Personal branding can pay off in all aspects of life.
But if your goal is to fill an emotional void or mask insecurity – beware!
Seeking approval from external sources won’t bring lasting satisfaction.
Your personal brand should authentically reflect YOU and your values. So don’t fall into the trap of using your image as a crutch or compromise your integrity for shallow gratification.
Avoid these three instantly damaging personal branding mistakes.
Don’t build a personal brand if you’re trying to do this.
Your personal brand needs to reflect YOU without apology.
Don’t look for others to validate you. True worth comes from within.
You are always worthy, whether or not you choose to show up online. Use personal branding to cultivate a strong image that accurately reflects who you are.
Your personal brand is not an ego display. Articulate what makes you special but don’t use your channels to brag or display vanity. Compliments are not your currency. Your personal branding goal is to build genuine connections and add value to your target audience in your uniquely extraordinary way.
Your personal brand will evolve as you grow. It will never be perfect.
Learn to see perfectionism for what it is: Fear of failure, rejection, shame… A false belief that you’re not measuring up.
It’s okay not to have everything figured out! Allow room for growth and the development of your identity online over time; perfection isn’t necessary here – self-acceptance is key. Own who YOU are – no excuses necessary!
In conclusion, taking steps to cultivate and project your best image can have big rewards in terms of personal, professional or business opportunities. Still don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can create a personal brand to fill some void. Trying to use exposure as an emotional cure-all will ultimately do more harm than good. Don’t build a personal brand if you’re trying to gain others’ approval, brag, or build a perfect image. You must live authentically to truly manifest your full potential. Use your personal brand as an outward expression of who YOU are! Remember, if you need help with your personal branding goals, Reactionpower can help.
Companies are accelerating digital transformation for long-term business growth and profitability. And with good reason. The use of digital products and services is still at an all-time high.
Here are 3 incredibly useful tips for successful digital transformation.
Put people first The order to set digital transformation in motion is people > processes > technology. You need the right people to be able to implement the processes and successfully drive #tech transformation. You’ll also need to define and articulate your digital business ambition and strategy to ensure broad organizational alignment. Understand, listen, and be #thoughtful about your colleagues’ questions and concerns. Take time to truly understand people’s priorities including their daily challenges and cultural impulses.
Advancing trust with your customers and transformation projects should be tightly coupled. Business and technology #leaders must ensure that the organization’s technology instills confidence. When there is trust in customer interactions business outcomes are improved.
How can you identify, create and build out new business and revenue models that provide your enterprise with strategic advantages? Evaluate market disruptions and technology innovations to ensure your knowledge remains current. Seek out strategic partnerships that align with your transformation vision, and increase the speed and quality of your initiatives. Check your design against emerging customer needs and ensure that they are at the center of your efforts. In a hyper-competitive business landscape that is continuously evolving curiosity and openness to change help tremendously.
In conclusion, companies today must continuously reinvent themselves to thrive in the modern business world.
With ever-evolving markets and mind-boggling competition, waiting to initiate digital transformation projects could be a business death knell. Companies need an innovative mindset to survive as digital technologies are rapidly transforming traditional ways of working. Successful digital transformation means enhanced customer engagement and better business outcomes.
Digital transformation is an approach that uses technology to drive innovation and create new customer experiences.
Here are 6 expert tips to restore momentum if your digital transformation initiative is lagging.
A key component of digital transformation is developing a customer-centric strategy that focuses on delivering personalized customer experiences across all channels. Get customer feedback to make the user experience the best it can be. Additionally, consider leveraging AI-powered chatbots to provide customers with 24/7 support so you can quickly answer questions or address any issues they may have while interacting with your brand online or offline.
Identify your key stakeholders and forge strong partnerships by bringing them on your journey. Invite them to provide input and share their perspectives. This not only gives them some skin in the game but helps them drive understanding and adoption of the changes throughout their teams.
Clarify and communicate a compelling vision. Sharing the “why” behind your digital transformation helps your stakeholders understand how it ties back to their business objectives. Consistently reiterating the strategic imperative will keep your team focused on the big picture and give them less opportunity to see changes as random.
