business culture

How to improve expat effectiveness

by Daniel Le Gras, International Business Coach

The two main conclusions of the survey on behalf of the Expat Center Amsterdam were:

expats are active on all organizational levels of the companies they work for, from the Board to line management;
regardless of the organizational level, all expats are confronted with a gap in business culture, which diminishes their effectiveness.

This second conclusion is confirmed by international research. This means that the gap in business culture as the main obstacle to expat effectiveness is a global phenomenon. International research also shows that when trying to eliminate or at least to diminish this main obstacle, it is not enough to focus only on the expat. A wider perspective is required in order to improve effectiveness.

Rule 1. 80% of expat effectiveness depends on business team support.

One cannot expect expats to be productive in total isolation. He/she needs all the support the team members can provide; from implementation of job tasks to communication with peers and clients.

Rule 2. Team members need excellent business culture competencies.
Because the gap between business cultures is the main obstacle, all team members (including the expat) need competencies to build bridges across this gap. We define a business culture as the way a group of people is used to earn a living (e.g. to collaborate in a team, to serve clients or to close deals with business partners).

Business cultures come in all shapes and sizes. Examples are project team cultures, specific organizational cultures (e.g. Shell, Philips), local cultures (e.g. City of Maastricht), economic sector cultures (e.g. Banking sector) or national cultures (Dutch, Chinese or American). Business culture competencies are those competencies necessary for bridging the cultural gap. Examples are the ability to:

observe and become aware of one’s own and other people’s culture
build productive relationships with people of other business cultural backgrounds
identify commonalities between two or more different business cultures
appreciate other values and norms
integrate some of these other values and norms into your own value system
create a new common business culture

Rule 3. Team managers need international leadership skills.
To facilitate this process of bridging the gap,
team managers need to act as facilitators or coaches. They need to create a team atmosphere of open-mindedness, empathy, dialogue, shared values, inclusion and team learning.

Rule 4. 80% of team effectiveness depends on organizational support.
What applies to an individual also applies to a team. One cannot expect a team to be productive in total isolation. It needs all the support it can get from members of the Board, line management and staff departments.

As a staff department, Human Resources can support these teams by helping the team members to develop business cultural competencies. Management Development programmes or Corporate Social Responsibility programmes could include special training provided by internal or external experts. Individual or team coaching is a very effective tool to develop business cultural competencies.

How to create awareness of differences?

An important step in developing these competencies is to create awareness of cultural differences within your own and other team members’ business culture. This is the first of a four-step process for which we have designed a Coaching Model.

For more information on our services and the benefits to expats and international teams in improving effectiveness, feel free to contact Proboards: legras@proboards.nl (www.ibcoaches.com).

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	business culture How to improve expat effectiveness by Daniel Le Gras, International Business Coach The two main conclusions of the survey on behalf of the Expat Center Amsterdam were: expats are active on all organizational levels of the companies they work for, from the Board to line management; regardless of the organizational level, all expats are confronted with a gap in business culture, which diminishes their effectiveness. This second conclusion is confirmed by international research. This means that the gap in business culture as the main obstacle to expat effectiveness is a global phenomenon. International research also shows that when trying to eliminate or at least to diminish this main obstacle, it is not enough to focus only on the expat. A wider perspective is required in order to improve effectiveness. Rule 1. 80% of expat effectiveness depends on business team support. One cannot expect expats to be productive in total isolation. He/she needs all the support the team members can provide; from implementation of job tasks to communication with peers and clients. Rule 2. Team members need excellent business culture competencies. Because the gap between business cultures is the main obstacle, all team members (including the expat) need competencies to build bridges across this gap. We define a business culture as the way a group of people is used to earn a living (e.g. to collaborate in a team, to serve clients or to close deals with business partners). Business cultures come in all shapes and sizes. Examples are project team cultures, specific organizational cultures (e.g. Shell, Philips), local cultures (e.g. City of Maastricht), economic sector cultures (e.g. Banking sector) or national cultures (Dutch, Chinese or American). Business culture competencies are those competencies necessary for bridging the cultural gap. Examples are the ability to: observe and become aware of one’s own and other people’s culture build productive relationships with people of other business cultural backgrounds identify commonalities between two or more different business cultures appreciate other values and norms integrate some of these other values and norms into your own value system create a new common business culture Rule 3. Team managers need international leadership skills. To facilitate this process of bridging the gap, team managers need to act as facilitators or coaches. They need to create a team atmosphere of open-mindedness, empathy, dialogue, shared values, inclusion and team learning. Rule 4. 80% of team effectiveness depends on organizational support. What applies to an individual also applies to a team. One cannot expect a team to be productive in total isolation. It needs all the support it can get from members of the Board, line management and staff departments. As a staff department, Human Resources can support these teams by helping the team members to develop business cultural competencies. Management Development programmes or Corporate Social Responsibility programmes could include special training provided by internal or external experts. Individual or team coaching is a very effective tool to develop business cultural competencies. How to create awareness of differences? An important step in developing these competencies is to create awareness of cultural differences within your own and other team members’ business culture. This is the first of a four-step process for which we have designed a Coaching Model. For more information on our services and the benefits to expats and international teams in improving effectiveness, feel free to contact Proboards: legras@proboards.nl (www.ibcoaches.com).