Moving abroad? Don’t be afraid!

It is a global world out there. But it has become so much smaller! We now commute for work across frontiers, even continents. In this new routine, both our day-to-day and our business success depend on the local people. How to find your way? How to get accepted? How to connect? How to deal with cultural diversity? How to avoid costly mistakes?

You are moving abroad. You have become an expat. Well done to you! But... Keep an open mind. Do not rush. The best advice is, Observe and Understand. A model, successfully employed in our home country, may bring no results in the new place. Worse, it can be a disaster. Different traits translate into authority in different cultures. In the West, that would be your formal role. In the East, that would be your status, even your age. Somewhere hierarchy is strong, and this is the normal way. In other places it is completely ignored. One wrong move, and you may lose all influence. What do you do?

Learn. Investigate. Inform yourself. Get a cultural orientation as soon as (or even before) you arrive in the country. Be humble in your approach to the overseas job. Adjust your style. Remember, you are no better than the locals, you are just different. The local culture is largely defined by centuries of history, climate, geography. How cold are the winters? How scarce is the water? Were these people nomads? Did they live in war? Were they enslaved? All that shaped the mentality, the values and the habits of the past generations, but also of the young urban professionals you now meet.

Learn the local language: the more, the better. That is crucial to becoming comfortable in the new settings and gaining the trust of your team and peers. Even if you are not good at it, they will respect you for trying.

Living abroad opens the mind like nothing else. It makes you a better version of yourself – wiser, more tolerant, enriched with experience and new perspectives of the world.

Enjoy the ride!

#culturematters #crosscultural #culturaldiversity #expatlife #movingabroad