As leaders, our role is to create a culture where everyone – no matter where they are or what time zone they work in – has an equal opportunity to contribute, grow and succeed. These days, we work in a digital, hybrid-working world, which has required us to refine what makes a high performing and successful team culture.. Success now means making sure every voice is heard, everyone has the same access to information and decision making and everyone has the same opportunity to contribute innovation and results. It’s crucial for attracting and retaining top talent.
When large corporations tried to push employees back into the office, the pushback was loud and strong. The Microsoft Work Trend Index 2023 makes one thing clear: hybrid work is here to stay. So how do we create a sense of equity in such a diverse, hybrid workforce? How do we manage performance? And how do we keep everyone feeling empowered, no matter where they work from?
At Digivizer, I work with an incredible global team spread across 12 locations in 6 countries. And with over 30 years of experience managing hybrid, global teams, I can confidently say that creating equity of opportunity starts with four key principles:
- Transparency of information,
- Frequent, regular and real time communication,
- The right tools with inbuilt collaboration, and
- A genuine commitment to equity of opportunity and experience.
Transparency of information
In hybrid or global teams, I’ve seen how easily information can be siloed if sharing and accessibility isn’t done thoughtfully. That’s why establishing a single source of truth across your business is so critical – it levels the playing field for everyone, so each team member has access to the same data, insights, information, people and updates.
Back in 2012, McKinsey found that effective knowledge management increased productivity by 20-25% – proving when team members can tap into the same resources, they’re empowered to contribute. Psychological empowerment, which ties back to leadership, has a positive impact upon overall employee mental health and promotes a healthy workplace. Shared visibility is simple: it means no one gets overlooked, and everyone has the same opportunity to make an impact. This is why ensuring cultural values like transparency and rules around processes like sharing, responding and basic communication etiquette are important; they show a commitment to equality through a single source of truth.
Inclusive Communication Practices
In a digital-first world, it’s easy for inequality to sneak in and for certain voices to dominate if we’re not mindful. This is why clear, direct, concise and simple communication is crucial; it holds a team together. As a leader, I’ve learned it is important to create formal access points like slack channels, meetings, agendas, and employee engagement feedback surveys where everyone can participate equally – and without bias and interruption. We need to be hyper-aware of how we communicate and the platforms we use within our teams. It’s not about what we say to our team; it’s about how we model, manage, live and respond to each situation and communication point.
At Digivizer, we’ve introduced asynchronous communication tools to help level the playing field across our global team. Examples like recorded video updates, full team access to business priorities, projects, financials, and performance metrics supported by shared documents and messaging channels (we use Google Docs, Slack, Jira and Asana) allow everyone to share their thoughts, wherever they are. This means more introverted team voices aren’t drowned out by the fast-paced nature and dominance of audio to one voice at a time in live meetings, which we often time cap, so everyone has time to contribute. It helps overcome cultural differences in willingness to challenge or speak up about aspects of business.
Empower through skill development
A commitment to skill development needs to be a core part of your team’s culture, especially as expectations can change so quickly. Providing growth opportunities will empower your team to thrive and react to any workplace challenge – whether it’s learning new applications, enhancing soft skills, presentation skills or to build leadership qualities.
At Digivizer, we prioritize a culture of learning and curiosity to keep pace with the rapid evolution of digital technologies. I wrote about the importance of curiosity in marketing last year, because it’s critical to staying relevant and needs to be fostered in our teams. To build curiosity in our teams, we schedule learning talkings, lightning talks, work buddies and mentoring sessions so that everyone has exposure to researching, preparing, and presenting, as well as building and keeping accountability. It’s why our culture enables each team member to get curious, set their own goals, and track their progress. It’s not just about hitting performance metrics; it’s about giving everyone the autonomy, resources, and opportunities they need to develop in their careers.
A culture of continuous feedback
In global teams, it’s easy to assume that feedback is happening just because we’re communicating. But meaningful feedback goes beyond casual conversation; it’s also about team performance, accountability and feedback. To encourage this, we ask our team how happy they are out of 10, what it would take to get them to a 10 and gauge similar metrics on team and company performance and effectiveness. The idea is to promote and encourage ideas, and where priorities and focus should be given. When employees feel acknowledged and heard, they value and feel responsible for business success.
At Digivizer, we promote a culture of feedback that flows in all directions with our team encouraged to provide 360 feedback, 1:1 feedback, real-time feedback and to practice radical candour. We actively encourage and support our team to “have the conversation” with team member(s) if they have a concern. Whether it’s about management practices, team dynamics, or any other topic, I’ve found that encouraging continuous feedback with a focus on “Above The Line behaviors” of Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility and calling out “Below The Line behaviors” of Blame, Excuses and Denial, helps our team grow stronger and build resilience. These characteristics are essential for building a high performing team and culture, and this focus keeps us in tune with our own behaviors – as well as the needs and sentiments of our employees. Together, we continuously grow and improve – led by conscious leadership. If you’d like to understand conscious leadership more (and about Above and Below The Line behaviours), there is a great reference video from The Conscious Leadership Group that explores the topic.
Committing to Equity of Opportunity
Leading a global team in today’s hybrid, digital-first environment requires a strong focus on fairness, transparency, trust and inclusivity. When building and managing a global organization, you need to consider the culture, people, processes and systems to support equity of opportunity and experience. Ultimately, you win as one team – and it takes every employee to feel responsible for sharing, contributing, collaborating and making things work.
What are your thoughts on managing a global team? Do you have any strategies that work for you? I’d love to hear your insights and what other steps you feel are critical to ensure success as I too am continuously learning and growing to lead as best I can.