As a global leader, your employees will need you to be the unifying force that tran­scends cultural differ­ences. It’s imper­a­tive that those in senior lead­er­ship posi­tions are equipped to fulfill their role effec­tively in this regard. By investing in this, global leaders set their teams up to succeed in working harmo­niously together. 

Read on for 5 tips you can use to hone your skills as a global leader and become ‘cultur­ally competent’.

What are Cultural Differences?

To define cultural differ­ences, we must first define what culture is. Samovar and Porter (1994) define culture as:

“…the cumu­la­tive deposit of knowl­edge, expe­ri­ence, beliefs, values, atti­tudes, mean­ings, hier­ar­chies, reli­gion, notions of time, roles, spatial rela­tions, concepts of the universe, and mate­rial objects and posses­sions acquired by a group of people…”

Cultural differ­ences are the vari­a­tions that you get within these accu­mu­lated deposits of knowl­edge, notions and values held by the people that you manage. The most successful corpo­rate leaders take these cultural differ­ences and make it a part of their manage­ment tech­nique to under­stand how these nuances, created by culture, affect the team. By doing this, global leaders achieve what’s known as cultural compe­tence; the art of relating to people that do not share your culture.

So how do you sharpen those skills and become cultur­ally competent?

Let’s have a look at 5 strate­gies that will help you handle cultural differ­ences as a global leader.

1. Under­stand How Culture Affects Your Work and the Work of Others

All of us have been shaped by our expe­ri­ences and our envi­ron­ments. It inevitably impacts our indi­vidual work ethics, our preferred commu­ni­ca­tion styles and the way we handle rela­tion­ships. We then add orga­ni­za­tional culture to that already existing foun­da­tion and can easily assume that indi­vidual bias is taken out of it. That is not always the case. 

Often we are guilty of projecting our preferred style of working onto our teams, expecting them to conform in all things to meet our expec­ta­tions. But this is where we need to go on a little journey of self-discovery. How has your culture impacted the way you work? Do you prefer team­work or lone working? Do you have a direct style of commu­ni­cating or are you much more subtle? What are your views on things like time?

Once you’ve done that exer­cise and you under­stand the impact your own cultural bias has on you, it stands to reason that you can expect that your employees will be affected by their own cultural bias. 

It seems like wisdom then, to factor that into how you handle cultural differ­ences; to acknowl­edge that we’re all affected by them for good (or other­wise) and make room for it in work life.

2. Build your manage­ment style portfolio

Once you’ve under­stood a little about how culture impacts the way that people work, it’s time to diver­sify your manage­ment styles. To get to a point where you can handle cultural differ­ences with effort­less grace, you need to be able to master different styles of management. 

We see it all the time in busi­ness. Mcdonald’s, for example, doesn’t present the same menu in every country. You can expect a similar taste and a similar stan­dard across all regions, but the prod­ucts differ. In other words, the iden­tity remains consis­tent but the presen­ta­tion is different depending on the audi­ence. As a global leader, be prepared to do the same.

There are over 25 different manage­ment styles that are preva­lent in the corpo­rate world today. The ones that you choose will hugely depend on company culture, your own person­ality and the makeup of your team. Here are the most common categories.

• Author­i­tarian Manage­ment — highly struc­tured style with an element of distrust towards subor­di­nates. In today’s more collab­o­ra­tive climate, this style is becoming increas­ingly unpop­ular as we realise that autonomy and trust contribute to increased employee owner­ship and engage­ment. Never­the­less, it is a style we come across quite frequently. Useful in some cases when a company chooses to make a signif­i­cant change that is met with high levels of resistance.
• Extro­verted Manage­ment - Typi­cally a very collab­o­ra­tive, compas­sionate style of lead­er­ship. Authority is often devolved by managers back to team members to increase levels of input and autonomy. The trans­for­ma­tional lead­er­ship style falls under this cate­gory. Useful for projects that require high levels of problem solving and innovation.
• Admin­is­tra­tive Manage­ment - A very process-driven style of manage­ment, orderly in its approach and quite risk averse. Great if the goal is to main­tain a very specific stan­dard. Useful in situ­a­tions where the margins for error must be very small, for example when building safety regulations.
• Demo­c­ratic Manage­ment — High feed­back manage­ment style with a pref­er­ence for a committee-style approach when making deci­sions. Useful in situ­a­tions where authority struc­ture is perceived as being quite flat and great for getting employee buy-in for new ideas.
• Laissez- Faire Manage­ment — A very ‘hands-off’ approach to manage­ment that gives employees a greater degree of autonomy. Gener­ally used in sales or a results-driven environment.
• Cultural Manage­ment — A manage­ment style that seeks to set expec­ta­tions on work prac­tices right at the start with very little discus­sion after the fact; “it is what it is”. Can be useful when personal pref­er­ence needs to be taken out of the situation.