Also don’t forget to align leaders. You need to look at your digital transformation as a marathon, not a sprint. Therefore it’s important to schedule regular check-ins to inspire action and commitment. From the CEO and board to the ‘magic middle’ you need to inform and equip leaders to support your outcomes and agility.
The second step in the digital transformation process is investing in technology and infrastructure. By investing in the right technology and infrastructure, businesses can increase efficiency and productivity while reducing operating costs. Additionally, businesses should consider investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to automate manual processes and gain insights from data collected from customers.
As businesses become more reliant on technology for their operations, it is important to focus on data security and privacy measures. as Keep in mind compliance regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA. A privacy compliant organization provides solid administrative, technical, and physical security safeguards to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. This includes the effective ability to detect and prevent unauthorized or inappropriate access to data. Investing in cybersecurity solutions such as malware protection software or two-factor authentication can help protect sensitive customer data from cyberattacks while also complying with international regulations related to data privacy and security policies.
Upskill talent, unite teams, and keep your organization on top of rapid market changes. Identify and develop the needed tech skills, as well as the soft skills that will foster stronger human connections. Create a culture of constant experimentation and measurement.
Data and insights are crucial to the sustained success. Ensure the information you collect drives smarter decision making to improve customer experiences and business outcomes. Businesses need data-driven insights to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences so they can develop targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with their target audience. Actionable insights will help you develop capabilities to proactively address system and service issues that could create barriers to adoption.
In conclusion, digital transformation is an essential part of staying competitive today’s rapidly changing market environment—especially when it comes to CMOs looking for ways to outsmart their competitors. The tips outlined above can help CMOs take advantage of digital opportunities while also staying ahead of their competition. With these tips in mind, CMOs can confidently create a roadmap for success leveraging the power of digital transformation within their business!
Have you seen The Social Dilemma? I just did. It’s a Netflix documentary that uncovers how social platforms manipulate our attention purely to maximize their own profit. Of course, as a digital marketer, I’ve known this for a while. But when it’s told from that perspective, it makes you think ?
In the wake of the pandemic and the racial reckoning that’s followed George Floyd’s murder, trust and relationships have been top of mind.
Trust in social media platforms eroded significantly, particularly over the last year.
We’ve had cultural landmark moments and heard concerns about how social platforms are scaling harm with AI and Machine learning algorithms that don’t take into account diverse communities. We’ve had major boycotts of Facebook ads by some pretty large multinational brands, based on how the social network moderates content. The #DeleteFacebook Movement also continues to reappear from time to time in the wake of the latest data privacy scandal. And the list just goes on.
Many people ask if the backlash against social media has real weight behind it.
I genuinely don’t think social media is in the long-term decline.
Social networks revealed our global humanity when they first launched a little over a decade ago. And they still hold us by those relationship tentacles today. We are social creatures and when our physical connections were unexpectedly curtailed earlier this year, we turned to each other online. Even as things slowly turn to whatever the new normal will be, we’ll still be seeking each other out whether we’re close by or worlds apart.
We love to share with our friends and family. We want to connect, build community and create tribes around our passions and interests. We want to express ourselves.
A generation has grown up in this space. While people are concerned about danger on the digital front, it’s hard to go back. But as you use these platforms that have become so ubiquitous in our lives, it’s important to pause and ask yourself, who has your data? Every time we quickly accept the terms of service, we don’t realize just how much we’re giving away.
That’s why I go back to trust. I think if social platforms (and brands!) can build a relationship of trust with us we are more open to having our data being used, particularly if we believe it’s useful for us.
With more transparency and the ability to see how our data is tokenized, we can shape what we are comfortable with. We’ll need to have basic qualifications about who we’re sharing our data with. Ultimately that calls all companies to higher ethics and principles.
The world has been turned upside down. The ability to adapt is a matter of life or death for many businesses, because even when we are past the chaos, things won’t likely be the same again. For most businesses to survive the storm, they need a new game plan.
Survival depends on adaption. As Mike Tyson famously quipped, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can get up off the mat and start fighting back.
The world has punched us in the mouth. For some businesses, it may be a knockout punch. But it doesn’t have to be. Take a page out of the Silicon Valley playbook… The pivot.
Remember that you exist to solve problems for your customers. And just because their problems have changed doesn’t mean you can’t still solve them. You just need to think of new, innovative ways to do so.
