CLARE MCNAMARA is the Co-founder of Global Team Coaches, a company that helps global teams develop working relationships that deliver results. We discuss the importance of giving teams the space and time to get to know each other, evaluate themselves, and develop their own culture. We also dive into how women can become great leaders in the digital workplace.
(http://globalteamcoaches.com/)
Subscribe to the Collaboration Superpowers Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.
Podcast production by Podcast Monster
Graphic design by Alfred Boland
Original transcript
Lisette: Great, and we’re live. So welcome everybody to this remote interview. My name is Lisette, and I’m interviewing people and companies who are doing great things remotely. And today on the line, I’m super excited. I have Clare McNamara from the U.K. Clare, you’re the co-founder of Global Team Coaches, which is focusing on global teams who deliver working relationships that deliver results. I think I [inaudible – 00:24] slightly off. Tell us what Global Team Coaches does really quick, and then we’ll dive into what does your virtual office look like.
Clare: Sure. Global Team Coaches, what we do is we create unique working… I’m going to get it wrong [inaudible – 00:40]. We create unique environments where global teams deliver [inaudible – 00:46] to working relationships [inaudible – 00:49] connection piece, really. That’s the really very important thing to get right, which is harder to do [inaudible – 00:55].
Lisette: For sure. And we’re going to totally dive into that. But I want to start with what does your virtual office look like. What do you need to get your work done?
Clare: That’s an interesting question. I was looking at some of your other podcasts, and people were very factual. When I looked at that, I thought [color – 01:10]. I think [color] and technology [inaudible] is. I’m a really big-picture thinker, and I need to be able to see things [inaudible – 01:21]. I’m very comfortable seeing patterns and connecting up things which other people don’t do. So as long as I’ve got my technology, I’ve got some connectivity. I’ve got my iPhone with my [inaudible – 01:35]. I’m on my PC at the moment. But I just [inaudible – 01:39] where everything is [inaudible – 01:41] I would say. That’s [inaudible].
Lisette: I have never had that answer before. But you’re right, so an overview of just everything that you need to deal with sort of within the view. Is that what you mean?
Clare: Yeah. And also [inaudible – 01:53] for shortcuts. [inaudible] a long time.
Lisette: I think a lot of people undervalue how important it is to keep things simple because before you know it, you could have a million tools, a million gadgets, and a whole bunch of things weighing your desk down and your brain also, interesting. Let’s talk about Global Team Coaches. It sounds really interesting. It sounds really interesting what you do. Let’s dive into a little bit more about what you guys do, what approach taken, and why you started it.
Clare: We started it because there’s an awful lot of really good work that goes on with teams across the world. [inaudible – 02:38]. So we don’t know each other well enough. That’s probably affecting [inaudible – 02:42]. Let’s get everybody together. We’ll go [inaudible – 02:44]. We probably spent a lot of money doing lots of really good and interesting exercises. We’ll all get to know each other better. But then when we disperse and go back to different places across the globe, or even it can be even within the national boundary. But nevertheless [inaudible – 03:01] different places [inaudible] different offices. And then we don’t communicate with each other so well. And we’re not really using all that kind of great learning. So we wanted to take it and look at it from a different angle in terms of rather than there’s a lot of 360 degree assessments that go on, rather than do it from that point of view, getting the team to look at the team as an entity. So what we do, we’ve really done a lot of research into what is considered world-class [inaudible – 03:36] in terms of how teams behave. What are we seeing with the very effective teams? What are they doing in order to get the results that they need? So we developed a very comprehensive assessment. So we ask the team those questions based on the team as a whole. They feed the data back to us. We then drill down with some qualitative research as to what’s really going on in terms of what does that mean, what are you seeing, what would your team need to do in order to take it [inaudible – 04:15], for example, to make that really work. And then we’ll take it through, take them on some coaching around whatever is to come out of that and what they want to work on. It could be about people not understanding each other’s different behavioral preferences. It could be a cultural aspect. It could be a structural aspect. [They haven’t got – 04:36] the kits in order to work properly. But even if you just do the initial [inaudible – 04:42] questions and give people the time to breathe because we know [inaudible – 04:48] talk about within a minute about working virtually and globally. What comes out is completely amazing. And it’s not us giving them the answers because we don’t know the answers, because we don’t know that team. It’s just having the time to think. We’ve just been working with a client down the Netherlands and Germany, actually. And absolutely amazing what they’ve not got to work on, before they even get into the coaching piece.
