Dec 05

Effective Global Leadership – Have You Got What It Takes?

Cross Cultural Training, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management No Comments »

In an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world, we are constantly challenged when interacting with individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Cultural differences can create significant misunderstandings and conflict that can negatively impact global business. However, cultural differences can also be a resource that can add enormous value to any global organisation. Effective global leadership requires a global mindset. In other words, effective global leaders have the ability to identify and successfully manage and harness cultural differences.

Businessman making Presentation i Effective Global Leadership – Have You Got What It Takes?

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Global leaders who demonstrate a strong global mindset will be better equipped to maximise cultural differences and perspectives which can lead to increased opportunities, value and innovation in their teams. As Jim Turley points out in a recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek about the ‘new global mindset’, “Developing an inclusive culture where all team members can successfully bring their perspectives to the table becomes essential. The research is clear: Well-managed, diverse teams will outperform homogenous teams.” Global leaders who thrive at creating and leading culturally diverse teams around the globe will find greater long-term success.

What is a ‘global mindset’?

A global mindset is what global leaders need to make the most of the cross-cultural diversity of both the company and of the global market where it does business. A global mindset involves three key characteristics: psychological, intellectual and social.

Someone with a global mindset will be passionate about diversity, enthusiastic about new adventures and capable of adapting in unfamiliar global environments. This motivation to try new things is helped by their existing intellect and knowledge of the cultures they are operating in as well as their interest and ability to constantly learn more about them.

Leaders with a global mindset have the ability to look at things from other perspectives and adapt their behaviour accordingly. This in turn helps them to effectively interact with culturally and linguistically different people through actively listening, showing them respect and empathy and building trust.

How do you develop a global mindset?

International exposure, internal mentoring programmes and cross cultural training courses like Effective Global Leadership all contribute to the development of a global mindset. Here are just a few ways you can develop a broader global mindset:

  • International exposure can be achieved through personal research on cultural subjects and world economic and political issues. Reading international newspapers, speaking to international counterparts and keeping updated about global issues can help you to better understand differences across cultures.
  • Short and long-term international travel can be a great way to develop a better understanding of the world. Keep your eyes open for new projects at work where you could get involved with colleagues or counterparts from other cultures. Organisations with a matrix structure or a wide global presence usually have plenty of opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration. Make sure the right people know you are interested in getting involved, either through formal or informal channels, and you never know what may come along.
  • Internal mentoring programmes are also a great way to get advice and tips for expanding your global mindset. Moreover, they provide you with the chance of meeting other leaders acting in a global environment who can share inspiring experiences that you can learn from.
  • A cross-cultural training course like Effective Global Leadership can also help you to develop the skills you need and build relationships with people in international roles. An Effective Global Leadership course gives you opportunities to develop your cultural knowledge and understanding to help you to face any cross-cultural challenge more effectively.

Stay ahead of the game and get involved at a more competitive level by working on developing your global mindset little by little. The combination of informal initiatives that take a few minutes a day with more formalised methods such as training or a mentoring programme can enable you to create a world of global opportunities!

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2011

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Aug 01

Becoming an Internationalist – Developing Cross Cultural Awareness

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According to BBC World News, internationalists are a cosmopolitan group of global citizens with an international outlook and a deep cross cultural awareness.  Internationalists tend to be very successful in business, largely due to their global understanding of the world and cross-cultural leadership skills.

To give you a better idea of what an internationalist might look like let’s take a look at Tom.

Globe Kasia i Becoming an Internationalist Developing Cross Cultural Awareness

© istockphoto.com/(Kasia)

Tom was born in the UK, raised in France and studied in Mexico. At the age of 37, Tom speaks English, French and Spanish fluently. Tom has an important role as a manager in an international company and spends a lot of time travelling around the world for business and leisure. Tom’s exposure and familiarity with many different cultures has helped him to develop a high level of cross cultural awareness which helps him do business successfully around the world.

When he travels, Tom values experiencing and discovering different values and traditions. He shows enormous respect towards the new cultures he visits and always tries to understand and appreciate the local rites rather than impose his own culture and vision of the world. Tom actively seeks dialogue with locals and is not afraid to experience local food and customs. Keen to learn and adapt to as many situations as he can, Tom has a truly global mindset. In other words, Tom is acutely aware of global issues and how geopolitical and cultural forces impact international business.

Tom is an important decision maker and has developed strong cross-cultural negotiation and influencing skills through his various experiences where he has brilliantly succeeded. Indeed, his global state of mind helps him to value diversity and seek people from different cultures and backgrounds rather than people similar to himself.

