When Leading a Global Team, Don’t Leave Connection to Chance

Summary

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Podcast Summary: HBR On Leadership

Episode: When Leading a Global Team, Don’t Leave Connection to Chance
Date: January 21, 2026
Host: Sarah Green Carmichael (HBR IdeaCast)
Guest: Sadal Neely, Professor at Harvard Business School

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the unique challenges and solutions for leading global, distributed teams. Sadal Neely, a leading authority on global collaboration, explains why teams dispersed across countries, cultures, and time zones are particularly vulnerable to misunderstanding and disengagement. She discusses actionable strategies for fostering connection, trust, and effective communication, emphasizing that strong team relationships don’t just happen—they require intentional effort.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Complexities of Global Teams

• Dispersion Increases Complexity: Any team not sharing a physical location faces obstacles, but global teams must also bridge time zones, language, norms, culture, and local knowledge.
• Blind Spots and Misinterpretation: Members often “don’t know what they don’t know”—they are unaware when misunderstandings or lack of context affect how information is received.

  “They often don’t realize that another member…is interpreting something in the wrong way…There’s a ton of blind spots.”
  — Sadal Neely [02:16]

2. Mutual Adaptation: Key to Effective Global Teams

• A Continuous Process: Successful teams embrace constant mutual learning and teaching about their perspectives and practices.
• Social Dynamics Matter: “Where am I? Where’s the other person?” Leaders and members should regularly evaluate these dynamics and try to understand collaborators’ positions and cultural approaches to time and work.

  “You have to constantly communicate in order to things cohere in the right way.”
  — Sadal Neely [04:34]

3. Structuring “Unstructured Time”

• Virtual Teams Need Space for Spontaneity: In-person teams bond through informal conversations; virtual global teams miss this unless leaders intentionally create opportunities.

• Practical Tip: Build in 6–8 minutes at the beginning of team calls for open, informal interaction (“shared time”), allowing for personal updates, wins, or general conversation.

• Leader’s Role: Leaders must model this openness to encourage participation, especially in cross-cultural teams where such sharing may not be the norm.

  “I call this structuring unstructured time…There’s a material difference in the cohesion of the team with the unstructured structured time.”
  — Sadal Neely [08:23]

• Efficiency Through Humanity: Although it may feel inefficient, these moments foster stronger relationships and ultimately drive better long-term performance and cohesion.

  “It may feel very inefficient…but at the end of the day, it really buys improved work relationships, improved work results, and can be extremely efficient.”
  — Sadal Neely [09:11]

4. Communication Styles, Stereotypes, and Cultural Intelligence

• Beyond Stereotypes: Modern global teams are not easily categorized—members may represent 10+ countries and multiple cultures, making “do’s and don’ts” guides obsolete.
• Focus on Inquiry and Listening: The priority is establishing understanding at the intersection of diverse communicators—not assuming or stereotyping.

  “It’s not about the do’s and don’ts…How do we make sure that we create a moment where we understand each other fully?”
  — Sadal Neely [11:10]

• The Core Skills: Inquiry (asking questions), advocacy (sharing perspectives), and especially listening, are vital.

  “Listening, more than talking, is even that much more important because there’s a lot to discern…”
  — Sadal Neely [11:58]

5. Language Strategy: English as a Business Language

• English as Lingua Franca: English is de facto the business language globally; companies must be intentional about their language strategies.

  “English has become the preeminent business language of the world, period.”
  — Sadal Neely [12:56]

• Talent Considerations: Non-native speakers must be supported so they don’t become second-class citizens or feel silenced.

• Case Example: A highly qualified German engineer felt like “a child” after his company switched its business language to English, resulting in withdrawal and less contribution.