Lisette: Wow, I really like the concept of letting the team evaluate themselves and come up with their own solutions rather than it be sort of a top-down driven activity. I would think, yeah, of course, the team knows what solutions they need most of the time because they have the best overview of all the politics and the personalities and the working structure. So why is that so uncommon? It seems like yeah, of course, let the team do it. But I think it’s pretty rare.
Clare: I think you’re right. We do do quite a bit of research with… There are some organizations doing obviously. So [inaudible – 05:52] U.K. and a coach in Germany. So we’ve got a bit of an international perspective there. I don’t know why. I think perhaps when you look from the top, maybe we can get into [inaudible – 06:04] women piece in a minute. It’s no surprise most leaders of businesses are men if you look at the statistics. And that can be a bit of here’s the problem, so what’s the solution. Let’s get someone in to solve it. So whether it’s [inaudible – 06:23] I don’t know. Also, we all bring with us individual [inaudible – 06:28] executive coaching experience where generally, you will recognize that the best solutions come from the client themselves if you attend… Just occasionally, if you explain what [inaudible – 06:44] you are in, [what role you’re in], to [inaudible] generally, if you want to get sustainable results, it will be from that person. It’s the same kind of principle, really. But it is just completely amazing what can come out of just a few, simple questions, really.
Lisette: Yeah. I wrote down when you said you’re giving teams time to breathe. I really like that. And I want to dive into that a little bit more because you’re right. When I interview managers, I often hear them expressing fear over letting people go remote or working globally because they don’t know what people are doing and they think they’ll be lazy. And then when I interview the workers and the people who are working remotely or the freelancers, they’re not struggling with being lazy. It’s mostly how do I turn off. That’s 24/7 we’re working with global things. You could be working in the night or getting up early in the morning. And maybe it’s not all day, every day, but it’s a lot. So I always found it weird that managers think that remote workers aren’t working and remote workers are like, “We can’t turn off.” So this time to breathe thing really stood out. And it sounds like you’re seeing that a lot with teams that they need the time to breathe.
Clare: Definitely. Especially, if you’ve got teams that are round the clock, so they’ve got people from every continent and it never stops, the work never stops, there can be a real pressure [inaudible – 08:07] piece of work gets handed over. It’s got to be then completely [inaudible – 08:12] if you like. And it [inaudible – 08:16] back-to-back meetings because what can happen is if the people are working from home or in a different location, they can feel almost obliged to be putting the back-to-back meetings. You’re right. It’s absolutely opposite from not getting [inaudible – 08:36]. It’s very rare to find people are lazy. It is the other way round, and they’re overdoing it. And then if you’re not careful, you get burnt out. But I think there can be a fear from those issuing the work. I can’t see what they’re doing. That’s why we want to move from [inaudible – 08:56] and we want to move just to actually what are the outcomes. And then it doesn’t matter. [inaudible – 09:02] when you work as long as you get the work done [inaudible – 09:05] sometimes you need everybody together in the same, virtual space, obviously. And that’s where you need to be really clever about making use of tools so that you’re not completely overwhelmed by emails and those kind of things. It’s 24/7, but it’s also the lack of [inaudible – 09:24]. That’s another real challenge and opportunity now with technology. That can present itself to teams. That’s one of the things that we picked up with one of these recent clients. They had the technology, but they weren’t using it. They were relying on the telephone. And then of course you don’t really know what’s going on.
Lisette: That’s funny. Somebody decided that it was important for them to have the technology there. But then the onboarding of the team sounds like it fell short with actually getting people to use the technology that they had. And of course people are going to fall back on the system that they know best. And we’ve all used telephone for ages and ages and ages.