Tom is an early adopter and always tries to have the latest technology that help him to stay connected to the world. Tom’s smartphone, iPad and laptop all help him to actively follow international media. Through reading news magazines and newspapers, watching news channels in hotel rooms and in-flight entertainment on planes such as CNN International and BBC World News, Tom stays up-to-date with the latest happenings in the global arena.

Tom and his wife Liz are working hard to ensure that their children develop a similar global mindset and awareness and openness to different cultures by speaking to them in different languages and taking them on trips around the world.

Tom is fairly unique in his ability to adapt to other cultures and sees the world through a truly global lens, however with some effort, anyone can develop the skills required to be effective in an international environment. Cross cultural awareness training is one way people can improve their international skills. Volunteering to manage international projects, travelling to different countries on holiday and speaking to people from different cultures within your organisation can all help you to work more effectively internationally.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2011

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May 09

Cultural Intelligence: A Necessity for Working Effectively across Cultures

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

Doing business with colleagues, clients and partners from around the globe is now commonplace for many professionals. While some of us frequently travel abroad to do business with colleagues in a different cultural background on a daily basis, others are communicating with international counterparts by phone, email or other virtual platforms.  Working effectively across cultures, whether face-to-face or virtually, requires a high level of cultural intelligence.

Business Meeting 13 track5 i Cultural Intelligence: A Necessity for Working Effectively across Cultures

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Cultural intelligence has been defined in many ways over the years, but in simple terms it is the ability to interact confidently and effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds on a social and professional level.

Cultural intelligence requires being aware of your own culture as well as cultural differences in the way that others behave and think. Many individuals, though not all, who have extensive experience travelling and working with other cultures often become “global chameleons” and develop a high level of cultural intelligence. Through experience, intercultural training initiatives and cross-cultural interactions, global chameleons are people who have learned to effectively adapt their behaviour and attitudes instinctively when working across cultures.

According to Joo-Seng Tan, Director of the Centre for Cultural Intelligence at the Nanyang Business School in Singapore, there are three key steps to developing cultural intelligence:

1. Think about culture

2. Be motivated to change your behaviour

3. Act in an appropriate way

Although these three steps seem pretty straight forward, they require a specific set of cross-cultural skills and attitudes which can be difficult to develop on your own. Most of us simply lack the knowledge to do so and, as we all know, motivating yourself can be quite hard too. Participating in a cross-cultural awareness course like Working Effectively across Cultures can help you work through these three steps and others to develop the level of cultural intelligence you require in your unique international role.

Experienced cross-cultural experts will not only tell you more about different cultural values, such as how attitudes to time, tasks or risk might impact your working relationships, but they will also help you to reflect about your own cultural identity to increase your self-awareness. By sharing with you anecdotes and first hand experiences and discussing your own, they will help you to identify differences and similarities between cultures so that you start to understand how to respond appropriately in each cultural context.

Cultural intelligence is important for anyone working across cultures, but it is particularly beneficial for international managers and global business leaders. Culturally intelligent managers are able to see how their employees behave in different cultural settings and understand what they expect. Culturally intelligent managers have the ability, as Tan suggests, to “create a new mental framework for understanding what they experience”, which allows them to consider how working practices and communication styles could be different when working across cultures. A high level of cultural intelligence helps them to create a positive environment, harness team member’s skills and develop high performing teams that will deliver the best results when working across cultures.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2011

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Nov 30

Cultural Sensitivity Training – Helping your Company to Work Successfully across Cultures

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Working across cultures is commonly seen as a challenging experience, with many obstacles and differences often hindering progress or success. Even the best employees can fail when they are operating outside their usual and familiar cultural context. Working successfully across cultures does not have to be challenging, however, especially if you have the right intercultural knowledge, support and cultural sensitivity training. There are several examples of successful international managers who have proven that it is possible to succeed in a cross cultural context.

Business Meeting 13 track5 i Cultural Sensitivity Training – Helping your Company to Work Successfully across Cultures

© istockphoto.com/ Track 5

Is there some kind of “secret recipe” to ensure this success? Schools of global management like Thunderbird University claim that a global mindset increases the cultural sensitivity of international managers, allowing them to excel regardless of the culture they are dealing with. But what exactly do we mean by “cultural sensitivity”?

Anyone with a high level of cultural sensitivity will adapt more easily and effectively to the values, attitudes and communication styles of another culture. With a high level of cultural sensitivity, international managers or members of international teams are able to better understand and harness the potential of their multicultural team. Cultural sensitivity can help anyone working across cultures recognise what motivates people in that culture and know how to reward performance while avoiding cultural faux pas and incidents that could put the cohesion and success of the team at risk.

