Leading Remote Teams: Navigating Change, Culture, and Performance in Global Organizations – Interview with Silvana Franzoni Ereno

Amid ongoing headlines about companies mandating a return to the office (RTO), the debate over in-person versus remote work continues. However, managing remote and geographically dispersed teams has always been a fundamental reality for senior leaders in global organizations. Managing performance, driving cultural cohesion, and navigating organizational change across different time zones and cultural contexts present unique challenges for leaders. Yet, these same challenges also offer an opportunity to build more inclusive, resilient, and high-performing teams — when approached with the right mindset and strategies.

In this Leadership Insider interview, Margaret Jaouadi speaks with Silvana Franzoni Ereno, Vice President of Finance and Operational Excellence for Asia Pacific at Valmet. Silvana, an experienced finance executive who has led large, diverse teams across continents, shares her insights on leading effectively in remote and hybrid environments. Drawing from her leadership experience in multinational organizations such as Novozymes and Valmet, she offers practical advice on fostering psychological safety, maintaining high levels of engagement, and managing organizational change from a distance.

Silvana’s perspective highlights the importance of clear communication, building trust, and empowering employees regardless of physical location. She also shares candid lessons from navigating complex organizational changes, emphasizing that outstanding leadership strengthens and proves itself during disruption. Whether you’re leading a team across offices or managing change in a hybrid workplace, Silvana’s insights offer valuable guidance on inspiring, connecting, and driving performance in a global, remote environment.

Special thanks go to Victoria Reyes, Sector Lead for Industrial Goods and Engineering at Pacific International, for introducing Silvana Franzoni Ereno to Margaret.

Margaret Jaouadi  
There is much debate about returning to the office (RTO), but senior leaders in global companies have always managed remote teams, which will never change. How do you see this discussion evolving?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Remote management has been part of our lives since childhood—think about how parents managed us even when they weren’t physically present. The debate around it has shifted due to COVID-19, but at its core, remote management is about accountability. When you set the right strategy for growth, it gives employees direction.

Leading remotely means “walking the talk”—demonstrating the company’s vision so that employees understand what’s in it for them. When managing remotely, leaders must recognize that employees go through different phases, from denial to acceptance, and trust is key to reaching that final stage.

COVID-19 didn’t change the need for accountability; it changed how leaders adapt to ensure it. Returning to the office won’t fix accountability issues—I’ve seen employees come back only to sit in their cubicles and call each other on Teams. That doesn’t foster interaction or collaboration, which is what leadership wants. The real challenge is embedding accountability into the organization, so that employees feel a personal commitment to their work.

Margaret Jaouadi  
The RTO discussion centers around productivity. As you mentioned, what’s the key to driving accountability and performance remotely? What should leaders do to foster trust and autonomy in remote teams?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
First and foremost, communication. People talk about it, but they don’t always think about it. Effective communication means finding the right level and maintaining clarity and transparency.

Overcommunication can be just as damaging, if not worse, than undercommunication. Clarity is key. Leaders must “walk the talk,” involve employees in shaping the strategy, and ensure everyone clearly understands their role and how they contribute to the bigger picture. Accountability doesn’t just happen unless employees see what’s in it for them, grasp their key performance indicators, and connect their area’s goals to the company’s short- and long-term strategy. Without that clarity, nothing moves forward.

Transparency is essential, but it must be intentional. Oversharing can lead to confusion, especially in global teams where people interpret messages differently. Leaders must also understand confidentiality and be mindful of how much they communicate and what they say. The right balance prevents disruption and keeps teams aligned.

Margaret Jaouadi
Remote work isn’t just about working from home. It often means leading teams across multiple countries. What are leaders’ most significant challenges in navigating cultural and geographical differences?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
One of my biggest challenges was not knowing the right questions to ask. Open-ended questions are crucial for navigating cultural barriers and understanding what’s needed.

When I moved to China in 2007, I underwent cultural training, a cliché for expats. I was told to ask questions, so for the first three months, I asked a lot: What is this? How do you do this? But I quickly realized my approach was wrong. In Asian cultures, you need to ask questions in a way that allows people to save face while still getting honest answers.

At first, no one would ask me questions in meetings. So, I shifted my approach, building trust through one-on-one conversations before opening up group discussions. I started framing questions with us: How are we going to do this? How can we approach this? to create a sense of shared responsibility. Over time, they saw that I was part of the team, and after about six to eight months, they felt safe enough to say, I don’t know where to start, or I don’t know what to do.

