How much do cross-cultural tensions cost your team’s performance?
Story
An Asian GM of a manufacturing company shook his head as he spoke to our coach.
“It’s becoming a bigger and bigger headache for us. This is our biggest customer, but this can’t continue.”
“What’s behind the headache?” our coach asked.
“I don’t know. Communication probably. Our style is very fast, but over in Europe they’re very slow.”
“Is it just communication speed?”
“What else could it be?”
Culture and Communication
Anytime you’ve got a global company, team, or supply chain you’re set up for cultural tension to slow you down. There is an unspoken “push” and “pull” coming from one person’s normal way of operating that may go directly against someone else’s.
But here’s a hint for you: even though it feels like a communication issue, it’s probably not.
Communication is often the “presenting symptom” for a deeper issue. Think of it like the headache that gives you an indication you might have the flu.
A few weeks ago, one of our coaches delivered an interactive keynote speech to a room full of business leaders who are expanding overseas. They had all heard or experienced stories like the manufacturing GM’s and were eager to hear about the stated topic for the speech: cross-cultural leadership.
After the speech the host of the event got up and asked the audience, “Were you surprised that our expert dealt with cross-cultural leadership in a different way? He didn’t talk about specific tips for how to deal with a bunch of specific cultures. Maybe you came here expecting that today? What he’s done is actually give us a deeper look at these issues. He’s gone to a deeper level, which was really amazing.”
Our coach heard the post-speech analysis and nodded in agreement. What’s a deeper solution than communication? Culture. But what’s a deeper solution than culture? Adaptivity.
The Even Deeper Solution
When communication and cultural solutions aren’t solving the problem, that’s when you might be in the market for an even deeper solution: adaptive leadership.
If you have a tricky communication or cultural issue happening, here are some additional questions you can think through to practice your 3C Adaptive Leadership.
Curiosity
- What are some ways I can seek to understand before being understood?
- What other factors might be at play here?
- How can I gain insight without pre-assuming what the issue is (communication, culture, personality, etc.)?
Courage
- What would be scary about really trying to solve this?
- What might I lose or risk losing by getting the key people together to figure this out?
- What do I need to take responsibility for that I maybe haven’t yet?
- Why might I be resisting taking the time to deal with this?
Care
- How can I show care during this process?
- Who’s suffering now but will be so thankful if I dive in to work through this?
- When is the most caring time to address this?
What Ever Happened…?
Remember that Asian supplier who had the European customer that was driving him nuts?
It turns out, by practicing the 3Cs (especially Curiosity, in his case) he was able to get the information that solved the communication problem. Both sides needed to stop talking at each other and start listening to each other. And it only took one person to “change the channel” and say, “I’d like to talk about how we’re communicating. Is this working well for everyone?”
In fact, both parties were ready for something different.
In the end, it wasn’t about communication or culture at all. It was about Expectations. They had not clearly defined how they would work together, which meant they were burning tons of extra energy communicating about work that was already vague and frustrating.
It turns out it was an EMMA problem, presenting as a cross-cultural communication issue, which took 3C Adaptive Leadership to solve! Say that 10-times fast!
Additional Evidence
Remember the keynote speech about cross-cultural leadership? It turns out their biggest takeaways were not about cross-cultural or even performance leadership.
At the end of the speech, 55% of the audience’s insights were on something they didn’t sign up to hear about: 3C Adaptive Leadership. They came in looking for cultural solutions (which they got), and performance leadership solutions (which they also got). But the problem with those is: they allow us to easily pass the blame on to someone else.
Over half the audience left the keynote with a sense that “There’s a deeper issue, and that deeper issue is inside me. No one else. It starts with me.”
Here are some selected audience takeaways to show how they internalized this:
- “First strengthen the individual through the 3Cs, then use EMMA for team building”
- “On the path forward, the direction must be adjusted continuously”
- “In cross-cultural situations, maintain courage and curiosity and show care for employees.”
- “Slow down to speed up”
It’s a good reminder for all of us: in complex, cross-cultural situations, turn to the 3Cs and find the Curious, Courageous, and Caring next step.
Next Steps?
- Forward this article to team members (or your supervisor if you discern that’s a good idea).
- Also, feel free to take any images from this article and print, share, save, etc.
- If you’d like to move to your own next level, we recommend you join an Adaptive Leader Journey (either personally or with your team) where we do a deep dive into Self Leadership, EMMA, and the 3Cs to integrate them into daily practice.
Book a free 20-minute inquiry call with one of our coaches, or sign up for the Journey directly for more info.
Looking forward to talking to you soon!
