这个世界正在不断地缩小成一个地球村。那些仍然期待不被卷入全球化浪潮的人们啊，很遗憾你们的努力只是徒劳。民众、经济，还有意识形态都在无时无刻地变化和发展，然而这并不是一件坏事。

虽然我相信能在全球自由选择办公和住所会让一切更美好，但实现起来却需要面对挑战。不过只要攻克这些挑战，那我们将会解锁全新的机遇与潜能。我这里所说的挑战就是跨文化的领导力。更准确地说，要学会领导来自于不同国家的多元化团队，而不仅仅是本土团队。

在管理跨国企业与项目的同时，我们也在了解和学习世界各地的政治、经济，甚至于人们如何思考与做出决定。这无论是从个人还是从专业的角度来说都是非常重要的。当然，你也可以说在领导跨国团队时，所面临的挑战大部分是相同的。那么，就让我先来说说我自己在带领跨国团队时的一些思考。

1. 接受并学会欣赏多元化——不要总是试图以你舒适的方式去同化你的团队；

2. 保持开放态度——尽可能不带批判思维地去学习了解不同国家的语言、哲学和历史背景，从而更好地理解他人的价值观和想法；

3. 信任你的本土团队——如果不能让本土团队按照他们的经验和做法去获得成功，那招募本土团队领导又有什么意义呢？

接纳多元化的团队已经是老生常谈的话题了，而且一定有海量的文章谈过拥有多元化团队的好处（欢迎留言你最喜欢的那一篇文章），而这篇文章将会告诉你一些有关带领跨文化团队的实用建议。谈到接纳多元化，我指的是打造一个也许没有人会感到百分之百舒适，但每个人都会被公平对待和获得发展的工作环境。别试图将西班牙人变成印度尼西亚人，抑或是将俄罗斯人培养成一名美国人。作为领导者们，我们应该了解自己的角色，我们个人及专业上的价值是什么，以及我们的底线和道德标准。作为一座为所有人引路的“灯塔”，无论你的团队差异有多大，一定要清楚地知道涉及财务指标时你的立场、你为人处事的方式以及你衡量对错的标准，这些是建立团队文化的基础。为了让团队更好的运作，要找到你在社交和精神层面上能够使团队凝聚在一起的东西，让所有人乐于在一起工作，也一起欢乐。除此之外，还应该让他们尽情做自己。举一个非常简单的例子，在我们上次年会的时候，我的团队成员们都穿着自己国家或工作地的特色服饰分享了他们的故事，度过了一个自豪、欢乐并且欣赏彼此差异的夜晚。

事实上，作为领导者，有时我们非常确定一些商业决策是放之四海而皆准的（尽管与本土团队的意见向左），有时并不确定。如果你对于一个国家的文化与价值观不够了解，你永远都无法真正地了解你处在怎样的一个环境里，更遑论做出正确的决策。不要让自己只停留在一件事情的表面。比如，不要在星期一来到雅加达后，在星期三仅带着对当地机场、高速公路、办公室和酒店的认知就离开了。趁你还在当地的时候，读一份当地的报纸或一本关于当地人民和国家概况的书。

趁着当地的节假日，带着你的家人一起去旅行，在旅程中多提问，去了解更多你不知道的事情。我发现没有什么比跟团队成员谈论工作以外的一些事情并分享关于你和你家乡的故事，更能够促进你们之间的感情的了。去年，我带着一队中国的销售员工来到波士顿参观，我发现自己在讲解时无意中给他们上了一堂关于美国内战的历史课，在那一刻他们对从未深入了解过的我的祖国有了更多的认识。人类的好奇心让我们更容易拉近彼此的关系。

全球商务及其运作的方式已经经过了几个世纪的变迁，然而在今天，我相信雇佣单一性别、国籍、年龄，或者宗教信仰的人已经无法来管理这个瞬息万变的市场。即使你需要花一定时间才能够在本土市场找到合适的人选也没有关系， 但是请致力于寻找并联结当地不同领域的人才，他们的共同努力能够为你的业务带来你从任何一位外来者那里都得不到的方案和策略。举个例子，俄罗斯、印度尼西亚、西班牙、中国和美国对于“优质服务”的定义肯定是不一样的，但我的任务就是让企业提供符合当地标准的优质服务。我发现只有放下自己已有的认知并走出自己的舒适区，你才会获得本土团队的认同感。我花了一段时间才弄清楚何时应该自己做决定，何时应该将决定权交给别人，但在实践过程中同样需要一些时间，这有点像一场小型的心理拔河赛。

带领一个来自于不同年龄层、有着不同文化背景的男女混合团队绝对可以算是我的职业生涯中最艰巨的挑战之一。但如果你希望在当下的这个时代中获得成功，你就必须要走出自己的舒适圈。试着成为冲在最前线、保持开放思维并影响团队的领导者吧，说不定那也将会成为你职业生涯中浓墨重彩的一笔。（财富中文网）

作者简介：Annabelle Vultee是英孚教育成人英语培训中心首席运营官。

The world is small and shrinking. I am sorry to those of you who want to see globalization held at bay, but your efforts are futile. People, commerce, and ideology are fluid and evolving/melding/developing by the second. And that is a good thing.