You’ll grav­i­tate towards one or two of these manage­ment styles natu­rally but it’s handy to keep an aware­ness of the other styles that exist. Have them in your toolbox to apply when you need them. 

Different projects and different teams will require a different manage­ment style. As a global leader, this will give you a really high level of versa­tility when handling cultural differences.

3. Accom­mo­date for Cultural Differ­ences in a Prac­tical Way

As a global leader, you may be respon­sible for managing teams that cover geograph­ical regions. There will be customs that different teams wish to observe. A lovely touch as a manager is to be flex­ible with little things like cultur­ally signif­i­cant holi­days or events. Make room for people to express them­selves and their cultures where you can. 

Use this method to allow for solu­tions that really affect the bottom line. Coca Cola’s simple marketing campaign unified whole nations as people flocked to find their name on a bottle of Coca Cola across the world. Such a simple cultural differ­ence found in people’s names had a profound impact on the Coca Cola brand. To this day, the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign is cited as one of the most successful marketing campaigns in Coca Cola history. 

So be open-minded and don’t be afraid to accom­mo­date cultural differ­ences as one of the avail­able resources in your manage­ment armoury.

4. Be an Effec­tive Communicator

We have discussed different ways to get your team to commu­ni­cate effec­tively, but this won’t mean a lot if you don’t lead by example. You must be an ambas­sador when it comes to using effec­tive commu­ni­ca­tion tech­niques. Here’s a reminder of some quick pointers to be an effec­tive commu­ni­cator as a global leader.

1. Use universal language

There’s a high like­li­hood that you’ll be working with people that don’t speak the company language as a first language. They may be fluent, but all the local dialects and phrases might hinder the clear delivery of your request. 

2. Adjust the speed of your speech to suit the audience

Speaking to a native speaker of the company language is not the same as speaking to someone who knows the company language as a second, third or fourth language. You may also need to slow down a little; you can see how self-aware­ness plays a huge part in mastering commu­ni­ca­tion tech­niques. We often do not realise how fast we speak. So don’t be afraid to slow it down.

A word of warning here: Don’t be patro­n­ising. For example, don’t start shouting in the hopes you’ll be under­stood more clearly. Don’t speak so slowly that you insult the intel­li­gence of the listener. The best thing to do is to aim to speak clearly and effi­ciently and…

3. Make sure that you have been understood

Some people learn better through direct commu­ni­ca­tion. No frills, no illus­tra­tions or exam­ples required. They want hard facts and hard figures and need no embell­ish­ment. Other cultures are rich in their ability to tell stories and so some of your profes­sional peers and team members do better with exam­ples and stories to back up what you want to communicate. 

If creative story-telling isn’t your thing, find existing exam­ples that illus­trate your point. Like­wise, if a direct, data-driven style of commu­ni­ca­tion is like a foreign language to you, find a more direct commu­ni­cator and see how they do it. When you have a variety of different people to manage, you’ll prob­ably use both styles; it’s best to be as comfort­able with both as you can be.

5. Be Obser­vant and Ask Plenty of Questions

Build a compre­hen­sive picture of the cultural differ­ences within your team. As a leader, that infor­ma­tion is invalu­able because it provides the insight you need to moti­vate your employees. It also helps you to know how best to allo­cate your resources. 

As you learn about other cultures, be sure to keep an open mind; there will defi­nitely be things that you don’t neces­sarily agree with or prac­tices that don’t fit the company culture — and that’s okay. But where you can accom­mo­date for the differ­ences, give it a chance! It might not be what you’re used to, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Ask lots of ques­tions to under­stand how your people view work and busi­ness prac­tices. If your line of work falls into sales and following up leads to generate new revenue, this is espe­cially impor­tant. Some cultures make deci­sions more slowly and consider a range of different factors. Other cultures are more open to making deci­sions at a faster pace. Some cultures are more risk-averse and other less so. That means that there will be certain people in your team that might be better suited to certain projects than others or will complete an element of a project that’s better aligned with company policy. 

To conclude…

In summary, handling cultural differ­ences well is what sepa­rates good managers from great global managers. Here are your 5 take-away points that’ll help you as a global leader:

1. Under­stand how culture affects you and your team
2. Expand your manage­ment style port­folio to better adapt 
3. Accom­mo­date for cultural differences
4. Be an effec­tive commu­ni­ca­tion ambassador
5. Be obser­vant and ask plenty of ques­tions — empathy goes a long way.

Add these things to your profes­sional devel­op­ment and you’ll be aston­ished at the work you and your team will accomplish.

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