It took nearly a year for them to fully trust that I wouldn’t turn around and criticize them for not knowing. The key was removing blame and fostering an environment where they felt comfortable speaking up. In Asia, open-ended questions work best when framed with we because they build trust and psychological safety.

This experience also shaped how I see remote work. Remote isn’t just about working from home—it’s about operating outside your cultural comfort zone. Many leaders manage teams across different countries without realizing they, too, are remote workers. Leading a global organization requires recognizing that remote working means adapting to new cultural and managerial landscapes, not just location differences.

Margaret Jaouadi
I never considered it that way: You are a foreigner managing a team operating outside your native context.

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
I’ve been managing remote teams for over 20 years, and I can tell you that being “remote” is about much more than physical distance. You can still be remote even when you’re physically present – especially when you’re a foreigner managing a local team.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t fundamentally change remote management; instead, it brought out the psychological aspects of working across distances. People don’t always understand that being present doesn’t eliminate the challenges of remote leadership. As a foreign manager, you know you’re different and operating outside your native context.

My experience has taught me that remote management is a complex interplay of cultural understanding, communication, and awareness. It’s about recognizing the subtle differences and bridging gaps that aren’t just physical, cultural, and psychological. The pandemic may have made these challenges more visible, but they’ve always existed for those managing global teams.

Margaret Jaouadi
Can you share when cultural awareness significantly impacted a leadership decision or team dynamic?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Managing a global team of 10 people across seven or eight countries presents a fascinating leadership challenge. My management team has four people from India spread across Australia, Thailand, and India – a genuinely complex cultural landscape.

My role demands constant cultural navigation. I must discern whether our communication follows a European, Asian, or Indian perspective while maintaining our company’s core Finnish values. Respecting individual cultural leadership styles is crucial, especially when my team members are themselves managing local teams from different cultural backgrounds.

Each interaction requires a tailored approach. With my  American team members, for instance, the leadership style is more structured, almost French-like. When communicating with Asian team members, I might need to be more patient and nuanced. The key is understanding each individual’s cultural context and finding the most effective way to communicate and motivate them.

Culture isn’t just about national backgrounds; it’s about thinking, learning, and mutual respect. My job is to bridge these differences, ensuring that while we celebrate diverse perspectives, we still move together as a cohesive global organization.

Margaret Jaouadi
What skills are vital for leaders to be aware of those sensitivities?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Flexibility is the cornerstone of effective global leadership. Adapting isn’t about simply declaring yourself adaptable; it’s about genuinely understanding and responding to different cultural contexts. This adaptability encompasses three critical skills: flexibility, deep understanding, and swiftly transitioning between diverse scenarios.

As a leader, you must understand your team beyond technical capabilities. It means developing sensitivity to different cultural nuances and personal needs. I learned this through experience. For instance, when I proactively asked my finance manager about important cultural considerations, she highlighted the significance of respecting prayer times for Muslim team members.

The key is learning how to ask respectfully. It’s not about imposing your understanding but creating space for team members to share what matters to them. You build trust by demonstrating genuine interest and flexibility – the most fundamental element of successful cross-cultural leadership.

Margaret Jaouadi
What communication strategies or structures are most effective for ensuring alignment, engagement, and clarity in a remote setting?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
During COVID-19, I learned critical lessons about effective team management. The first broke our meeting culture: back-to-back sessions with no actual structure. We deliberately have MS Outlook default meeting invitations, limiting them to 25 or 50 minutes and always defining clear actions, follow-ups, and participant requirements.

We developed a comprehensive finance and operational excellence strategy three and a half years ago. Instead of implementing the strategy top-down, we built it collaboratively, involving second-level managers and directly linking their short-term incentive plans to our objectives. This approach created genuine accountability across different regions – Australia, South Korea, South East Asia, Japan, and India.

Our initial strategy rollout was complex and numbers-focused. By the second year, we simplified our approach, creating a more streamlined process that allows 12 months of implementation. We recognized that support functions like finance, supply chain, and quality need careful evaluation for strategic thinking.

The key has been creating a communication model where team members across different geographies feel genuinely involved. By making everyone part of the strategy’s creation, we’ve ensured compliance and genuine commitment to our organizational goals.