Though I believe we are all better for having the ability to work and live more freely across the world, there are of course challenges. Challenges, which if overcome truly unlock new levels of potential for success. The challenge in focus here is cross cultural leadership. Specifically leading teams of people from and based in multiple countries other than one’s home country.

In managing business or projects in more than one country in and of itself, we absorb insights on geopolitics, global and local economies, how people think and how values drive decisions. That is powerful on both a personal and professional level. However, you could argue that the same things comprise some of our biggest challenges as leaders of multinational teams. So, here is how I have come to think about leading my cross-cultural team…

1. Embrace the diversity – Don’t try to homogenize the group for your own comfort;

2. Remain open – With as little judgment as you can manage, learn about the linguistic, philosophical and historical reasons for the values and perspectives of the people from each country;

3. Trust your local team – What is the point of having local leadership if they aren’t empowered to use what they inherently know to be successful?

Embracing diversity sounds obvious and there must be hundreds of thousands of great articles on the benefits of a diverse team (feel free to leave your favorite ones in the comments), but this article is about practical tips for cross-cultural leaders. So when I say embrace diversity, I mean get to that super uncomfortable, slightly itchy place where nobody is 100% comfortable but everyone is equally invested and open. Don’t try to turn your Spaniard into an Indonesian or your Russian into an American. We, as leaders need to know who we are as people and what roots our personal and professional values; where our lines are that can’t be crossed. Our moral compass. You are the guide at the end of the day so regardless of the differences on your team, you need to know where you firmly stand when it comes to fiscal responsibility, how you treat people and what you consider high integrity. That is where you set the culture without diminishing others’. In order to function well, I also believe it is helpful to find what bonds you on a social or intellectual level to provide that universal team comfort; that thing that makes everyone want to work together, travel together and spend copious amounts of time together. Beyond that, let them be the best of where they are from. One very simple example is that at our recent fiscal year kickoff every one of my direct reports dressed from the country they are from or operate in. It was a night filled with pride, sharing, fun and making the most of our differences.

The reality is, sometimes we as leaders are right that some business decisions are universal despite arguments from local teams, and sometimes we are not. If you don’t know enough about the culture and values of a nation, you won’t have a good enough sense of which scenario you are in. Don’t convince yourself to stay on the surface. Don’t fly into Jakarta on Monday and out on Wednesday and only see the airport, the highway, the office and the hotel. Read a book about the people or country. Read the local newspaper while you are in town.

Connect a trip to a local festival or holiday. Bring your family. Ask questions. Go deep. I have found that nothing brings you closer to your teams in other countries than asking them genuine questions about things outside of work and equally sharing about yourself and your home country. I led a trip of Chinese salespeople to Boston last year and found myself giving a history lesson about the Civil War. I could see in that moment how people started to understand more about my home country than they ever had before. People are curious creatures, so this is an easy win.

Global businesses and how we lead them have gone through many transformations over the past couple of centuries, but where we stand today, I believe that hiring people of only one gender, nationality, age group, or religion to manage diverse markets won’t be a recipe for success. If it takes you some time to find the right people in the local market, that’s ok. But aim to find and connect with diverse local talent so that they can bring ideas and approaches to your business that wouldn’t occur to someone outside of that country. For example, “good service” in Russia, Indonesia, Spain, China and the US have vastly different definitions, but I am responsible for running a business that delivers on the local definition of good service. I have seen a clear correlation between (painfully) letting go of what I know and am comfortable with and what my senior local team believes is right. It took me a while to know when to make the decisions and when to let others, but in reality that is the process as it should be. It should be a little bit of tug-o-war.

Leading a team of men and women of different ages, backgrounds and cultures is one of the great challenges of my career and without a doubt one of the highlights. If you want to be truly successful in the modern world, you can’t avoid the shrinking of and ever more artificial barriers that once closed us off from one another. Choose to be on the forefront and open your mind and that of those you lead. It may prove to be one of the highlights of your career as well.