When I started my page as an Intercultural Executive Coach, I wrote about the importance of Intercultural Coaching in the Corporate and Business world. In my first article, I introduced readers to the importance of “assuring the leader acquires a clear understanding of both their own culture and other cultures, and particularly the similarities and differences between them.”
“Embracing diversity is one adventure after another, opening new paths of discovery that connect an understanding to caring, listening, and sharing with others who are different than ourselves.” – April Holland
It was also a reminder of how defining one’s initial intercultural perspective is key. It involves not only the nationality of the leader but also their whole environment & background. Some characteristics can be industry, profession, position, education, gender, and corporate culture. As an example, leading a team may be addressed differently in Mexico than in the U.K. Additionally, differences may emerge in the technological industry vs. the financial sector, and in a start-up’s creative department vs the HR team in an international bank.
In this article, I go back to the basics of Intercultural Coaching. This overview covers how coaching in this world of Interculturality fits within the development, learning, and overall communication organizational strategy. Coaching will impact the overall leadership and reach of the overall company strategy, and the achievement of its goals. This approach will help leaders leverage cultural differences whether these may extend to, a continent, country, region, city, or rural.
So what is Intercultural Coaching? It differs from traditional coaching by focusing more on the aspects of cultural awareness, sensitivity, and adaptation. The development of critical soft skills, building connections, and enhancing overall learning and innovation will lead to intensified leader effectiveness.
Leveraging Cultural Differences
There are different moments in a Global Leader’s journey where Cultural Competence is key for his professional success.
Preparedness for the journey abroad
The knowledge of basic customs of the new country or region is always a good first approach. This may include a cognitive dimension of the host culture (e.g. history, language, traditions).
Also, an understanding of general Cultural Orientation Frameworks is crucial, covering time management, communication differences, and other dimensions I have talked about in many of my previous posts, and will extend on later in this article.
Soft landing support is crucial both for the executive as well as for their partner and family. A failure to include the whole process of change and those involved can result in missed opportunities,
The Journey abroad in the first months
Support in the first months of the new assignment, or change to the new culture, is key and should be performed in a timely manner. This support not only includes the previous information provided in the preparedness journey, but the accompaniment of an Intercultural Coach.
Working with a specialized coach increases the effectiveness in communication and overall management, thus increasing possibilities of a successful of assignment. Coaching will provide the Global Leader with cultural sensitivity, and cultural awareness.
It is important to consider that 3 changes are happening simultaneously: the New Position, the Change Itself, and the new Intercultural Reality.
The Leader’s boss or team
Leaders now work in highly diverse cultures. Today it is easy to find oneself in a company or new position, possibly even in a remote manner, but with a new boss from a foreign country or region, as I will explain below.
Being assigned to lead a diverse cultural team or being integrated within a diverse group of peers, can also be challenging.
Global Leader Repatriation
Reverse Culture Shock or Repatriation is a common reaction to returning home from having worked or studied abroad for quite some time. It is a re-adjustment, both emotional and psychological.
Reverse Culture integration has similar stages that the new Global Leader goes through when arriving at their new Global position. Intercultural Executive Coaching can help ease the change and experience when returning home.
Challenges and Solutions
Challenges in Intercultural Coaching
- Some of the common challenges faced in intercultural coaching can be resistance to change, and communication barriers. One of the greatest deviants is unconscious bias, where coaching targets at identifying and avoiding stereotyping or over-generalizations.
- As stated above we belong to different cultural groups at the same time. We are made by a combination of various groups and experiences making us unique as individuals, constantly changing and adding another element to our core values and beliefs.
- The industry, profession, position, education, gender, and economic status, define each of us. It is almost impossible to define ourselves as just one culture. Culture is dynamic, never static nor set in stone. Throughout our lives, we are in constant change.
- Successful intercultural leadership behavior is dependent not only on the individual’s competencies but on the teams, the organizations, the general context described briefly above and the imminent situations and future vision of the organization as well.
- The Global Leader’s overall approach to interculturality is a fundamental aspect of their successful leadership behavior.
- Their ability to view situations and problems from the perspective of a colleague, team member, and superior’s different culture qualifies them to interact successfully with individuals of foreign cultures and lead them most efficiently.
- The overall organizational strategy should include the Intercultural approach within its Strategic Context. This should be part of the overall organizational vision, cultural definition as well as HR’s leadership development strategy.
- Part of these strategic elements should recognize, respect, and utilize cultural diversity and communication as a strength.
Solutions in Intercultural Coaching
- Despite our constant change and uniqueness, some tendencies can be described, and country cultures can be compared. This has been presented throughout many of my blogs while I describe the extensive research and writings by many leading authors and researchers. Some of these are: Edward T. Hall, Charles Hampden-Turner, Fons Trompenaars, Geert Hofstede, Richard D. Lewis and John Schmitz.
- The above authors describe, compare cultures, and provide detailed analysis of cultural profiles and forms of management while stating different dimensions or differences. These are generally stated in the different forms of communication.
- As in any coaching relationship, the leader or executive is positioned at the center of the conversation. The objective is helping to reveal and work on the inner cultural mind-set of an individual.
- Cultural Knowledge is not an element on its own, the Global Leader’s Emotional Knowledge and ability to correctly anticipate and identify the emotional reactions of those before them.
- Effective intercultural coaching needs to be included, as part of the development plan, together with continuous learning, active listening, empathy, and communication techniques.
- Intercultural competence needs to be considered at various levels or applied across different contexts. These may be continental, country, regional, or even rural cultural differences. These differences can influence communication, decision-making, and team dynamics.
- Intercultural training and coaching need to focus and reflect on their intercultural skills, collaboration style, leadership style, team structure, organizational variables, context variables, and the influence that any imminent situation will have on their behavior.
Conclusions
Facilitating the awareness of cultural differences with the coaching of executive skills will unleash the leader’s potential and leverage the richness of cultural diversity, This will enhance leadership effectiveness and help in the achievement of strategic goals. Intercultural coaching contributes to the development of a more cohesive and culturally aware organization.
I highly encourage leaders and organizations to invest in intercultural coaching as a strategic tool for navigating the complexities of today’s globalized business environment. This investment equips teams with the cultural intelligence necessary to thrive in diverse markets and enhances leadership capabilities by fostering adaptability, empathy, and a broader perspective.
Organizations can ensure sustained success and resilience in an increasingly interconnected world by integrating intercultural coaching into their development programs.
By leveraging the expertise of an Executive Intercultural Coach, an Intercultural Coach can assist leaders in developing critical soft skills, fostering better communication, and building stronger relationships across diverse cultures, ultimately enhancing their overall development and professional growth.
