I love final deadlines.

I love when we whistle past them at full speed… Does this sound familiar to you? Most managers face this problem while working with foreigners or Millenials. But how can you assure that your international partners or young colleagues will meet the agreed deadlines?

You might find the short answer here…

…but let’s have a closer look:

Anna is a project manager in a small company located in Central Europe which outsources a lot of work to Asia. Anna just started a new project with a short deadline – and she emailed her remote Asian team lead the project description, deadlines and expected deliverables. In the very same day she received the confirmation that all needed materials will be handed to her within 24-hours.
However, the next day she didn’t receive any information. So she emailed the Asian team asking if everything was ok and how far they were with the requested work. After not having received any reply to the email, she tried to contact the team over social communicators, without any success. This communication breakdown lasted for 3 days, despite the many attempts of establishing communication from Anna’s part, but on the 4th day she receives the information from her young, high potential partner project manager regarding some private issues that occurred within the Asian team and was informed that “the requested materials are being processed”.
After another 2 days, Anna receives the deliverables which completely didn’t meet her description and expectations. Consequently, she emails the Asian project manager about the required changes needed to be applied to the delivered materials ASAP.
“We will work on it right away” – the Asian team replied. Anna couldn’t reach them for next 2 days.
The project deadline is in 7 days and the project is to be stopped due to the lack of deliverables from the Asian team. Anna is desperate with the entire situation.
This is an extreme case, but how often you were in a similar situation as the one described above?
I bet more than once.

For last 16 years I’ve been training and coaching international managers, and just recently I’ve developed a solution that is aimed at solving the cultural and communication problems that often arise within younger and younger multinational companies – the PWCIB Academy. This is your chance to never again miss a deadline, to ensure a smooth communication process between all the involved participants and to reduce international collaboration stress.
If you are interested in knowing more about this topic, please check http://pwcib.com/pwcib-academy-2/ 

Read the article for tips on how to connect quickly and efficiently with your young, virtual colleagues to avoid possible future communication breakdowns.