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Working in an international environment is challenging in that diverse cultures have differing communication styles, ways of doing things and ideas about how business should be conducted. Below are some examples of the many issues which crop up when different cultures interact in the business environment. At Home Abroad's cross cultural solutions are tailor made to focus on the specific challenges that your business is facing. We enable you to become a more effective intercultural communicator and negotiator.
Forcing a decision
You're leading a team of Dutch, reporting to a British manager and have a deadline to decide on an implementation technique. Discussions with the Dutch team appear to be going around in circles and are nowhere near reaching a conclusion. As manager and with the deadline approaching you make a decision and inform the team. They suddenly become quite negative and bombard you with reasons why it won't work.
A deal lost
You're selling a new product to an American company. You've prepared your arguments well and expect that a number of meetings will be needed before a decision is made. You are pleasantly surprised when after 30 mins a decision is reached to go for your product. You make contact again one week later when you are back in your home country to send the contract only to discover that they have gone for a different supplier.
Unreliable Suppliers
You have an Italian supplier who never sends goods on time. The more you try to enforce deadlines with threat of neglect of contract the more delay the goods seem to have.
Building Relationships
You have a first face-to-face meeting with a potential business partner from Saudi Arabia. You have a busy schedule and want to get straight down to business however your counterpart seems more interested in small talk than doing business.
(In) Effective Teams
You lead a multicultural team and have noticed that your team appears to have informal subgroups based on nationality. There is friction between the different cultures leading to ineffectiveness in team output.
Confusing communication styles
You remotely manage a team of Japanese who appear very eager to work hard and please. You've noticed however that the answer to everything seems to be "yes" but they do not always follow up as agreed. Subsequent discussions yield more "yes" answers which are also not followed up.
Who's the boss?
Your manager seems to be trying to put more effort into being friends with you than giving you the direction and input you need to carry out your responsibilities. You don't understand what expectations she has of you.
The list is endless. Contact us now to find out how At Home Abroad can support you.
Forcing a decision
You're leading a team of Dutch, reporting to a British manager and have a deadline to decide on an implementation technique. Discussions with the Dutch team appear to be going around in circles and are nowhere near reaching a conclusion. As manager and with the deadline approaching you make a decision and inform the team. They suddenly become quite negative and bombard you with reasons why it won't work.
A deal lost
You're selling a new product to an American company. You've prepared your arguments well and expect that a number of meetings will be needed before a decision is made. You are pleasantly surprised when after 30 mins a decision is reached to go for your product. You make contact again one week later when you are back in your home country to send the contract only to discover that they have gone for a different supplier.
Unreliable Suppliers
You have an Italian supplier who never sends goods on time. The more you try to enforce deadlines with threat of neglect of contract the more delay the goods seem to have.
Building Relationships
You have a first face-to-face meeting with a potential business partner from Saudi Arabia. You have a busy schedule and want to get straight down to business however your counterpart seems more interested in small talk than doing business.
(In) Effective Teams
You lead a multicultural team and have noticed that your team appears to have informal subgroups based on nationality. There is friction between the different cultures leading to ineffectiveness in team output.
Confusing communication styles
You remotely manage a team of Japanese who appear very eager to work hard and please. You've noticed however that the answer to everything seems to be "yes" but they do not always follow up as agreed. Subsequent discussions yield more "yes" answers which are also not followed up.
Who's the boss?
Your manager seems to be trying to put more effort into being friends with you than giving you the direction and input you need to carry out your responsibilities. You don't understand what expectations she has of you.
The list is endless. Contact us now to find out how At Home Abroad can support you.
All images by Martha Vieira Costa
