Bob Dignen gives five more tips on communicating across borders; if you missed the first five, you can read them here.
#6 Invest in dialogue
I once asked a Swedish CEO about how he communicated internationally. He answered that he used what he called an ‘interactive style’, always finishing what he said, which he kept short, with a short question ‘What do you think?’ Why? He thought it showed explicit respect and interest to hear the other person’s opinion. He also thought that it made sure that the other person stayed on topic and didn’t ignore what he’d said. Erik is interesting because he is one of the few people I have met who consciously does something with his communication style to make dialogue happen. Most conversations look to me like a kind of collective monologue with few listening to few. Think like Erik and start asking more questions to make dialogue work.
#7 Manage emotions
Working internationally is full of frustrations, particularly when having to cooperate with people who have different values, interests and priorities. At regular intervals, even the most seasoned professional allows irritation or anger to get in way of listening and, eventually, relationships. Learning to recognise the rise of negative emotion and to re-direct it towards curiosity and engagement with others’ ideas and needs is one of your most important skills as an international professional.
#8 Distrust trust
I was speaking to a client last week about his dilemma working with colleagues in Hungary – to trust or not to trust. He was semi-convinced that they were going to fail – they had other priorities, not the commitment to the task needed etc. – but he wanted to trust and practise delegation as a matter of principle. His solution? He limited the task, trusted once, and watched what happened. In the end his Hungarian leadership team failed to deliver and so he was content to escalate the issue to more senior local management to force greater attention on the task. Reflect on where you need to draw the boundaries between trust and compliance with your network.
#9 Become responsible
This was the mantra of a major internal training programme which was run by a top five financial services organisation. The company recognised that it was imperfect: processes too complex, major projects underfunded, roles poorly defined, unclear lines of authority. But it was a monolith and needed time to mature. In the meantime, people who blamed others and criticised the organisation produced paralysis and damaged the customer experience. The message of the training – become responsible, fill in the gaps of the organisation, support colleagues who are inexperienced and lacking competence; become an organisational architect and build international efficiency. Your company needs you. The CEO at the highest level endorsed this. To him the critical success factor for his organisation was technical ability complemented by the right attitude.
#10 Don’t follow tips
I once asked a participant at the end of a seminar on all of this ‘What do you think?’ He looked at me with a grin and said ‘The difference between you and me is that you think.’ And that was it exactly. The point is not to know, not to be certain, not to trust guidelines and tips. The real success factor is awareness, listening, testing of the situation and the flexibility to adapt to given circumstances. It’s a fuzzy message partly, but then when you look at the perilous state today, would you expect anything more concrete?