Leading versus managing

Virtual and cross-cultural teams pose challenges for project managers. Such assignments require leadership skills, understanding and communication.

So, you know all about metrics and milestones and have a horde of technical skills that help you keep projects on track and on time. Managing teams, however, requires people skills as much as—and perhaps more than—the technical tricks of the trade.

“The hard skills are important, but they tend to be the same regardless of what you are doing. Planning and scheduling and controlling the work—those skills tend to be handled largely the same way from project to project,” says Robert J. Tarne, PMP, a senior consultant with PM Solutions, Havertown, Pa., USA, and chair of PMI's Information Technology and Telecommunications Specific Interest Group (SIG). “If you are going to lead people, though, you need to have your interpersonal skills in order. Managing the human element is key to successful projects.”

Leading virtual and cross-cultural teams can tax your interpersonal skills. To minimize communications issues, meet before the serious project work begins—just as you would with a local team. “Any team I have ever managed, even if it is geographically dispersed across the world, I try to get everyone together at least once during the early stages of the project so that everyone can meet face to face,” Mr. Tarne says.

With an early meeting, people can get to know each other and build rapport, he says, but it also allows the project manager to pick up on behaviors that might help him or her understand team members better. “For example, I may be able to find out if a given person has a shift in behavior or changes in voice tone when he or she is upset, confused, excited or whatever else,” Mr. Tarne says. “That will help later on when all you have are vocal cues to go on, as in a virtual team, or when you're having difficulty communicating across cultural lines.”

Culture Clashes

When it comes to cross-cultural teams, project leaders must not only understand that cultural differences may exist, they must learn about as many of these issues as possible before launching a project. “As a leader, you have to understand those styles so that you can know how to effectively work with your team,” Mr. Tarne says. “Some people, for example, may come from more reserved cultures where leaders are rarely questioned, and so they might not bring up potential problems in the project.”

Also, people can have vastly different views of power distribution depending on their cultural background. For example, in Malaysia, a boss has almost “absolute power over subordinates,” according to Paul Melessen, founder of the 4C Corporate Culture Clash and Chemistry consultancy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In Austria, though, the perception lies far at the other end of the spectrum. The United States, Scandinavia and many European countries fall somewhere in the middle.

Also, people in Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom tend to cope well with uncertainty, whereas people in Italy and Portugal generally do not like unexpected events, Mr. Melessen says.

To learn about potential differences, simply ask team members about their culture, viewpoints, and expectations for their leaders and themselves. This will help head off some surprises later, and may help with team-building and trust as well, Mr. Tarne says. However, he stresses that a team leader who wants to successfully navigate cultural differences may need to do some outside research as well.

Coping with cultural differences doesn't necessarily mean bending your management technique, however. “Your team members need to understand that you have a certain management style and why you have that style,” Mr. Tarne says. “That way, they will know where you are coming from, and they will understand why you are doing this or that to deal with a crisis or make a snap decision.”

The true kiss of death with cross-cultural teams is to assume too much about potential differences. “You have to take time to learn about your team as a group and as individuals,” Mr. Tarne says. “Every person is unique, and cultural cues only provide a context and a starting point, not a rule.”

Team leaders must realize that cultural differences aren't just a matter of nationality, ethnicity or religion. Different companies or even divisions within companies can have vastly different cultures, for example.

“Information technology folks have a different culture than financial people and financial people have a different culture than creative people,” says Jim Pennypacker, director of the Center for Business Practices in Havertown, Pa., USA. “If you've worked successfully with a complex team consisting just of people from your own national background, you should already have some experience with managing cultural differences. It just gets exaggerated when you are dealing with national or geographic culture differences.”

Virtual Reality

Putting in the time to build trust before a project starts can help head off problems, but it's especially important if your team is virtual, Mr. Pennypacker says. “A number of research studies have shown that one of the key success factors—maybe the number one success factor—in being able to lead project teams is the ability to build trust among team members and among stakeholders,” he says. “That's important in every team and project, but it gets more difficult with more complex teams, particularly virtual teams where there aren't necessarily face-to-face interactions. You have to work harder at building that trust.”

Even with trust, it still can be difficult to control work and keep tabs on milestones when you don't get to see the person's day-to-day working style, Mr. Tarne notes. “The person might say they are 50 percent done, but without being there to check in on them, you have no idea how far along they really are or what the quality of the work is,” he says. “Virtual workspaces can give you some ability to track progress, but there will always be some sense of the unknown.”

It helps to establish accountability from the very start, says Mary-jo Hall, Ph.D., PMP, a performance results consultant with the Gambrough Group, Research Triangle Park, N.C., USA. She also is vice-chair of professional development for PMI's Aerospace and Defense SIG. “At the beginning, you will probably have to provide much more structure to keep everyone on track,” she says. “As the team develops and matures, you can begin to relinquish some of your control and still have faith that things will get done.”

A number of research studies have shown that one of the key success factors—maybe the number one success factor—in being able to lead project teams is the ability to build trust among team members and among stakeholders.

–Jim Pennypacker, Director of the Center for Business Practices, Havertown, Pa., USA

Virtual workspaces can give you some ability to track progress, but there will always be some sense of the unknown.

More importantly, Dr. Hall says, because you put in assessment policies and techniques at the start, you won't simply have to fly on faith. You already will have the tools you need to ensure that quality is maintained as you delegate more responsibilities.

Coping with such unknowns may require that project managers rethink their outlook on leadership. “People don't necessarily report to you face-to-face anymore,” she says, “so we need to move to a way of thinking in which we truly believe that people can produce on time and at high levels of quality even if you don't see them much or at all.”

Helping Hand

Managing virtual and cross-cultural teams presents unusual challenges, and project managers shouldn't be afraid to seek out advice and training.

“One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming that just because something worked for you in the past, it will work for you now that you're dealing with a more complex team,” Mr. Pennypacker says. “Sometimes people come in with an arrogance that because they were successful at one level, that will automatically translate over to another level.” He advises project managers to seek help from people who've been in a similar position, such as mentors.

Project managers also must convince executives in the organization to invest in training, Dr. Hall says. “And I don't just mean sending a project manager off to some course somewhere. I also mean bringing the training and learning process into the workplace so that it becomes more embedded,” she says. “We know the skills we need to be effective managers of larger and more complex teams, but we don't always get that training.”

Dr. Hall says online communities of practice can help manage complex teams. “These are a tremendous asset,” she says, “because they connect people with the know-how to people who need answers, make best practices readily available and allow you and your team members to be both more self-reliant and more productive.”

Jeffrey Bouley is a freelance writer based in Saco, Maine, USA, and news editor of PM Network's Stakeholders department. He has contributed to Interface Tech News, Drug Discovery News and Mainebiz.

<< www.pmi.org << FEBRUARY 2006