With more and more companies outsourcing work and hiring employees in different countries at some point in your career as you move up the corporate ladder you are likely going to find yourself managing a cross-cultural team. While it may seem like a new and exciting experience at first as you get to learn about new people in other countries and their culture, you will soon find that there are many challenges when it comes to managing a cross-cultural team. Here is a look at a few of the problems you may face.

Cross Cultural Communication

Communication is key in the workplace and when you are in charge of a cross cultural team that can present your with many unique challenges in terms of the language, dealing with accents and the different meanings of words in different countries. When you are striving to provide a clear message of the work that needs to be done, you may find that projects you though were on track have veered off course due to a misunderstanding or due to differences in communication.

One way to combat this issue is to make sure you are always on the same page as team members. Anything that is spoken over the phone should be followed up with an email communication so they have the project plan in writing so they can verify what they heard. If people ask you questions on conference calls, paraphrase and repeat back what they said to make sure you understand their question.

Because you are not meeting face-to-face with people in a conference room, you have to be very clear and concise in your message when sending out email communications so don’t try to add in jokes or sarcasm that others may not understand or interpret the wrong way.

Another issue in communicating is dealing with time zone differences. If there is an important decision that needs to be made at a certain point in a project, you need to be sure that a chain of command has been established for contacts so the people with authority are able to make the decisions and the decision is not left to a lower-level employee that may not understand the scope of the work.

Cross Cultural Training

If you are rolling out a tool or new application that will require training, you need to consider how you are going to provide training for people that are located in different countries and in different time zones so they all get the same message and are able to use the tools in the same way. You need to consider the cost of sending someone out to do the training on site versus the cost of doing web based training or a Live Meeting where everyone is viewing the training in front of their computer. You also may need to do a train the trainer so you have several trainers in different countries unless you have a trainer on site that is able to work all hours of the day to cover the different time zones.

Managing a Virtual Team

Another challenge you will face is managing a virtual team. When you have staff on site, it is easy to pop into their office or cubicle to check how they are doing or to know they are at work and doing their job. When you have people in other countries on different clocks, the employee has to be very self-sufficient to do their job with no boss around. Consider how often and what types of communication you will need to have with your remote employees and how you can stay on top of the work they are doing in order to ensure that the work is getting accomplished.

Despite all of the challenges with managing a cross cultural team, there are several benefits as well. Because of overlapping time zones, you may have close to 24 x 7 coverage for your team so you are able to always get work done on projects or tasks throughout the day. You also have a team that has cultural differences so they bring many different backgrounds and viewpoints to the table which gives you different perspectives when you are trying to work through business problems to find a solution.

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Team building activities are a great way to help employees learn to effectively work with their co-workers.  Many types of team building and teamwork tasks can involve child like games that are more fun and entertaining while others many be a bit more complex and designed to work on a specific area or need of the team that may need improvement.

Team building exercise activities can be used at corporate events, in meetings, during presentations, workshops or at training seminars.  Team building games can work for any type of business as well as any type of team whether you have a small group or you have a large team with many different functions.

The team building activities for the workplace though are only going to be as successful as the person who is in charge and serving as the facilitator of the session. If you have someone in your organization that has served in this role previously, it is a good idea to have someone with experience in team building events to make sure the employees get the most out of the team activities.

Team building events help to develop and deepen the trust among team members, it helps to strengthen the relationships among co-workers as well as it teaches one another to better communicate through the different team building activities. It also serves to refresh and re-energize employees that may have been stressed in the office and the team building function helps them come back to work with a renewed sense of focus.

One popular method for team bonding is by having a company retreat that allows the employees to get far away from work and out into the wilderness. These retreats are a good getaway from the office because they can provide challenges that are mentally, physically and emotionally demanding.

One thing to keep in mind when planning the team building event is to make sure whatever you are doing, make sure that it is fun! The event that you come up with needs to be challenging and to help your team grow but also needs to provide some excitement to keep everyone involved and to get the most out of the event.

An important aspect of the corporate team building is at the end of the event to have the employees discuss and reflect on how they handled certain situations and any opportunities for learning that may have occurred. It is always a good idea if you do not have corporate team building in place at your company to get started on a program now. In light of the economy and the tough times that many businesses are facing today, it is now more critical than ever to invest in your employees. A good team building event can help to bring back positive energy and attitude and the improved team culture will help keep employees around when the economy does pick back up and other companies come calling trying to steal your top performers away from you.

Many times what people have for their own personal values become different when they enter the workplace. This can happen for a number of reasons as employees often times lose sight of what is important to them as they work to pay the bills and stay employed often times instead of looking at what is best for their career path and what is going to make them happy.

