High productivity in any team, including a virtual team, is achieved only when individuals bring their authentic best selves to the table, while collaborating effectively toward a common goal. That challenge may seem great enough, but it grows far larger for the increasing numbers of multicultural virtual teams that research tells us most large organizations are building. A highly productive multicultural team must harmonize different work styles and cultural communication styles without losing the diversity of thought that culminates in innovation.
Of course, discussing the diversity and intercultural communication challenges inherent in virtual teams is easy. The real challenge for HR leaders comes in guiding team members toward realistic strategies to work most effectively with their virtual colleagues and to build trust among them – without risking their authenticity.
There are three sequential steps, though, that I’ve observed really help people to collaborate effectively on a multicultural virtual team while maintaining their authenticity. HR leaders who want to help their organizations build highly productive multicultural teams should emphasize this key intercultural communications strategy.
The first step is to understand culture, and how culture impacts different work styles. More specifically, you’ll want to help multicultural virtual team members understand what their own cultural preferences are and how those impact their personal work style. One team member, for instance, may be “high interpersonal,” which means that they greatly emphasize trust in the workplace, and build trust through the relationships they create and maintain.
The second step is to guide multicultural virtual team members toward understanding their colleagues’ cultural preferences. Once they understand how culture works and the different dimensions of culture, they’ll be able to spot culturally-influenced behaviors. Once trained, for instance, they’re more likely to notice that a virtual team colleague often pauses in speech and uses sophisticated, nuanced language, or that they frequently speak with their hands. Those are all tell-tale signs of an indirect communicator. Understanding how indirect communicators differ from the direct communicators who comprise the vast majority of the U.S. workforce gives you a significant advantage when building a relationship and working with colleagues from other cultures.
The third step is the most important: it’s to merge the information gained in steps one and two (knowing yourself and understanding the cultural behaviors of others) and then creating strategies for success in the virtual team.
The mistake that many people make is that they focus too much on either their own cultural preferences or on the cultural behaviors of others. In the former, the risk is that they’ll always insist on doing things their way, and end up perceived as being arrogant, culturally insensitive, or uncaring. If they focus on colleagues’ cultural behaviors, they may end up trying to mimic them. Though that may demonstrate a more intercultural approach and an open mind, it also runs a very serious risk of coming across as fake or forced.
This is where personal authenticity and authentic business behavior come into focus.
Returning to the example of indirect and direct communicators on the same multicultural virtual team, the indirect communicator may often feel offended or slighted when speaking to a direct communicator, who is, by definition, very frank and to-the-point. In a virtual team setting, this direct and indirect dichotomy becomes even more pronounced because team members are not even in the same office and may not have time to slow down and ask questions since communication may be infrequent.
Often, a direct communicator working with an indirect communicator will choose not to acknowledge the difference, and simply continue with their normal communication style. After all, their message will typically be understood (since they’re being so direct!). However, the indirect communicator may find that work style too blunt, perhaps even offensive. This may lead to a negative relationship between the two, which could then lead to an unpleasant work environment for at least one of them – and probably both.
Another option is to simply communicate more indirectly. That sounds relatively straightforward, but is so much easier said than done. Indirect communication is a language unto itself, wherein every pause and each word choice could carry with it a depth of meaning. This becomes an extremely difficult task where you could make several mistakes and communicate the wrong message.
The best option, which allows multicultural virtual team members to maintain an authentic work style while remaining effective within the team, is to really think through the problem of a direct communicator speaking remotely to an indirect communicator. What defines an indirect communicator? An emphasis on body language, specific word choice, and silence, amongst other things. In person, you’d notice these things right away and, even on a phone call, you’d at least notice silence, even if you don’t know what the silence means. But a phone won’t pick up on body language, and you won’t spot silence or body language or tone of voice through an email interaction. A good solution might be to schedule video calls. That will enable you to pick up on all the nuances of indirect communication while still working virtually and still being authentic.
Always strive to find the solution that marries your multicultural team members’ work styles most effectively, without necessarily asking anyone to compromise. That will create authenticity, which generally leads to trust. And trust, in many cultural settings, is fundamental to a successful working relationship.
Want to learn more about how to work effectively with different cultures? 
