How do you manage your team with many cultures and timezones to navigate?

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4128 votes
Mar Fajardo, Aff (Ontario, CA) Top Author Forum Guru 1/10/2015 7:42 pm
Affiliate since: 05/03/2002, Power Rank: 301 | Read Mar's 582 other Ask SC answers
Managing your team that's spread out in many locations worldwide can present huge challenges, even for the most experienced Team Leaders. How do you ensure that each of your team members feels they're treated fairly? How can you prevent your remote team members from feeling isolated? And how do you get all your team members to buy into the team's objectives and stay on track?

How to manage your team with many cultures and time zones to navigate:

- Establish a strong communications
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4079 votes
Osaro Odiase, Aff (Ireland) Top Author Forum Guru 1/10/2015 7:45 pm
Affiliate since: 08/29/2023, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Osaro's 206 other Ask SC answers
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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4064 votes
Nafisa Patwa, Aff (Kenya) Top Author Forum Guru 1/7/2015 12:37 am
Affiliate since: 07/05/2024, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Nafisa's 286 other Ask SC answers
With technology - would be my simple answer.

It is without a doubt a very powerful tool to be able to communicate so easily and with such speed across the globe that we no longer can provide inaccessibility to people as an excuse for not staying in touch.

I adopt various methods that make it easy if any members of my team wish to communicate with me. The foremost is provide my email which circulates within SFI. In addition, I provide my telephone or skype contacts where appropriate
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4037 votes
, () Top Author Forum Guru 1/4/2015 11:16 am
Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999
Thanks for this interesting question.

The answer is quite simple.

We are in business. SFI is a business - That too an international business. All our Team members are in business. All are from different walks of life.

The growth of each person is linked to the other in one aspect or the other. As sponsors our job is to support them so that they will become strong and remain active and will look for opportunities to develop and expand their team.

We
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4033 votes
, () Top Author Forum Guru 1/3/2015 9:40 pm
Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999
I manage my team one on one.

I send out an SFI newsletter once a week helping them understand new things that are coming to SFI and how to use them. For example the new JMT gateway.

If they're online I like to click on the chat button and say hi!

Every once in awhile I'll toss it up with a newsletter about me and what's going on in my life and how I'm handling it.

SFI is a global company. Cultures and time zones shouldn't be such a big deal. SFI will always
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4009 votes
Sule Yesufu, Aff (Nigeria) Top Author Forum Guru 1/5/2015 10:39 am
Affiliate since: 01/14/2013, Power Rank: 583 | Read Sule's 287 other Ask SC answers
In this business, managing a team with many cultures and time zones is where your real leadership qualities come to the fore. Luckily for us, SFI is a 24/7 business online and the available tools do help a great deal to overcome cultural, language and time zone barriers. Taking full advantage of the tools provided, to manage your team successfully, you simply need to do the following.

1. Relate with all your Team Members as business partners and not as employees or dependents.

2.
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4008 votes
, () Top Author Forum Guru 1/7/2015 2:32 am
Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999
Interesting question. Let me phrase this question...How do I manage my team with many cultures and time zones to navigate.

Firstly I only think in line of SFI Culture.
For me my definition of culture is:

"Culture is a lifestyle one creates to live/survive in"

According to SFI culture or the lifestyle of the affiliates is uniform, same with all the SFI affiliates.

This lifestyle deals with:

- organizing your time to log in daily
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4001 votes
, () Top Author Forum Guru 1/4/2015 12:23 am
Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999
Hello, Carlos Guzman.

I personally look at this issue as a positive feature of the SFI business.

Isn't it better to run a business on which people are working every minute around the world?

In other words, our shops are open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

That increases our potential of making money at exponential rates.

And you are right, we need to know how to use this efficiently to our advantage, making "the
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3982 votes
Adriano Arrigotti, Aff (Italy) Top Author Forum Guru 1/4/2015 2:13 am
Affiliate since: 10/22/2014, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Adriano's 46 other Ask SC answers
Hi,

I personally have adopted this method, I made a pattern where I see in real time the clocks of all my affiliates.

As for the different cultures, I try to respect the different aspects informing me, I have many friends of affiliates all over the world and as I said the basis of everything is respect.

At the beginning of my adventure in SFI had a little bit of fear in the face and confront people with a different, but then I realized that sincerity towards our neighbor
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3977 votes
Atchariya A-yai, Aff (Thailand) Top Author Forum Guru 1/5/2015 12:47 am
Affiliate since: 10/27/2012, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Atchariya's 3 other Ask SC answers
I find that sometimes it is an advantage. I work at night and do SFI in the day. My USA affiliates are working SFI after they get home from work and it is easy to connect.

To keep track of every one I have an excel file with their Name, Country, SFI ID, and Email. Then I use this link to set up skype appointments. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

I encourage every member to go to the Leadership page for their country and connect with Top SFI Affiliates in their country
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