When it comes to defining job values, it is critical to think about what is most important to you so you can understand what you need to do to accomplish that goal and it will also help when you are managing others so you have a better understanding of where they are and what they are trying to accomplish. Here is a list of the four main job values, the characteristics of each and some possible roadblocks for those who fall into each one of the buckets.

1. Advancement – this type of person is strictly focused on moving up in the organization and is willing to give up other aspects of their life in order to put their career as the main focus. They are willing to put in long hours and they are very independent and self-confident. These employee types of very responsible and are in tune with the goals of the company because they are trying to forge ahead in the organization.

As a manager of people like this, there are some potential stumbling blocks for your team. There is the possibility of jealously as the person gets promoted or is given more opportunities on projects as well as you need to make sure that the employee is dividing the team by being too aggressive in going after what they want. There is also a chance because the person does not maintain a proper work life balance that they will get burned out over time.

2. Security – this type of employee is very loyal to the company and works hard while seeking long term employment and stability. They are more concerned with performing well for the company instead of worrying about how their performance is going to impact their career path. They are more likely to follow the rules and policies of the company to make sure their job status is not put at risk.

From a manager perspective, you need to watch for these employees clashing with employees focused on advancement as the person focused on security can have conflict with them. Because they can be set in their ways, they may be resistant to change and a landscape where re-organizations are constant and departments are in a state of flux. They tend to stay in the same job role for long periods of time without improving their skill set.

3. Freedom – these employees are focused more on the freedom from management and the rules of a company instead of looking to be upwardly mobile. They often times become very specialized in one field thus making them the subject matter expert. They will often times thrive in a start up company or type of environment while struggling in a company that is rigid in their rules and processes.

As a manager, these types of employees can be very difficult to supervise because of their dislike for rules and order. They may not be willing to do things out of their specialized field and they often times prefer to work alone then functioning in a group or team setting.

4. Work Life Balance – this type of employee is focused on being able to balance their career, their family life and other relationships that are important to them. They are often times looking for flexibility in their work schedule as they have families and have different events to attend to at school or day care. They care about work but it does not take priority over everything else in their life.

From a manager standpoint, it can lead to some drama and tension in the workplace as the people can be affected by what is going on at home. They often times are not concerned with their own development as a worker and are not looking to be rewarded which can lead to performance that is just “getting by”.

There are several different types of management styles when it comes to managing in the workplace and choosing the right type of style to lead with could have a big impact in terms of how your staff produces for you. But knowing the four different leadership styles in management does not mean that you can simply pick one and then that is going to work because you are then in essence trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. In most cases, the traits of the staff that you are managing will help to define the management styles you will use, something blending a combination of the different categories.

Here is a look at the four different types of management styles and the situations when each of them may need to be use.

Autocratic Management Style

An autocratic manager makes decisions without the consultation of others, instead serving as a dictator type in communicating orders because they like to be in control of situations. This style of management leads to work getting done on time because there are less people involved in the decision making process. The problem with this type of management style is that the staff are going to eventually lost motivation working in an environment where they have no say and employee turnover is likely to run high as they move on to other opportunities where they can have an impact.

For situations or events where an on the spot decision needs to be made, this type of leadership can serve a purpose, but trying to have an autocratic style of management in place for long periods of time is just going to lead to headaches for all involved. This style of leadership is more suited for a prison setting or in the military and not so much for business management.

Democratic Management Style

A democratic manager is willing to share work with his staff by delegating it to get the job done. You are banking on the competency of your team to get the job done on time and to have it done correctly. Employees love this type of  management style in business because they feel involved and part of the process. Their job performance is likely to be better than in an autocratic setting, though giving them the authority to do the work may lead some to rely on other to bear the brunt of the work on the project. Also, depending on what type of work it is, employees may feel like the work is being pushed off on them because you as a manager don’t feel like doing it.

Getting too many people involved in the project or process could slow the work down. It could also mean less time for you to concentrate on your work as your team asks questions and waits on your answers before proceeding to the next steps.

Participative Management Style

Also sometime known as consultative management style, this decision making style in management revolves around getting lots of feedback from your staff before coming to a conclusion and making a decision. This means that the process can take a bit longer as there are more voices to be heard, but getting a consensus on major decisions can lead to buy in from those who might otherwise have been opposed to the implementation of such changes. The downside to this style of management and leadership is that employees may feel that you don’t value their opinion or are too stubborn if after all of the feedback is received you go off and make the decision in your own without incorporating any of their feedback.