Clare: You’re absolutely right. It’s habitual, isn’t it? We’re kind of hardwired to do that. And it can feel like… I’m going to go onto Zoom or Skype or something for a quick call. That might take longer. So I’ll just pick up the phone. [crosstalk – 10:25] busy. It’s not that they don’t value it. It’s just [happening – 10:30]. And [inaudible] just breaking that habit by a little bit can make such a difference in [inaudible – 10:35] to really see what’s going on for someone on the other side of the world. [inaudible – 10:41] could be. But [inaudible] somebody [inaudible], which [inaudible] 10 years ago. I mean I’m here in Dartmoor. Dartmoor is a very beautiful national park in Devon, in England. And right on the edge, I’m [inaudible – 10:56] got [inaudible]. So that’s an advantage of working remotely. But [inaudible – 11:02] had the broadband, the bandwidth that can do this.
Lisette: Right, right. And that’s where things break down. You absolutely have to have the connectivity in order to be able to communicate with the people that you’re working with, for sure. You mentioned a couple of challenges, but I want to talk about the challenges that your clients are facing when they’re coming to you. And you said lack of visual cues was definitely one of the challenges. So they’re not relying on video calls or videoconferencing, it sounds like, because otherwise, they would have visual cues.
Clare: [inaudible – 11:39] meetings. And that’s another interesting aspect because if you look at some of the work that Howard Esbin has done with Play Prelude, for example. And I’ve been working alongside him a little bit. What happens is people dive into those without really having the training. In some sense, communication technology is fairly intuitive, isn’t it? But if you don’t [inaudible – 12:06], you can get it so wrong. And we’ve all experienced those virtual videoconference meetings or even without the videoconference. It’s just awful because people keep cutting in and out, can’t hear them, an issue with the sound, you’ve got feedback, and all those kind of things. And even if they get it right in the weekly [inaudible – 12:29] weekly meeting. It’s [inaudible – 12:32] what I call the water cooler level. So if [inaudible – 12:36] a co-located team, all of those things you come across a bit more naturally. You’ll notice people are chatting here or in the car park or whatever. And you’ve got the opportunity without having to think about it. You have an informal conversation.
Lisette: Right.
Clare: When you’re leading a virtual team, this is [inaudible – 12:59]. You have to be proactive about creating informal and impromptu situations, and that takes a bit of a mindset shift. You have to plan it almost, which sounds a bit odd.
Lisette: Right. You have to plan your [inaudible – 13:15] because you’re not going to just accidentally bump into somebody online. So you actually have to plan to do it.
Clare: [inaudible – 13:24] about ensuring. And all of those things are available, ensuring that people know that it’s okay to hop onto Skype or Zoom or whatever. [inaudible – 13:37] with the connectivity here. You’re looking like you’ve lost me. Have you lost me?
Lisette: I haven’t lost you. I’m still here.
Clare: Oh, that’s okay. [inaudible – 13:44] your Internet connection is unstable. I hope it’s okay. What was I saying? Help me out here.
Lisette: With the connect… well, now I’m back onto connectivity. I’ve lost it. Everybody watching will… I’ve lost my train of thought. We were talking about the challenges. People diving into tools without having the training, which I completely agree with, actually. And I think that some things seem very simple to people. Some things are intuitive to people. But people have different levels of what they’re comfortable with. Some things that are savvy to one person are not savvy to another. I have a great example. One of my neighbors is a 65-year-old man who just started learning the Internet. And at first, I was just telling them simple commands like Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. He’s like, “Well, why is it called Ctrl-V?” And when I start to think, I think, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been using Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V for 20 years now.” I couldn’t even remember why it was called Ctrl-V. I guess these are the things you have to remember. But there are 100 things like this as he’s learning how to use the computer. It didn’t occur to me that he didn’t know how to hold the mouse. He’d just never done it before. So it really gave me empathy for the tools and people who are struggling with the tools. So you brought up a great point.
