Global leadership and cultural sensitivity

It is Day 2 of the elective and I write this post during the lunch break. It continues to get better…..
In this first half day I have had enough learning to write this posting. We saw a video of a team of 8 international managers in a multicultural team travelling to Botswana in Africa on an assignment. Interestingly the mix of these managers was quite typical of an international surrounding. The team comprised of 4 managers from commercial sector such as Unilever, HP, BP and the other 4 were from public sector such as British Red Cross and British Council. The part 2 of the video then gave an analysis of their adventure and the learning's that can be observed from this. Savour a few:
- we need to face and manage ambiguity
- we all have our stereotypes
- we search for similarities which can be blinding
- there would be people in the team who will be working in their non-native language and it can become a major obstacle in sharing their thoughts
But the best part of the learning needs to be shared through a narration of what happened in one incident. Here goes:
The team was out in the city and one project being evaluated was the building of a bus stop in a village. Here was this task orientated international manager who was interviewing some senior members in the society and he asked, "Why do you need this bus stop?" This question was translated into their native language by an interpreter and the answer was relayed back to this manager.
Ok. The incident is over. So what was so specific about this question, you may wonder. It was a perfectly legitimate question. After all, aren't we taught to ask the right questions before giving solutions?
So, here comes the learning specifically relevant to an international, global manager: While the senior member did answer the question, he was grossly offended.
While interacting with people from another culture, the reaction to you way of approaching the assignment can be quite a shocker. What the manager did not realize was that he was talking to a person who belonged to a society that possibly was more "relationship orientated" than "task orientated". And in a relationship orientated culture, you don't start asking task orientated questions!
It would have been more effective if this manager could have squatted on the floor, patted the pet dog of this native, asked him about the rain that poured yesterday or something. In other words, before you approach the task, approach the person.
Many readers may react to this with "What nonsense!!" But before you react, stop yourself and think again. That is exactly what a global manager and leader is expected to be aware of. Is this not the true example of what cultural sensitivity means?
On an ending quote, another point struck me this morning. We all refer to the South East Asia as "Far East". But it is far from where????

What on Earth is happening!!!

Whosoever told me that Term 3 would be lighter than the first two was simply playing a joke on me. Agreed that we choose our electives; also agreed that some electives are just two day affairs. But easy? No way!
Suddenly, we all have become experts at using outlook calendar. Not only are we juggling with our respective lectures, we are all spread around in different teams for different electives and trying to work on respective assignments. And add to all this chaos the full time job of searching for a job.
While I am going through the pains, you can only imagine my schedule of Term 3. Let me share a sample picture. To begin with, I am lucky enough to be involved in just two teams currently. One is a six member team working on the Business Check Up project and the other is a seven member team working on the group report for Being a Director (BAD). And none of the other members in thee two teams are the same. Add to this a list of my individual assignments - report on Supply Chain Management, log book on Personal Awareness, readings for the lecture on Business Law tomorrow, preparation for the Strategy exam next week and loads of stuff to read for my independent project with Unilever. And today evening I accepted another important assignment along with yet another completely new team of 7. An assignment which will continue till end July and is not part of the MBA course; an assignment where I and a few other volunteers will try to capture our memories of Cranfield into a life long memento.
I think I AM CRAZY.
But the strange part is that I am consciously taking such decisions. I am stretching myself to the hilt. Why?
Simple reason - this year happens only once for me. It is the safest environment to test myself. I am not competing with anyone else except myself. So even if I fumble, I will still learn. I am trying to unfold myself and find out my own abilities and limitations. And I am also beginning to dread the day when I will have to leave this place that I am madly in love with.

What is good about BAD?

Confused? Here is a peek into an elective that ran for over two days and gave learning's that will last for well….decades at least.
The elective was Being a Director (BAD) and Murray Steele - Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management was steering it. My guess is that almost all MBA's, with just a few exceptions, aspire to become a director in a firm at some point of time in future. Think again! Was the message I received from this elective. Not that being a director is a bad thing, it is just that most students like me tend to miss out on the not so known aspects about the life of a Director. The objective of this elective was exactly that - show us the real face of such a role.
The elective was introduced to us in what I called an "evening show" - starting at 1830 hours. This Day 1 started with a quick introduction by Murray Steele and then inviting the guest speaker for the evening, Mr Paul Lee - Associate Director with Hermes UK. His session covered the Board governance, remuneration and a few other aspects about Directorship. We were also introduced to Higgs Review - the corporate governance code. On Day 2 we discussed a case study on Corporate Governance and the principles applicable. In the second half of the day we had another guest speaker - Mr Stephen Kimbell - partner in one of the best legal firms and corporate deal arrangers. This case revolved around a real example in which Stephen was personally involved. It was a very unusual case involving many angles to the story that like many others I became highly engrossed in absorbing the information that was coming our way. The case covered the legal aspects of being a director. This session and the case continued on Day 3 morning.
The first half of Day 3 also covered exit strategies and due diligence. It was as if the entire class had been thinking about the fascinating case that involved a millionaire and his Thai mistress who did shady deals. There were questions galore for Stephen to answer to. After this thoroughly enjoyable session, we were joined by a Cranfield alum - Thomas Lane (MBA 1997). Thomas is a turnaround professional who conducts financial and operational restructuring to stabilise businesses and help them improve performance. His session too, was an intriguing session and gave lots of insights. I am sure a few of us even started thinking this as a potential career, specially where such a profession is in its nascent stages.
The last session of the day and the course was taken by Murray which covered removing directors and the roles and responsibilities of Non executive directors.
The elective ended with a very appreciative class of students asking for more. This truly, was a top class course and now we have to work in self selected teams to write a group report to be submitted within next 4 weeks.