Lori Adams-Brown on Unlocking Global Team Potential: 6 Keys to Cross-Cultural Leadership

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Welcome to the A World of Difference podcast. I'm Lori Adams-Brown and this is a podcast for those who are different and want to make a difference. Does it feel like your whole world has just been turned upside down? Are you having trouble remembering to drink water or eat? Does it feel like you're walking in quicksand?

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I myself have benefited from a therapist I've worked with there. You can message your therapist in between sessions, go to extra courses around grief or trauma, find support groups, and also also really have a person to help you walk through some of the most difficult parts of your life right now. You can get 10% off your first month today by going to www.betterhelp.com difference you deserve to heal welcome back to A World of Difference, where we not only celebrate humanity's unique differences here, but we also explore how we can make an impact together. I'm Lori Adams Brown and I'm thrilled to have you join me for today's episode. If you're a leader, working with global teams or even thinking about expanding your reach across borders, this episode is for you.

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We're diving into one of the most exciting and challenging aspects of today's business world, which is leading across borders and building high performing global teams.

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I will never stop being grateful for living and working on three continents and collaborating with teams from around the globe. All throughout my career until now and along the way, I've seen the magic that happens when leaders embrace cultural differences and create spaces where teams thrive no matter where they're located. Several of you have mentioned this is an area of interest. You're wanting to learn more about that in this year, so let's get into it. I'm going to share six strategies for leading across borders and making a difference in your organization wherever you are.

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So first up is cultural agility. Now this is the ability to adapt your leadership style to different cultural contexts. It's not about losing your identity as a leader, but it's about expanding your capacity to connect with others wherever they are. Here's an example. In hierarchical cultures Like Japan or India, for example, employees may expect really clear directives from their leaders.

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So this area of direction is really different from hierarchical cultures to more egalitarian ones. So in egalitarian cultures, like for example, Denmark or the Netherlands, a collaborative, team driven approach is really more effective to get that direction and alignment that you're working for. So an action step would really be something like taking the time to learn about the cultural norms of your team members, getting to know them. You don't have to be an expert in every culture because no one is. But being curious and respectful can go a really long way.

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So next we're going to talk about communication. This is something I do a lot of training on. My company here, based in Silicon Valley, where I serve as the director of Global Talent Development. We spend a lot of time on communication, cross cultural communication. Communication is really key across all, all leadership in every organization.

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But when you're leading global teams, clarity is everything. Miscommunication can easily happen when language barriers and cultural differences are in play. For instance, I've worked with teams where people are a little bit hesitant to ask questions, maybe because in their culture it might seem somewhat disrespectful, especially to ask questions in a large group in front of the leader or a question that might seem somehow be difficult for the leader to answer. So learning to say things like what questions do you have as a leader? Rather than do you have any questions?

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Can make it easier for them to engage at times and also to ask those questions over dinners, over drinks, if you have a chance. Whether it's coffee in the break room or going out to eat noodles in Taiwan, when I'm visiting the team there, which is something I like to do, always have opportunities to give people a chance to speak. As a leader, really this is all our job to approach people and give that safety, that psychological safety for people to ask questions. So another action step would be really be concise, confirm understanding and use multiple platforms to communicate. So use written, use verbal, use visual to ensure your message is clear.

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Diversity or different perspectives is one of the biggest strengths of global teams. Whether it's cognitive diversity, ways of thinking from different perspectives, from people who've had different educational backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, men, women, people who speak multiple, multiple languages, all of these kinds of different perspectives is really a huge strength on teams globally. But it's only powerful really if you leverage that. So too often leaders try to make everyone conform to this single way of thinking. But in fact, innovation really happens when you let these different perspectives shine.

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For example, I Worked with a team where we had, you know, some input from Asia, North America, Europe. And listening to all those different perspectives as we came up with a plan really helped us roll out something more robust, more inclusive. And that was going to really affect all the teams in ways that we wouldn't have otherwise if we had just come up with it from one perspective. Listening to all those perspectives help us develop our key leadership program that I've rolled out globally in the company where I've been working for the last couple of years, but it's resonating globally and increasing our metrics. Last year we were able to, out of 10 leadership components that we were working on, on eight of them, very clearly we saw either a 4 to 6% increase in just one year from just implementing this.

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And a lot of it was due to going around and listening to global leaders bringing their perspectives in. And some of the work I did early on when I came into the company and continue to do, there's no time where listening to understand is not going to be needed. Another action step you could take, especially around this area, is to create opportunities for collaboration and celebrate the unique contributions of each person as they bring that into the table for your team. And so this really can get a little more engagement on a team globally, for people from different perspectives and making sure you shout them out. This is something I did in a December meeting with my global team, which is to make sure, as we were looking at our outcomes, that I was able to shout out each person on the team for the unique contribution they brought in.

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And it really does help with that engagement and retention that we're going for, especially in the area where I work, which is global talent development. So while differences are absolutely essential on global teams, it's important to find common ground. So a shared vision really acts like this North Star for your team, keeping everyone aligned no matter where they are in the world. An action step you can take here is to regularly connect individual tasks back to the bigger picture. So whether your team member is in Singapore or San Francisco, they really should feel that their work contributes to the larger purpose of the vision of the global organization.

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Let's talk about trust. This one's huge. I spend quite a bit of time working on this with my teams, with all of our organization, in fact, globally, we've had several meetings just about building trust. Renee Brown has some great work around this about her research that shows that trust really is built in these small moments. I use this metaphor of Legos because my boys have always been into legos.