Read on for 5 things you can do right now to pivot your business and survive this pandemic.
For some businesses, survival will require offering more than you ever have before.
Take the fancy restaurant down the street (we’ve all got one). With their dining room closed for the foreseeable future, their go-to solution is likely to offer takeout and delivery, keeping their fingers crossed that things will go back to normal soon. Sure, by offering takeout and delivery, they can continue to serve delicious food to hungry people, but their average order value is taking a huge hit. No in-person dining means no alcohol sales, no appetizer and dessert up-sells, and of course, no tips for their staff.
So, what can a business like this do to overcome these unexpected challenges? Offer more. To survive an extended hit to their traditional business model, they need to think of ways to offer more to their customers, driving average order values back up to what they were when guests dined in-person.
The restaurant could offer a White Glove Date Night Service. Partnering with other local shops, they could put together a special bundle that includes a full takeout meal, a bottle of wine, a white tablecloth, homemade candles, an invite-only romantic Spotify playlist curated by the restaurant’s Hostess, a list of staff favorite romance movies streaming on Netflix, etc.
Now this restaurant’s takeout meal has turned into an experience. Something to look forward to. Something to keep the romance alive during the quarantine. And something that goes from a $35 takeout bill to a $99 package that local couples will happily pay in order to bring some happiness and excitement into their homes.
All this, just by offering a little bit more.
Of course, sometimes less is more.
For some businesses, the best way to survive these troubled times is pare-down their product or service, and focus exclusively on the customer segments that drive the most profit.
Take a typical SaaS company that offers both entry-level and enterprise-level versions of its product. Sure, when times were good, it made sense to staff up and serve both of these segments. But now? Probably not.
A company like this would need to take a long, hard look at which of the two segments drives more to the bottom line, and is most likely to continue growing (or at least maintain) during the impending recession. Based on what they discover, the business will have a game plan as to which segment (and corresponding product features) become the priority, and where they can offer less.
Now, that’s not to say that they need to (or should) fire a bunch of customers from the less valuable segment. It just means that they should reevaluate the time and money invested in areas such as product development, marketing, and customer service related to this segment. This group doesn’t need a whole bunch of extra features right now, nor can you afford to develop them. Now is the time to focus, and the best way to do that is to offer less.
Though it’s easy to forget, the core reason businesses exist is to solve problems for their customers. But what happens when the problem you solve is no longer relevant?
Take Airbnb for example. With people not traveling, their customers no longer have the problem of finding unique, comfortable lodging while away from home. But many of their customers have a new problem: a desperate need for a quiet space to work remotely.
So, what should Airbnb do? Pivot, of course (at least temporarily)!
The company could adjust their platform so that hosts can offer reduced “daytime-only” rates to rent out their home office/bedroom with a desk (one that’s deep cleaned nightly). Customers with a less than ideal work-from-home situation would now have the option to head down the street to an empty, quiet Airbnb listing to work for the day. And hosts would have an opportunity to still bring in some much-needed revenue.
Same business. Same product. Different customer problems solved. Not necessarily quarantine approved.
When there’s an overnight shift in the global economy, it’s not uncommon for businesses to see a shift in their target markets as well. Your core customer base might disappear overnight. But, there may be one waiting in the wings…a market you previous would have never expected to serve.
And for those businesses paying attention and acting swiftly, this spells opportunity…not only to stay afloat during the crisis but to perhaps emerge stronger than ever.
For example, take Instacart. This on-demand delivery service has traditionally focused its efforts on acquiring urban-dwelling Gen Z’ers and Millennials. These groups are early tech adopters and heavy eCommerce shoppers, making them ideal candidates for the service. But with nearly everyone forced to stay home, millions of Baby Boomers across the U.S. are suddenly signing up for Instacart. What a huge opportunity for the company! Baby Boomers comprise a massive share of the nation’s buying power but have traditionally shunned online retail in favor of shopping in physical locations. As Baby Boomers are forced to adopt the service en masse, this might be a turning point for the entire generation. And for Instacart, a chance to redefine their market. Hopefully, the company is already strategizing as to how they can retain this valuable customer segment once the pandemic subsides. Because if they can keep the Boomers coming back long term, they will unlock a massive opportunity to grow.
