A Tool for Leveraging Personal, Corporate and Global Business Success
Expatriate employees often find themselves in the following situation:
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Communication styles that worked in their home country are now ineffective.
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Lack of opportunity for systematic ongoing education:
- Employees cannot ask for help from local employees (loss of face)
- Employees cannot ask for help from the home office (lack of reference)
In these circumstances, Expats often turn to the expat community in the host country for anecdotal advice on how to solve "the problem".
But there are better ways for Expatriates to work through the challenges: Executive Intercultural Coaching.
Phone-based and on a weekly basis, coaching is a tool for performance enhancement that is a growing phenomenon in organizations.
Coaching’s purpose is to facilitate the realization of potential for competent and successful individuals. Fundamentally, coaching assumes that every individual is capable of greater performance than she or he is already achieving, and it seeks to unleash that potential through a process of probing questioning and active, reflective listening.
Coaching is always appropriate. Even the most successful performers and teams continue to profit from coaching, whether in sports, the performing arts, or business. Coaching provides ongoing opportunity for self-reflection in a supportive environment without an external agenda. It allows for unbiased examination of current conditions, goal setting, and creating action plans - always with someone there to ask the tough questions, affirm commitment to action, and monitor results.
Intercultural coaching makes a further assumption that even highly competent performers when entering a new cultural environment need to become aware of new conditions and rules for global business success. Some of the changes are obvious and easily assimilated; others are subtle and difficult to become aware of, let alone master. With respect to the new cultural playing field the coach offers a competent, conscious understanding of the local culture, some knowledge of the “coachee’s” culture, and a professional understanding of the challenges, obstacles and strategies for bridging cultural differences. With the intercultural coach, the coachee can explore the subtleties of the new environment, and learn to distinguish between cultural, professional and personal challenges.
Intercultural coaching establishes the conditions for continuous improvement that can help corporate managers be successful in diverse cultures. Learning appropriate behaviors can help in international sales, mergers and acquisitions, conflict negotiations, general management, and global leadership. It is fast becoming the tool of choice for the global executive. IOR has competent intercultural coaches available to help your company succeed in working effectively across borders.
DOUGLAS STUART, Ph. D. Director of Intercultural Training. Dr. Stuart oversees the quality of training program design and delivery, and is engaged in recruiting and training cultural trainers for IOR Global Services commitments around the globe. Programs under his direction include group business programs, cultural relocation programs, re-entry programs. Doug is increasingly engaged in intercultural executive coaching, as a adjunct to the intercultural training.
Prior to joining IOR, Dr. Stuart served as an educational specialist in Andersen Worldwide’s Performance Consulting group at the Center for Professional Education. Dr. Stuart’s background in international education includes positions as assistant professor of humanities at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois, and senior instructor at the Economics Institute of the University of Colorado, Boulder,
Doug Stuart is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and other professional events. His papers have been published in a variety of professional journals. Dr. Stuart’s recent paper commissioned by SHRM titled “Assessment Instruments for the Global Workforce” reflects the growing importance associated with the use of tools in the selection and evaluation of employees and leadership candidates in meeting the global competitive challenge. These instruments seek to answer the fundamental question – “what factors, beyond technical competence, predict success in the global business environment”? Some of the factors are and have been relevant in the success momentum within the US toward more cultural inclusion within the workforce. But US-styled diversity initiatives fall short when dealing with the larger multiculturalism constituting today’s global workforce. The diversity we have experienced in the US is but a sojourn on a continuum – a never ending journey.
