It is a term that top executives, founders and entrepreneurs dream of. Whether in tech, sustainable energy, automation or ice-cream, a global footprint means bigger business, higher profits, greater success.
Being a global player is glamorous, it is challenging, it is gruelling - and without a doubt it is studded with surprises. Never has the need to be "agile" been more necessary than now. You are steering your business into the unknown territory of foreign markets and, perhaps even more difficult and fraught with peril, leading an international team.
As an executive in an internationally operative organisation, you are faced with new challenges from a variety of directions. If you are setting up offices abroad, you have to contend with local laws, customs and tax regulations; your products and services must be adaptable to new regions while keeping your signature features; you have to contend with competition from both global and local players, etc. At home, meanwhile, you are recruiting staff of all levels from around the world, and they will form new teams both on-site and remote. You may be one of that staff and wondering how to manage a team in which you are the foreigner. The possible scenarios are endless, but one element is constant: in global organisations, we need to communicate and connect with cultural sensitivity in order to achieve team cohesion and the path forward to success.
What skills do you need as a leader of international teams?
Intercultural Intelligence: Emotional, Social, Relational and Cultural
Intercultural intelligence comprises a set of skills that enable you to navigate the shifting waters of diversity in a complex world. These are the skills that will turn a diverse team into an inclusive one, where everyone feels validated and valued, regardless of where they come from.
Intercultural competence is the ability to recognise the way culture affects behaviour, and to adapt your communication style to your interlocutors - without giving up your own authenticity.
While some people might see the need for intercultural intelligence as an added burden to an already heavy load, research has found that if you embrace interculturalism as an opportunity, you will create better team cohesion and access parts of yourself that make you a better leader and global citizen.
Intercultural intelligence is based on interpersonal competences or "soft skills" and can be broken down into:
- Emotional intelligence: self-awareness and empathy. The taboo against emotions at the workplace has lifted. We recognise that everyone has emotions, even in the most technical activities. An effective leader understands that all employees, including top executives, come to work with their emotional make-up. Leaders do well to "check in" with themselves, to understand how they are reacting emotionally to the people and events around them, and how their emotions in turn affect others. This self-awareness leads to self-mastery: the ability to recognise, greet and control emotions as they arise. Self-awareness increases the awareness of other people's emotions, a skill called empathy. Even if we don't immediately know what they are or how they are culturally coded, we can be certain that emotions are active in other people. Empathy helps us put ourselves in other people's shoes, imagine what they are going through, and find where it connects us. This makes people feel understood and accepted, which enhances communication, connection and loyalty.
- Social intelligence is the skill that allows you to "read the room" – to quickly assess the mood and dynamics going on in a group – and behave in a socially appropriate manner. Many years ago, I walked in to the break-room at my work, where about 7 people had all fallen into a hush shortly before I entered. Everyone had rather sad faces. "Wow, it's quiet in here," I said. Heads shook, shoulders shrugged, eyes fell to the floor. So I quietly got my coffee and sat down, equally quiet - an unusual pose for someone as enthusiastic as me. Without realising it, I was exercising social intelligence - the ability to pick up on cues in the environment around me and adapt my behaviour accordingly. In increasingly complex social circumstances (e.g. the change from regional to international teams in a period of rapid growth; shareholder meetings of global corporations), this important skill enables you to sense the unspoken atmosphere, values and attitudes that emerge in organisations and teams, and to understand better your role in the group and your impact on people. You will be able to gauge the team's mood and communication style, and lead them effectively by leveraging the existing dynamic. Patience (it can take time for your rational brain to understand what your intuitive “gut” has told you about a situation), observation, adaptability and genuine care (using emotional intelligence) are the tools that will help a manager win over teams and get their best performance.
- Relational intelligence means being conscious that a RELATIONSHIP is occurring between you and others, and this relationship has a life of its own. You form the relationship as much as it forms you, jointly. It needs to be fostered with attention and intention if it is to survive, accepting differences and the effort it takes to overcome them. The awareness that the relationship is the “third thing” between you and another person or between you and your team will increase the level of involvement and intentionality towards the relationship, the people who compose it, and the situations you have to face together. Studies have shown that positive feelings of belonging, safety and trust are the social preconditions to employee retention, high overall performance, and maximising the potential of star talent. ?Human beings are connected to each other in subtle exchanges of information and energy. Leveraging discoveries in neuroscience about interpersonal brain circuitry – the activity of mirror neurons, spindle cells and oscillators – helps leaders build deep connections with their staff, get them on the same wavelength and pull together as a top-performing unified front. All this requires the recognition that interpersonal relationships are as vital to business as expertise, strategic thinking, planning, vision and the bottom line.
- Cultural intelligence synthesises all these related competences with the awareness of the role of culture in shaping a person’s or group’s values, emotions, customs and communication styles. Central to this competence is the distinction between stereotypes and generalisations. Stereotypes freeze people from the same place into a certain (often negatively conceived) “character”; generalisations understand that everyone is influenced by the customs of their regional heritage, but no one is MERELY a representative of their culture. We are all mixtures of culture and individuality. Culturally intelligent people are able to apply emotional, social and relational intelligence in culturally diverse situations, knowing that culture shapes thoughts, emotions and behaviour. Being aware of different cultures and cultural differences (including our own) adds insight and nuance to our interactions, and helps us to connect more deeply and respectfully with a wide range of people.
Some tips to hone your cultural intelligence:
- Find out as much as you can about different cultures. It's impossible to know everything about everyone, but knowledge builds bridges. Remember that not everyone is the same, even in the same culture.
- Be patient. There will be gaps in your understanding. Give yourself and others time to gather more (cultural) input before drawing conclusions .
- Be curious! Show goodwill towards others by seeking to know more from their point of view, and share your own.
- Be polite. Politeness is deeply culturally coded. In each culture, we exercise politeness as the measure of respect we show to others. When we transgress someone's sense of politeness, we transgress their dignity as a human being. That is why it is advisable to err on the side of caution: at least initially, be too polite rather than not polite enough. This will help to avoid unknown pitfalls.
In today's world, most companies and organisations are internationally active or opening themselves up internationally and interculturally. While studies have shown how this multiplicity of know-how, experience, cognitive and emotional processes make companies more dynamic and successful, it also brings with it many challenges. The energy expended on meeting those challenges will strengthen an organisation's reputation, teams and finally... bottom line. In the coming years, we may see that soft skills are the hardest of all, the most worthy and the most profitable.
* Daniel Goleman is, of course, the pioneer of emotional and social intelligence. Here I borrowed some of his ideas about social intelligence and grouped them in relational intelligence. The concept of relational intelligence elaborated above brings together Goleman's ideas and the theory of relationship systems intelligence as put forward in ORSC coaching by CRR Global.
