Effective Communication
One of the biggest challenges today for the leaders is effective communication. In a survey on communication, as many as 79% employees pointed out lack of communication within the organization. The problem manifolds in a global team, owing to communication snags as team members speak different languages. Also, the same phrases and expressions may have different meanings in different cultures. It should be noted that communication also includes non verbal communication such as gestures and facial expressions. These can be easily misinterpreted when the team members are from different cultures. These misinterpretations would break the communication chain, and would adversely affect the team’s performance, productivity and even the team spirit. Even leaders are otherwise good communicators fail when dealing with a multicultural teams.
Need for culturally explicit behavior
Global leadership often fails due to its indifferent attitude towards the culture of its team members. This indifference creates lose ends in the leadership, and adversely affects the cohesiveness of the team. On the contrary, leaders who respect and understands these cultural differences can reap full benefits from its team members and create cultural harmony within the team, thus improving productivity and innovation.
Developing Global Mindset
Having a global mindset will arm a leader to perceive the world market, and understand the competitors better. This mindset will also help them fill the cultural gap that exists within its team members.
Collaborating with Team members
It is not just enough to have a global mindset. The leader has to inculcate the team spirit with the subordinates and collaborate with them. An effective collaboration with team mates of differing culture would enable the leader to get an edge over the competition, through effective use of the team members.
Trust
Often there is lack of trust between the leader and the team members. This mistrust leads to lack of communication; the leader may not be willing to share vital information with his team mates and vice versa, causing distrust and total chaos within the team. In such a situation, the team will be at complete tangent with each other, and the common goals will never be met. So, trust is one of the vital factors for an effective leadership. Your subordinates will pick up your traits, so if you exhibit trust and confidence in your subordinates, you can expect the same from them too.
Cultural Discrimination
Call it racial discrimination, cultural discrimination or it could also be a political rift between the nations…that often lead to hatred or ‘one man up’ feeling in the teammates or the leader. For example, if a leader is always trying to display his culture, his race to be superior to the rest, he is sure to kindle hatred in the minds of the team members. In such circumstances, it would be foolish to expect whole hearted support from the fellow team members.
Charismatic leadership
Gone are the days when you can treat your team members with ‘Carrot and Stick’ principle. You have to treat them as equals if you want support from them. A successful leader is one who exudes charisma, who is appreciative of his team members, and treats them as equal.
These are some of the traits that a successful leader must have! For more information please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Paul Gerhardt: www.paulgerhardt.com