Margaret Jaouadi
Change management is already complex, and leading change remotely adds another layer of difficulty. What strategies help leaders implement and sustain change in a remote or hybrid environment? Can you share an example of a large-scale change initiative you’ve led across a dispersed team? What made it successful?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
The key is building a clear strategy that helps people understand what’s in it for them. Without that, you can’t expect engagement or accountability.

A good example was when I was working in China, tasked with setting up a shared service center across different locations like Beijing, Suzhou, and Shanghai. The plan was to consolidate operations without causing significant disruption or losing talent. I had two choices: I could go to each site and say, In two years, your job will no longer exist, or I could take a different approach.

Instead of announcing job cuts, I framed the change as a collaborative process. I sat down with business controllers and said, We’re moving toward a shared service center, but I want to work with you to figure out how to transition smoothly. This approach kept people engaged and prevented the loss of key talent. In fact, after two years, we only lost roles that no longer made business sense.

The lesson was clear: when you communicate change as a threat, people disengage and start looking for other jobs. But when you involve them in the change, show them they have a role to play, even if only for a short period, and you build trust, they’re more willing to adapt.

And that’s key in remote change management: it’s not about making bold statements about future setup; it’s about leadership behavior. People don’t leave companies — they leave managers. You’ll lose your best talent if you don’t handle change with transparency and care.

Margaret Jaouadi
It takes skill to manage people in a way that builds trust, ensuring they believe your words at face value without sensing any hidden agenda.

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Exactly, or even worse, when there is a hidden agenda that even top management is unaware of. If leaders do not have complete visibility, it becomes impossible to build trust and communicate.

Another important aspect is whether you make the employees feel they matter. I have always believed in developing my people, even if it means they eventually leave for better opportunities. Sometimes, that change benefits both the individual and the company. Instead, I would invest in their growth rather than keep them stagnant within my team.

Unfortunately, many leaders do not share this mindset. They fear losing talent instead of empowering it, and that is where leadership often falls short.

Margaret Jaouadi
It reminds me of Richard Branson from Virgin Group, who once said: Train your employees so they can leave, but treat them well enough so they don’t want to. That is precisely the point. You cannot hold people back or keep them at a low level because you are only hurting yourself in the end.

You ultimately limit the company’s potential if you surround yourself with people who do not learn, grow, or develop. High-impact teams are built by empowering people, not by keeping them stagnant.

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Exactly, and it is the same when someone comes to you and says, I have an offer, and I would like to leave. In my 34 years of experience, I can count the times I have tried to convince someone to stay on one hand. I genuinely believe that if people I trust have decided to leave, they have thought it through carefully.

Of course, I always ask their reasons for leaving to become a better leader for the rest of my team. I don’t believe in offering a last-minute salary increase to make them stay. That is just a temporary fix.

Good leaders do not wait until people are halfway out the door to act. They stay aware of what is happening, invest in their people early on, and create an environment where employees do not feel the need to leave in the first place. There is never a perfect time for an employee to go, but there is always the right time for a leader to take action to make them want to stay.

Margaret Jaouadi
Traditional office-based productivity measures don’t always translate to remote teams. What should senior leaders focus on instead? What KPIs or success metrics do you recommend for measuring the impact of remote teams?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Building engagement in remote teams can be pretty straightforward. It starts with meeting participation, whether through team calls or one-on-one check-ins. After managing remotely for many years, you develop an ability to sense whether someone is truly present in a meeting — even without a camera on. People can learn to mask their feelings, but subtle facial expressions, tone, or energy changes often reveal their state of mind. You can tell when someone is distracted or disengaged by how they respond.

For me, the key is to engage them and continuously assess their level of involvement. I habitually observe their reactions and interactions, and I’ve learned to recognize who is fully present in the meeting. Over time, especially with team members who have been with me for years, I can tell their mood simply by how they structure a sentence or answer a question.

Another practice I’ve adopted is never calling my employees unexpectedly. Instead, I send a quick message like, Is it OK to contact you in five minutes? Can I check in with you in ten minutes? This simple courtesy creates a comfortable environment and allows them to prepare for the conversation, reducing anxiety. It also shows them that their time matters.

One-on-one meetings are another critical tool. There’s been a lot of debate about their value, with some seeing them as task reviews or performance updates. I strongly disagree. One-on-ones in remote management foster connection. I always leave at least 15 minutes open for casual conversation, allowing my employees to bring up anything from personal experiences to work-related challenges. Interestingly, they almost always initiate these conversations themselves, which helps me read their mental state.

