© By Lisa La Valle-Finan, November 19, 2008
Unless you’ve been living in a cave lately, you’re probably experiencing considerable anxiety about the economic condition of the United States. This emotion is immediately followed by further panic when recruiters or employers are asking you to “go global” to make yourself more marketable. That’s if you still have a job. How and when is all this supposed to happen? Is this a form of outsourcing? I mean, it’s not like you’re ever really going to live or work outside the United States, right? So, why should going global concern you?
It’s Official: Wake Up and Smell the Outsourcing
With the stunning realization that America's financial crisis is the world's crisis, the biggest misstep an American woman can make, is to think that fluttering of her entrepreneurial wings does not affect the rest of the world. Or the reverse, that what is happening around the world, doesn’t affect her business. Today, when one country sneezes, very often we all catch a cold.
The other mistake is to not have a passport, and think that it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have to work, travel, or live in another country. According to the State Department, although the number of passports issued to Americans has risen, because of post 9/11 homeland security measures, to the tune of about 74 million[i] in 2008, most Americans still view them as just another form of identification.
No Culture Is Foreign, It’s Just Different.
But there is a great deal of fear that comes with going global and things “foreign”. How can you deal with it? One way is to reframe the issue of what is “foreign”. How you frame, or name, what you speak about, determines how to think about it. If you change the semantics, you change your perceptions. With a “clear lens” cultures become less foreign and more familiar. You can also readjust how you think about your place on the earth. You’re part of the global village. You breathe the same air as 4 billion fellow inhabitants. You are not separate from them. In any way. No matter who you are or where you live. Calcutta. Copenhagen. Cincinnati. All. The. Same. Therefore, you, as an American business professional, are a part of the global community. The term international is no longer about “those people over there”. Reframing the way you refer to your place in the world will help you get more comfortable in it. For many Americans, who are like coming of age adolescents[ii], it’s time to get down to business if we are to compete up in the 21st century global economy.
Multicultural Manners: Handle With Care
As women business owners, the statistically fastest growing sector of the economy, [iii] it is incumbent upon us to look ahead to the all the trends that affect our businesses and embrace them with education and an awareness about multicultural manners, in order to do great global business. Because even if you don’t speak another language, as you will find many other people around the world do, it’s wise to know the soft skills that will make your professional, hard skills sing if you are involved in:
· Intercultural Business: In a position to manufacture your scarves in China? You’re going to need to pull guanxi (pronounced gwan-SHEE) or make the right connections before you begin the deal.
· Diverse Teams or Intra-Office: Is the new team member on your design project, from India, but you don’t know why he seems unenthused about your concept. Maybe it’s because he is waiting for his boss to tell you his disposition.
· ExPat Rentry: Have you been assigned to work for an upper management ExPat (Ex-Patriot) who’s just returned from a two-year stint in Prague, but can’t understand his moodiness? Perhaps he is experiencing culture shock.
· Relocation: Is your finance background suddenly an asset to a firm in Turkey? Do you find yourself upending your life to work there for a year, but unable to cope with the preparations?
These are just a few of the typical examples that require cross cultural professionals to help you do global business, better in addition to your new way of thinking.
What Makes Them Tick
Of course it’s important to know how to handle ourselves in another culture, but what’s more important, is how we’re being perceived by the other culture. And which behavior on our part will make a good impression. The following chart is actually applicable to many other cultures, with a few tweaks here and there. Understanding the cognitive behavior -- how people process information, or what makes them tick -- is the key to giving your business dealings traction, and therefore revenue. Here are some key personality traits that delineate between Western and Eastern national character.
Western Character Me centered Assertive Gregarious Gestural Enthusiastic Shake Hands
Eastern Character We-centered Respectful Solemn Non-gestural Diplomatic Rarely Shake Hands, Bow
A Little Local Knowledge Goes A Long Way
After re-setting your cross-cultural compass, one way to cement cultural gaps is to focus on making personal connections, when the time is right. It’s not only essential to know what the national values of your counterpart are, but also your shared personal interests. Ones that can create deeper, more harmonious and sustaining business relationships. After the foundational elements of values and etiquette are addressed – whether to kiss, bow or shake hands – you can progress to a more sophisticated level of communication with the help of topic starters. Positive "points of entry" that enable you to socialize, conduct business, and create personal relationships.
I find that point of entry through film. You may find it through food, music, or some other “arts and cultural” area other than the usual “off limits” topics like religion and politics. But it’s usually a popular cultural topic that will “speak” to you. In any case, before you travel for business or pleasure, do your homework. And consider talking with a cross-cultural professional about what your objectives and how you can most effectively obtain them to make the experience most profitable and productive. After all, traveling these days is time consuming and often expensive, so for the sake of your own business, or that of your employer, consulting a certified intercultural pro makes a lot of dollars (or Euros or Yen) and sense. Because no matter where in the world you come from, it’s good to know where you’re going, and how to act appropriately once you get there.
A little local knowledge goes a long way.
Next installment: Travel or Trample?
Lisa Finan is a writer and Creative Director of getGlobalized™. She has been traveling and writing for 25 years, speaks French, Italian and Greek, and welcomes all comments and can be reached at crossculturalpro@yahoo.com. More information can be found on the company’s website at www.getGlobalized.org.
[i] http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-04-02-passport-record_N.htm
[ii] http://www.randomhouse.com/broadway/culturecode
[iii] http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/wibtrendsandstatistics/a/wibtrendsnstats.htm Women’s businesses grew at nearly twice the rate of all U.S. firms. There were an estimated 10.4 million privately-held firms. This accounted for two in five (40.2%) of all businesses in the country; and these firms generated $1.9 trillion in annual sales and employed 12.8 million people nationwide.
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