Leadership – Shapes the culture and competencies of the organization. (Steve Jobs)

¤  Business – Shapes and alters the country’s history. (Ford, Microsoft, Enron, CountryWide)


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The Cultural Intelligence Moment


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What I have Learned About Teams in Bangalore

•  Normally India team members do not question the objective of the project. So the project leader must be proactive and verify if they understand the assigned tasks

•  Nodding the head in the opposite direction to mean YES •  Very little eye contact out of respect for leaders •  The team members located at the remote site may not understand the bigger

picture. This often requires stating the importance of the delivery time frame and objectives frequently

•  Lots of young people in the early stages of their career •  The young professional live with their parents and take care of their parents

financially


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What I have Learned About Teams in Bangalore Cont’d

•  Companies in India often provide health care for their associates and Family members

•  India has a big movie industry and people love to watch movies and listen to music

•  Frequent gathering and parties with friends and families •  Understanding festivals and sharing the reasons behind them helps with

building increased relationships •  I am going to my Native! Meaning they are going to their native place where

their family originate.


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PMI PMBOK Cultural Norms

¤  Cultural norms: ¤  Common knowledge to perform work in a certain way ¤  Acceptable ways to perform the work ¤  Assigned resource that influences how the work is done

¤  Organizational cultures are manifested through: ¤  Shared vision, values, norms, beliefs, and expectation ¤  Policies, methods, and procedures ¤  View of authority relationships ¤  Work ethic and work hours


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Cultural Intelligence Readiness

¤  Team members come from different cultures and backgrounds. Awareness of the differences and respecting their cultures will help leaders create an environment that enables individual satisfaction because of acceptance.

"   Read about cultural intelligence and the culture of your team. Global Literacies – Robert Rosen.

"   Identify Team Values

"   Identify Symbolic Agreements

"   Identify Shared Assumptions

"   Develop a roadmap that is unique to the project team needs, strengths, and goals

"   Define how the team will celebrate the cultural differences


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Cultural Intelligence Plan


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Team Values Symbolic Agreements Shared Assumptions Truthful Dress Code Everyone loves pizza

Kind Work Hours West Indies has the best Cricket team

Loyal Level of authority formality

Fun Meetings (Frequency, How to run, How long)

Happy How decisions are made

Social Events

How things are learned

Work-Life balance

Jargon, Uniforms, Identity symbols

Conflict management

Teamwork on Cultural Intelligence

¤  Identify the cultural norms of your selected country.

¤  How will you apply cultural intelligence?

¤  What challenges and constraints do you foresee?


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Communications


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Team Communications

With the support of technology to span across time, the team must adhere to three key principles for effective team communications:

¤  Timely, regular and responsive communications

¤  Ownership and trust between team members

¤  Understand the urgency and responding in timely manner

¤  If the team members do not understand each other, the cost for delivering the project objectives is very expensive.


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Across Time & Space

¤  Leading a distributed team presents a significant challenge with keeping everyone on the same page.

¤  The communication continuity issue is significant in a single country or across countries.


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Time & Distance

¤  If one member is on the West Coast and another is on the East Coast, there is only a five-hour window that both are working together.

¤  The problem is even worse when the team members are in different countries.

¤  The time difference between India and the U.S. is 12.5 hours non-day-light savings time and 13.5 hours during day-light savings time, one member is sleeping while the other is working.


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Technology Match to Communication Needs

Global Performance Indicators

>> Engagement >> Cohesion >> Clarity

(1) Simple Collaborations

(2) Delayed-time

Interactions (3) Complex

Collaborations

(4) Real Time Interactions

Source: Brake, 2008


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Language

"   Fu-ged-about-it

"   Do the needful

"   Fixing to go

"   Communications only happens when meanings are shared (Brake, 2008, p. 110).

"   As the leader you have a choice to either create a glossary of terms for the team or encourage people to use universal terms in the team setting.

"   If some use a term that is not familiar, then politely ask the meaning for the benefit of all teams members.


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Communications Management Plan


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Stakeholder / Audience

Content Frequency Method Assigned Last Action Current Status

Desired Outcome

Project Team Status report Weekly Meetings, E-Mail, SharePoint

John Smith Sent on 08/03/2012

In-Progress Communicate team progress

OCIO Benchmark reports and milestones

Monthly E-Mail, SharePoint

Andersen Cooper

Sent on 08/03/2012

In-Progress Executive updates

Project Team Active listening

Weekly Meetings, E-Mail

Improved team dialogue

Teamwork on Communications

¤  Create a communication plan for your team.

¤  What tools will you use to foster interactive participation by team members?

¤  How do you plan to address team communication failures?


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Why is Leadership Important?


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The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader. -- Albert Einstein

Leadership

¤  Leadership is getting others to follow you and your defined vision.

¤  In order to be a leader you must have followers; otherwise whom are you leading?

¤  Your vision inspires and motivates people to achieve a specific goal. People need a common goal to pursue.

¤  No vision no direction.

¤  Every leader has a style.


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Common Leadership Styles ¤  The Great Man (Autocratic/Authoritarian)

¤  Born with natural leadership capabilities, not learned.