I’ve learned that someone highly stressed or overwhelmed will skip the small talk and jump straight into business, signaling that something is off. That shift in behavior is a signal, and it helps me understand my team members’ mental state.

The key is to let them lead the conversation. Do not force casual talk if they want to get straight to the point. Flexibility is crucial. Additionally, I keep an open space on Teams where we can both leave notes, updates, or thoughts as they come up. This ongoing dialogue creates a continuous touchpoint and reinforces a sense of accessibility and support.

Ultimately, remote management is not about running down a checklist of tasks during meetings. It’s about creating a space where people feel heard, supported, and comfortable bringing their whole selves to work — no matter where they are.

Margaret Jaouadi
When you notice that somebody’s engagement starts wavering, how do you approach that?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno  
Leading in a stable, calm organization is relatively easy. But as a leader, I have learned that the most valuable growth comes from navigating change, uncertainty, and rough waters. If you spend your entire leadership journey in calm seas, you don’t develop the resilience or skills needed to handle the storms — which also applies to life. If you never learn to navigate challenging times, you won’t be a strong leader when things are calm because you’ll drift along without direction.

I would tell any leader: Don’t overreact to conflict but never avoid it. Addressing conflict head-on is crucial; the worst thing you can do is let it fester, hoping it will resolve itself. It won’t. Avoidance only magnifies the issue, and by the time you face it, the problem is often much bigger — sometimes beyond repair. More importantly, you rob yourself and your team of valuable learning opportunities by avoiding conflict.

The truth is conflict is a natural part of leadership. It’s uncomfortable, but it also provides a unique opportunity for growth — for you as a leader and your team members. I’ve learned that when I approach conflict with curiosity instead of avoidance, I can turn difficult situations into learning moments. And the team responds to that. They see that I’m not afraid to tackle the hard stuff, and that, in turn, builds trust and accountability.

I often say that if two of my ten direct reports struggle, I have a problem, not just them. Their challenges inevitably impact my deliverables, so I step in early. For example, if someone suddenly seems disengaged, I won’t ignore it. I’ll call them and say, I’ve noticed you’re quieter than usual — is everything OK? Sometimes, the issue is work-related, like a new process overwhelming them; other times, it’s personal. Either way, my job is to engage, not avoid.

This mindset is critical during periods of change. During one particular transition, I had team members suddenly working ten extra hours a week due to a new process. Their motivation dropped, their performance started slipping, and they burned out. I didn’t wait for them to break — I stepped in and said, Let’s break this down. What’s happening? Where’s the bottleneck? Let’s solve it together. This approach didn’t just solve the operational issue. It showed my team that I cared, which kept them engaged and motivated.

However, I firmly believe difficult conversations are not just for fixing performance issues but for growing people. If a high-performing employee comes to me and says, I have another job offer, I don’t panic or try to offer them a raise. Instead, I listen and ask, Why? What’s missing here for you? I won’t try to stop them if they’ve already decided to leave. I’ll wish them well and keep the door open. But sometimes, that conversation reveals unmet needs that I can address, and it prevents losing a valuable team member.

Ultimately, leadership is not about creating a perfect, conflict-free environment. It’s about learning to navigate the rough waters without losing your team or your focus. If you shy away from conflict, you miss opportunities to build resilience and strengthen your leadership skills. So my advice to any leader is: Don’t fear the rough sea — lean into it. The more you learn to navigate choppy waters, the better you steer your team, even when the sea is calm.

Margaret Jaouadi
How can leaders balance tech-driven efficiency and human connection? Have you implemented digital collaboration tools or strategies to improve remote team engagement and effectiveness?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
We have SharePoint, Teams, and various engagement tools, but using these effectively means stepping outside your comfort zone.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the isolation took a toll on my team. An IMD professor suggested getting creative, so we organized a virtual tour of France. We sent French berets and croissants to team members worldwide (except in South Korea, where delivery failed). The 90-minute bike tour through France energized everyone tremendously. People discussed it for months.

For effective remote leadership, build inclusive agendas. When meeting face-to-face only twice yearly, ensure everyone participates by rotating agenda ownership. We’ve done virtual tours of our Indonesia customer facility by following finance and supply chain staff from boat journeys to on-site interviews. We’ve also conducted virtual cultural training sessions for India and Indonesia, using breakout rooms to enhance engagement. These activities build pride and connection despite physical distance.