If you are going to make company or departmental policy changes, this type of style can make the team feel involved and more apt to go with the flow of whatever changes are coming down. This style also works well for brainstorming sessions as you work on new product ideas or marketing promotions.

Laissez Faire Management Style

In this leadership management style, the team is given the freedom to complete the job or tasks in any way they deem it should be done. It is a hands off approach at the management level in terms of direction, but the manager is there to answer questions and provide guidance as needed. This is a good way to help develop individual contributors into leaders which is only going to serve to make your team stronger ion the long run. On the flip side, it can lead to conflict on the team is some employees try to assume the role as a leader in the interim or to dictate to others how their work should be done.

As you can see there are many different management styles and each of them can serve a purpose depending on the type of business and environment you are in as well as the situation. The most effective management styles are those which you can take bits and pieces from to then combine with your own management style to create a good working environment for all involved.

Different management styles are effective for project management; a masters in engineering management provides information on which management style to use for a given situation.

One of the hidden ways you can help keep the budget on plan is by making sure that you do everything within your power to retain your best employees. There is an associated cost that comes with having to place ads, or work through employment agencies as well as the time cost spent on interviews as well as the loss of productivity whenever a top performer in your department decides to voluntarily leave the company. While the reasons for the employee leaving may be beyond your control, such as moving to a different city or state, health issues or some other life changing event, in the majority of cases there is something that a manager can do to make sure they keep their top talent.

There are several key reasons why employees decide to leave and seek employment elsewhere with the most common reason being the lack of room for advancement. Next in line is usually an issue with management, such as friction, a bad relationship or they employee simply doesn’t like the manager. A third reason revolves around a lack of recognition. This could be in the form of the employee getting paid less than another co-worker, or a lack of bonuses or a failure to have in place an employee recognition program or reward system.

With the 40 hour week a thing of the past, many employees are putting in many hours at the office and expect for that work that their boss as well as the company is going to pay attention to them and either provide opportunities for them to grow or provide them with some type of monetary compensation for all of their efforts.

Most of the time you will start to see signs appearing when an employee is getting ready to move on to greener pastures. The number one sign is an employee that starts to miss workdays, asks for extended lunches or beings to leave work early or starts to pile up appointments at various hours of the work day. Many times it is an indication the employee is out job hunting and could soon be leaving.

Other signs that you may begin to see include things such as a drop off in work performance, problems getting along with other team members or a withdrawal from team functions that they used to previously participate in. If the employee gets to this point, you have likely lost them but at least you can start planning to cover for them in the event they leave and you are not blind sided when they submit their two week notice.

Hopefully though you never get to that point with anyone on your team because you have put employee retention strategies in place. Knowing what the top three reasons are that employees may be looking to leave, you can proactively put steps in place to combat those instances to help with retaining employees.

For those workers that think there is not opportunities for them, work to set up lead or senior positions in their current role that they have an opportunity to get promoted to. If there are other parts of the organization where there skill set can transfer over to, set up a career development path so employees can work om improving the skills they would need to function in that role. Make sure they employees are aware of any internal training opportunities inside the company or else look for external employee seminars where the staff can help grow their skill set.

If the problem is with you, the manager and their relationship, make sure that they understand you are free to talk with any time. Some managers have a habit of locking themselves in the office and never putting their head up from their work until 5:00 hits. If you have an office, get out and walk the floor a couple of times each day. This way employees see you and know that you are taking an interest and it makes you available to answer any questions they may have. Check in regularly with each employee through weekly or bi-weekly 1-on-1 meetings. If you feel that the employee may be looking for a new job, come right out and ask them. Their answer may surprise you.

If there is not some type of employee reward system or employee recognition program in place, work to get one implemented. You can do this at little to no cost and it is a way for employees to get recognized in front of their peers and for you to give them positive reinforcement without having to wait for a review period.

Having several key performers in a department leave can have a big impact on their co-workers, your department as well as your job and budget. By having a good employee retention plan in place, you can stave off some of the problems that would otherwise cause you headaches in the long run. If you start running at too low of an employee retention rate, you can be sure that is something your boss is going to notice and will be talking to you about in the not too distant future.

For the employees that do leave, have an exit interview with them and ask them to fill out an employee retention survey so that you can help identify any problems with you as a manger, your department or policies and it may help to shed some blind spots on things you may be missing.

There are many different ways that managers can go about motivating employees in the workplace and there are several different reasons why coming up with an employee motivation program is very important. For one, it helps to build trust with the employees and it let’s them know that their work is being recognized and that as a manager you appreciate everything that they do in the workplace. It is much easier to increase employee motivation when the economy is going good and the company is doing well. On the flip side, when the economy then turns around, you want to be sure that you don’t have any issues retaining employees.

