Is international business more complicated or easier than local?

In today's business, a feature that characterizes large companies is not being tied down to one location. Offices, employees, and departments are distributed in different cities and countries, and sometimes they are even in different time zones. Such a geographical spread allows more freedom, for example, some team members can work directly from home. This also opens up new opportunities for business development, after all, companies can benefit from the economic conditions of a country. In addition, cultural diversity and the merging of various mentalities allow us to perceive many issues from different angles and consequently solve them more effectively.

However, if you think that managing an international business team is simple, then you obviously haven't done that. Nothing works "by itself", "somehow, in the process", you need to dedicate your attention to this. I realized this when my team grew to 150 employees living in 15 countries. For example, I realized that you should take into account not just the time difference and the geographical distance between the offices; there are also language and cultural barriers. Although multinationalism brings objectivity and diversity to a company, it often creates conflicts on the ethnic ground (and sometimes even religious). The physical remoteness of the teams additionally complicates many work processes and therefore requires special organizational skills from the managers.

Of course, classic management strategies are as important as ever. You just need to add new methods, tailored to take a company global and keep it there. Although there are many ways to achieve that, let's have a look at some of the most useful ones and analyze the influence factors we should keep in mind when creating a multinational team.

Clearly defined structure

A defined structure is essential to ensure smooth operation. This means, firstly, a transparent and understandable hierarchy within the company. All employees must know who to report to and if they are directly connected to the head office or their tasks are exclusively local. Secondly, a defined structure includes determining the goals and objectives of your brand, formulating expectations, and having a backup plan in case of unforeseen circumstances or crisis.

All that requires simple tools such as:

• setting goals and expectations at the beginning of the year with their subsequent adjustment quarterly;
• conducting annual personal meetings with key employees to determine their further career prospects and growth points;
• regular communication with team members and the development of a performance measurement system.

Specifics of different cultures and mentality

If your company already has employees of various nationalities and cultures, when working with them you should be extremely careful and cautious. Even the most harmless joke or a friendly gesture acceptable in your culture may cause a conflict and disrupt the team unity, and sometimes hurt even the entire department. It is crucial for large companies to have an adaptive approach, which considers all cultural aspects and prevents misunderstanding. The formation of this part of the corporate culture is usually the responsibility of the HR department, which must develop clear rules and a comprehensive approach for all employees, acceptable for any cultural specifics.

However, if the responsibilities of the HR department fall on the shoulders of the team leaders, they should study the following:

• language and lexical specifics of foreign employees' speech;
• their interpersonal communication specifics;
• rules of conduct in society;
• time zones;
• specifics of labor legislation (adopted in the country of their origin);
• specifics of doing business and business etiquette.

Why is this so important? Attention to potentially conflicting issues will help minimize the risk of disagreements and establish internal company communication channels. There can be a conflict for any other reason - it could be either an unethical phrase or a wrong handshake. Often, the reason is just ignorance. However, as we all know, it is not an excuse.

Take the time to communicate with your team so you could explore "dangerous" subjects. As a rule, if you ask politely, people will be happy to share with you all the details of their customs and traditions. Moreover, your interest in this issue will show you as a sensitive and sociable leader, respecting other people's boundaries and principles.

The language barrier

Another obvious reason for work issues in an international company is the language barrier between the employees. This issue is often critical for business and it is complicated by additional circumstances. First, financial ones, because you need to hire a translator or pay for language courses for the team. Secondly, there will be quality issues as incomprehensible requirements or project details can distort the outcome and fail the expectations of the managers.

Multilingualism greatly complicates the establishment of interpersonal relationships within the team. There is no only one solution for eliminating this problem. However, the best approach is building a team based not just on skills and profession but on the language as well. Then there will be no need for the team members to regularly communicate with foreign representatives, making the language problem lose its significance. After all, the main thing is that within the team everybody would understand each other, could work effectively and exchange freely information and opinions. You can require knowledge of other languages from team leaders - people who will be a link between the team of the workers and the team of the customers.

Effective communication

Even casual communication with the employees face to face can improve the quality of communication within the company if you make it a habit. After all, if you don't know your team members, how can you expect them to get along in the systems you created and show the results you expect?

Fortunately, thanks to digital technology, communication with employees has become much easier, and even thousands of miles between you is not a problem. You still can send an email, but now you can also use instant communication tools such as instant messengers or social networks (including corporate ones). You must plan and hold weekly conference calls via Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, or any other similar services. With video communication, you can be sure that all team members are focused on one part of the work and are on the same page regarding current processes. In addition, weekly communication is a good way to monitor the team progress, to discuss the work done, the one that needs to be done, and what issues came up over the past seven days.

Remember that trust is the key to effective communication, but gaining it is much more difficult than it seems at first glance. What can you do to increase the trust of some employees in others, including you? First, be open: specify your values, goals, and objectives for the employees to know what the company and you personally are striving for. Secondly, meet your coworkers. It may be hard to do, but if you can meet with your foreign employee for a cup of tea during your business trip, then use this opportunity. Another option is video conferences. They also can make up for such an important element as live communication.