  “When I communicate in English, I feel like a child, and I don’t say as much as I need to…I find myself shrinking.”
  — Sadal Neely quoting a German engineer [15:23]

• Support and Inclusion Strategies:

  • Provide language training and support for non-native speakers
  • Train native speakers to communicate clearly and inclusively
  • Regularly reassess communication approaches and ensure knowledge sharing isn’t dominated by the most fluent, rather than the most skilled

  “You create an environment where there’s some people who speak the most, but they may not be the most talented.”
  — Sadal Neely [16:56]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Marriage Analogy:

  “I think of this almost like a marriage or an important relationship where you have partners. You have to constantly communicate in order to things cohere in the right way.”
  — Sadal Neely [04:35]

• On Structuring Unstructured Time:

  “There’s a material difference in the cohesion of the team with the unstructured structured time. There’s a clear difference with their performance and there’s a clear difference with their ability to work together in the long term when you create that space.”
  — Sadal Neely [08:53]

• On Listening vs. Stereotyping:

  “You have to slow yourself down…inquiry is important, advocacy is important, listening is important, and listening, more than talking, is even that much more important.”
  — Sadal Neely [11:53]

• On Language and Talent Loss:

  “If you don’t give people…the type of support to harness their talent, to harness everything they bring to the table, you create a culture in which some people are included, others are excluded.”
  — Sadal Neely [16:50]

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [01:19] - Neely introduces the unique challenges of global teams (dispersion, language, culture, time zones)
• [03:30] - Explanation of the mutual adaptation process and learning mindset
• [07:43] - Practical example: “structuring unstructured time” for spontaneous connection
• [09:57] - How to avoid cultural stereotyping and focus on true cultural intelligence
• [12:25] - The rise of English as global business language and its implications
• [14:46] - The exclusion risks for non-native English speakers and importance of inclusive talent policies
• [15:23] - The story of the German engineer feeling withdrawn post language transition

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Summary: Takeaways for Leaders of Global Teams

• Don’t assume team cohesion will happen naturally, especially across borders—structure connection into team routines.
• Build ongoing habits of mutual education, empathy, and evaluation of social dynamics on your team.
• Set aside “unstructured time” during virtual meetings and model the kind of openness you want to see.
• Focus more on building trust, listening, and understanding than on following one-size-fits-all stereotypes or etiquette.
• Develop proactive language policies that foster inclusion, ensure all talent is supported (not just the most linguistically fluent), and provide both non-native and native speakers with the tools they need to communicate effectively.

This episode offers both urgent caution and practical hope: with intention and skill, global leaders can bridge distances—and unlock the best in every team member.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to HBR on Leadership. These episodes are case studies and conversations with the world's top business and management experts, hand selected to help you unlock the best in those around you. I'm HBR Senior Editor and Producer Amanda Kersey. Leading people across countries and time zones means dealing with communication gaps and and friction that can easily throw a team off course. In the 2014 IdeaCast episode you're about to hear, Sadal Neely, a professor at Harvard Business School, explains why global teams are especially vulnerable to misunderstandings. She has advice for getting everyone to understand one another so that they have enough trust and context to fully contribute. Here's IdeaCast host Sarah Green. Carmichael.

[B]

Sidal, thanks so much for joining us today.

[C]

Thank you for having me.

[B]

So I thought we would just start by talking about some of the challenges faced by managers of globally distributed teams and maybe how some of those challenges are different from maybe the challenges faced by any team that's maybe like a virtual team or sort of distributed. What are the sort of special challenges for globally distributed teams?

[C]

It's interesting because anytime you have dispersion, which means that you have members of a collaboration who are not co located having to work together, you have a layer of complexity that these collaborators need to contend with. And then you overlay this global component and you have what you just named as globally distributed work or globally distributed teams. And some of the boundaries that they have to manage extremely well in order to be effective include time zone differences. How do you make sure that you're able to engage one another in a way that doesn't inconvenience one member or one group more than the other? And how do you make sure that you're constantly on the same line, even though the time zone differences could be so vast that you have very little overlapping time from which to coordinate work? There are differences around norms. There are differences around practices. There are differences of course around language, there are differences around culture. There are differences around local markets that they have to bridge and oftentimes and the thing that gets in the way for most globally distributed team members is that they don't know what they don't know. What I mean by that is they often don't realize that another member of the global team or the globally distributed team is interpreting something in the wrong way that that member may not have the proper context by which to make decisions or even to assess what's going on. There's a ton of blind spots. And so these types of teams need to develop a very strong mutual adaptation process in order to work successfully and ultimately deliver the types of results that they're put together to deliver.

[B]

So in that mutual adaptation process, what does that involve?

