IT managers who can adapt their personal styles to the needs of local cultures and employees are best positioned to succeed in the global arena.
With some industry consultants estimating a cost of $2 billion annually to US companies because of failed international assignments it’s incumbent on companies to place capable managers in international roles — and IT is no exception.
Yet, too many companies fail to train their managers properly for international assignment. As a result, some IT managers are more prepared than others to handle the rigors of different systems, regulations, cultures, languages and work ethics.
What fundamental skills should be in your toolkit if you are asked to take on an international IT role?
Here are four key skills areas:
1. Openness to new ideas and cultures
Successful international managers are sensitive to cultural traditions and nuances that are normal for their workforces.
When I first began a management assignment in Europe, I had difficulty adjusting to a workday that started at 9:30 am, broke for a long lunch, and then resumed until around 8 pm. The logic was that headquarters was in the US, so there had been workday adjustments to create more work-hour overlap between US and European time zones. I certainly wasn't going to change this. Instead, I had to change myself.
I also was schooled by my employees in France that when you go out to lunch, you place the bread that you’re served with your meal directly on the table, not on a plate. At the time, I was corrected, I thought the matter trivial — but my employees didn’t.
Declan Mulkeen, head of global marketing for Learnlight, which offers soft skills and language training, observed, “The world is not black and white – nor are behavioral rules. What works well in one culture could send the opposite, undesirable message in another.” Mulkeen cites the example of a woman who had to adapt her behavior toward managers in different cultures.
“She was very deferential to herJapanese manager as that culture generally expects,” wrote Mulkeen. “She also knew that the same deference would probably be interpreted differently with her American manager, who might think deference equates to a lack of confidence or perhaps indicates an unwanted problem.”
2. Altering your management style
Andrew Molinsky, a professor of International Management and Organizational Behavior at Brandeis University's International Business School, comments about an Italian COO who couldn't motivate his Indian employees, who expected a more authoritarian management style; and about an Israeli management consultant working in the US, who found himself having to adapt to an American culture that expected softened criticism interlaced with kindness instead of a more unabridged criticism that was common in Israel. Molinsky maintained that being able to adapt your management style to the management expectations of the culture where you are managing is critical to your success as an international manager. He calls this adaptive quality “code switching.”
Beyond culture, international managers must also tune in to the personalities and styles of those they're working with.