How can you obtain commitment from global team members? How can you develop followers in the different locations that can disseminate the project vision and make sure that all team members across the globe are aligned on the project objectives and strategies?

The strategies and practices depend on the organisational and country cultures, the project type, size and duration, and even on the different personalities involved. However, there are some broad recommendations for leadership competencies and activities, to win these challenges and increase the commitment from the team members located in other countries. You must evaluate each recommendation according to the situations and projects you are involved in.

The recommendations that follow can be a starting point when you start to acquire and develop your project team. For other recommendations, refer to the book, chapter 2:

·        Set clear goals and directions at the project outset, with participation from key team members in different locations. Online brainstorming techniques (discussed in the book chapter 10) can be very effective to collect feedback and obtain buy-in from people across locations.

·        Build a vision that serves the interests of the main stakeholders and that can be translated into the achievement of the project objectives, considering the cultural dimensions of the main stakeholders.

·        Together with the key team members, develop a strategy to achieve the project objectives, and make sure that all or most team members agree on its feasibility.

‘The study of motivation concerns those processes that give behaviour its energy and direction. Energy implies that behaviour has strength – that it is relatively strong, intense and persistent. Direction implies that behaviour has purpose – that is aimed toward achieving a particular goal’ (Johnmarshall Reeve)  

Motivation can be defined as an individual process that provides energy and direction to adopt a specific behaviour or perform a determined task. In project management, the energy must ensure the team members will complete their tasks on time, and the direction needs to lead the tasks performed toward the project vision, mission and goals, following pre-determined strategies. Each individual can initiate a self-motivation process by understanding how the task can satisfy personal or professional needs, suit expectations and beliefs and invoke positive emotions.

When working with team members from other countries over a distance, the challenge is higher, as suggested by Staples, Wong and Cameron (2004), ‘Tasks may appear unconnected, the big picture is not always easy to visualise, and it may be difficult for employees to remain committed to the project.’ The cultural dimensions are a good starting point to pre-empt the possible values and beliefs of people you seldom meet face-to-face. One-to-one telephone discussions and local coordinators can help you to obtain individual feedback from each key team member and monitor their reactions and emotions. You can compare these feedback elements to the original assumptions and adapt your attitude and leadership style.

In the chapter 2 of the book. I describe how to increase the level of motivation by making use of the roles and responsibilities. A classic tool for this is McClelland’s achievement motivation theory, which groups individuals according to their need for achievement, affiliation and power (adapted from Rad and Levin, 2003):

·        Achievement-oriented individuals seek attainable but challenging goals and feedback on their performance.

·        Affiliation-oriented people desire to be part of a group and have human interaction roles.

·        Power-oriented team members aspire to make an impact and to be recognised as influential and effective.

Sources:  Rad, P. and Levin, G. (2003) ‘Achieving Project Management Success using Virtual Teams’ (J. Ross Publishing, USA) 

Reeve, J. (2001) ‘Understanding motivation and emotion – third edition’ (John Wiley & Sons, USA) 

Staples, D. S., Wong, I. K.and Cameron, A. F. (2004) ‘Best practices for virtual team effectiveness’ in Pauleen D. J. (Ed) ‘Virtual teams: Projects, protocols and processes’ (Idea Group Publishing, UK)

In the interview below (conducted on the occasion of the 2100^th membership in our LinkedIn group), Rubén Fuentes talks about his international experience, and how leadership is a key skill for global project managers.

What are the main challenges you face on your day-to-day project management, particular to Global Projects?
Many cultures still demand face-to-face interaction to get people into action. Although there’s always some traveling time involved, the challenge is twofold: aligning interests in order to get people’s commitment to results and reinforcement on the use of collaboration tools to get things done.

How do you believe the Global Project Management Framework can help global project managers? What would you recommend to improve the framework in its next version?
I believe the Global Project Management Framework as it is right now is a good starting point when trying to offer a principles guide to the global PM. I would suggest that along with the abstracts presented in each section, there were business cases and white papers that illustrate different examples and provide alternative approaches to complex situations. In my opinion, the 25 topics represented in the 5 dimensions of the framework provide a well rounded perspective of the key aspects in global project management. I would definitely adopt the model as an addition to the toolset I already use.

What word of advice would you give to other global project managers?
When you go Global, the meaning of “Leadership” exceeds any scholar definition. The Art may even be more important than the Science when dealing with global teams. Effective communication is crucial along the way.

In case you already read the book "Global Project Management : Communication, Collaboration and Management Across Borders" , what is your opinion?
I have not read the book but I sure will very soon.

Rubén Fuentes has over 15 years of Global Project Management experience, serving companies in a wide range of industries. During his career, Rubén has been involved mainly in Business Process Improvement and IT projects. His professional interests include Internet Strategy and Business Intelligence. He currently manages a project that involves five geographically-dispersed teams in four countries, in two languages. Rubén lectured in 2000 and 2001 the “Deloitte’s Manager School” with the Mexico City office and was guest speaker at ITESM in the following seminars: “Efficient Consumer Response” (1999), “The Consulting Week” (2001) and “Enterprise Transformation” (2002).] . See his full profile on LinkedIn and invite him to join your network.

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