Time Zones

It is an obvious factor, though often forgotten as practice shows. The 17 hours difference between departments, when one person is in Moscow and the other one is in Tokyo or San Francisco, is a serious problem. You need to think of the solution before you even begin to build communication. Define the time periods in advance during which employees should give you their feedback. Remember that, due to the time differences, you may not get the response right away. You can create a calendar with the hours of each team member's availability and online presence.

Discuss and agree on urgent situations and special code messages when there is a need for the fastest possible intervention, even if you get the message at three in the morning. However, abide by the work ethic and let everybody know at once that communication at night or off the clock hours is an exception to the rule made for emergency cases, and it is not everyday practice.

Another possible solution could be to change the work schedule with the consent of the employee. This can minimize the situation when the discussion of insignificant issues is lagging for several days just because some of the coworkers went to bed and others are just heading to the office.

Attitude to the management and interaction

In addition to cultural and social specifics, such factors as an employee's attitude to the manager should be considered. In some cultures, they perceive the opinion of the boss as an unshakable truth, even if it contains obvious mistakes and inaccuracies. This cultural model of "superiority-submission" is quite difficult to break, but transparency is important for a business. Timely notice of mistakes and the possibility to discuss them and consequently to influence the decision-making can save the company from a crisis or hasty expenses. So pay attention to establishing feedback and creating conditions for the employees to freely express their disagreement, criticism, and offer their own alternatives. Probably, this will require the help of the same level worker. The task of the leader, in this case, is to make sure the relations between the team members are stabilized and that every vote is heard at the meetings.

Empathy helps to reduce social distance, but since the team members are located in different geographical locations and can't attend regular meetings, it is often hard to express empathy. To solve this problem, the international team leaders must make sure that when they meet online their team there are two of the following elements:

1. Time for not work-related discussions

Remember your last meeting with the employee face to face. How did it feel the first few minutes before you started discussing important work issues? Probably, you had a small talk about the weekend, weather, inquired about the employee's family or discussed a new restaurant nearby. Such casual communication allows you to organically share knowledge, coordinate interaction, and build trust. Even when people are scattered around the globe and never see each other's faces, just the simple question "How are you?" is a powerful method of strengthening communication and building team spirit. Thus, when planning video conferences, allocate 5-10 minutes for small talk. During the first meetings, lead these informal discussions, find an interesting topic to help the team members get to know their remote coworkers. Make an example by encouraging people to be open and curious about each other.

2. The right to disagree

Leaders should encourage constructive disagreement as well, both regarding the tasks of the team and the processes for completing these tasks. Naturally, an expression of disagreement should not evolve into a heated discussion, argument, or open confrontation. However, when you reserve some time for the employees to express their feelings or dissatisfaction, it reduces stress and tension within the teams. As a leader, ask each employee's opinion on the discussion topic. Start with those who have the least status or experience working with a group to prevent their opinion getting crushed by someone else's authority or expertise if asked later. At first, such surveys may seem just a waste of time, but trust us, they will subtly prevent most work conflicts. Moreover, you will be able to make decisions that are more informed and get the support of your team.

Terminological Confusion

Often, the terminology within the company is the same, and all departments diligently adhere to a certain vocabulary. However, in the case of an international organization, there are still some discrepancies. If your team has persons from cultures that differ radically (for example, there are some substantial differences between Europeans and Asians), take into account that there can be different interpretations of the same concept. To prevent the employees from understanding the same word differently, create a glossary. It should be common to all divisions of the company, regardless of their geographical location. The glossary assists specialists and helps to resolve cases of any misunderstanding as soon as possible.

Legal aspects

You don't have to deal with legal or accounting issues, however, to supervise organizational processes you should know to some extent legal aspects of such issues like working conditions and hiring. In another country, there could be an opposite attitude to overtime or contractual obligations, which can be really important to you. For example, because of the time zones, you need an employee to be in touch during off the clock hours, while the labor legislation of their country won't allow that. You should discuss that in advance in order to find legal and documented ways to overcome it. That's why make sure to consider all legal aspects of the country where the branch office is located. Carefully study all documents before sending them for signature or signing them yourself.

Collaboration Technologies

When you and your coworker are in the same office, you are always able to come and discuss the project face-to-face, to write down the main points on paper. While in the case of remote employees from other cities and countries, this is physically impossible. Fortunately, there are many useful technical solutions invented to help you with workflow management to simplify the work of your distributed teams. Here are some of them:

• Google Apps. The main advantage is convenience and multifunctionality. With Hangouts, you can hold meetings, with Calendar - keep a meeting schedule, and in Docs create documents. You can store them in cloud storage.
• Trello. One of the most popular services for project management, famous for its convenient feature of tracking all work processes.
• Wrike. Easy to use project management application. There is software for iOS and Android, so you can stay in touch with any device.
• Skype. It allows you to make calls one-on-one, conference calls, as well as exchange files and messages.
• Podio. A corporate social network where you can collect all the valuable information, schedule a meeting using the built-in calendar, or get in touch fast with the person you need through the chat.
• HipChat. A large messenger for flexible communication with your colleagues. The basic version is free, though the advanced one is very reasonably priced.
• Salesforce. A platform that helps to automate the sales process and search for potential buyers.
• Due. This program is perfect for bookkeeping.