Managing a Multicultural, Multilingual Startup Team

Tips for managing a team made up of worldwide talent

Nowadays many of us work regularly on teams spread across different cities and even different countries. For startups with a product or service in multiple languages, it’s common to have team members from English-speaking countries, who also speak your native language. This is especially common in Latin America. Managing a team that communicates differently and comes from different cultural backgrounds can present challenges, even if the head of the team or CEO is fluent in all your team’s languages. So how can you properly manage a team and keep it unified with language differences?

Here are some tips based on my own experience managing a team made up of talented people from across both the United States and Latin America.

Start with choosing the best people for your team

When going through the hiring process, be sure to keep in mind that any new team members need to be able to adjust to a multi-language workplace and have strong communication skills. Regardless of whether fluency in multiple languages is a requirement for the position, finding the right people who are flexible, sensitive, and who value open communication in the workplace will ensure language barriers won’t affect productivity on your team.

Establish openness to new ideas

Having team members from different backgrounds presents your team with a wide range of skills and talent that can contribute to your success. Take advantage of the different perspectives your multilingual team has to offer and establish openness to new ideas as a core value in your company. From these different perspectives you can receive ideas you may not have thought of, if you are open to listening. The more open you are with your team, the more innovative the ideas and solutions you’ll be able to receive.

Respect is key

Oftentimes when we encounter people who think differently than us we turn to fear, or worse, we come across as disrespectful. With a multilingual team of people from different cultures and backgrounds, it is imperative that as a leader you treat each member of your team with respect. This not only shows that you are open to differences and do not fear people who think differently, but also that you are someone your team can respect in return.

Managing teams with multiple languages is not as difficult as it may seem, as long as respect and openness to new ideas are essential values of your company. Successfully managing a multilingual team with these values will also lead to better external communication, whether it’s with your clients, customers or users.

This blog is by Agu De Marco, Co-Founder of Wideo, a DIY animated video production platform.

Looking for a community contributor for technology, startup or entrepreneur related stories? DM me on Twitter @agudemarco or email agu@wideo.co

Image Source: http://huff.to/1cx5esT