I was recently pinged regarding to the challenges of managing geographically dispersed teams. The wisdom below is based on my experience. How about you, are your observations different?

Overall, I found the leadership and management challenges of managing geographically distributed teams similar to day-to-day leadership challenges. However, distance, cultural diversity and communication differences make it even more challenging to ensure your teams are aligned with your values, processes and are working together towards the same goal with the same level of urgency. In my experience, I learned that I can’t assume that I am understood (even if I hear “yes, I understand” from the other side). I need to make sure to take the time to educate my teams on our processes, explain the context of my decision making process, discuss my values and how we do business in general. Establishing trust and good communication is essential in managing global teams.

Managing people, regardless of location, is a great reminder that I am in the people business, and not necessarily the technology business. With that, once the processes are understood and a few glitches are dealt with, the coordination process becomes smooth. However, when you are dealing with people, you will always have misunderstandings, miscommunications, etc. These tend to cause the coordination problems, and take the most effort to iron out, since you need to solve the root of the problem and not just deal with the symptom (such as coordination issues, misunderstood expectations, etc.)

Culture and language differences are yet another challenge to deal with. It is important to be aware of cultural diversity, as it can cause unnecessary tension and problems. Language and method of communication tends to be the bigger challenge. As an example, e-mail distribution lists are a great way to convey information and can be used heavily for decision making. However, the quantity and verbosity of email can be quite difficult for non-english speakers. So, your main issue is how to structure your communication such that your audience can understand and act on it as you intended.

When dealing with distance, I think there is always an aspect of out of sight, out of mind, which applies to both sides. Distance and time zones contribute to the challenges of communication and trust. In my experience a few hours of difference (such as the case of neighboring US States) wasn’t an issue. However, when you are dealing with differences of culture, holidays, work days (M-F vs. Su-Th) as well as large time zone differences (8+ hrs), you need to be aware of potentially burning out your teams. Active management of these issues (such as rotating meeting hours, face-to-face meeting locations, establishing quiet days, etc.) certainly helps.

I am a believer in over-communicating. I use face to face meetings (crucial, especially with very diverse teams and at the beginning and the middle of projects for best coordination), phone calls for 1:1s (personal updates), conference calls (web, video, phone, …) with my management staff, conference calls with all my teams, emails and instant messaging. Agendas as well as clearly stating the context of the issue and outcomes expected (including any boundaries, etc.) are key to good communication on both sides.

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