Intelligence, Courtesy, Modesty and Collaboration Within Remote Teams

How to work across cultures and time zones

By Eline Van Eldere, Member Service Director, Belgian-American Chamber of Commerce

Belgian companies are well positioned for the U.S. market when it comes to technology, expertise and innovation. The challenge, however, is often not whether the product is good enough.

It is whether the people on both sides of the Atlantic can work together effectively.

When a Belgian company enters the U.S. market, the assumption is often that the American colleagues, and/or the Belgian U.S.-based ones, will simply become an extension of the Belgium-based team. In reality, U.S. projects require time and effort from people who were not originally hired to build that market. They have their own priorities, customers and responsibilities and are also dealing with at least a six-hour time difference.

This is where some qualities become important:

Intelligence: understand the context, not just the product

A Belgian company may know its product inside out, but the person purchasing it in the U.S. may not be the person who ultimately uses it. The purchaser may be a procurement professional, while the end user is an engineer, physician, facility manager, IT department or operations team. Each person can have different priorities, vocabulary and reasons for saying yes to buying a product. They may also have different interests and take on different risks by making certain commercial and strategic decisions.

Understanding who is actually involved in a decision is therefore just as important as understanding the market.

And, importantly, the U.S. is not one market in the cultural sense either. New York is not Texas, Boston is not California, Chicago is not Miami and the list goes on. Communication style, relationship-building, decision-making and expectations and even the way services and goods are being used can vary greatly between rural, urban and geographic regions.

Intelligence in a cross-border team means being curious enough to notice those differences rather than assuming that “the American market” has one way of doing business.

Courtesy: remember that remote work removes context

An email can travel from Brussels to New York in seconds. The intention behind it does not always travel quickly or clearly.

Remote communication helps us greatly with speedy actions and productivity, but it also removes signals that help us understand each other: tone of voice, facial expression, a quick explanation after a meeting or a question about sports before getting to the point.

Modesty: don’t assume that familiar means understood

One of the interesting things about working with Americans is that the culture can initially feel very familiar to Europeans. Everyone speaks English. Meetings look familiar. People are informal. First names are used quickly.

The culture shock is slow because nothing is dramatically “different.” But small nuances do accumulate. For example: how directly someone gives feedback, how quickly they expect a response, who is expected to make a decision, how much enthusiasm belongs in a business conversation, or how comfortable someone is challenging a senior colleague.

When it comes to hierarchy, American organizations can appear very informal, but informality does not necessarily mean that hierarchy has disappeared. First names and casual conversation can coexist with clearly defined authority and decision-making responsibilities. At the same time, some American workplaces genuinely place much less emphasis on status than traditional European organizations do. The best approach is to never assume and listen to what people say in a non-judgemental way.

Collaboration: make the transatlantic difference manageable

Successful remote collaboration requires recognizing that the U.S. side of a Belgian-American project has its own reality.

As a company operating on both sides of the Atlantic make sure to prepare well, be clear about what you need, respect working hours, share information before meetings and agree on who owns the next step. Most crucially, when something takes longer than expected, understand what is happening on the other side before assuming a lack of interest or commitment.

For Belgian companies it is important to know that in the U.S., good service is not simply something delivered to a customer after a sale. The collaboration itself is part of the service. Responsiveness, follow-through, flexibility and the ability to make other people’s jobs easier are oftentimes what sets competitors apart.

American projects take time and persistence. They often need people involved who were not hired to make the project happen. They also tend to have a learning curve that is steep for the Belgian operational team but also for the company leadership and the American team.

The most important thing here is to make it as smooth as possible for the client, and to make their experience as positive as possible.