Imagine this situation. You are an experienced IT manager in a Polish company. You’ve just been given a new, strategic project and an expanded team. Half are your existing Polish engineers. The other half are newly hired, extremely talented specialists from Portugal and Ukraine, working in a nearshoring model. You’re excited. However, after just a few weeks, you start noticing disturbing signals. In meetings, your Polish employees engage in lively, direct discussions, while colleagues from Portugal mostly remain silent, which you interpret as lack of engagement. Meanwhile, developers from Ukraine, despite agreeing to everything in meetings, often deliver tasks that don’t match your expectations. Your direct, typically Polish feedback is received as aggression, and attempts to build relationships through casual jokes on Slack are met with silence. You start thinking you made a recruitment mistake.
However, the problem most likely doesn’t lie in the competencies or motivation of your new team. It lies in an invisible but extremely powerful force that shapes all our interactions – culture. What in one culture is a sign of professionalism and respect may be perceived in another as lack of initiative or arrogance. Managing an international team without understanding these nuances is like trying to navigate an unknown ocean without a map and compass.
This guide is your map. In 2025, nearshoring has stopped being just a tactic for lowering costs – it has become a strategic way to access the global talent pool. However, the key to success is not technology or processes, but the leader’s cultural intelligence. In this in-depth analysis, we will guide you through the most important dimensions of cultural differences, give you concrete tools for building communication bridges, and show you how to transform a group of talented individuals from different countries into one, cohesive, and highly effective team.
Quick Navigation
- Why is cross-cultural management a key IT leader competency in 2025?
- What is the “cultural iceberg” and why does what’s invisible have the greatest impact on your team?
- How to manage communication in a team where a Pole, Ukrainian, and Portuguese have different conversation styles?
- How to give constructive feedback that will be understood and accepted in different cultures?
- How to reconcile different approaches to time, planning, and deadlines in an agile team?
- How to build trust and relationships in a team that never meets in person over coffee?
- What is creating a “third culture” – unique rules for your international team?
- Strategic summary: What does a leader maturity model in cross-cultural management look like?
- What cultural intelligence (CQ) competencies do you need to succeed?
- How can EITT help your leaders master the art of managing international teams?
Why is cross-cultural management a key IT leader competency in 2025?
IT work has inherently become global. Even if your entire team sits in one office in Poland, you probably work with clients, suppliers, or partners from around the world. The remote and hybrid work model has further accelerated this trend, opening companies to hiring talent regardless of their location. In this new world, the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with people from different cultural backgrounds has stopped being a “soft skill” for HR. It has become a hard, key business competency.
A leader who doesn’t understand cultural differences unknowingly generates misunderstandings, conflicts, and frustration. This leads to decreased trust, lower quality, and project delays. In extreme cases, it can lead to loss of key employees and failure of strategic initiatives.
On the other hand, a leader with high cultural intelligence can use diversity as their team’s greatest asset. Different perspectives and ways of thinking lead to more innovative solutions, better risk analysis, and creating products that are better suited to the global market. Investment in developing these competencies is an investment in your company’s future competitiveness.
What is the “cultural iceberg” and why does what’s invisible have the greatest impact on your team?
One of the best models for understanding culture is the iceberg metaphor. On the surface, above water, are the visible and easy-to-observe elements of culture: language, clothing, food, art, or gestures. These are things we notice immediately.
However, like a real iceberg, 90% of its mass is below the water surface. These invisible elements are deeply rooted values, beliefs, and norms that unconsciously guide our behavior. They include:
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Communication style: How directly or indirectly do we express our thoughts and opinions?
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Approach to hierarchy: What distance separates an employee from a boss and how is authority perceived?
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Concept of time: Is time perceived as a linear resource that must be precisely planned, or as something more flexible?
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Attitude toward conflict: Is openly expressing disagreement perceived as something healthy and constructive, or as a threat to group harmony?
These invisible differences are the most common source of misunderstandings and conflicts in international teams. Your task as a leader is to learn to see and understand what lies beneath the surface.