Clare: Sometimes you think all younger people can do it and [inaudible – 15:06] I wouldn’t say [inaudible – 15:07]. I mean there might be a trend there. But I’m really comfortable with technology. [inaudible – 15:12]. And sometimes what we put together is like a protocol. So if we’re going to have a meeting together, these are the things you need to do, as simple as wear a headset. Make sure it’s the right kind of headset. And don’t have three other people [inaudible – 15:31] behind you or talking because that will kill it as well. And you have to really break it down because like you just said, it can seem obvious to you. You’ve been doing it forever. But it’s not obvious to everyone else. Or think about what you’ve got behind you. [inaudible – 15:49], behind you is the door to a toilet. I think that’s [inaudible – 15:57] him because it doesn’t [inaudible] the right impression.
Lisette: Indeed. I attended a webinar once, and the guy behind him had a turquoise waterbed in a super messy room. And I thought, “Interesting, he’s giving a webinar.” He was very smart, had really good things to say. But I didn’t hear anything that he said. I had to go back and re-watch it because I was so distracted by the background. So actually, those little things, I think you’re 100 percent right, they really matter. And online meetings especially, we have to pay attention to some of the details that we didn’t have to pay attention to when we were in person.
Clare: [inaudible – 16:40] team. [inaudible] things that you can actually, necessarily see what’s happening. You might be kind of looking down like here and [inaudible – 16:51]. This is what you need to be doing [inaudible – 16:55] look at the person that you’re talking to.
Lisette: Yeah, indeed. So I’d like to move on to talking about women in tech because I want to make sure with our interview that we don’t run out of time before we talk about women in tech. It says on your LinkedIn profile that you are inspiring women leaders to recognize, own, and showcase their unique contribution to business success. And it definitely caught my eye. So what about women in tech? What was that you found?
Clare: What I found, it’s really interesting because this has been learned through personal experience, really. I wasn’t always… [inaudible – 17:39] and something to bring to the world. But for a long time, I didn’t recognize that anybody else would be interested. Isn’t that interesting? And like I said to you earlier on, we don’t want to stereotype too much, but there is pretty convincing evidence that in general, men and women look at things in different ways. For example, there was a study by Hewlett Packard, I think. It was an internal study about promotions. It was published a couple of years back, which noticed, which observed that on the whole, when men are looking at the possibility of applying for a promotion, they look at the job spec. And if they can do 60-65 percent of what’s on there, they’ll go for it. [inaudible – 18:31] what do you think the percentages of women?
Lisette: I’m going to guess, 90 percent.
Clare: Well, the study says it was closer to 100.
Lisette: Oh my gosh.
Clare: [inaudible – 18:45] divergence around that a little bit. But because somehow we tend to think, we can’t possibly do that [inaudible – 18:53] we can do it perfectly because there are too many people relying on us. We’ve got to [inaudible – 18:57] something [inaudible] not so good on the whole or [inaudible – 19:07] this about the networking piece. There’s a tradition of the old boy network and [inaudible – 19:13] really comfortable doing that. Women not so much, but it’s such a great… The irony here is that women are better at collaborating.
Lisette: I can see. There’s less of a maybe focus, driven more of a well-rounded, is everybody okay, how is everybody doing in the room focus.
Clare: [inaudible – 19:35] I noticed around noticing when women leaders are better than men leaders. And it’s where there’s more need for complexity and collaboration because women tend to be [inaudible – 19:53], tend to be better at building relationships. We tend to be better at wanting to know is everyone all right in the room. The focus is on other. I’m making it sound very black and white. I don’t mean to. So I apologize to any men listening. [inaudible – 20:08] true [inaudible] because we need [inaudible]. We need parity. The research is saying the closer we get to gender parity [inaudible – 20:17], the more commercial success [inaudible – 20:22] more sustainable as well [inaudible] by a long way [inaudible – 20:27]. In terms of tech, of course, there are a few women. I’m just being partly responsible for the [inaudible – 20:34] aerospace, Europe, U.K. That was last week at the royal society in London. That was yay. It was [really – 20:40] good. We had a big turnout. I’m hoping to do lots more than that. So [inaudible – 20:47] men’s world. So that accentuates it even more because women are frustrated, they want to do more, and they want to, if you like, [wreck – 21:00] the glass ceiling. But even sometimes when they do [inaudible – 21:03] thinking, “Well, I’ve broken the glass ceiling [inaudible – 21:08] different. It feels quite aggressive.”
Lisette: That’s a different style, it seems like.