It is important to make sure that feedback on a job well done is given at times in front of co-workers or in front of a group od people as well as in one-on-one situations in order to make the acknowledgments seem sincere. Let the employee know how they are contributing to the department as well as the company so they are able to see the big picture of what the work they are doing means. Positive reinforcement is key, especially in times of economic trouble as morale can quickly spread in the workplace which in turn hurts productivity on the job.

What are some different ways that you can provide motivation for an employee? One way would be to offer them a project or responsibility that is outside of their job scope. This lets them know that you recognize the great job they are currently doing and you trust them to perform additional tasks that go above and beyond their job description. It could also be something like an introduction to your boss or someone that is higher up in the organization with a few positive sentences about the employee so the person sees that they are truly valued.

Some companies think that they need to spend a lot of money for employee recognition programs or create special prizes for recognition but that does not have to be the case. They are many different ways to recognize employee performance on a budget that makes employees feel valued and that they work they are doing is being recognized.

You have to be careful as a manager about how much and how often you praise certain employees. There are some that will take the praise to mean they are indispensable to you and in turn look for off-cycle raises or an increase in their bonus amount or additional stock shares because they are performing well.

How you handle layoffs during this difficult economy can also impact the motivation of employees as well. How you treat the people that are let go as well as how you communicate the message of what happened to the remaining employees is going to play a big role in how motivated they remain.

The more transparent you are in your communication and the more questions that are answered, the more comfortable the employees will be instead of being left with doubts about their job and who may be next on the chopping block if you decide to just sweep the layoffs under the rug with no acknowledgment whatsoever.

If you are wondering how the different company employee recognition or employee motivation reward programs are working, the easier way to find out is through one-on-ones or by a employee motivation survey. There are several different templates for employee motivation questionnaire’s that you can find online or else you could have a third party company conduct the survey for you.

In business, with the state of the economy today and all of the changes that are going on with mergers and layoffs, it can often times be difficult to keep employee morale at a high level. This is especially true in time of change as well as your company or department may be going through a reorganization or a putting new products into the marketplace. There is also a lot of changing of roles for employees as they are often times now asked to wear different hats or multiple hats while working more hours for the same amount of pay.

One of the ways that I have found to keep employees going when times are tough like this to provide them with famous quotes about change. By presenting these quotes to them, hopefully it will get them to see things in a new or different light and to help change their thinking. It can be difficult at times when everyone has their head down in a cubicle and is focused strictly on their work to not be able to see the bigger picture about what the company is trying to accomplish. Sometimes giving them one or two inspirational quotes about change can help snap them out of the doldrums and to increased performance.

Here is a look at some my favorite type of change quotes to use in the workplace:

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain

“When in doubt, choose change.” -Lily Leung

“The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt

“The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which 70 percent have nothing to do with work.” – W. Edwards Deming

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” – Eckhart Tolle

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

The above list captures some of the more famous quotes about change but as you can see they apply often times not only to what goes on in the workplace but for life in general as well.

There are several different ways that you can sprinkle in quotes about change in the workplace without beating employees over the head with them. Some places that I like to use include in the signature of emails, on PowerPoint slides in team meetings, or having framed positive quotes about change hung in the hallway or on the walls in conference rooms. The idea is to make these quotes visible in a way that your employees will start to understand and welcome change better at work to improve their own individual performance which in turns helps the performance of the company.

In the workplace, most people are familiar with the standard annual reviews that companies perform which is usually done on a yearly basis which can then lead to raises and or promotions. There are additional forms of evaluation that companies can use as well, with one of these being 360 Degree Feedback. The 360 degree feedback survey encompasses feedback from multiple people that you come in contact with, such as your direct boss, internal and external customers, co-workers, any people that you manage and then yourself. Some companies may also refer to his as a peer review process.

The benefit of using a 360 degree feedback system is that it allows the employee to see how others perceive them in the organization and because there are multiple people rating them, it gives them a lot of different perspectives. This type of peer feedback is crucial in helping the employee to make the changes that are necessary to help improve their performance.

This can help an employee to shore up any weaknesses that they have in there performance or to see any blind spots that they were not aware of based on how others may perceive them.

The 360 Degree Feedback Questionnaire

Typically 360 degree feedback surveys will have anywhere from 50 to 100 questions broken down into 15 to 30 smaller buckets that help to create additional reports based on the responses from others.

The time to complete the survey will usually take a minute or two per question so it could take one to two and a half hours depending on how many 360 degree feedback questions there are.

