How Do You Decide If One of Your Team Members Is Disengaged?
What are some tell-tale behaviours? Missed deadlines, lack of participation, or that glazed-over look during meetings are the obvious ones. But sometimes what looks like disengagement could just be a cultural difference.
A few weeks ago, I was training a young woman who had just transferred to a new office in another European country for the same company. She was surprised by how often people were standing around the coffee machine, chatting. To her, it seemed like lack of engagement. But in this new environment, the coffee machine wasn’t just a place for small talk—it was where people connected, exchanged ideas and solved problems.
The real danger lies in making assumptions. If we don’t understand the values and communication needs of our colleagues, we risk misinterpreting their actions. In this case, what appeared to be disengagement was actually a sign of high engagement.
For example, some team members are motivated by short emails—“Write me the task in brief bullet points and I’ll let you know when it’s done.” Others need a human touch. They pick up the phone, chat through the project details and ask lots of questions before they can take the first step. If we don't recognize these different motivators, we might assume someone is disengaged when, in fact, they’re just not getting what they need to feel involved and valued.
So how do we keep culturally diverse teams engaged and motivated?
1. Celebrate Differences, Don’t Suppress Them
One of the quickest ways to disengage team members is to ignore their unique cultural perspectives. Encourage everyone to share how their background shapes their approach to work.
2. Tailor Communication Styles
Adapt your communication to that of your colleagues to motivate them. A person who needs the big picture tends to get very lost when you send them bullet points.
3. Give Purpose to the Big Picture
When teams are globally spread out, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the overall mission. Remind them regularly of the *why* behind their work. You might have one team member in Buenos Aires while the rest of you sit in Paris. Unless you link their tasks to the larger goal of how their input will help the project it can seem all vey worthless to them.
At the end of the day, assumptions can lead us to believe a team member is disengaged when they simply have different ways of working or communicating.
We use **ICQ Global** to measure team engagement. It gives us a “photograph” of the team, showing where individuals fall in four quadrants: high-performing, apathy, comfort zone, or anxiety zone. This snapshot helps us understand where the team stands on the growth zone, so we can take the right steps to boost engagement across the board.
How do you motivate your culturally diverse teams? Share your insights or funniest cross-cultural moments below!
#culturalintelligence #motivation #growthzone