Clare: Yeah. Where there are so many more men than women. That’s what can happen. And it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation because human beings tend to be comfortable with their own. So that’s why if we don’t do anything around gender parity, I think it’s going to be more than 100 years of [inaudible – 21:32] research [inaudible]. Senior men [inaudible – 21:42] just to recruit more of the same. Not realize the power of diverse thought, which is in a way you’re coming from in terms of collaboration. What [inaudible – 21:53] is amazing when you get different streams of thought and different perspectives. It’s all about perspective.
Lisette: Right, which is one of the biggest arguments for more diversity in the workplace of all kinds of people. And I bet, actually, this leads us sort of into a really good discussion on culture because I notice that one of your strengths was cross-cultural collaboration. So the women-men divide is just one of the different kinds of diversities. It’s the simplest one to look at because [inaudible – 22:26] just super simple. But then if we start to talk about the divide amongst different cultures and bringing in people from different areas of the world – like if you have a team member from Vietnam and somebody from San Francisco and somebody from Budapest – all of a sudden, you’ve got this very different world experience coming together to solve problems. That’s got to be ideal.
Clare: And it’s just fascinating what happens. I was working with a client two or four years back who went on this short, I think six-month contract. She went to work with one of the big airlines in Singapore. And it was a bit of a tech role. [inaudible – 23:06] what kind of strategy around [inaudible] using technology and websites to generate business. And I was having one of my regular calls with her. And she said [inaudible – 23:21] so frustrating. She said, “The Hong Kong Chinese are so childish.” [inaudible – 23:26] it’s okay.
Lisette: [inaudible – 23:29].
Clare: So to cut the long story short, [inaudible – 23:33] that a little bit [inaudible] to kind of explain what was going on. And of course the focus there on hierarchy and not losing face [inaudible – 23:43] she was used to. [She’s from the – 23:45] U.K. She was used to, got a problem. Everybody, talk about it, solve it, move on. But they had to talk to their Hong Kong, Chinese boss who took to his boss, who then took to her boss. And then it came back down to her. And it seemed to her anyway to be taking an awful long time to get [everything – 24:06] done, and it’s really, really frustrating. Once I got her to look at [inaudible – 24:12] would know that [inaudible] arguing with me [inaudible – 24:14]. People don’t necessarily [inaudible – 24:18] experiences, not deliberate. She wasn’t deliberately casting [inaudible] on them. It’s just that that’s how it presented to her at the time. Once she understood that… And also, they knew she wasn’t going to be there for very long. [crosstalk – 24:32].
Lisette: So they were going to just tolerate her until… right.
Clare: Because for them, building trust is a much longer-term operation, thing to do. So it was complex. And that was just [inaudible – 24:47] kind of [inaudible – 24:47]. But when you [inaudible] from all over the world, our people really saying what they feel or [inaudible – 24:55].
Lisette: Right. And the different way of expressing oneself can really confuse the other culture. For example, I live in the Netherlands, and the Dutch are extremely blunt and really straightforward. And it can very much shock people who aren’t used to it. It seems rude. And it’s just a way of [crosstalk – 25:15].
Clare: The other person will shut down if you don’t realize [inaudible – 25:18]. That’s just how they are.
Lisette: So how do you start to unpack this on a…? I mean I know there are many, many different ways, and culture and global teams is like a Ph.D. in an amongst itself. So I realize this is a big question, but we can just take it from whatever angle that you want. But how do you start to create awareness on global teams about the different cultures that they have on the team?
Clare: I think [inaudible – 25:41] really getting a starting point about what the team thinks about itself and where are the strengths and what is that telling them about [inaudible – 25:55] strong and [inaudible]. Is that around collaboration? Is that around [inaudible – 26:01] and just kind of drilling down [inaudible – 26:05] very much [inaudible]. Of course, you also need to look at limitation. So anything that’s presented as a problem, stand back and just work at what does that mean. And then we can bring in and raise some awareness about cultural difference. Stories are really good [inaudible – 26:25] rather than [inaudible] the experts, all about cultural difference [inaudible] going to tell you. [inaudible – 26:31] quite good tool, the [inaudible – 26:36] cultural GPS [inaudible] quite good. I mean [inaudible – 26:40] take it because everybody is different. But it gives you a starting point to answer the questions [crosstalk – 26:47] in terms of as a national culture, [inaudible – 26:51] hierarchy. How acceptable is it? There are some people at the top of their [inaudible – 26:55], some people in the bottom. [inaudible] focus in terms of are we kind of [inaudible – 27:01] in terms of [inaudible]. Or is it much wider in terms of how we look after families and get other people involved. I think it’s five or six dimensions you have. That’s a really good starting point to open people’s eyes. There might be a different story here.
