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.
1

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
3

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
4

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.
6

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.
9

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.
10

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)
12

The Cultural Intelligence Moment
13

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
14

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.
15

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
16

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.
21

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.
22

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.
23

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
24

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.
25

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.
29

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)(High)
RelationshipBehavior
(SupportiveBehavior)
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
34
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
35
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)
36

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)
37

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?
38

Partnership
¤  Partnership is forged through time, trust, and mutual benefit.
¤  It is a negotiated relationship.
39

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
41

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.
42

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
43

Build a Powerful Community
¤  Build a powerful community that:
¤  Holds people accountable
¤  Is transparent
¤  Invites trust
¤  Supports decisive actions
44

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?
45

Conflict Management
¤  According to Albert Einstein
“As long as there are humans
there will always be conflict”.
46

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.
47

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
48
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
49
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
50

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
51

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?
52

Best Practices
53
¤  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
54

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
55

Best Practices - Project Health Measurement
56
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?
57

Delivering the Promise/Business Value
58
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
59

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.
60

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?
61

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.
62

Teamwork on Global Leadership Plan
¤  Build your team Global Leadership Plan
63

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.
64

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