A leader has just moved to a new role in a different country and is struggling to make headway with his senior team and the local organisation as a whole.
THE ISSUE
Odin is an experienced head of operations within one of the world’s largest international organisations. He has just moved to a South American country from his homeland in Norway and is starting a new role there.
Odin has had many different and successful assignments over his 20-year career within Europe and America. Each move has come with support from the local internal relocation team / HR that has included all the key elements necessary for him to make a ‘soft landing’ in his new role and new country; these included information on neighbourhoods and school systems, temporary accommodation, moving expenses, support for the family, language training, visas, allowances, etc.
After six months in the role, Odin is still seriously struggling to gain any traction or results. He constantly complains to his seniors about his local team’s lack of responsiveness, reliability and responsibility. He is struggling to build effective relationships with them and only a few of them attend his meetings on time, on the right day. Few deadlines are met.
He is now becoming very impatient with them all (and himself), is seriously stressed, criticises himself for not being good enough and feels he just doesn’t belong there. What steps would you take to support him?
- Veronica Munro is an international executive coach and author
THE INTERVENTIONS
Nigel Cumberland
Founding partner, The Silk Road Partnership
Odin is in a place where he will benefit immensely from leadership coaching and mentoring. The initial session will enable him to offload what he is feeling and carrying within him, including stress and self-doubt.
He’ll be encouraged to explore if what he is currently feeling is truly unique, or if he has been here before. Any patterns would be explored further.
Cultural differences appear to be a key factor impacting Odin, and I would help him fully understand how his own expectations, values, norms and ways of working might be clashing/differing from that of his local colleagues. I’d ask what culture-related training he has had for this posting, and perhaps introduce him to a culture-focused assessment (eg, at www.Culturewizard.com).
The cultural differences may be triggering existing reactions in Odin that are much more evident in his current posting. I would help him understand the standards against which he is comparing himself and check if he is struggling to meet his own expectations.
We might explore if some of his values are no longer serving him, and he might welcome an opportunity to reset them. In conclusion I would:
• Support Odin to explore his needs and wishes to accept the way other people are, and how he might adapt.
• Discuss how he might open up with his team, introducing them to the topic of culture, and explore how they might all meet in the middle.
• Encourage Odin to find Northern European expatriate leaders who could share how they have made adaptations.
Florence Chabert d’Hieres
Founder, Coach4expat
The company has taken care of all the logistics relating to Odin’s move to South America. He has been successful in his other assignments and he and his organisation may not have seen a requirement for inter-cultural awareness and training.
However, it is obvious from the challenges he is facing that there is a strong need for this. In particular, there is a need for him to understand his own cultural profile and how this may work in the new, different culture.
Effectively, Odin has moved from a ‘low context culture’ (eg, European and American cultures) to a ‘high context culture’. What has worked for him in the past, in low context cultures, will not necessarily work here.
Key elements of a low context culture include being:
• Concise
• Straightforward
• Clear about deadlines
•Explicit
•Clarifying communication through repetition
Key elements of a high context culture (eg, South American countries) include being:
• Indirect
• Subtle
• Layered and nuanced
• Relationship led
• And having messages that are often implied but not plainly expressed.
In moving to a high context culture he will need to build trust with his team. To achieve this, he must get to know people through:
• Small weekly team meetings
• Get to know you sessions/one to ones
• Social gatherings, eg, BBQs
• Showing that he is human too
An experienced cross-cultural coach will help Odin adapt and integrate into his new environment through this inter-cultural training and awareness while on this international assignment.