For some entrepreneurs, the changes brought on by coronavirus will prompt a necessary change in their business model. Are you doing large corporate events? Think about the long-term outlook of the previous business model. Not a great place to be… Customers may no longer be willing to put the same amount of time and dollars when things go back to “normal” but they may be open to smaller events with an extended online experience that integrates opportunities for serendipitous connections.
So, what can you do? Don’t hanker down and wait for this to pass. Test a new model. Today!
Explore ways you can help customers create meaningful connections that go beyond video meetings on Zoom. What you learn may pay off in passionate, loyal customers that stay with you into well into the future.
While it may be stressful to have change forced upon you, the ultimate expansion can be a positive outcome from an otherwise terrible situation.
How can small businesses survive in the era of COVID-19?
Pre-purchase gift certificates are a great start, but that’s not enough!
Here are 9 more ways to help your business thrive even in uncertain times:
Social media views and engagement have increased by over 30% in the last three weeks. Though this is a global pandemic, the impact is local. Get creative within your context. For businesses that rely on foot-traffic, the insight you have on your local customers is invaluable. For example, is there any way you can pivot your product or get people to pay for a virtual experience? Local nuance can help you continue marketing to a targeted geographic area at a relatively low cost using paid social media.
Apply for a Facebook Small Business Grant while you are at it!
Send your customers some quick tips to tide them over while they hanker down – a simple recipe, tips to maintain edges or lashes, a video with a good workout etc. The goodwill will pay off in spades and keep purchase channels open as you adjust your business to changing times.
Now is the time for small businesses to get on text campaigns if you’ve collected phone numbers from folks as they purchased your products or services. People are on their phones with nothing much to do.
Reach out to people that love you or your brand… they will sell for you. Compensate them for that. Offer referral incentives or an affiliate program to your brand advocates.
Hold watch parties, zoom gatherings, and 1:1 check-ins. Grab data from your market by listening to their needs, fears, happy triggers etc… this is GOLD!!! Start a dialogue and use these challenging times to truly engage your community in honest conversations about what you’re doing to support them and how you’re working towards resuming business. Make them feel the love even if it’s only online.
With the sudden rise of the stay-at-home economy, it’s imperative that small businesses and startups pivot swiftly to digital in order to stay profitable because, now more than ever, consumers are turning to social media as a source for content, comfort, and even creativity. Double down your dollars so that you can capture more market share. It may sound a bit callous, but we saw the same thing happen in 2008/2009. The companies survived and thrived turned a challenging time into an opportunity to grow.
Let them put their health and families first. Acknowledge their concerns and life demands. Many probably have kids and are feeling the pressure more than ever before with the recent school shutdowns. When you treat your employees with respect, they will be more loyal and committed to your business. They will also likely come up with creative solutions to maintain productivity and service levels. That’s good for business and morale alike.
If you have a business with 500 or fewer employees reach out to your bank and see if you qualify for relief through CARES Act (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act. This will to help with payroll, rent, utilities, healthcare costs and more.
In today’s world there are a lot of tools that make it easy to collaborate remotely. Find partners you can work with to provide product bundles or pivot to bring in cashflow. Use Google Docs to collectively ideate concepts. Ask employees and loyal customers to create human-interest story vblogs. Google Spreadsheets make it easy to collaboratively build out a content calendar. Take this time to write blogs, prepare email campaigns and engage your customers with a robust marketing campaign, while reassessing and pivoting as needed. As market dynamics change rapidly, what’s decided two weeks ago isn’t necessarily appropriate today. Collaborating can help bring light to blindspots.
With many events and galas canceled, many non-profits, start-ups and small businesses are wondering what next? If these events were critical to getting clients or raising the capital you need to maintain your staff and do your work in the community, don’t cancel! Instead consider doing a digital event!
From campaigns for micro-donations through social media to crowdfunding, there are lots of great digital tools which, if done right and quickly, can slow the decline of fundraising efforts. There are also meeting tools like Calend.ly and Zoom which make it easy to establish intimate connections between donors, keep meetings on track, and keep communication flowing.