Keep this time in mind when deciding on who you want to ask for their feedback as some managers may not have the time to complete the survey before the deadline and you will end up with incomplete 360 degrees feedback in your final report.

If you do not want to use an outside service to handle the questions and the final report and would instead rather do it internally, there are different types of 360 degree feedback software programs that can be used to help you through the process.

360 degree feedback form

Once you get the final results back, make sure to set aside a good amount of time to review the information as a 50 question test could result in 20-30 pages of 360 degree performance feedback depending on what areas you are trying to capture.

Some areas on the 360 degree feedback form that companies should look capture include items such as skill strengths and weaknesses, skill blind spots and behaviors to be aware of.

One of your jobs once you become a manager is having the ability to build trust at work. Why is important to make sure that there is trust in the environment that you are working in? When employees feel trust, they are more committed to contributing and they feel valued as a team member. The people who are going to be your most loyal and productive employees are those that you have spent time building trust in the workplace with. Just like you need trust in relationships to succeed, the same holds true in the workplace.

As a manager, you are not going to be able to accomplish your team and company goals without the help and efforts of those people that are working under you. If you have all the skills in the world but you are not capable of building trust in a team, you will end up failing in your role.

How to build trust in a team

There are three categories to focus on when it comes to building trust in the workplace activities. These are being considerate of others, being consistent and being credible. Let’s take a look at each of these three items by themselves to see the role that they play.

Being considerate of others means showing a real interest in how others are doing. If employees feel that you care and understand them they are more likely to trust you. As a manager, if you show a genuine interest in how a person is doing, you are going to get paid back ten times over in the long run.

Being credible is a little bit more involved because it includes the credibility of both you as a person as well as in the ability to do your job. This means being honest and ethical in all of your dealings. From a personal standpoint, following through on commitments and admitting mistakes will help to make your credible in the eyes of your people. In terms of being credible to do your job, it is the ability to align with company goals and to be able to work toward a solution even if you don’t have all of the knowledge about a particular area.

Consistency is made up of two factors; those being reliability and dependability. This means that whatever actions you take need to line up to what you say. Don’t make promises that you cannot keep and follow through on any promises that you do make. Set reasonable goals and then take the steps necessary to accomplish them.

If you don’t have effective communication in the workplace, then trust in the workplace is not going to be possible. You communicate every day through your actions as well as your words so it is critical that your consistency, credibility and consideration always match both of these.

One of the biggest challenges that people face once they have been in their job for a year or two and are looking at what would be the next step in their career advancement, they begin looking for what the next job will be for them in the organization. Getting promoted at work comes with many obstacles, some of which you can control and others that you cannot. For now, we want to focus on the things that you can control to make sure that you are meeting your personal development goals as well as your professional development goals.

Here is a look at the different stages of your work life and things to be on the lookout for as your set your individual development plan in order to make sure there are not any roadblocks that you are personally creating for yourself that is going to keep you from the next move up the company ladder.

In the first quadrant of your work life, you are an individual contributor, working either dependently or independently depending on your team and company you work for. If you are working off by yourself, here are some things to be on the watch for to make sure you are not stunting both your personal and professional development.This would includes things such as a lack of initiative, showing a lack of willingness to get involved in group projects or you don’t show the ability to focus on one task and instead off working on multiple unfinished projects.

For the employee that is working in more of a team environment, some of the challenges that this person faces include things such as, being too competitive in a team setting, or an inability to build relationships with other team members.

If you are able to navigate through this first stage of your work life, the next challenge comes then in stage two as you become a manager and start to contribute through others.There are many more potential barriers to success in this job title, such as a failure to delegate jobs to your employees, or not being able to sell your ideas and concepts to other groups in the organization. At this stage in your career, you need to be able to think about the broader picture and what are not only the needs of your department but what are the needs of the organization as well. Some managers feel threatened by having employees that are successful, but that is nothing but positive for you in a manager role because having someone that can one day replace you will make it easier to move up in the organization.

Finally at stage three you then get the chance to contribute across the entire organization. At this place, all of the personal development seminars and personal development books that you have read pay off as your are close to the top of the company. Challenges you will face in this role include things such as over committing on budgets or timeliness that cannot be met, or a failure to build relationships and network with others in the company.

As you can see there are many potential pitfalls in your journey up the corporate ladder and this is just taking a peak at some of the things you can control. In order to help your career, the first thing you should do at your company is seek out their employee development training to see what types of courses or books they offer. As you then move up the ladder, you will be responsible for making sure the people underneath you receive the best employee training and development as possible so it helps if you have went through classes in the past before to help guide your staff through their career development process.