[C]

It involves a number of things. One is people have to show up with the mindset that they have to constantly learn and that they have to constantly teach about where they are and about their perspective. And what I mean by that is that people have to be in a position to always teach their collaborators and also learn from their collaborators, not only about the work that they're engaged in, but also the process by which work is done. That's one. Another aspect of this mutual adaptation is to always be in a position where you're constantly communicating about the basics of your relationship and constantly evaluating the social dynamics of your relationship. Where am I? Where's the other person? Okay, let me put myself in the shoes of the other and really learn about this, their position, and why, in fact, they're making these decisions. Let me try to understand the temporal dimensions of my collaborators. That could mean just how people treat time worldwide. Very, very different. So there's this constant need to teach, learn, suspend judgment, and communicate in order to make it work. You know, I think of this as almost like a marriage or an important relationship where you have partners. You have to constantly communicate in order to things cohere in the right way.

[B]

It's interesting, when you said it was like a marriage, a lot of heads, my head started nodding. My sound producer here started nodding. I was like, yeah, that is what it sounds like. And actually that kind of makes me wonder how much are some of these things that teams need to do, things that kind of any team in one office working together in one country would need to do, and is it just accentuated and it becomes even more critical in a globally dispersed team, or are some of these things actually different?

[C]

Great question. Some things are very much accentuated. Some things are different. And the way you lead one of these globally distributed teams are definitely different. I mean, granted, you're doing all of the traditional elements of managing people. Whether thinking about the composition of your team, thinking about the process by which you communicate and interact, thinking about the culture, the norms of the teams, you have to do that. But you also have to do a number of things that are very different in globally distributed teams. For example, we know that globally distributed teams are not meeting face to face, are not syncing on a regular basis, and in fact, may not even have the opportunity to meet face to face for an entire year, if not more. And so the leader has to ensure that the aspect of any Face to face contact are recreated virtually. Spontaneous communication needs to exist pretty regularly. How do you do that when people don't meet face to face? Well, the way you do that is you implement it as part of your regular communication, your formal communication. You create space for people to engage spontaneously while you have your formal meetings. I call this structuring unstructured time. Very different than your classical teams. And so it becomes then very important to create these elements from a virtual way, such that people have access to one another in a spontaneous way, such that people have the room and the opportunity to disclose what they're thinking, what they're feeling, such that people are constantly remembering their collaborators in other countries and remembering their constraints regularly.

[B]

So when you talk about structuring unstructured time in that way, is there like maybe an example that would really bring this home?

[C]

An example of structuring unstructured time is when a global team leader sets aside six to seven minutes at the beginning of a regular conference call with his or her team to check in with people. Some people label it as our shared time where people can just talk about what's happening to them personally, what's happening to them at the workforce, wins, successes, etc. In order for this to really work, leaders have to model this so they have to bring in their own stories, their own scenarios in order to encourage other people to do the same. This is particularly important when you're in a cross cultural situation where people are not accustomed to bringing these types of unstructured conversation in a formal meeting period. That's an example of this. You know, we've looked at structured unstructured time in teams and we've looked at teams that don't hold the structured unstructured time. And there's a material difference in the cohesion of the team with the unstructured structured time. There's a clear difference with their performance and there's a clear difference with their ability to work together in the long term when you create that space. So in a sense, when I talk about structuring unstructured time, it may feel very inefficient to spend six, seven or eight minutes in a one hour meeting doing this conversation. But at the end of the day, it really buys improved work relationships, improved work results, and can be extremely efficient.

[B]

So shifting slightly to focus more on the communication aspects of this itself. I know sometimes I worry at HB Beard and other business media that when we're talking about communicating across cultures, I worry sometimes that focusing so much on the differences between people we're sort of stereotyping people or, you know, how do you sort of strike the balance between being respectful of potential differences but not really making assumptions about someone just because they come from a different country or a different culture?

[C]

That's a great question. It's interesting because what I'm witnessing with global teams or globally distributed teams, or any types of collaborations that are extending across geographies, what I'm witnessing is that the members of these settings are so multicultural that it becomes difficult for individuals to behave in ways that are stereotypical. For example, no longer do you have teams with five Americans, three Germans, and four Japanese employees. You may have a team or a group having a conversation, 15 people that are representing 10 countries. And so it becomes then important to develop cultural intelligence not on the specific stereotypical countries, the do's and don'ts that people imagine that they need to follow for particular countries. But it becomes even more important to have a strategy on how do I communicate and learn from others who are from other countries. It's not about the do's and don'ts. It's about how do I make sure at the intersection of both of our conversation communication at the intersection of the engagement of other people, how do we make sure that we create a moment where we understand each other fully, where we communicate fully, and we drop this belief of pinning certain stereotypical attributions about people. So if you have a group communicating and it's a group from 10 countries, it's impossible to do the stereotyping. You have to slow yourself down and think really hard on how to make sure that everyone in that group understands you and you understand everyone in that group. Inquiry is important, advocacy is important, listening is important, and listening, more than talking, is even that much more important because there's a lot to discern in order to be productive in that context.