Most importantly, create meaningful cross-regional projects. Don’t assign people to projects with no real connection to their work. Our ERP implementation involves multiple countries in successive waves, helping team members understand how their work impacts colleagues elsewhere. When people feel their work genuinely affects outcomes, accountability follows naturally.

I constantly tell our head office that if you want regional implementation to succeed, you should involve regions in planning. Don’t just create token cross-functional projects or overstaff initiatives. Give people real influence, and they’ll take ownership of local implementation.

Margaret Jaouadi
Remote work isn’t going away. What do you believe will define an outstanding leader in the next decade? What one key piece of advice would you give leaders managing remote teams today?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
Leaders need to understand their teams’ needs, but employees also require training for remote work. In 1998, I had my first American manager at a Danish company. For three months, I struggled to understand his approach because I lacked training in remote management.

Without proper skills, employees might go home, accomplish nothing, yet try to appear productive. Experienced leaders will detect this quickly, so transparency is essential. Remote management requires training on both sides.

Trust is fundamental—building it takes significant energy, but seconds to destroy. Leaders must be flexible, but employees must be accountable. Companies may be improving on globalization, but remember that core values originate from the company’s country of origin. As employees, we must ensure our values align with the company’s values because those won’t change. Leaders must model accountability themselves, and it’s impossible to create accountable employees if you’re not demonstrating it yourself.

Leaders need to explain that privileges come with responsibilities. Many don’t see that leaders often work weekends. When employees complain, the wrong response is, ‘Work your way up the organization.’ The correct answer is, ‘I understand. What can I do to help you develop the skills to advance?‘

Some people explicitly don’t want management responsibilities. Leaders often misinterpret this as a ‘lack of ambition.’ That’s wrong—I need well-paid technical specialists in those positions because an organization can’t function with only leaders.

The leaders who will thrive possess flexibility, an understanding of organizational needs, and a grasp of change management. Change management means understanding that hybrid work, remote work, and physical presence all have their place. Leaders who navigate without extremes and understand each situation’s requirements will survive.

Leaders must also embrace artificial intelligence and explain to employees that it’s not taking jobs but enhancing them. Value-added work comes from human minds, not from technology. It’s not about being exclusively hybrid, remote, or in-person. It’s about understanding different organizational needs. That’s the essential skill.

Margaret Jaouadi
Before we wrap up, I want to share an interesting statistic I read today. Almost 27% of people polled in the UK and just over 28% in the US said they would prefer an AI manager to their current human manager. They believe an AI manager would be more fair than a human manager. What are your thoughts on these stats?

Silvana Franzoni Ereno
It’s scary. But it’s our responsibility as leaders. If we haven’t done our job as we should, the machine sounds or seems more fair. I would say it’s a wake-up call.

Margaret Jaouadi
You cannot negotiate with a machine. A machine won’t make allowances. A machine won’t understand your explanations. People who prefer AI managers don’t value skills such as humility, which is the understanding we discussed.

Fairness, the lack of preferential treatment, the absence of bias, and equal treatment for everyone must be vital to them. But equality isn’t always the fairest approach. Equity is the fairway.

For me, this was a fascinating statistic because it’s pretty high. I expected 5%, but not 27-28%.

Silvana Franzoni Ereno 
And that’s scary for leaders. We need to reflect seriously on this and improve our leadership approach.

It’s difficult for us as leaders to see where we can improve. Throughout my career, I’ve been observant. I’ve been fortunate to have over 15-17 different leaders, and I’ve learned from every single one, although with some, I learned more ‘don’ts’ than ‘do’s.’ But I’ve learned from all of them.

I would happily work with any of them again. I’ve had no problem focusing on their strengths and weaknesses, always trying to better myself tomorrow instead of blaming them for what they’re doing wrong. That’s my approach.

Margaret Jaouadi
Thank you, Silvana, for this candid and enlightening conversation. Your multicultural experience and deep regard for people inform and guide your leadership style. Undoubtedly, many managers will take a leaf out of your book to navigate these complex issues and lead authentically.

For a confidential chat about how Pacific International can assist you with your Talent Acquisitions and Diversity challenges, please contact Victoria Reyes or one of our Executive Search Consultants specialising in your sector.