After leading my webinar on managing global teams, How to Effectively Lead Virtual Team Meetings, I received many questions from my audience about effective virtual meeting practices. This blog post is the third (of four) that covers selected questions from participants about successfully managing global teams.
As always, you can comment or send me a personal question via email: yael@aim-strategies.com, Facebook or LinkedIn
Question #3: Language Barriers When Managing Global Teams
“My team members are global and we work across time zones and oceans. The added difficulties of language barriers and background noise during virtual team teleconferences and other virtual meetings make it even more difficult to communicate. Can you suggest techniques to overcome these language barriers?”
Answer: This very real concern affects teams whose members often span the globe. As is often the case, keeping things simple works best, especially in complex circumstances like off-site teams that must collaborate closely. My best advice in these situations is for managers to follow the KISS Principle (Keep It Simple and Sincere). Their responsibility is to facilitate clear communication so things don’t get ‘lost in translation’, which is a frequent occurrence since business English is the ‘part-time’ language of many team members. Some useful steps for virtual team managers to follow are:
• Always construct your agenda and documentation around the idea of keeping things simple (language, structure, process).
• Send handouts ahead of time.
• Instruct team members to pause more frequently when explaining complicated ideas.
• Conduct frequent check-ins where everyone on the call voices an opinion.
• When someone expresses a key idea or instruction, ask another team member to repeat what you said to ensure understanding.
• Keep a checklist consisting of bullet points about what you want to accomplish on calls, and check them off when they are completed.
• Email every team member a summary of your verbal presentation.
• Follow up with phone calls and emails to ensure understanding. Be explicit about next steps.
Some things to keep in mind when managing global teams:
• When there is a silence – – wait. Do not jump in to fill the silence. The other person is probably just translating your words into his/her native tongue or thinking about what you said and forming a response in English.
• If you are the native speaker be aware that you may slip into colloquialisms, talk very fast, mumble or speak with a regional accent, all of which hinder a non-native speaker’s comprehension. Therefore, it’s helpful to say up front, “Please stop me and ask me to repeat something or ask for a further explanation.”
• Do not assume your audience understands what you say. Check comprehension by asking colleagues to repeat their understanding of the material back to you. Ask them to explain what they heard in their own words.
• Do not equate poor grammar and mispronunciation with lack of intelligence; it is usually a sign of second language use.
• Divide your presentation into small modules with frequent checkpoints so that listeners don’t fall behind. Be prepared to allocate more time for each module than you would when everyone is a native English speaker.
A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams, Chapter 3
Have a great virtual team meeting!
