Jul 08 2008
Culture Factor in Team Management and Leadership
Maybe you’ve heard the expression: “Managing computer programmers is like herding cats”. I think that analogy is not chosen just happy. Traditional management, through some sort of command-control hierarchy, isn’t what a manager should attempt. Programmers are complex people and have a spacial way of thinking in consonance with the work they provide. Their intelligence is above average but also they have strong personalities which leads to a permanent tension between team members. The situation is not so bad if any idea is very well discussed, everyone understand why it’s good and important to accept a change.
Now, since we agreed that programmers are difficult people, let’s discuss about Culture Factor. First question: a Japanese developer is manageable in the same manner as an Italian developer? Of course, the answer is no. The culture factor is important when talking about people from different regions in the same country, but when developers are from different countries, the problem became crucial.
Manage multi-cultural teams is a very hard task but, even that will surprise you, this is very good. A bigger diversity in the way of thinking implies a great creativity. Globalization, communications and transportation reduced the cultural differences but we are far from a global homogeneity and hopefully we will never get there. Philosophically, is our right to be different and is good to be different. It makes that world to be so beautiful.
A leader must encourage people think the way they want to, listen carefully to their ideas and analyze their way of thinking. Some ancient roots affect their minds and a good manager will try to extract the good part of all that. Even when assigning a set of tasks, the manager must consider the personality of assignees. For example, do not assign a task with repetitive and boring work to some Latin developer if you have a Germanic one.
Also, real life experience may deeply change a man and override the national culture and that’s why the personality of a team member should be evaluated in time. Integrating a new member in the team means not only to teach him the rules of the road but also making the “veterans” to understand the culture and the personality of the new member. Superior team performance can be achieved only considering all the cultural, organizational, competitiveness factors by the team members and, most important, by their leader.
Goodbye! Au revoire! Auf Wiedersehen! La revedere!
