Many aspiring individual contributors (ICs) and team leaders are anxious to add “manager” to their job title. Often, bosses choose those who come from the countries where an offshore team is located to manage the team remotely (e.g., from the U.S.). Excited prospects take on the challenge because agreeing to this proposal gets them the coveted title they had been looking for. More importantly, they mistakenly assume that managing a team from their native country would be easier because they understand the culture and the work habits of those teams, thus making their job as a manager a breeze to break into.
Wrong!
The reason I so emphatically say this as wrong, is because many of my clients (not just from India, but also from other countries, who are assigned to manage their local teams from here, U.S.) find it extremely difficult to succeed in this assignment.
Why is that?
There are many reasons for this reality. For one, the person here just promoted to the manager role now has dual responsibilities: first, to continue their technical contributions as they had been before the promotion; and second, to deal with the team at the other end of the world, which can now include all tasks from building the team from scratch to managing the work to keep it on track, including—and, especially, retaining the good talent.
So, what do they do?
During daytime they do their technical work as if they were still an IC and lay out a plan of action for their offshore team, and, at night (daytime in India now) they get on a call and individually manage each member of their team as if they each need baby-sitting. Without a clear team leader or a local manager this is not a tenable model for a variety of reasons. Worse yet, the new manager now is working twice as hard and long, spinning their wheels, and getting nowhere, fast.
So, what is the antidote for this toxic situation? Here is my recommendation:
- First, recognize that a manager does not succeed by doing more of what they did as an IC, but different. They now must understand and master the four functions of managing: Leading, Planning, Organizing, and setting up Controls. This is called management work. All other work is technical work. This is hard for new managers to understand and to accept.
- By accepting your first manager assignment as someone responsible for a remote team (even though in your past country of origin) you are making a serious mistake of underestimating what it takes to succeed in this role. See if you can get even a short stint as a manger of a local team first (bosses, remember this!), so that you can “master” the role as an effective manager under the supervision of your own boss and learn what you did not know from before: Managing people and knowing how to delegate and hold others accountable, without doing that work yourself.
- If you cannot swing that deal then talk to your boss and make them aware that by taking on this responsibility you are going to need their help and support in managing your new role because of what I said in #1 and #2 above. Make it clear to them that working day and night would be detrimental to your effectiveness and that you need to learn how to reallocate your priorities, without losing touch with the technical hands-on work.
- Identify a leader within your remote team and appoint them as the local manager. If you cannot appoint a country manager ask your boss to use this contrivance as an incentive to create a local leadership role (Team Lead), which can evolve into a manager role if that person comes through. Set clear guidelines for this success and deal only with that person, not each team member to keep things on track. This way you will also develop your local proxy, later for a promotion.
- Identify troublemakers from the team early as well as nonperformers. Deal with them forthrightly. Each country has its own labor laws (the U.S. laws are the most lax, so do not make a mistake that can land you into trouble on this account), so learn to work with the local HR person and keep them in the loop after getting their guidance on how to handle terminations and related formalities. Keep your boss in the loop as well to avoid any surprises.
- Reconstitute the team within the first six months after taking care of the troublemakers and nonperformers. Bring in your own trusted team members and spend some time team building by going to the site and staying there for a month or two (this is serious management work). There is NO substitute for on-site experience and getting the sense of the team ethos first-hand. You cannot be effective merely barking phone orders remotely.
- Learn how to keep a good balance between technical work and management work. At the first management level this division is about 50:50. If you are doing too much management work then you are doing this at the cost of keeping technically current. If you are doing too much technical work you are mortgaging your team’s management future. Undone management work simply piles up and does not manifest as a burning platform, contrary to the technical work.
- Make an honest self-appraisal of your progress within the first year (six months?) and see if you are being effective as a manager. Also assess if you are keeping up with the technical development in your area of specialty. Otherwise get some coaching or ask your boss to help you in your realignment.
- Constantly stay vigilant about the remote team’s progress and visit that team at least every six months to keep things on track.
- Keep recognizing key team members (recognition is free) and reward those that really deserve it. Just because everyone in the native land gets a 25% annual raise do not dole that out as a habit, but keep it tied to each team member’s actual performance. Manage their expectations so that they are not surprised at their Annual Performance Review.
Managing an offshore team can be a rewarding experience if you understand its pitfalls and follow the guidance provided in this blog.
Good luck!