In the age of the Internet, multinational teams working across the globe are the way of the future. The Internet has moved us into a truly global business market, so having resources spread around the world becomes a huge advantage to businesses both large and small. 

In addition to bringing in a range of international perspectives and experiences, multinational teams can handle customer care and business needs around the clock without forcing anyone to take a night shift. Being able to hire remote workers from anywhere in the planet gives team leaders a huge pool of talent to draw from, especially if you are trying to fill a position that calls for a rare skill set. 

Of course, effectively managing a remote team spread around the world brings a whole new set of management challenges, from adjusting for time zones to working around cultural and language barriers.

Here are some of the potential pitfalls to be aware of as you grow and develop a multinational team:

Pay Attention to Cultural Difference

We live in an increasingly global culture, thanks in large part to the connections the Internet provides. When you’re all working together as members of a team, many managers’ first instincts is to turn a blind eye to differences of nationality and treat everyone as even handedly as possible. It’s a reasonable decision, made with only the best of intentions. However, experts at sources ranging from Harvard Business Review to Forbes Magazine agree that ignoring cultural differences is one of the worst ways to handle them. As a team leader, you’re likely to make small missteps that would never occur to you, and it is important to foster a culture of openness and understanding: your international team members should be comfortable explaining any misunderstandings or missteps. 

For example, American and European employers often have a very familiar relationship with their employees, operating on an informal, first name basis. This kind of informality often feels like inappropriate familiarity in Asian cultures, and Asian formality may strike an American team member as cool or impolite. 

In addition to being open and acknowledging cultural gaps, Harvard Business Review says it’s important to establish the team norms towards authority and decision making early, and be adaptable. The culture of collaboration in an international team is likely to be a little different from the norms everyone is used to, but with open communication, your team can adapt and compromise to work well together. 

Avoid 24 Hour Days

In modern business culture, 80-hour work weeks are not only increasingly common, they’re a status symbol, something held up as an achievement of dedication and work ethic. For the manager of an international team, they can feel like a necessity to keep far flung team members on the same page across multiple time zones.

However, Harvard Business Review and the Harvard Medical School say that 24 hour days and round-the-clock work should be avoided at all costs. According to Dr. Charles Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at HMS, after 18 hours without sleep your levels of mental impairment are on par with a person who is legally intoxicated: running on too little sleep is dangerous not just to your job performance, but to your personal safety and well-being.

Multinational teams communicating through video conferencing have come up with some creative ways to avoid forcing anyone into a 2:00 AM conference call. “We started a rotating meeting schedule,” Donna Flynn of Steelcase told HBR. Steelcase rotates the time of their monthly meetings so that team members each have an early morning meeting, a midday meeting, and an evening meeting, followed by a month off so that they don’t have to attend a conference call in the middle of the night. 

Keep Your Toolbox Up to Date

When managing a team remotely, the quality of your communication depends largely on the quality of your software and your toolkit. Video conferencing has recently gained popularity as packages like Blue Jeans make it far easier to set up and use. Some providers have even began localizing their software to specific regions can now run a conference call with Blue Jeans, optimized for their regional needs and network specifications. Blue Jeans also offers cloud-based, browser based conferencing, which makes it very easy for international team members to send out a link to another team mate to ask a quick question. That kind of easy, informal communication fosters an environment much closer to a traditional office, where you can lean over a cubicle to ask a co-worker’s opinion or get a clarification. 

A Few Final Words

Video conferencing and cloud based collaboration is one of the most important tools for any manager working in the global marketplace and managing a multinational team. It’s important to keep the right tools, the right work habits, and the right perspectives in order to grow and develop a team and a business that can play on the international stage.