Tag: flexibility

Tactical Negotiation Across Cultures: Learning Cultural Context

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Negotiating across cultures requires more than just mastering negotiation tactics; it demands a deeper understanding of cultural norms, practices, and values. 

This is why you should seek to understand differences in basics, like small talk, which we’ve discussed over the past few weeks.

And you should also familiarize yourself with negotiation practices and customs in specific cultural contexts.

In this post, we’ll shed light on key considerations for successful negotiations in East Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American cultures.

East Asian Cultures: Harmony and Hierarchy

In East Asian cultures like Japan, China, and South Korea, negotiation is deeply influenced by values of harmony, respect for authority, and long-term relationship building. 

Negotiators prioritize maintaining harmony and preserving face, often preferring indirect communication and subtle cues to convey messages.

Key Considerations:

  • Emphasize building trust and rapport before diving into negotiations.
  • Be mindful of hierarchical structures and deference to authority figures.
  • Avoid confrontational or aggressive negotiation tactics, as they may damage relationships.

Middle Eastern Cultures: Relationship-Building and Hospitality

In Middle Eastern cultures such as those found in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, negotiation is characterized by an emphasis on personal relationships, hospitality, and honor.

Negotiators value trust and loyalty, and negotiations may involve lengthy discussions and socializing before reaching agreements.

Key Considerations:

  • Invest time in relationship-building and demonstrating respect for cultural customs.
  • Be prepared for indirect communication and the use of intermediaries in negotiations.
  • Show patience and flexibility, as negotiations may progress slowly due to the emphasis on building trust.

Latin American Cultures: Warmth and Flexibility

In Latin American cultures like those in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, negotiation is marked by warmth, flexibility, and a focus on interpersonal relationships.

Negotiators value personal connections and may prioritize socializing and building rapport before engaging in formal negotiations.

Key Considerations:

  • Demonstrate warmth, friendliness, and openness in interactions with counterparts.
  • Be prepared for negotiations to be fluid and dynamic, with a focus on finding win-win solutions.
  • Respect cultural traditions and customs, such as taking time for small talk and building trust gradually.

Embrace Cultural Diversity

Navigating negotiations in diverse cultural contexts requires sensitivity, adaptability, and a willingness to understand and respect cultural differences. 

By recognizing the unique negotiation practices and customs of East Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American cultures, negotiators can build trust, foster collaboration, and achieve successful outcomes in a globalized world. 

Managing a Global Virtual Team? You’ll Need These Vital Skills

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Over the past several weeks, we’ve talked about the unique challenges that global remote teams face.

The team itself might have different work styles, motivation factors, and information gaps.

On top of that, working remotely sees different challenges than an office environment might, involving task management, productivity, accountability, and communication.

And yet, remote work is becoming a norm across the professional world.

As a manager, you’ll need special skills to successfully lead a cross-cultural remote team.

The following are just a few of the skills that will take your leadership from mediocre to exceptional.

Adaptability

As we’ve emphasized in this blog, the ability to adapt is essential to not only cross-cultural management but to living in a foreign culture.

In fact, adapting is one of the major steps in cross-cultural integration, which I discuss in my book, I am the Monkey!

Why? Because being flexible in your view of values, norms, and cultural behaviors will enable you to keep an open mind without judgment. 

Whether you’re integrating into a foreign culture or managing in a multicultural environment, an accepting and adaptable perspective allows you to move in the world with greater ease.

As a manager specifically, it will help you adjust your leadership style when necessary to accommodate different perspectives and behaviors. 

You will be better able to relate to your team and integrate aspects of their work style culture into your management toolkit.

Communication

Communication is of course top of the list for success in any managerial position, but when it comes to cross-cultural remote management, communication becomes even more key.

Particularly when communicating with team members who speak the shared language as a second language, it’s important to articulate and speak at a slower pace. 

