(This interview first appeared on myinternationaladventure.com)
How you can be successful in your new job abroad is not just about your professional experience, skill set and previous accomplishments. Success in the global marketplace most often depends on how well you understand the impact that culture has on the way business is conducted in your new country to prepare for your new job adventure, you may have considered reading a “How to Do Business in…” a particular book. A good start, but not sufficient said Stuart Friedman, CEO of Global Context, a company that specializes in helping clients get results when working with other world cultures.
“Actually, those types of books may give you a false sense of confidence,” Friedman said. “You need to look much further into how the culture influences how people communicate, think and process the world. How the culture impacts all the ways in which people behave.” Friedman said the best approach to achieving success in your new job abroad is to have an in-depth understanding of how communication styles are influenced by the cultural values of a particular country. That is, how they decide what to say, what not to say, when to say it, how to say it and who it can or cannot be said to. “You should also know how culture affects the way people listen: What things are they listening for – such as accuracy, detail and high-level view – to be convinced, to grab their attention or convey trust?” Friedman said.
“You should acquire six primary skills to achieve success in your new job abroad,” Friedman explained. “First, you must understand the use of language. Second, their communication patterns and how they use the language within those patterns.
Third, what are their listening habits and what are they listening for and dismissing. Fourth, what are their objectives and expectations. Fifth, what is their decision-making style and what are their cultural tendencies on how they decide? And sixth, what is their leadership and organization behavior…do they lead, manage or delegate?
Friedman offered a good example of how communication patterns can influence job success in India. “Let us say you are in the midst of defining a development project in India. After several weeks of discussions, you are finally feeling that progress is being made. You have finalized all of the big issues and are now finishing the details of the project. Then the Indian team you are working with begins talking about drastic changes to the project. Changes that you think may undermine what has already been agreed upon. For most Americans, the idea that someone would bring up such changes at that late stage would signal inexperience or incompetence.
In India, a tumultuous society with historically poor infrastructure and lack of resources, they are influenced by jugaad, which literally means an improvised arrangement or work-around that has to be used because of lack of resources. When someone grows up in a society that essentially operates as organized chaos, they need to develop a jugaad mentality to succeed, and that means there is little if any stigma attached to suggesting last minute changes to a project.”
We asked Friedman if non-verbal communication is as important as verbal communication. “In some cultures, it is much more important than other cultures,” he said. “For example, many world cultures place a higher importance on social harmony and being diplomatic than being truthful with their words, and rely heavily on non-verbal cues to convey their real intent. In these high context cultures, it is imperative to recognize these codes and signals, know what they mean, and also use them effectively in return.”
“Conversely, if you are dealing with a low context culture where your words literally express thoughts and intent, then ‘what you hear is what was meant,’” Friedman said. “When Germans disagree, they are inclined to say they disagree. The Japanese, though, use a very high context approach, and the words they use will sound like many different things, but they will not sound like they disagree. In these situations, non-verbal cues are relied on to communicate the specifics.”