How to manage communication in a team where a Pole, Ukrainian, and Portuguese have different conversation styles?
One of the most important cultural dimensions is communication style, which can be placed on a scale from low-context to high-context.
Low-context cultures, such as Polish, German, or Dutch, value direct, precise, and literal communication. We say what we think. A “good” message is one that is clear and leaves no room for interpretation.
High-context cultures, which include many countries in Southern Europe (including Portugal) or Asia, rely much more on context, relationships, and non-verbal communication. Messages are often indirect, and “no” is rarely said directly. Group harmony is more important than brutal honesty.
When a manager from Poland directly criticizes a Portuguese developer’s work, they may unknowingly cause them to feel “loss of face” and public humiliation. Conversely, when the same developer says “I’ll think about it and get back to you,” it may actually mean “I don’t agree with this idea, but I don’t want to offend you,” which the Polish manager will interpret as agreement.
Your task is to build a bridge. Establish clear communication rules in your team. Explain different styles and ask for mutual understanding. In written communication (email, Slack), encourage being more precise and literal to minimize the risk of misunderstandings.
How to give constructive feedback that will be understood and accepted in different cultures?
Providing feedback is one of the most difficult managerial tasks, and in a multicultural environment, it becomes even more complicated.
In direct cultures, like Polish, negative feedback is often separated from the person and treated as a development tool. In many other cultures, criticism, especially public criticism, is perceived as a direct personal attack.
For your feedback to be effective, you must adapt it. For people from more indirect cultures, start by emphasizing positives and building relationships. Use “sandwich” techniques (positive - negative - positive) or formulate feedback as suggestions rather than orders (“I’m wondering if we couldn’t try approach X because it could improve Y”). In many cases, it’s crucial that such a conversation takes place privately, not publicly.
How to reconcile different approaches to time, planning, and deadlines in an agile team?
Another source of frustration can be different cultural concepts of time. In monochronic cultures (e.g., Germany, Poland, USA), time is perceived as a limited, valuable resource that flows linearly. Deadlines are sacred, meetings start and end punctually, and planning is key.
In polychronic cultures (e.g., Latin American countries, Southern Europe), time is more flexible. Interpersonal relationships and adapting to changing circumstances are often more important than rigidly adhering to schedules. Being late for a meeting is not perceived as disrespectful.
In an agile IT team, where sprint deadlines and daily stand-ups are fundamental, these differences can lead to tensions. Your role is to clearly define what expectations are in your team. Explain why punctuality at stand-ups is important for everyone and what the consequences of missing task deadlines are for the entire team’s work.
How to build trust and relationships in a team that never meets in person over coffee?
In co-located teams, trust builds naturally during informal conversations in the kitchen, shared lunches, or after-work meetings. In a fully distributed team, these natural opportunities disappear. You must consciously design and create space for building relationships that go beyond purely professional topics.
Regularly organize informal video meetings whose only purpose is casual conversation (so-called “virtual coffee”). Create dedicated topic channels on Slack or Teams unrelated to work (e.g., #music, #travel, #memes). Start team meetings with a short, few-minute “check-in” round where everyone can say in one sentence how they’re feeling. These simple techniques help people see each other not just as avatars on the screen but as real people, which is the foundation of trust.
What is creating a “third culture” – unique rules for your international team?
The most effective leaders of international teams don’t try to impose one dominant culture (e.g., “now everyone works the Polish way”). Instead, they consciously work with the team to create a “third culture” – a unique set of norms, values, and communication rules for your team.
This is a process where you openly discuss cultural differences and jointly decide how you want to work. You might, for example, establish that “in our team, feedback is always welcome, but we try to formulate it constructively and based on facts.” Or: “In our meetings, we strive for open debate, but we make sure everyone, including more introverted people, has a chance to speak.” Creating such a written “team contract” gives everyone clear frameworks and a sense of co-ownership of your team’s culture.
Strategic summary: What does a leader maturity model in cross-cultural management look like?
This table presents four stages of evolution in a leader’s approach to managing diversity.
