As physical location becomes less important in digitally-oriented jobs, learning to leverage the skills of global teams is a must. Remote collaboration has its challenges, but the benefits can far outweigh them.
To manage global teams successfully, you’ll need clear communication, the right tools, and a willingness to re-evaluate rigid work models that may be more familiar than helpful. If this seems daunting, here’s where to start.
According to the Harvard Business Review, empathy, reduced social distance, and lowering the stakes in virtual meetings are key aspects of creating a more cohesive global team. If you employ people located in different countries, it’s crucial to understand the part cultural perceptions play in how we communicate and function.
Global collaboration requires flexibility, trust, and respect. Set clear expectations based on milestones, deadlines, and performance rather than trying to monitor or micromanage every minute of your team’s work day.
Misunderstandings can and will happen, so it’s important to not only be open to feedback, but to seek it out and address concerns with an empathetic mindset.
Lowering the stakes can look like reframing some virtual meetings as brainstorming sessions. This provides a context where you are seeking out individual perspectives and opportunities for constructive disagreement and problem-solving.
Reducing social distance across borders is challenging. To combat this, try integrating less formal means of communication and encourage unstructured time to get to know each other. Take the initiative and factor in a few minutes for casual conversation before virtual meetings and brainstorming sessions. Encourage people to be open about constraints outside the project and be respectful of each person’s work/life balance.
Protecting your business’ and customer data is always important, and the risks multiply when your team is spread out geographically. Stay vigilant and set yourself up for success by adopting zero-trust security practices in your strategy.
Keep your team in the loop about best practices with periodic cybersecurity awareness training sessions.
Make multifactor authentication (MFA) mandatory for your team.
Require regular password updates and complex passwords that include numbers and special characters.
Only store necessary consumer data, and review your data retention policy.
Build a network of reliable and secure software products and providers that comply with international data protection regulations, such as GDPR.
Encrypt sensitive data to make it unreadable to anyone who doesn’t have the appropriate decryption keys.
Regularly review your software systems, firewall, and website for updates (along with any plug-ins and extensions). Vulnerabilities from aging systems are a common culprit for data loss.
Set up conditional access parameters to prevent traffic from outside a specific geolocation. Then create specific IP address exceptions for team members working abroad.
Finding the right tools for managing your projects and communication can make a huge difference to remote teams. They foster teamwork, improve communication, enable progress tracking, and boost productivity levels. It's not easy to find a reliable all-in-one platform. So, consider using a combination of asynchronous communication and instant messaging tools for different purposes. Set clearly documented expectations for how and when your remote team should use them.
Project management tools like Trello and Asana offer excellent functionality. They help with keeping your projects on track, assigning deadlines, and sharing documents in a centralized location. If you’re also looking to automate complex workflows and need integrations for content management, Zoho Projects is one of our preferred tools. Its design is simple and intuitive for use on mobile devices.
Using instant messaging tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Signal facilitates real-time collaboration with team members. However, it’s worth doing your research about potential vulnerabilities and limitations before choosing a tool― especially for international teams. Versus has side-by-side comparisons, like this one for Slack and Signal, to help narrow down your options. Whichever applications you choose, be sure to provide clear documentation on best practices for your team to avoid compromising your data security.