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????
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????
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
3:55 pm
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