I remember driving back from inspecting one of my warehouses in the northern Russian city of Usinsk, well we were actually about 40km outside the city and heading back in, I the Regional Director, my Country Manager and the two wonderful professional ladies who ran my warehouse on our Halliburton base outside of town.
One of the ladies asks me a question: “Stanislov Michaelovich, why is it that the new American expats who come here all look and talk to us like we are idiots?”
I turned around from the front seat of the SUV and looked at her: “Well, this is not going to sound good, but the truth of the matter is, most of them when they come here, do think of all of you as idiots.”
And here is the rub of the situation: expats are sent to improve the processes and strengthen the relationship with the home office, but often times do the exact opposite. Why?
The why of it is actually quite simple. You are an expat, gung-ho to start in your new role, to show your management that you were the right choice. You are a believer in the home office’s processes, politics and your own cultural superiority, even if PCdom does not allow you to admit the last part out-loud.
So you arrive in an existing office, in a different country with a different culture and you begin to force change, proper change, to make everything properly correct. And the key word here is of course, force. A bit of advice, do not pack your preconceived opinions and prejudices.
The home office’s procedures may be the best but they may not fit the local situation and even if they do, coming in with a holier than thou attitude towards the “natives” will not win you any friends or allies. Come into the new culture with open eyes, ears and an open MIND!
Talk through the existing processes and find out how and why they were created and what shaped them. Often things such as local legal requirements or local cultural norms are the foundations of the local processes. In such cases whole sale change will be impossible but some level of adaptation may work.
Do not force the new procedure on people, people do not like change and change that is based on assumption, even less so. Instead, show your new employees why these procedures are better…in other words, evangelize and win true believers instead of trying to break your local employees and force them into new modes of behaviour. This is of course a more complicated requirement and takes real leadership, not a mini-dictatorial approach.
For this reason, companies are better off, when possible, sending people who are themselves from the target country or culture, back as an expat. Evangelization from one of your own is always less painful and more profitable then from someone ignorant of the local cultural norms.
One of the ladies asks me a question: “Stanislov Michaelovich, why is it that the new American expats who come here all look and talk to us like we are idiots?”
I turned around from the front seat of the SUV and looked at her: “Well, this is not going to sound good, but the truth of the matter is, most of them when they come here, do think of all of you as idiots.”
And here is the rub of the situation: expats are sent to improve the processes and strengthen the relationship with the home office, but often times do the exact opposite. Why?
The why of it is actually quite simple. You are an expat, gung-ho to start in your new role, to show your management that you were the right choice. You are a believer in the home office’s processes, politics and your own cultural superiority, even if PCdom does not allow you to admit the last part out-loud.
So you arrive in an existing office, in a different country with a different culture and you begin to force change, proper change, to make everything properly correct. And the key word here is of course, force. A bit of advice, do not pack your preconceived opinions and prejudices.
The home office’s procedures may be the best but they may not fit the local situation and even if they do, coming in with a holier than thou attitude towards the “natives” will not win you any friends or allies. Come into the new culture with open eyes, ears and an open MIND!
Talk through the existing processes and find out how and why they were created and what shaped them. Often things such as local legal requirements or local cultural norms are the foundations of the local processes. In such cases whole sale change will be impossible but some level of adaptation may work.
Do not force the new procedure on people, people do not like change and change that is based on assumption, even less so. Instead, show your new employees why these procedures are better…in other words, evangelize and win true believers instead of trying to break your local employees and force them into new modes of behaviour. This is of course a more complicated requirement and takes real leadership, not a mini-dictatorial approach.
For this reason, companies are better off, when possible, sending people who are themselves from the target country or culture, back as an expat. Evangelization from one of your own is always less painful and more profitable then from someone ignorant of the local cultural norms.
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