Cross-Cultured Leadership

Hi All

In the previous post I covered 12 leadership styles. Being an expat in a country and company that employ more than 95 nationalities, working with different cultures, is not a choice, but a necessity.

"The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people" Woodrow Wilson 
With the march of globalisation and internationalisation growing louder and stronger, few successful businesses can now escape the need to work across cultures. Today's leaders need to be adapt at leading and managing people of different cultures; they need to listen to the "voices of the people" as well as understand what those voices may actually be telling them. This in essence is the crux of the challenge; when people perceive the world, communicate and view their leaders in different ways, the leader's ears may be ringing with misunderstood messages. The leader will come across cultural issues in many different guises. By way of illustrating the challenges of cross-cultural leadership this post will examine two interdependent issues: the role of a leader and communication.

Today's businesses are complex entities. However, one fundamental principle of success remains constant - the need for communication. Communication manifests in various forms, both verbal and non-verbal. One area of increasing concern for businesses is how to nurture and maintain effective intercultural communication between employees. As workforces become increasingly multicultural and businesses continue to expand overseas, the homogeneous workforce has become a thing of the past. Management today have to ensure that they are understanding and being understood across cultural boundaries.

Here is a link on Intercultural Communication

"…the single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture." Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall

These are some examples of how cultural ignorance can and does lead to negative (and much of the time humorous) consequences. The following cultural blunders are presented in order illustrate to people how crucial cultural awareness is in international business today. 

• Managers at one American company were startled when they discovered that the brand name of the cooking oil they were marketing in a Latin American country translated into Spanish as "Jackass Oil." 
• American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means "killer" and was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country. 
• A US telephone company tried to market its products and services to Latinos by showing a commercial in which a Latino wife tells her husband to call a friend, telling her they would be late for dinner. The commercial bombed since Latino women do not order their husbands around and their use of time would not require a call about lateness. 
• A cologne for men pictured a pastoral scene with a man and his dog. It failed in Islamic countries dogs are considered unclean. 
• Proctor & Gamble used a television commercial in Japan that was popular in Europe. The ad showed a woman bathing, her husband entering the bathroom and touching her. The Japanese considered this ad an invasion of privacy, inappropriate behaviour, and in very poor taste. 
• An American business person refused an offer of a cup of coffee from a Saudi businessman. Such a rejection is considered very rude and the business negotiations became stalled. 
• A Japanese manager in an American company was told to give critical feedback to a subordinate during a performance evaluation. Japanese use high context language and are uncomfortable giving direct feedback. It took the manager five tries before he could be direct enough to discuss the poor performance so that the American understood. 
• One company printed the "OK" finger sign on each page of its catalogue. In many parts of Latin America that is considered an obscene gesture. Six months of work were lost because they had to reprint all the catalogues. 

All jokes aside. The most important attribute a leader in a cross-cultural environment needs to be practising is...Empathy.

Having an acute awareness of the consequences and effects on your people of how you treat, lead or communicate to them, will be the determining factor of the success level you as leader have.

To practice effective empathy you must be willing to listen to understand, and adapt accordingly. This is not about your way or their way. It is about getting to the goal.

I cannot stress this enough. Being objective and having the goal top of mind is the easiest and most stress-less way to being a successful leader.