The world is changing every moment. The way we market our businesses and how we respond to what is happening both globally and locally will define future growth & revenue. I certainly don’t have all the answers during these turbulent times but I hope sharing some of my digital marketing expertise will bring a bit of clarity in a moment of chaos.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s any way I can help you as you navigate the coming weeks and months.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, business as usual is anything but. Companies around the world are having to adapt on the fly in this changing market. As more and more events are being canceled or postponed, partners and customers around the world are increasingly asking, “How can we do digital events?”
“Digital events” has become the go-to remedy but that’s not always the right answer.
As we evaluate our approach to key industry moments, conferences, and client gatherings, here are three tips I have provided to clients with insights from doing digital over the last 18+ years.
What is your core objective? Revisit your brief. Just because you can do a digital event doesn’t always mean you should. Not every event will translate well to a virtual one. It all comes back to the original goals of the event. If the goal of the event was to deliver new content or make announcements, a live stream or video on demand may make sense. If the goal of the event was more for relationship-building, a one-way virtual event may not serve those purposes as well. Consider alternatives. Brief 1:1 virtual interactions, check-ins or training sessions may be more applicable.
As you think about your goals, consider how that content is now being consumed. Make sure the length and format of the content feels right for your audience and meets your objectives.
“Let’s do a live stream,” is a phrase that’s uttered a lot lately. Live streams have rightfully earned their place as a way to scale the reach of an in-person gathering. But just because you decide to do an event digitally, doesn’t mean you should do it live.
As people work remotely, distractions are the new normal. Children, pets, loved ones… the list is endless. Creating more digestible video on demand may be an alternative worth considering, as it gives people the opportunity to watch when it’s convenient for them.
Consider if your digital event is really going to entice viewing by appointment. Are you doing a major product announcements or timely updates where everyone hearing it at once is critical? Live is the way to go.
For most others, you may find that video on demand content that delivers directly to the camera is a better fit. Take stock of what you intended to deliver at your event, and think about how you can bring it to life via other channels and formats.
Take stock of the content you intended to deliver at your event, and think about how you can bring it to life via other channels and formats. Don’t overlook your brand’s owned channels: your website, email marketing channels, blogs, and social handles. For instance, one of our teams is considering taking content that would have been delivered on stage and is, instead, exploring animated or text-based video production that can be scaled via our content marketing channels.
Remember, the production elements that make for a well-done event — like lighting, sound, and staging — can be difficult, or even impossible, to pull off virtually. This new world of work and interactivity calls for creativity. It also means we need to increase our capacity for empathy, love and understanding, without in person queues, face-to-face interactions and the energy of a live audience.
At their core, events are shared experiences. They remind us that we’re humans bringing our unique personalities, talents, and relationships to work with us to build businesses every day. But until we can reinstate them, I’m excited to see how we rethink them for our current times.
Global leaders often want to have their products and services in as many parts of the world as possible.
Despite applying an approach that has been validated in the market of origin, many fail within a few months of market entry. In fact, I was surprised to learn that a whopping 85% of internationalization efforts fail.
What is going wrong?
A crucial step in preparing to go global is a localized marketing strategy. Companies do an in-depth analysis of the market, the demographics, needs and opportunities, and then try to push their product out if they see a fit. It all seems straightforward, but something’s missing.
In most cases, cultural context is a blindside.
Intercultural elements are not taken into consideration or are only touched upon superficially.
In order to overcome this, I’ve adopted this principle: direction from the center, decisions on the ground.
Think about it like this – the global team builds the plane but must rely on the regions to fly it. I’ve found that culture context awareness is key to the success of global campaigns. Regional teams need the freedom to adopt campaigns to their local markets. Regional teams can also provide valuable feedback on shared context that ultimately enrich the brand. For example, “are campaigns getting ran alongside unfavorable news content?”
At a practical level, for example, we build centralized, shared worksheets for all paid and owned tactics across markets, to capture and learn from what is being decided locally. Every team around the world has access to this worksheet in real time. The local nuance has helped us make better strategic decisions, particularly around scale.
Africa has a lot to offer – just another reason to take off our blinders.
Here are some myths that keep us from truly connecting.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is initiating immense change, driven by digital forces which are expected to shape the next decade – artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), network-based logic, augmented and virtual reality, quantum computing, etc.
The unprecedented speed of change will bring more advancements in the next ten years than in the last 250 years.