Lisette: Right, because you don’t know what you don’t know. In one country, it might be perfectly normal, and you would have no idea to even ask. So I like that, using these different models. There isn’t probably one model that does everything perfectly, but like a starting point for starting the conversation and trying different things. I really like that approach.
Clare: And then of course we use some kind of psychometric profile. So one of the ones that we use… and I know you’re familiar with Play Prelude.
Lisette: I was just going to ask you about it because I saw on your profile that you are a Certified Prelude Facilitator. And I’m a huge fan of Howard Esbin and the Play Prelude tool. So let’s dive into that. So it’s a psychometric tool.
Clare: What it does, it enables you in a very short space of time… which is great because that’s just one of the aspects here. People haven’t got loads and loads of time. A, do it, and B, read [inaudible – 28:18] 100-page report. It’s very intuitive to do online drag and drop than you’re answering questions as to how you normally behave. And [inaudible – 28:28] nature is a metaphor, earth, air, fire, and water, to help you understand a little bit more where your preferences are. Now of course we all have all of these traits within us, but some of us might be more kind of let’s get and do it. Some of us are more we need to plan it. Some of us are really looking for their knowledge. And there are different combinations of that. And then how do you bring that all together into who you are at your core if at all really. And that relates back to my work when I’m working more on an individual level. Who am I, really, deep down? And once you know that, you can then start to ask the question, “Well, okay, what is my unique combination of skills? How do I uniquely add value?” Because it’s usually a combination. Nobody is saying that because I’m a big-picture thinker… I’m not the only person in the world who is a big-picture thinker. But I’m really [inaudible – 29:31] with my experience [inaudible] plus the people side plus a very interesting family with new, developmental gifts, which has helped me really seek difference in a really, really deep way. [inaudible – 29:48] with that whole combination of things. So I bring something very specific. And then what happens with prelude then is [inaudible – 29:55] start to do a combination of words and images exercise where you present it pictorially. And then when you’ve done that, you combine everybody and you practice collaboration in the moment, as well as getting a clearer, a better feel for what’s important to everyone and what’s important to you as a team, what you look like as a team, if you like. We’re also practicing some tech and virtual skills as to what it’s like to be to collaborate in the moment. There are other ones we use as well, but that’s particularly good for tech teams. For example, tech teams [inaudible – 30:40] stereotype, obviously. But sometimes tech teams are very, very good at the tech and haven’t had the opportunity, let’s say, to look more at the softer skills. So that can be really useful. And then you can see at the end where are we strong, where are the preferences, what are the risks then, or what are the strengths of having a team like this, what are the risks. Maybe you’ve got very few people [inaudible – 31:03] follow-through. [inaudible].
Lisette: Right. Or if you have a whole team of people that are not extroverted at all. And somebody needs to do the selling and the marketing. But [crosstalk – 31:15] the team with that strength. What really highlighted for me through the prelude experience was not only what my strengths were but what the strengths of my teammates were. So I knew how to approach them. One moment was extremely analytical. And I didn’t know that, actually. And just by a couple of weeks of working with her in the beginning… And then when I learned like, “Oh, she’s analytical.” Like if I approach her with a problem, she would really appreciate having the pros and cons defined and what I think. She wants more detail, whereas somebody else doesn’t want that detail. So it really highlighted for me like, “Oh, okay, so in my dealings with others, if I know what they’re like, I can then tailor.”
