I do not think there is any special way you manage cultural and time zone differences in your team because SFI is an international company. However, this does not detract from the fact that you may need to adapt strategically by recognising these differences and directing your guidance and leadership skills accordingly. Some of these tips may be necessary:
1. One of the problems that may arise with diverse culture is where certain words in your communication may be interpreted differently therefore producing unintended responses. You may as a matter of precaution avoid using words that may be subjected to different interpretations.
2. Some cultures may not permit some affiliates to engage in certain aspects of this business, so you have to respect the preferences of members of your team and do not persist where they do not follow your guidance in certain areas.
3.Be careful not to be too cosy or personal to certain members, especially women as it may be perceived by some cultures as undue interference of privacy, so it will be better to be professional in your dealings with members of your team.
4. One way to create an effective culturally diverse team is to reassign affiliates to others within the same cultural background, which will also resolve the problem associated with language difficulties where translation software are not effective. This type of reassignment will also create trust and improve assistance as they may be faced with similar problems that require similar solutions.
5. Though I have seen where some affiliates complain of the effect of different time zones, between their countries and SFI time. I personally do not see this as a big problem because the onus is on individuals to adjust to the SFI CST. However, you can direct your team to set the auction time to their local time for example. Also, if you engage in virtual discussion with your team, then you may need to split sessions to accommodate the different time zones in your team as much as you can, in such a way that you as the team leader will be the only one suffering the inconvenience of these different time zones, because uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Alternatively, you may sent the url of any virtual discussion or webinars to your team to watch at their own respective convenient time where practicable to do so.
6. You may also rely heavily on sending team mails as this does not have any negative effect on different time zone within members of your team.
Finally, ensure you operate with the overall perception and professionalism that SFI is an international business that has no boundary.
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I do not think there is any special way you manage cultural and time zone differences in your team because SFI is an international company. However, this does not detract from the fact that you may need to adapt strategically by recognising these differences and directing your guidance and leadership skills accordingly. Some of these tips may be necessary:
1. One of the problems that may arise with diverse culture is where certain words in your communication may be interpreted differently
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