If other members of the team tend to speak quickly, you might ask them privately to slow down or repeat what they’ve said, in order for the whole team to understand.

Lead the team in this deliberate way of speaking. It will set the tone for the entire team to follow.

Moreover, when voicing important info in voice memos, meetings, or calls, things can be lost in translation, so it’s helpful to reiterate the major points and finer details in a form of written communication as well.

This will enable those who speak the shared language as a second language to have a document to refer back to.

Self-awareness and Reflection

We’ve all said the wrong thing a time or two or committed a faux pas.

Well, in cross-cultural environments, this will most definitely happen more often.

I call these cross-cultural faux pas “monkey moments.”

Although you can do your research about cultures (and I advise you to), no matter how prepared you are, you’re likely to stub your toe every now and then.

Any leadership role requires a high degree of self-awareness and reflection, but a cross-cultural leadership role requires an even higher one.

You must be gracious, patient, and open to understanding and change.

Regularly address your innate biases and ensure they’re not getting in the way of your leadership.

Be deliberate in your team interactions, and challenge yourself and your own perspective.

You may see ways in which you might adjust your perspective and/or your behavior.

This type of leadership growth only comes with an advanced degree of self-awareness and reflection.

Cultural Bodyclock: How to Adjust to Polychronic or Monochronic Time Perception

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Research by Harvard Business Review found that

“between 10% and 20% of all U.S. managers sent abroad returned early because of job dissatisfaction or difficulties in adjusting to a foreign country.”

One of the primary adjustments to make as a manager in a foreign country is adjusting one’s bodyclock to the culture’s time perception.

As we’ve learned these past few weeks, polychronic and monochronic cultures operate according to clocks that have been set very differently – not just in two different time zones, but more like in two different space-time continuums.

Polychronic cultures have a more fluid view of time, while in monochronic cultures, time is linear.

If you’re sent to manage a company in another country, you might need to acquire – or at least adjust to – their view of time.

But you can’t just reset your watch, so how do you make these adjustments actionable?

Being a Monochron

For those coming from a polychronic culture into a monochronic culture, you might proactively focus on these aspects of time perception:

  • Punctuality and organization – both the manager and the staff know their schedule in advance and are expected to be prompt at meetings. Punctuality is key to keeping everything else on track, like a well-oiled machine.
  • Time management tools – many countries in monochronic cultures use time management tools to keep joint calendars as a team and stay on task. Tools like Scoro, Asana, and Trello come to mind.
  • Linear activities – monochronic time systems move one step at a time. Once one task is completed and accounted for, an employee can move onto the next, ensuring focus and efficiency.
  • Individual drive and achievement – individual successes are celebrated, both personally and by the company (think “employee of the month”). This motivates personal drive and performance.
  • Meeting deadlines – deadlines in monochronic cultures are hard stops. Work is expected to be completed promptly by deadline in a task-oriented fashion.

If you, as a polychron, can tune into these time- and motivation-related aims, you will be a more successful manager in a monochronic culture.

Being a Polychron

For those coming from a monochronic culture into a polychronic culture, you might proactively focus on these aspects of time perception.

  • Interaction – relationships and personal connections are a normal part of the workday. While tasks are set, personal interaction with colleagues and clients is expected and often prioritized.
  • Integrated activities – multitasking is common, and tasks are completed in an integrated and often leisurely fashion, with those who have finished their tasks pulling in to help others.
  • Group effort – as mentioned above, tasks are more often a group effort, as polychronic businesses often have a flat management structure where peer support is encouraged. Thus, individual recognition isn’t so important as group recognition.
  • Flexibility – there is a more flexible agenda in polychronic cultures, with employees not worrying too much about a hard deadline.
  • High context communication – all crucial information is shared, along with background information, and often in a manner where tone and visual cues are emphasized and interpreted.

When stepping into another culture’s time perception, making pointed actionable adjustments will help you adjust your bodyclock in a concrete way to a foreign culture.