[B]

Well, in speaking of understanding a group of people from 10 different countries, I know you've done a lot of work on global teams using English as a kind of common language. I guess tell us a little bit about your thinking on that topic and kind of why English seems to be the way to go.

[C]

It's interesting because I have been looking at this phenomenon for a very, very long time, well over a decade. And the reason I became interested in it is because it's out in the world. So in a sense, I'm documenting what's happening out in the world and trying to bring it to the forefront for companies to make sure that they're thinking very carefully about their language strategy that today involves a very diverse workforce. The reality is that English has become the preeminent business language of the world, period. And for that reason, you have millions of people around the world who are working hard to migrate to this business language in order to communicate with their colleagues in country, outside of country, et cetera. And so my argument has been for the last decade or so that we need to be aware of this. We need to make sure that we harness people's abilities to engage one another quite well and that we understand what it means to have people who have fluency in English communicate with others who don't have fluency in English. You have to empower and train people. And at the end of the day, we also need to make sure that everyone in a global communication setting has the sensitivities and the right behaviors to ensure that every member of that team or that group can strive. That's the reason I've been very interested in this. And I think it's starting to really make a difference. Major corporations are thinking very hard about their language strategy as they're thinking about their global strategy. What's more fundamental than communication? What is more fundamental than language to enable communication? And so this is the reason I've been really interested in it. And this is the reason why the companies are becoming very interested in developing their strategies around this.

[B]

Well, and it seems, and I think you're sort of starting to speak to some of this, it seems important that if a company is going to say, okay, we're just admitting that most of the time we communicate in English and that's going to be interlingua franca, that they have some kind of talent development or policies in place so that the non native speakers aren't becoming kind of second class citizens in the organization.

[C]

I think that's exactly right. And at the same time, it also is important for the organization as a whole in terms of knowledge development, knowledge sharing, in terms of ensuring that English native speakers are trained to communicate with those who are not fluent in their language. And there are so many dimensions to consider when thinking about a language strategy. But the one that you mentioned is critical. Those who don't have the fluency need to be supported fully so that you get the best from your talent pool. There was one person who really stood out to me at a very large German software company a very long time ago and never really forgot him because he had a PhD in computer engineering and was one of their super engineers, very competent, had a long history in the company and the company at the time that I spoke with him, had just decided to make English its business language, and this would affect thousands of German nationals at the time. And he said, you know, when I communicate in English, I feel like a child, and I don't say as much as I need to. I don't argue. I find myself shrinking. Here you have this incredibly competent person they call a super engineer. They're so proud to have him at this company. And as soon as they change languages, he feels like he's a child, childlike. And has begun, at that point, had begun to withdraw. That's the kind of thing that we're trying to counter with the language strategy. Conversation.

[B]

I think that's great. Yeah. I think we've all probably, if we've traveled to a country where we don't speak the language, had some kind of feeling of like, there's just a lot of cognitive activity happening when you don't speak the language. So I think that's really important.

[C]

And one more thing with this is that if you don't give people the type of support to harness their talent, to harness everything they bring to the table, you create a culture in which some people are included, others are excluded. You create an environment where there's some people who speak the most, but they may not be the most talented.

[B]

Well, and that's, I think, you know, important for any manager to think about.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That was HBR IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael speaking with Sidal Neely, who's a professor at Harvard Business School. Her latest book is the Digital what It really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI. HBR on Leadership will be back next Wednesday with another handpicked conversation from Harvard Business Review. If this episode helped, you, share it with your friends and colleagues and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. While you're there, consider leaving us a review. And when you're ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books and videos with the world's top business and management experts, find it [e-mail] this episode was produced by me. Amanda Kersey, on Leadership's team includes Maureen Hoch, Rob Eckhart, Erica Trexler, Ramsey Kabaz, Anne Bartholomew and Nicole Smith. Music is by Coma Media.