Global Teams: Overcoming Barriers for Optimal Results

Global business teams face a bevy of unique challenges. Not only must they overcome the obvious barriers—geographic, linguistic and cultural – but global teams must also address issues of cross-functionality, alignment and trust.  These are difficult matters even for teams operating in the same office space, let alone for those spread across the globe. Optimizing global teams takes time and commitment, and in today’s ever-changing, fast-paced world, our clients need to be reminded of that. 

Barriers to Success

Global teams may encounter numerous disruptors that could lead to conflict or other challenges. Potential disruptors could be a new CEO, an operational update, or a shift in clients or workload. If the leadership team doesn’t have a strong foundation in place when these disruptions occur, it can result in decreased performance, increased dysfunction and siloed interactions.