With a surplus of workers, more stability, and technology transforming many nations’ economies, Africa is now an attractive destination for investments, fast-growth startups, and the high-tech companies driving these technology trends.
By 2030, Africa will be home to more than 25% of the world’s population under 25. The continent is poised to reap a demographic dividend over the coming decades as its labor force grows to be the largest in the world by 2035 and its dependency ratio declines. With that, there’s an opportunity for the continent to drive inclusion, economic growth, and rapid expansion in the pool of highly-skilled professionals in cognitive STEM-based skills (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
There’s an opportunity to develop not just an inclusive future of work, but new transformative ideas that add tremendous value to the evolving world. Unleashing our full potential is essential and requires diverse, inclusive collaborative models that take into account the colorful tapestry of our common humanity on both local and global levels.
For anyone interested in business, understanding what is going on in Africa is essential. The opportunities on the continent are immense.
6 of the 10 fastest-growing economies are located in Africa, according to the world economic forum. This fact serves as a testament to its ambition.
Africa is the world’s second-largest population. It has one of the largest workforces from the ages of 18 to 30 slated for 2030. While many other continents are reporting declining populations, Africa still has a high growth rate.
70% of the population is under age 30 and sub-Saharan Africa will soon be the only place with birth rates at replacement level or higher. The continent is also increasingly urban, with more than 50 cities with populations greater than a million people. Thus Africa is well-positioned to support the workforce of the future. The young age demographic, coupled with the urbanization of Africa, is a recipe for further innovation and development.
Over the past decade, Africa’s growth has continued to accelerate.
Long-term trends show that African countries are now more attractive investment destinations.
The contribution that Africa could make to the world’s economy over the next 20 to 30 years is enormous. Also, the need for Africa to contribute to certain global problems like climate change and transition to a low carbon economy is absolutely critical.
Mobile data usage in Africa is expected to grow 20 times by 2025 – a statistic that is double the projected growth on a global level. Mobile technology has transformed many African countries because it is more readily available than computers. Consider the following:
The truth is Africans are undoubtedly resourceful.
Some lack access to education and have few resources but breakthrough innovation and the capacity for creativity continue to abound.
Africa is a hotbed of brilliant ingenuity.
Consider the following African inventions as examples:
The middle class is ambitious and working toward bridging economic gaps.
In fact, 23 African countries are now middle-income level. Africa’s leading cities account for 80% of consumers with the disposable income to acquire assets such as cars, televisions, and appliances, according to research from Fraym.
Urban corridors and regions like Lagos (Nigeria), Johannesburg (South Africa), and Nairobi (Kenya) stand out for their financial-technology hubs, middle-class consumers, and connectivity.
Beyond the top three in sub-Saharan Africa are cities like Luanda in Angola, Khartoum in Sudan, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.
There are many small, microfinance projects which help lower-income people get access to capital or learn skills to earn a better living.
African countries are also maintaining relationships with non-African countries, specifically China. Such relationships are helping many African countries execute large infrastructure projects such as roads and dams.
When we buy into these myths we create false stereotypes.
Remember that Africa is a vast, culturally diverse continent. There are likely folks who benefit from keeping you in the dark about the continent. But what’s worse, these myths and misconceptions are a disservice to humanity.
All humans bleed red and smile in the same language.
We have many common elements in our shared humanity. However, as we think about doing business beyond our borders, there are many cultural cues to consider. I have had years of trial and error, working with global teams in London, Germany, Switzerland, South Korea, India, Ireland, Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya, etc. I’ve learned that a few small nuances can make potentially positive interactions go completely awry and vice versa.
It’s important to:
Based on the LITT framework, here are 4 key elements to keep in mind in order to prevent team dysfunction and connect in spite of the distance: language, identity, technique, and technology.
Corrections and additions are welcome! Contact me.
Good communication among coworkers drives effective knowledge sharing, decision making, coordination, and, ultimately, performance results. In global teams, varying levels of fluency with the chosen common language are inevitable.
There are also other variations to adjust to such as spelling differences in words like color versus colour or organisation versus organization and terms like lift versus elevator or trunk and boot. And there are differences like the MM/DD/YYYY date format in the USA compared to DD/MM/YYYY elsewhere in the world.