¤  Transactional (Bureaucratic) ¤  Inspires workers based on exchange of work for wages; does not inspire a

shared visions. Power and politics in the environment.

¤  Transformational (Democratic) ¤  Enables followers to rise to a high level of performance. Inspires a shared

vision. ¤  Charismatic and visionary

¤  Servant Leader (Service) ¤  Ensures the people’s highest priority needs are served first ¤  Inspires others to lead in their own capacity and become autonomous ¤  Nourishes, strengthens, encourages


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Leadership Style for Global Teams

¤  The global leader must be a situational leader.

¤  Know when to be transactional, transformational and a servant leader.

¤  Sometimes you may have to be the One with a BIG stick or a Sweet CARROT


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Situational Leader Behavior


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Participating: Share ideas and facilitate in decision-

making

Selling: Explain decisions and provide opportunity

for clarification

Delegating: Turn over responsibility for decisions

and implementation

Telling: Provide specific instructions and closely supervise performance

Leader Behavior

Source: Hersey & Blanchard, 2003

Task Behavior (Guidance)

(High) (Low) (Low

) (H

igh)

R

elat

ions

hip

Beh

avio

r (S

uppo

rtiv

e B

ehav

ior)

Leader listening, facilitating, and supporting

Leader tells what, how, where, and who is to do it

Situational Leader Readiness


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Leader Behavior Relationship Behavior (Supportive Behavior)

Task Behavior (Guidance)

Delegating: Turn over responsibility for decisions and implementation

Low Low

Participating: Share ideas and facilitate in decision-making

High Medium

Selling: Explain decisions and provide opportunity for clarification

High Medium-High

Telling: Provide specific instructions and closely supervise performance

Low High


Follower Readiness


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High Moderate Low Able and willing or confident

Able but unwilling Or insecure

Unable but willing or confident

Unable and unwilling Or insecure

Follower-Directed Leader-Directed


A Leadership Framework


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Source: Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Leadership Framework Cont’d ¤  1) Absence of Trust – Trust allow team cohesion, without it teamwork is

impossible. ¤  Hide weakness and mistakes from each other. (Lack Trust) ¤  Admit weakness and mistakes. (Trust)

¤  2) Fear of Conflict – Productive conflict allow relationships to grow. ¤  Back-channel politics and personal attacks. (Unhealthy Conflict) ¤  Critical topics open for discussion. (Healthy Conflict)

¤  3) Lack of Commitment – Clear and timely decisions with complete buy-in from all team members. ¤  Ambiguity among team about direction and priorities. (Lack Commitment) ¤  Clarity around direction and priorities. (Commitment)


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Leadership Framework Cont’d

¤  4) Avoidance of Accountability – Open environment to call peers on performance and behaviors hurtful to the team. ¤  Encourages mediocrity. (Avoid Accountability) ¤  Establishes respect among team members who are held to the same high

standards. (Embrace Accountability)

¤  5) Inattention to Results – Neglecting the collective goals of the group. ¤  Stagnates and fails to grow. Rarely defeats competitors. (Neglects

Results) ¤  Enjoys success and suffer failure acutely. (Focus on Results)


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Teamwork on Leadership

¤  What leadership style will you use?

¤  What behaviors will allow people to follow you?

¤  How will you use Patrick Lencioni pyramid of 5 Dysfunctions to drive team collaboration?


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Partnership ¤  Partnership is forged through time, trust, and mutual benefit.

¤  It is a negotiated relationship.


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Ladder of Partnership


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Source: Glasbergen 2011

Building Trust

¤  Reduce the feelings of risk and vulnerability

¤  Provide an environment of equity, fairness, and security

¤  Must overcome cultural differences

¤  Find common goals

¤  Mutual trust builds interactive collaboration


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Creating Collaborative Advantage

¤  Create value joint that each partner must nurture for mutual benefit

¤  Must have an incentive to participate in partnership

¤  Each partner must nurture their special interests

¤  Explore common grounds to establish ways to work together. Establish a share vision.


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Constituting a Rule System

¤  Define mutual obligations of how organization interactions is done

¤  List transactional and procedural elements of the arrangement, which incudes: ¤  Commitment on different activities and resources ¤  How the partnership will handle decision-making processes, monitoring,

and enforcement

¤  Establish performance standards


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Build a Powerful Community

¤  Build a powerful community that: ¤  Holds people accountable ¤  Is transparent ¤  Invites trust ¤  Supports decisive actions


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Teamwork on Partnership

¤  How will you establish a trusting partnership?

¤  Define how you will build a powerful community?

¤  What steps will you take to hold people accountable?


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Conflict Management

¤  According to Albert Einstein “As long as there are humans there will always be conflict”.


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Conflict Management

¤  When teams are dispersed with different culture, values, and experiences, conflict will happen.

¤  Even when teams are collocated conflict happens.

¤  We can’t avoid conflict but we can learn how to manage them.

¤  I would say healthy conflict is good for the team.