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And they still are in fact, one of them in particular. But it's sort of like building trust is like a LEGO tower. You build it one LEGO at a time. So trust is the foundation of any successful team. But it can be harder to build when you're not on in the same room or even in the same time zone, which is the case for me and many of us leading our global teams.

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Right. So one way to build trust is by being reliable. Like I said, Brene Brown's research shows that when you show up in those small moments, that's reliability, showing up when you say you will, delivering on your promises and creating that environment where your team members feel safe to express themselves. This builds trust. Trust is not something you, you can demand.

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I mean, you can, but it just doesn't work that way. You might see more of a, you know, some people who might struggle with more domineering type of leadership styles may come in really demanding trust. And especially if you have any type of abuse of power, you're really going to get more of a fond response to trauma as opposed to actual trust. So it's a very counterfeit and not lasting version of it. And it really doesn't put people in their brains, in a space of innovation and creativity for growth.

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It really puts them in a space that's more limbic, where they shut down and there's a lot of lack of creativity and curiosity about how to solve problems or how to learn from any mistakes that been made. So really to build trust, we want to create that psychological safety, show up in small moments, be reliable and allow people to ask questions. That really helps build that trust. An action step you can take here is really making time for those regular one on ones. I do this with my team most weeks, not every week as possible, but for the most part, setting up even just 15 minutes at a time, asking them.

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I like to use a model that comes from Marcus Buckingham out of the Gallup research. He says that asking a few questions can be really helpful if you ask them kind of regularly. And so the questions I like to ask that I sort of got from him and modified a little bit is what do you love? What do you loathe? And how can I be helpful?

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And this allows people to really just speak into what's going on in these one on ones and doesn't take long, just 15 minutes. These conversations really build relationships and show that you're invested in the success of your team members. Finally, let's not forget the importance of respecting time zones and boundaries. None of us wants to be at meetings at 2 in the morning. I do not.

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Burnout is real. And leaders of global teams need to be intentional about really fostering the opportunity for people to, to get the rest that they need to build the resilience that they need to do the work that they do. So an action step here could be either rotating meeting times. If that works for your team, not all teams want to do that. And just talking to your team members, finding out, is the person in Taiwan a morning person, is the person in the UK a night person?

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If so, that might work out really well if you have a team on the east coast of the U.S. and West coast and then you just do like a 2pm meeting in the afternoon and that works well. But you know, you don't want to have people staying up past 10 o'clock for over an hour of a meeting. That's pointless. You want to have a meeting when it matters and you want to just get short and to the point using things like Microsoft Planner or notion boards or all these types of planning software is out there where you can coordinate work across time zones.

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And when you get together for a meeting that it really counts. You're not making people stay up for an hour from till midnight or if they're going to get up at 5 in the morning, that you're going to make it worth their time. Right. So just to be conscious of that. So leading across borders is really, it's a rewarding challenge of modern leadership.

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I find it really exciting. And when we embrace cultural agility and really foster that inclusivity and belonging and we really align around a common vision, we can unlock the potential of teams with cognitive diversity, different perspectives that they bring in, which is very strategic for business and all organizations. And it allows our teams to innovate and thrive together. As leaders, we really have the opportunity to create work environments where everybody feels valued and supported and connected no matter where they're located. And I'd really love to hear from you, what's working for you, what tools have you used, what practices have you implemented where you've seen employees globally engage and you've raised retention, You've seen people really thrive at work and find a lot of happiness in their workplace together because we spend a lot of time with the people we work with.

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We want it to be a place where we feel that we're living out our purpose and we're finding fulfillment in some way and we're being connected with each other in whatever way that looks. I'd love to hear your thoughts reach out to me on LinkedIn. It's a great place to send me a message on dm or you can email the show or you can find me on Instagram, send me a DM there or comment in any post I post around this episode. And always you can come to our Patreon community of difference makers where we go a little bit deeper in these conversations. And you can always DM me on that platform as well.

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I'd love to hear what you're doing, how this is working for you as you lead globally and any tips that you have. Thank you for turning in Tuning into a World of Difference and don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with somebody who might find it helpful. It's one way you can make a difference. So I know a lot of you are doing incredible things all throughout the year in business, nonprofit and both, or education, politics. Just building resilient communities right in front of you in your own neighborhoods.

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And I really appreciate the way that each of you are making an impact. Where we are together, we truly can make a world of difference. Until next time, I'm Lori Adams-Brown. Keep making a difference wherever you are. Before we go, I just want to take a moment to thank you.

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Yes, you. The fact that you're here, tuning in, leaning into these conversations and doing the hard and beautiful work of making a difference in this world, it means everything to me in this episode. If it spoke to you, if it brought you healing, hope, or even just a new perspective, I'd love for you to help us spread the word. Subscribe to the podcast, leave us a review and share this episode with someone you think might need to hear it. Your support helps this community grow and also helps us to keep having these important conversations.

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You are such a vital part of this journey and every time you listen, every time you share, you remind me of why we do this. Because you are out there making a difference in your own beautiful, messy and imperfect way and that that matters more than you know. So thank you for being here, thank you for showing up, and thank you for making the world a little brighter, a little kinder, and a little more whole. Until next time, take care of yourself and keep making a difference. You are loved.