Maturity Level | Description of Leader’s Attitude | Effects on Team 1. Unawareness (Parochial) | “My way of working is the only right one. I expect others to adapt.” Leader is unaware of cultural differences. | Constant misunderstandings, frustration, sense of injustice. Team is divided into national subgroups. Low effectiveness. 2. Awareness (Ethnocentric) | “I know differences exist, but my way is still better.” Leader notices differences but evaluates them through the lens of their own culture. | Leader tries to “fix” others’ behaviors. This can lead to paternalism and further deepening divisions. 3. Acceptance (Synergistic) | “We differ, but each style has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s think about how we can use this.” Leader accepts and respects differences. | Team begins to openly discuss differences. Mutual understanding and trust grow. Effectiveness begins to rise. 4. Integration (Participative) | “Let’s create our own unique team culture that draws the best from our differences.” Leader facilitates this process. | Team has a high sense of identity and belonging. Diversity becomes the greatest asset and driver of innovation.
What cultural intelligence (CQ) competencies do you need to succeed?
Effective management of an international team requires the leader to develop Cultural Intelligence (CQ). It consists of several key competencies. The first is knowledge about different cultural dimensions. The second is mindfulness, the ability to observe interactions without immediately judging them through the lens of one’s own norms. The third is adaptation ability, flexibly adjusting one’s communication style and behavior to the situation. Finally, motivation and authentic curiosity about the world and other people are crucial.
How can EITT help your leaders master the art of managing international teams?
Cultural intelligence is not an innate trait – it’s a competency that can and should be developed. At EITT, we understand that in today’s globalized world, this is one of the key leadership skills.
Our specialized cross-cultural management workshops are designed to give IT leaders not only theoretical knowledge but above all practical tools and experience. Using recognized models (such as the Hofstede model or Erin Meyer) and interactive simulations and case studies, we help managers understand their own cultural style, learn to recognize key differences, and consciously adapt their behavior. We build competencies that allow transforming potential sources of conflict into the team’s greatest asset.
Summary
Managing an international team in the nearshoring model is one of the most demanding but also most satisfying tasks for an IT leader. Success in this role depends to a small extent on technological tools and to a huge extent on your cultural intelligence, empathy, and ability to build bridges across divisions. Remember that your goal is not to create a team where everyone thinks and acts the same. Your goal is to create an environment where diversity of perspectives and work styles is respected and used to achieve outstanding results.
If you’re ready to take on this challenge and want to equip yourself and your leaders with the competencies necessary to build and lead effective international teams, contact us. Let’s talk about how we can support you on this fascinating journey.
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This article is related to the training Vlocity - Data and UI Management Tools. Check the program and sign up to develop your skills with EITT experts.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first step a manager should take when building a new nearshoring team?
Before any official kickoff, map the cultural backgrounds of your team members using frameworks like Hofstede or Erin Meyer’s Culture Map. Understanding where each person falls on dimensions such as direct vs. indirect communication and linear vs. flexible time perception will help you anticipate potential friction points and design communication norms proactively.
How do you handle situations where team members agree in meetings but deliver something different?
This is a classic sign of high-context communication, where saying “no” directly is considered impolite. Address it by establishing clear written follow-ups after every meeting with explicit task descriptions and acceptance criteria. Also create a safe environment where team members can raise concerns asynchronously via chat or email without losing face.
Is it worth investing in in-person meetups for a fully remote nearshoring team?
Yes, even one or two in-person gatherings per year can dramatically accelerate trust-building that would take months to develop remotely. These meetings should focus primarily on relationship-building activities rather than work tasks, as the informal bonds formed in person carry over into much smoother daily remote collaboration.
How do you create a “third culture” without it feeling forced or artificial?
Start by facilitating an open team discussion where everyone shares how they prefer to communicate, give feedback, and handle deadlines. Document the agreed-upon norms in a team contract that everyone co-creates. Revisit and update this contract quarterly so it evolves naturally with the team rather than being a one-time exercise.