Cultural sensitivity can also be useful for companies when it comes to selling to or making strategic decisions with organisations or individuals from a different culture. Many western brands have shown a terrible lack of cultural sensitivity when they tried to do business across cultures. When Pepsi used light blue for its product packaging in South East Asia, for instance, they did not realise that light blue was actually the colour of mourning in that specific culture so sales decreased and Pepsi lost money changing their marketing campaign. Providing cultural sensitivity training to the Pepsi team responsible for this new branding could have helped avoid a costly and unnecessary situation.

Developing cultural sensitivity can take time but it can be increased through experience working across cultures.  Employees working across cultures can benefit immensely from cultural sensitivity training courses which will give them a solid cross cultural framework and skills to help them to avoid cultural pitfalls and misunderstandings. The combination of international exposure and cultural sensitivity training will give anyone working across cultures the skills they need to reach their full potential in any cultural environment.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

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Aug 12

The Importance of a Global Mindset for Success Overseas

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

In the current worldwide economic situation, being culturally aware and interculturally competent is a must for success in this highly competitive international market. Successful business people from all over the world are competing for top positions in international organisations. Being business savvy and having a good track record at home is no longer enough to secure the best roles in the global arena.

Globe Kasia i The Importance of a Global Mindset for Success Overseas

© istockphoto.com/ Kasia

According to new research published by the Harvard Business Review, a ‘global mindset’ is what candidates need to be successful in a global role in which they will need to be capable of adjusting to different environments and have the ability to work effectively with international colleagues. This ‘global mindset’ is defined as having three key elements: intellectual, psychological, and social capital.

Looking at how two people, one with and one without a global mindset, deal with cultural difference and international situations can give us a very good idea of how important having a global mindset is for anyone in a global role.

Alan, a promising employee at a US-based manufacturer was sent to Beijing as general manager for consumer products. He was excited by the challenge and looked forward to helping his company through a difficult period which was due to internal tensions that were interfering with the growth of the company. Before he started his new role he researched Chinese culture and read that the Chinese tend to think collectively and prioritise the interests of the group. As he started his work in China he emphasised the need for cooperation and teamwork amongst his employees in order to improve the situation and achieve the desired results.

After 60 days however there were no visible improvements and Alan found that although his employees had agreed to all of his suggestions, they had not committed to any specific action and were also not holding anyone accountable for the lack of improvements. Alan soon started to lose confidence in his abilities, took a dislike to Chinese food and Chinese culture and ended up returning to the US before the end of his international assignment in China costing the company wasted time and money.

Debra, Alan’s colleague, had a completely different experience when she was sent to Sao Paulo under similar circumstances. She was expected to turn around operations affected by low productivity and poor staff morale in a short timeframe. Unlike Alan, Debra was born in Venezuela to US military parents, had travelled extensively throughout her life and was fluent in several languages. Debra quickly embraced her new position and sought input from the local staff about what needed to be done to improve productivity. She did her research and took every opportunity she could to reach out to her staff. Within months, her project was back on the right track.

So although Debra’s background was more international than Alan’s, why were their experiences so different?

According to experts, the intellectual, psychological and social capitals that make up a ‘global mindset’ are each comprised of three key attributes that can guarantee organisations that their assignees are ready and likely to succeed in an international assignment. These attributes are:

Intellectual Capital: Global business savvy, cognitive complexity and a cosmopolitan outlook.

Psychological Capital: Passion for diversity, thirst for adventure and self-assurance.

Social Capital: Intercultural empathy, interpersonal impact and diplomacy.

Debra’s previous experiences abroad and her knowledge of other languages and cultures helped her to better understand her new employees and how she needed to deal with them in order to increase staff morale, confidence and productivity. She possessed, apart from talent, the ‘global mindset’ required for the international assignment set by her company. While Alan was talented as well, his skills weren’t as transferable to another culture given his lack of previous exposure to an international environment.

Debra was born into a different culture and had international experiences from an earlier age than Alan. However, the skills necessary for success in international assignments are not necessarily skills you are born with but can be acquired through cross cultural awareness training and international exposure.

Cultural awareness training programmes can equip you with the relevant tools and strategies to communicate efficiently with foreign counterparts and reduce the stress coming from a new and international context. They can also help you to adapt your management styles and understand the motivation factors and expectations of your new counterparts, ensuring a good working atmosphere. Getting familiar with their cultural values will also help you to decipher their behaviours and thus avoid critical incidents which can jeopardise a project or a profitable business opportunity.

Communicaid’s specialist courses such as cultural training for Relocation, Managing International Teamsor Effective Global Leadership can provide you and your company the necessary knowledge and skills required to thrive in the international arena. By being culturally aware and prepared to work across different cultures, employees of international organisations who posses this ‘global mindset’ are invaluable assets to their company, capable of increasing their chances of success and of profitable international assignments.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

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