Managing an International Team

The training is addressed to:

• Managers and Team Leaders: Those responsible for leading teams that include members from various cultural backgrounds.
• Individuals who want to enhance their leadership skills in a global context and improve team cohesion and performance.
• Human Resources Professionals: HR practitioners involved in hiring, training, and managing a culturally diverse workforce.
• DEI Professionals aiming to develop strategies for better inclusion, conflict resolution, and employee engagement.
• Project Managers: Those managing international projects that require coordination and collaboration across different countries and time zones, and seeking to improve communication and efficiency within multicultural teams.
• Executives and Senior Leaders: Leaders at the executive level looking to foster a culture of inclusivity and leverage the benefits of a diverse team.
• Decision-makers aiming to implement organizational policies that support effective international team management.
• Anyone working in a Multinational Environment: Employees who interact with colleagues, clients, or partners from different cultural backgrounds.
• Individuals interested in developing their cultural intelligence and improving their ability to work effectively in an international setting.

Objectives

• Enhanced Cultural Intelligence (CQ): Develop the ability to understand and effectively navigate cultural differences, leading to better communication and collaboration within international teams.
• Improved team performance: Learn strategies to build cohesive and high-performing teams, leveraging the strengths of diverse team members to drive innovation and problem-solving.
• Effective conflict resolution: Gain techniques for addressing and resolving conflicts in a multicultural context, fostering a more harmonious and productive work environment.
• Better communication skills: Acquire skills to communicate clearly and effectively across cultures, minimizing misunderstandings and ensuring that all team members are on the same page.
• Increased employee engagement and motivation: Discover methods to motivate and engage team members from different cultural backgrounds, enhancing job satisfaction and retention.
• Adaptive leadership: Learn how to adapt leadership styles to suit varying cultural norms and power distance perceptions, creating a more inclusive and supportive team dynamic.
• Organizational success: Contribute to the overall success of your organization by fostering a culture of inclusivity, innovation, and effective international collaboration.

Benefits

What makes our training unique?

• Tailored content: Our training is specifically designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with managing international teams. We tailor our content to reflect the latest research and best practices in cross-cultural management.
• Practical focus: The training emphasizes practical applications, providing participants with actionable strategies and tools they can immediately implement in their daily work. Through real-world case studies, role-playing exercises, and interactive workshops, attendees gain hands-on experience.
• Expert facilitator: Our trainer is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in international team management. She brings a wealth of knowledge, real-world insights, and a deep understanding of cultural dynamics, ensuring high-quality and relevant instruction. Currently she manages her remote team and negotiates international cooperations
• Comprehensive coverage: The program covers a wide range of topics essential for managing international teams, from cultural intelligence and communication to conflict resolution and leadership dynamics. This comprehensive approach ensures that participants develop a well-rounded skill set.
• Cultural Immersion: Our program includes cultural immersion activities that help participants experience and understand different cultural perspectives firsthand. These activities deepen cultural awareness and empathy, which are critical for effective international team management.

Day 1

Module 1: Introduction to international team management

• Overview of international teams: diversity and challenges
  • How diverse teams can lead to increased creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.
  • Examples of successful projects that benefitted from diverse perspectives.
• Importance of cultural intelligence (CQ) in team management
  • How to develop CQ as a leader – how to “feel the team” and foresee some behaviors and approaches
• Case studies of successful international teams

Module 2: Building and leading a diverse team

• Effective communication across cultures
  • Language and clarity – misunderstandings that have the roots in direct translation without taking into account the language culture.
  • Communication channels and etiquette. Training team members on cultural communication etiquette, such as formality levels and non-verbal cues.
• Conflict resolution and mediation techniques
  • Proactive conflict management: Implementing regular check-ins and open forums for team members to voice concerns early.
  • Establishing clear protocols for addressing conflicts before they escalate.
• Encouraging a culture of empathy and active listening to understand different perspectives and find common ground.

Module 3: Cultural awareness and sensitivity

• Understanding cultural differences and their impact on teamwork

• Differences in perception of main aspects such as: time, hierarchy, dealing with uncertainty, deadlines, emotions, relations

• Developing cultural sensitivity and empathy
  • How to ensure cultural acceptance of being different in perception in the remote team?
• Practical exercises in cross-cultural communication

Module 4: Power distance and leadership dynamics

• Understanding power distance and its impact on team dynamics
  • Explaining the concept of power distance and how it varies across cultures (high vs. low power distance).
  • Discussing examples of high and low power distance cultures and their typical organizational structures.
• Strategies for managing teams with varying power distance perceptions
  • Adapting leadership styles to fit the power distance orientation of team members.
  • Implementing decision-making processes that consider and respect diverse power distance preferences.
• Balancing authority and empowerment in a multicultural context
  • Establishing clear boundaries and expectations that align with both organizational goals and cultural norms.

Day 2

Module 5: Effective team meetings and individual sessions

• Best practices for organizing and conducting team meetings
  • IDEX (daily), IWEX (weekly), IMEX (monthly) – how to organize them taking into account that team members are located in different countries and perhaps even time zones
  • Who is going to lead each type of the meeting? – how to move responsibilities on the team members to activate the whole remote team?
• Strategies for productive individual check-ins and one-on-ones
  • Openness vs closeness – how to deal with it during the individual meeting – clue for open ended and calibrated questions
• Tools for virtual meetings and collaboration
  • Introduction of key digital platforms or project management systems (e.g., Slack, Jira, Notion – as examples) to synchronize communications, calendars, and shared documents.
  • Emphasizing the importance of such tools for effective team collaboration, explaining why relying on emails alone is insufficient for dynamic remote work environments.

Module 6: Giving feedback and annual performance reviews

• Techniques for providing constructive feedback across cultures
  • Positive and negative feedbacks – possible obstacles in receiving the feedbacks depending on cultural differences.
• Conducting fair and effective annual performance reviews
  • How cultural differences may influence on the assessment?
  • What does it mean being a fair leader when managing so different teams?
• Using feedback to foster growth and development
  • Approach to re-skilling & up-skilling
  • Creating the career development team maps

Module 7: Motivating and holding teams accountable

• Cultural aspects of motivation and recognition
  • Inner & Outer motivators in different cultures
  • How to focus on inner motivators?
• Techniques for fostering team morale and engagement
  • Activities at work and outside – how to plan them and organize in the online environment
• Setting clear expectations and holding team members accountable

Module 8: Goal setting, performance tracking, and accountability

• Setting goals for international teams:
  • Based on individual level of each member
  • How to communicate and picking the goals in different cultures
  • Where does SMART work and where doesn’t?
• Aligning team goals with organizational objectives
• Tracking progress, performance metrics, and accountability systems
  • Tools for tracking remote teams