'Multiple Cultural' Leadership - as opposed to multicultural leadership

This article will look at the challenges of leading teams in what I refer to as a 'Multiple Cultural' environment. Over the last decade and a half I have come to realise that the challenges of leadership in the Middle East are different to the ones I faced whilst leading teams in the UK. In the UK (and many other countries) these challenges would be referred to as multicultural challenges, which when you Google the definition comes up as:

Multicultural - adjective - relating to or containing several cultural or ethnic groups within a society

The term tends to have positive connotations and refers to the integration of cultural or ethnic groups within a society, so in the UK for example how migrants from the Asian Subcontinent and the Caribbean back in the 1950's have settled and become part of British society and culture. Yes there have been and continue to be issues around discrimination but the positivist in me would like to think that things have improved over the years. I am not making a statement whether they have or not, but the point I am making is that these migrant groups from the 50's are now in the 4th and 5th generations and are part of the very fabric of the UK.

So what is a Multiple Cultural environment?

A multiple cultural environment, as I see it, is one where an assimilation and integration process does not take place. The migrants who may be in their 2nd or 3rd generation in the country they moved to still remain nationals of the country they migrated from. As a result of this the various cultures that define the various nationality groups and sub-groups remain in place, they perhaps morph slightly, but in essence they still identify with their country of origin. As my colleague put it they remain outsiders to an extent, instead of saying 'We are X nationality, but originated from Y country' they would say 'We are Y Nationality but we live in X country' even when they were born and raised in country X.

The biggest driver for this fundamental difference and why multiple culturalism exists is the migration model adopted in each country. In the UK when people migrate there they are generally looking to do it on a permanent basis, in the Middle East the prevalent model is for migrants to come out for a fixed period of time often with the clear intention of saving and or investing their income back in their home country. They rarely get the opportunity to attain the nationality of their host country or the rights that come with citizenship such a voting in elections for example. This article will focus on the second model as this is what drives the notion of multiple cultural environments. The model has advantages when you are first coming out to the region in that settling into the social side of life is much easier. The nature of the expatriate population is much more transient and as a result friendship groups tend to be more flexible and joining one (or more) is relatively easy. I put it down to people wanting to help others settle quickly because they know what it was like for themselves. When people migrate to countries where migrants are a minority and have to assimilate to the prevailing culture the friendship circles tend to be tighter and longer established and so it takes time to ease yourself into them, I know this from moving around within the UK.

But what about the challenges that moving to the Middle East entails?

Moving anywhere for a new job is challenging, even when you are moving within a country, but when you move to a different country and particularly when that country has a different belief system to the one that you might be used to, well it takes a bit of time to get used to it. I remember when I started my first role in the Middle East my boss at the time told me that for the first 6 months I would wonder what on earth I had done and would be constantly confused. Then the next 6 months would be spent learning that you can't control things in the same way that I had in the UK and once you made it past 12 months things would all fall into place and you'll end up staying 20 years. I smiled at the time thinking he was joking, but turns out he was exactly right. One of the biggest challenges that I had to get my head around was adapting my management style to be inclusive in a multiple cultural environment. No longer was one approach good for everyone, there was a need to have a multiplicity of approaches and styles to suit the situation and ensure that everyone was on the same page. Some of the challenges I found in the early days were such as:

•  Social circles tend to be defined by nationality, people remained bound to their countries social norms and professional habits because they mix with people who are from the same country and so they reinforce behaviours that are familiar to them.
• Despite the labour law forbidding it, I found instances of where discrimination was embedded within the system, one company I came across (not one I worked for) would pay a different rate for the same job depending on your passport. This was a formal policy and was followed to the extent that if one of the lower paid nationals managed to attain the passport of a higher paid nationality their salary was increased according to the system. As a UK passport holder I would have benefited from this system, but it doesn't make it right.
• Some people exploited the multiple cultural environment to their advantage in order to avoid accountability and subvert responsibility. Blaming it on national group X and then their fellow nationals would back them up, even though they knew it was wrong.
• There were challenges around the approach to gender equality, gender identification and sexuality where the thinking is different to that I am familiar with in the UK.

You would find examples where recruiters for roles in the region were using practices that were archaic and actually against the stated labour law. Job adverts which requested a specific gender, nationality and age for example. It makes me shudder thinking about it and sadly it still happens today, though much less frequently.