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Conflict Management Behaviors

¤  Collaborating (I win, You win): Sharing is not always fun! I don’t always want to share! ¤  Affective: People are willing to participate and there is a high level of

trust ¤  Not Affective: When time is not managed properly

¤  Compromising (I give, You give): The Project Management Institute views this technique as a poor decision because someone has to lose. ¤  Affective: When both parties are committed to achieving the same goal ¤  Not Affective: When demands are too high and your value is being

compromised


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Source: www.SNU.EDU

Conflict Management Behaviors Cont’d

¤  Accommodating (I lose, You win): ¤  Affective: When it is not the right time to win and you can build future

capital; Team moral is at stake ¤  Not Affective: Loss of influence and credibility. What happens when a

leader loses influence and credibility?

¤  Avoiding (No winners, No losers): “I will not talk to that person anymore”. I will sit in my corner and pout. ¤  Affective: Tempers are high and a cool down period is needed ¤  Not Affective: When critical business decisions are required


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Source: www.SNU.EDU

Productive Conflict

¤  Produces the best possible solution in the shortest period

¤  Emerges from conflict without residual effect or collateral damage

¤  Use ideological debates versus personal attacks

¤  Put critical topics on the table for discussion

¤  Acknowledge conflict is healthy and most team avoid conflict


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Emotional Intelligence – Don’t Get Emotional

¤  Easier said than done!

¤  Develop Self-awareness strategies ¤  Get to know yourself under stress ¤  Know your hot buttons

¤  Manage your self-talk ¤  They really don’t have a clue

¤  Learn a valuable lesson from everyone you encounter ¤  Be patient with irritating people


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Teamwork on Conflict Management

¤  What conflict management behaviors will you use? Options include Collaborating (I win you win), Compromising (I give, you give), Accommodating (I lose, you win), or Avoiding (No Winners, No losers).

¤  How would you use emotional intelligence to manage conflict?


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Best Practices


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¤  Balance Scorecard

¤  Enterprise Lean Sigma

¤  Traditional and Agile (Scrum) Project Management

¤  Information Technology and Infrastructure Library (ITIL) & IT Service Management

u Provides a framework to deliver solutions

Adapting Best Practices

¤  Socialize the benefits

¤  Educate your people

¤  Execute a pilot before full roll out

¤  Define critical success factors

¤  Measure your achievements


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Best Practices - Project Health Measurement

¤  Is there a scientific method to determine what makes a project Red, Amber, or Green?

¤  PMI’s six project constraints can be drivers ¤  Scope ¤  Quality ¤  Budget ¤  Schedule ¤  Resources ¤  Risk


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Best Practices - Project Health Measurement


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Health Scope Quality Budget Schedule Resources Risk

Green 1% 1% 1% 1% 8% 1%

Amber 2% 1% 2% 1% 8% 1%

Red 8% 4% 4% 1% 8% 1%

25% or more cumulative score of the six project constraints

15% or more cumulative score of the six project constraints

14% or less cumulative score of the six project constraints

Teamwork on Best Practices

¤  What best practices will you encourage in your team?

¤  How will you help you team achieve success?


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Delivering the Promise/Business Value


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Why don’t we ever measure the effectiveness of deliverables after implementation?

Measure the Definition of Success

¤  Define the criteria to measure success ¤  Deliver a Vegetarian Taco in 2-minutes

¤  Define data to support Business Intelligence queries ¤  Date/Time order requested, Data/Time was fulfilled, etc.

¤  Document steps to verify business value


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Delivering the Promise/Business Value

¤  Delivering the Promise/Business Value for global teams involve: ¤  Cultural Intelligence ¤  Communications ¤  Leadership ¤  Partnership ¤  Conflict Management ¤  Best Practices.

¤  To deliver value, you must devise a plan.

¤  Create the definition of “done” and measure if “done” was achieved.


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Teamwork Deliver the Promise/Business Value

¤  What planning techniques will be used to deliver the promise/business value?

¤  How will you incorporate cultural intelligence, communications, leadership, partnership, conflict management, and best practices to deliver the promise?


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Conclusion

¤  You lead people and not just projects or products.

¤  If you can learn how to apply these knowledge areas, there is a strong possibility for success when leading global teams. This also applies to local teams.

¤  In my experience these knowledge areas are a game changer.


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Teamwork on Global Leadership Plan

¤  Build your team Global Leadership Plan


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References

¤  Amiri, A., Moghimi, S., & Kazemi, M. (2010). Studying the relationship between cultural intelligence and employees' performance. European Journal of Scientific Research, 42(3), 418-427. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

¤  Brake, T. (2008). Where in the world is my team? Making a success of your virtual global workplace. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

¤  Falconer, J. (2011). Knowledge as cheating: A metaphorical analysis of the concept of 'best practice'. Systems Research & Behavioral Science, 28(2), 170-180. doi:10.1002/sres.1081

¤  Scott, W. R. & Davis, G. F. (2007). Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems Perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

¤  Thomas, David C. et al. 2008. Cultural intelligence: Domain and assessment. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 8(2) 123–143.


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7 factors to successfully lead global teams

Leadership & Management