7 Pro Tips for Doing Business Across Global Time Zones
The wine business is global in nature. As many ABG readers can attest, this means building and maintaining business relationships across multiple time zones.
Navigating time zone changes of a few hours can be a juggle, but time changes of more than a day’s work require careful attention to minimize multiple sources of stress: online meetings or calls in convenient business hours, project management so that an important meeting isn't overlooked, mixing up dates and times or worse still, failing to meet a critical deadline.
With a 24/7 online presence, there’s always that one more email to respond to. Personally, the fear of missing a business deliverable raises my anxiety so high that I rarely sign off for the day.
Sound familiar?
I recently returned to Australia for a short working holiday and the juggle of the 15+ hour time difference. So I turned to New York wine retailer, writer, and educator Christy Frank for advice on managing the time zone gaps without burning myself out by laboring around the clock.
Working as the US-based business director for Möet Hennessy AU/NZ wine brands, and then as business consultant to Wine Australia, Christy navigates clients in three countries, four time zones, and a 15-hour time difference. She offered practical tips to set clear business boundaries, keep her head clear and her work stress in check.
In Christy’s opinion, it’s impossible to overcommunicate the date / time for meetings to keep the schedule straight. Utilize the World Clock function on your phone, or use timeanddate.com to easily convert time zones. Include the local times into each person's respective email communication.
Set your workday hours in the local time (such as 8am to 6pm), and stay firm on these boundaries. Otherwise you will be working around the clock.
Use time zones to your advantage. Have requests and project updates out to the relevant teams in order to keep requests moving through the times when you are away from the desk.
Be explicit with deadlines, and EXTREMELY explicit if you are expecting a reply or information by the time your local workday starts.
Make sure you know when the pinch point times are on your side so that you can nudge and respond accordingly. It is so easy to literally lose days to the time zones.
Put your phone down at the end of your workday and make use of the “Do Not Disturb” function so that you are not sucked into ongoing tasks as clients come online for their workday. If possible, pull the work emails into a separate icon on your phone.
Be mindful of daylight savings changes in time in the Spring and Fall seasons. Although digital devices will set accordingly, your brain may not remember so easily!
As Christy says, your workflow will be different depending on where you sit on the world time clock, which means you'll have different pinch points around time management. And managing time is critical to avoid potential burnout.
Above all, her “biggest, bestest” piece of advice to help handle international client or colleague expectations is to decide when your client day begins and ends. Then try very hard to stick to it, allowing for a more relaxing working schedule, and time for rest and sleep.
What’s your hack for managing time zone changes? We would love to hear!
Namaste,
Beck
What We're Reading:
Here's what has piqued our interest this week in the world of wine and mindfulness.
Four Tips for Sticking to a Meditation Practice - Greater Good Science Center.com
Having trouble sitting still? Here are some suggestions from a meditation researcher.
U.S. alcohol-related deaths hit highest rate in decades during coronavirus pandemic, study shows - Washington Post
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that more than 99,000 people died in 2020 of alcohol-related causes — a 26-percent increase from the previous, pre-pandemic year.
Heavy alcohol use linked to 232M missed workdays in US each year The Hill
People who met the criteria for alcohol use disorder reported missing 32 days of work annually.
The Drinks Industry Has an Ageism Problem – Betsy Andrews for SevenFiftyDaily.com
What it’s like to get older in the drinks industry, and how to deal with the discrimination that comes with it.
How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels - HBS Working Knowledge
Hotel concierges provide better service to white customers than Black and Asian customers, says research by Alexandra Feldberg and colleague. They offer three strategies to help companies detect bias on the front line.
Meet the Community:
Here we meet some of the talented folks who make our profession so dynamic.
Sheri Morano MW, Senior Partner Wine and Spirits, Preferabli.com (North Carolina, USA)
Years in the Industry:
22 years. I first fell in love with wine when I was 16, on a trip to Italy with our high school Latin teacher (thank you, Mrs. Adams for believing that everyone should get to try having wine with dinner while traveling through Italy…). After I graduated from college with a double major in Medieval & Renaissance Studies, and Classical Studies with a minor in Art History, I started work to work for my father’s marketing research firm in New York. Then I realized that I missed learning about something, I decided to look for some cooking and wine classes. One of the first classes I found was a one-night session at The New School – a tasting with Mary Ewing Mulligan MW and Ed McCarthy, who had just released one of their Wine for Dummies books. Mary mentioned that she ran a wine school that night and the course sounded interesting. So I signed up for one of the Wine & Spirits Education Trust classes that the International Wine Center offered.
First class, I sat in the back of the room and hoped that no one would ask me what I thought! But long story short, I completed that course, signed on for the next one and then the 2-year Diploma. Halfway through the Diploma, I realized that the wine industry did some marketing research and I started to combine my “day” and “night” jobs. I also started teaching and giving tastings. I embarked upon my Master of Wine in 2000 and completed that in 2003. I’ve spent the years since working in many aspects of the wine industry, but mainly in education and marketing research. I like to joke that I am a jack of all trades, but a master of one.
My Top Three Challenges to Wellness:
1. Travel
I love to travel – but it does make it harder to keep to a schedule. And to be honest, I think that the lack of travel with the pandemic did really help me to focus on being more consistent with my running. Now that travel has started to pick back up again, I do have to work a bit harder to keep to my training schedule.
2. Age…and ageing knees
Honestly, I have to work harder now than I did 20 years ago to make sure I stay hydrated, to make sure I do my stretches and to make sure I eat properly – if I want to keep up running and being active. This past year with training for the NYC Marathon, I started working with a trainer to design a schedule for me to help me balance strength training, stretching and running.I also belong to a group called ‘Many Happy Miles’ that is part of the ‘Another Mother Runner’ community and that provides me with a lot of great wellness resources (and motivation). And, as part of my marathon prep, I consulted a nutritionist to help me design a better approach to carbo loading and racing nutrition.
3. Wine – and water
Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you I spend a lot of time thinking about what I am going to make for dinner. The evenings in our house when I am puttering around the kitchen cooking is when I get to relax, and so there is usually wine that is a part of both the meal prep and the meal. And dinners just don’t seem to be the same when wine isn’t served (we can probably blame that trip to Italy when I was 16). BUT – between getting older and getting more serious about my workouts, these days I try to keep an eye on my consumption. Nights before a hard workout or a long run or a race might mean no wine or just a small glass of wine, and every day now means drinking a lot of water.
How I Keep It Together to Stay Well:
In general, I’m a big believer in moderation and the importance of monitoring my stress level. I had a scare in 2019 when my blood pressure shot up and the doctor insisted on putting me on medication. So, I took a series of steps to address what I could. I lost 20 pounds on WW and I became a certified yoga instructor. I set goals for my running and have tried to set support systems in place to help keep me focused on those goals. Every time I run or do something active, rather than focus on the fact that I am slow or that I might prefer a different number on the scale or would rather look a certain way, I try to take a moment to thank my body for carrying me forward and for just being out there and being active.
What Inspires Me:
One place that represents a lot of what inspires me is my local farmers’ market. It is a place that just seems to resonate goodness – from the beauty of the produce and the generosity of Mother Nature to the general feeling of community – I always find going there lifts my mood and leave me feeling so happy.
A Quote I Love:
“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!” ~ Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
I find that I say it a lot to myself in my head. Whether it is just to remind myself to laugh more and find the humor in a situation, or to remember that each of us is a bit quirky in our own way, somehow this quote always makes me smile.
You can connect with Sheri on Instagram @SSMMW or on Facebook.