In the ideal world, strong speakers would dial down dominance by slowing down their speaking pace, and using fewer idioms, slang terms, and esoteric cultural references when addressing the group. They would actively seek confirmation that they’ve been understood, and practice active listening by rephrasing others’ statements for clarification or emphasis. This hardly happens.
Less fluent speakers are forced to extend themselves by monitoring the frequency of their responses in meetings to ensure that their contributions are heard. They also need to confirm that they have been understood, by routinely asking if others are following them. It can be tough for nonnative speakers to make this leap, yet doing so keeps them from being marginalized.
Many of us suffer from a cult of ignorance. While we think of ourselves as open-minded and objective, in fact our approach is often filtered and even obscured by pre-existing notions and ideas – by our upbringing, our values, our past experiences.
In the context of global teams, it’s important to see those filters for what they are—an all-pervasive influence that profoundly colors our relationships with people, circumstances, and even ourselves. An awareness of these filters also provides the ability to strike the limits that they impose, allows for a refreshing freedom.
With this recognition, how we approach people of different backgrounds, situations, and life in general can alter dramatically. Global teams work most smoothly when members “get” where their colleagues are coming from and take into account cultural cues.
For example, the way we communicate with our friends at an open-air concert is different from the way we communicate at the library. Imagine your friends’ reaction if you were whispering to them at a concert or shouting at them in a library. In the first case it’s unlikely you’ll be heard and in the second case, you’ll certainly catch some angry looks before being escorted out.
This illustrates the hidden contexts from which we live and cultural cues which are not often explicitly communicated. In his book “Beyond Culture,” Edward Hall identifies and describes how low-context and high-context cultures need to be approached differently for any form of communication. Low context cultures can be perceived as impatient or aggressive whereas high context cultures can be perceived dishonest, misleading or long-winded.
Here are some differences:
There are many considerations that factor into our technique for communicating and connecting with others in geographically dispersed teams: time of day, physical location, ambient noise, etc.
As leaders, there are 3 other factors that should inform our technique: the location where team members are based, the number of sites, and the number of employees who work at each site.
Any perceived power imbalance can set up a negative dynamic. Geographically dispersed team members often come to feel that there are in-groups and out-groups. This situation can be exacerbated when team members at one site feel like their needs or contributions are ignored. For example, people in the majority group may feel resentment toward the minority group, believing that the latter will try to get away with contributing less than its fair share. Meanwhile, those in the minority group may believe that the majority is usurping what little power and voice they have.
When adapting to a new cultural environment, a savvy leader will avoid making assumptions about what behaviors mean. Take a step back, watch, and listen. In America, someone who says, “Yes, I can do this” likely means she is willing and able to do what you asked. In India, however, the same statement may simply signal that she wants to try—not that she’s confident of success. Before drawing conclusions, therefore, ask a lot of questions.
The modes of communication used by global teams must be carefully considered. Videoconferencing, for instance, allows rich communication in which both context and emotion can be perceived. E‑mail offers greater ease and efficiency but lacks contextual cues. Other communication tools like WhatsApp, Slack, Teams and Chat fall somewhere in between.
In making decisions about which technology to use, a leader must ask the following:
Teleconferencing and videoconferencing enable real-time (instant) conversations. E‑mail and certain social media formats require users to wait for the other party to respond. Choosing between instant and delayed forms of communication can be especially challenging for global teams, particularly when a team spans multiple time zones.
Instant technologies are valuable when leaders need to persuade others to adopt their viewpoint. But if they simply want to share information, then delayed methods such as e‑mail are simpler, more efficient, and less disruptive to people’s lives.
Leaders must also consider the team’s interpersonal dynamics. If the team has a history of conflict, technology choices that limit the opportunities for real-time emotional exchanges may yield the best results.
Flexibility and appreciation for diversity are at the heart of a thriving global team. Leaders must expect problems and patterns to change or repeat themselves as teams shift, disband, and regroup. If leaders can mitigate difficulties caused by language differences and identity issues, while marshaling technology to improve communication among geographically dispersed colleagues, distance is sure to shrink, not expand.
When that happens, teams can become truly representative of the “global village”—not just because of their international makeup, but also because their members feel mutual trust and a sense of kinship.