6 Tips for Building Effective Global Teams
Companies are becoming more and more successful, and their success leads to expansion, which makes them open branches all over the world. Also, there are many talented people present everywhere in the world who can prove immensely beneficial for companies, but they do not want to move from their city/country and would rather prefer working virtually. In both these situations, the solution lies in the formation of global teams. However, just building any random team will do no good to your business and you need to invest enough time in building effective global teams. If you are now thinking how exactly you should do so, then the tips given below will prove to be of help.
6 Tips for Building Effective Global Teams
- Asses your own self
The first and the most important thing you need to do while building global teams is to asses yourself. You might be thinking that you want to know how to build a team and not about a team leader, but to create a strong team it is indeed important for you to asses yourself and that too honestly. Identify what are your strengths, and at the same time do not forget to give enough importance to your weaknesses.
If you are aware of your strengths then you can use it to push your team so that they can excess in those departments, and if you are aware of your weakness you know which the areas are where you are not the best and can take suggestions and help from your team.
- Figure out what will be the right team size
Deciding the ideal size of a team is not really easy. If you try and keep adding members that can represent all types of skills and knowledge then you will end up forming a very big team. Big teams, however, can be dysfunctional, making it difficult to reach a unified solution when needed. It would instead be best to create a core team, and then keep adding members if necessary. Your core team should ideally contain 10 or fewer members. If this core team needs input from others, then you can add them, and thus extend your team.
- Take suggestions from your team members while hiring
While building global virtual teams, after you have managed to hire the very first member of your team, you will naturally want to add more. While doing so it will be a good idea to allow your team to get involved in the process and offer you feedback on the new hires. You can let every team member know that they can provide a feedback. This will make your already chosen members feel responsible, and since they are playing a part in the selection, they will also be able to gel well with the members.
- Be diverse in your selection
It is very important to have a team that is diverse and has varying viewpoints. Diversity will help you tackle any unexpected problems quickly and easily. You want people to identify a problem from different angles. Everybody may not agree to a discussion initially, but it gradually will result in you enjoying better and innovative ideas and solutions which will surely be respected. Every team members'unique working styles should also be praised and encouraged, as that will helps shape team culture.
- Do overcome communication barriers
It is very important to overcome the common communication barrier that is created by cultural and linguistic divides and to do so businesses must invest in cross-cultural and linguistic training. Language training can help reduce the requirement of third-party mediators like translators and thus you will enjoy spontaneous and direct communication.
Cross-cultural skill development will also prove beneficial. When you are aware of the different cultures of the team members it can offer the richness of communication. People can pick up signals in nonverbal and verbal communication easily sand precisely. This can also improve the ability of the team members to respect and understand diversity and use it as an advantage.
- Use the best videoconferencing software
As you will be selecting candidates globally, you obviously will have to depend on a videoconferencing software to conduct an online interview. You surely want to enjoy a flawless experience so that both of you understand each other well, and also the way things are organized speaks a lot about your company, and thus you must only use the best videoconferencing tool. One such tool that you can use for the purpose is ezTalks, It is immensely popular amongst most businesses, offers an exhaustive list of features to use, and has an ever-growing list of satisfied clients, which clearly reflects how great a choice it will make.
Now that you have learned the most important tips for building effective global teams, waste no time, start following them, get your team ready, and together contribute towards the success and growth of your company.