Clare: It’s about tweaking. And nobody is [inaudible – 31:56] changing a whole personality because that would be counterproductive too, which is [inaudible – 32:00] chemical resistance. And then we’ll eventually get ill. That’s the kind of whole topic to look at. If you can recognize what’s important to other people and in that scenario, for example, you might [inaudible – 32:12], I’ve got all the detail if you want it. So have it ready. [inaudible – 32:19] remembering all the detail [inaudible] don’t know what you are like. But that would drive me mad.
Lisette: I wouldn’t be there.
Clare: [inaudible – 32:27] recognize [inaudible] important. Or for some people, they just want to… what the key points, very goal-orientated. And for other people, you’ve really got to take a little bit more time and be very polite and really make sure that you get the message that you are really interested, not [inaudible – 32:50] generally interested in how people are feeling about things and how you kind of [inaudible – 32:55]. So there are quite a few tools that can do that. But you’re right. I do like the Prelude [inaudible – 33:01].
Lisette: Yeah, me too. I’m a big fan. It seems very well-rounded with the visual aspects, the psychometric aspects. So for folks listening, it’s playprelude.com. And you can check it out. It’s by the wonderful Howard Esbin who I interviewed in one of the first interviews that I did.
Clare: [inaudible – 33:18].
Lisette: Yeah, it’s one of the first. I was very lucky to meet him so early on, very, very lucky. We’re running out of time, but I have a few more questions that I want to ask. One is what advice would you have for people who are just starting out. For people who are just working on a global team, where would you start?
Clare: I would say put the time into understanding everyone on the team, a small team to start with but put the time in to understand each other, to be clear on your why. It can [inaudible – 33:55] obvious but isn’t sometimes. Can you articulate that? What is it that you are offering to clients? What specific needs? Either what specific need are you hoping to address or what specific client group needs your help. And then making the link between who you are as a team and how you can really kind of drive that forward. If you’re not clear on that passion bit and the why, then… That can be challenging sometimes as people are so keen. They want to get on with the technical I can do this, so let’s go out and deliver it. But it doesn’t work well. I think you [inaudible – 34:37] later on because you’re not clear [inaudible – 34:40].
Lisette: And it kind of comes full circle back to giving our teams and ourselves room to breathe. Especially in the virtual world, we tend to be very results-oriented. And in some ways, we really have to slow that down a little bit, give ourselves room to breathe in, get to know each other as people and what we each uniquely offer, the value that we each uniquely offer. That’s pretty good advice.
Clare: The other thing is that each of you as individuals [inaudible – 35:12] what you need to be strong. How well do you need to be to do your best work? Women can be a bit prone to this. They end up trying to please everyone. And I know from [inaudible – 35:26]. And it’s not worth it. And there’s more pressure to do that when you’re working globally. [inaudible – 35:38] bit more 24/7. You need to stand back and get the perspective. So that’s why [inaudible – 35:44]. There’s something about the [inaudible] and you’re not thinking about something, but then you get a great idea.
Lisette: For sure. Can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve been out running. And I’ve had to say like, “Okay, [inaudible – 35:58]. When I get home, don’t forget this genius idea I just had [laughs].” Last question is if people want to get in touch with you and learn more about Global Team Coaches and what you offer and what you do, what is the best way to get hold of you?
Clare: My email is clare@globalteamcoaches.com. Our website is globalteamcoaches.com. we also have a Twitter account, @GlobalTeamCafe. And the café is because we’ve developed a process and it’s linked to what we want to do is create this unique working environment where people can come in and out and really share [and breathe – 36:52]. And [inaudible] really take the most of virtual reality, almost have a cup of coffee.
Lisette: Totally.
Clare: That café [inaudible – 37:01] environment, collaborative environment. That’s where the magic happens. And you can find me on LinkedIn as well, Clare McNamara.
Lisette: I think that’s where we found each other, actually. It was LinkedIn.
Clare: It was, yeah.
Lisette: Lovely resources that we have. I’ll put all this in the show notes so that people know how to find you. So thank you so much for all of your wisdom and insight today. I only got to half of the questions, not even half. So I’m sure we could talk much, much more. But for the sake of the podcast, we’ll end it here. Thank you again for all of your time. And until next time, everybody, be powerful.