Some people found/find all this just too much and they would leave the region in the first 12 months and never return, others, myself included, saw this as an opportunity to work with some very talented people and start to make a difference to the way things were done. After all that is why we have been invited to come and work in the region to start with, to bring best practices and make a difference. It is our job to overcome these obstacles, to lead by example and to guide a fairer, more open approach and to try and remove those stereotypes. To highlight what motivated me I am going to use the words of my former colleague, Darren Ledger (perhaps the best recruiter I have ever employed and worked with), which encapsulates my motivation better than I could: 

I know that you have opened people's minds, challenged the accepted norms, encouraged people to think differently to actually apply the unprejudiced, unbiased and non-discriminatory attitudes, regardless of what the media and certain channels would have you believe are intrinsic and fundamental within the general workings of Society.

Being an expatriate in the Middle East is not for everyone, it takes time to settle in, it takes a lot of hard work to adapt yourself to the multiple cultural environment and you will face challenges that you are unlikely to come across working in your home country. But for me it has been worth the hard work, constant learning and adaptations I have had to make. I have a genuine sense of having made a difference and continue to do so, the region has changed dramatically over the last 13 years and year by year that rate of change is becoming faster and more tangible.

So with the context I have set out above what advice would I give to someone considering a role in the multiple cultural environment that is the Middle East?

• Don't assume you have been understood - Some cultures see it as rude or demeaning to say they don't understand a directive you have given and so will go off and do what they think is required and will end up not connecting with you or delivering what you want. Is that their fault for not listening, or is it our fault for not understanding that different cultures have different approaches to things. A good leader will take their time to explain what they want, ask for their team members to describe their understanding and then explain in a different way. A truly great leader will find ways of communicating the same directive in 4 or 5 different ways before asking for confirmation and they will generally have got the message across. Don't worry it takes time and the better you know your team the better you will become at it.
• Look for non-verbal communication- Often a picture (or facial expression) speaks much louder than words, refine your emotional intelligence to be constantly looking for non-verbal prompts that indicate that your team might not understand what you are trying to communicate. An extension of this would be of course to listen to what is really been said and read between the lines. In doing this you need to find a way to reconfirm their understanding or even more powerful change your approach to adopt their feedback.
• Encourage participation - It is vital that you find a way to encourage participation and create an environment where your team feel comfortable to meaningfully contribute. If you have a strong rapport with a team member, perhaps because you are culturally aligned, make sure that this doesn't distort the team dynamic and lead to a single dimensional approach. Make sure everyone is encouraged to participate, call out good ideas and provide praise and close down (tactfully) people who are dominating the conversation in order that others get a voice. Go out of your way to ask people if you are missing something from their perspective, ask them for the 'local perspective' ask 'am I being culturally sensitive here' and let their feedback inform your approach.
• Be prepared to change your perspective - If you are intransigent in your approach the likelihood is that you will alienate the people who you need the most to give you an informed perspective. What I am not saying is change your perspective every 10 minutes, but when you are formulating an approach go in with your eyes wide open and with a growth mind-set. Once you have agreed the way forward and got the buy in from the team then you need to focus on the agreed approach and bring the team on the journey with you. You know you have succeeded when the team are the ones driving the journey and you’re providing a guiding hand.
• Don't try to control everything - This is the quickest way to a heart attack or breakdown, you need to be mindful of what the really important things are that need to be achieved and then the small stuff can be let run a little bit. This will help build rapport, ensure that you achieve the key goals and allow you to achieve more. Of all of the bits of advice this is the one that is most important to achieve first, without being able to operate with a degree of trust and a macro perspective you will never have the time to focus on the previous points. 

The points above apply in virtually all situations and countries, but what I would say differentiates them in a multiple cultural environment is how pronounced the differences are. It is important to grasp that and take time to exaggerate the efforts you would make normally, as a leader. What I will say is the sense of personal satisfaction and achievement in operating in such a complex cultural environment is truly fulfilling.

The unintended benefits of living in the Middle East are the opportunities it has given my children to learn from their multiple cultural classmates from across the world. Their immersion in a truly international education has provided them with a foundation of cultural understanding and sensitivity that has put them in a favourable position for their future careers. They have developed an ability to communicate, relate and collaborate with people from all nationalities, religions, cultures etc. in a way that embraces diversity and makes them contributing citizens of the global village we all live in today.

In writing this article I consulted with Darren Ledger and would like to thank him for his advice and counsel, he is a brutally honest person who I know will tell me as it is and he has kept me true to myself in writing this article.