My first in a series of podcast appearances on Limitless Laowai with Ally Mona.
Episode #248: Why I encourage everyone to take an International Assignment!
The ideal situation for coaching expatriates is to begin sessions prior to the relocation and run through the first few months of transition. This approach allows the expatriate (and their families) to better frame their experience beforehand and validate their thoughts once they have landed. International assignees often are not mentally prepared once they hit the ground; a surefire start to a difficult experience. Typical questions I ask of new international assignees are:
- What are my current perspectives and behaviors?
- What are culturally acceptable perspectives and behaviors (of my new host culture)?
- What are others’ perspectives and behaviors (in my new host culture)?
This model brings structure to one’s own behavior, their new environment and how they can best fit or manage in a new cultural setting. Expat professionals become more productive faster once they can figure how best they can assimilate into the new surroundings. Trailing families can better integrate as members of a community faster when they have a better understanding of similarities between their personal mindsets and the culture of the host community.
The first question helps an expat reflect upon the unique strengths that will aid them to be successful. Highly effective expatriates have a high sense of self-awareness. Self-reflection allows the client to mentally develop an inventory of behaviors and mindsets; a list that will either serve as strengths or derailers as an expatriate. An international assignee who cannot realize their own shortcomings will inevitably hurt relationships and more seriously, not even realize that relational damage has been done.
The intention of the second question is twofold. The first is to give the client an awareness that there are similarities and differences across cultures. Often times, expatriates overlook nuanced cultural differences in different parts of the same country or between countries with a similar heritage. This point was never so apparent as when I worked for companies based in California, Wisconsin, and New York and recruited Overseas Chinese to come to China. Cultural differences, even subtle ones, will always exist.
When the client accepts that a difference will always exist between a home and host culture, s/he must then have an idea of behavioral expectations. A natural corollary of this thought process is also realizing the power of bias in forming our perceptions of other cultures. Being aware of bias is important as the expatriate continues in their international assignment. Identifying the specifics of a culture is the first step in validating the new behaviors and/or finding alignment with their own personal values.
The third question closes the loop in the thought process of an expatriate’s thought process. It encourages expats to either invalidate or validate their perceived notions of the new host culture but also identifies areas of commonality with their own values as well as blind spots to be aware of. Invalidating incorrect perceptions are particularly powerful as it underlines the negative impact bias can have if it influences judgement. Many clients take the first step of letting go of biases and assumptions and in fact, make an effort to better listen and understand. Another common discovery from clients in this phase is that it is impossible to have a 100% fit in the new culture and that adjustments have to be made.
Lawrence Chi is a coach for expatriates and cross-cultural consultant. His mission is to grow expatriates professionally and personally and to make organizations more international. Visit his website www.TheExpatCompass.com.
A dear friend (and fellow coach) and I recently discussed what we thought made for an effective coach. We concluded that clients would be best served by coaches that act dumb, heartless and lazy. We had a chuckle at the thought of pitching this perspective with future coaching prospects –
Effective coaches don’t have preprogrammed notions or expectations of the conversation, nor analyze the situation for the client. Dispensing advice or setting actions for clients serve a coach’s need to show value to a client or give the coach confidence. But there is no correlation between a coach showing a client how intelligent they are and client value. Over preparation means that the coach has a preconception as to how the session will proceed. The coach should facilitate the client’s self-discovery, analysis and action steps by acting dumb and asking powerful questions.
Everyone has emotions and biases but an effective coach will check these at the door prior to a client session. Effective coaches detach and serve as an empty vessel for clients to express themselves. While establishing chemistry is essential to build a trustful coaching relationship, it should be a means for the client to share perspectives, not for the coach to express opinions. The coach’s role is not to judge what the client says as that will influence the client and steer the conversation. An effective communicator, however, will use positive emoting and active listening to encourage the speaker to share more. In positive emoting, a coach demonstrates interest and care about what the client says but again, does not offer a judgement about what was said.
The role of the coach is not to advise or give the answer – coaching is not consulting. Clients should work hardest during sessions; they are the expert of their own life and the best way for them to learn is through self-discovery. This means minimal preparation for the coach prior to the client meeting and taking a follower role during. A coach-dominated conversation saps energy from and disempowers the client. An effective coach will free their mind of distraction and bias, be present and trust the process itself and follow the conversation based upon what the client says.
Effective coaches are obviously not actually dumb, heartless and lazy but must be able to appropriately take on these personas in a client situation. Not having pre-conceived notions means the coach has to ask basic questions. Being emotionless encourages the client to express opinions freely. By taking a follower role, the client guides the conversation and achieves self-discovery on their own terms.
The fourth commonality among successful expatriates is a high EQ. There is indeed a connection with humility and agility, but a high EQ reflects an individual’s level of self-awareness and general ability to recognize and manage their own behaviour and deliberately affect others’.
Humility allows an individual to be reflective and identify genuine strengths as well as blind spots. The ability to pivot enables leaders to change their behaviour during an interaction in order to evoke a desired response.
A key distinction that separates EQ from the other success factors is that it can be developed; someone who either has low self or social awareness, the inability to regulate their responses or effectively influence others can work towards improving one or all of these areas. Humility, curiosity and the ability to pivot are ingrained mindsets and more difficult to develop. There are many effective ways to improve one’s EQ, including partnering with an effective coach.
We have seen in previous cases that behaviours such as an admission that a newly transplanted leader “has as much to learn from his new team and it does from him” (http://www.theexpatcompass.com/the-humble-expatriate-is-the-successful-expatriate/) and changing a pure metric-based management style to one focused on relationship-building (http://www.theexpatcompass.com/the-successful-expat-is-agile/) have resulted in garnering team support in a cross-cultural environment and success as an international leader. Conversely, John’s inability to change his maverick management style ultimately led to his failure as an expatriate manager (http://www.theexpatcompass.com/the-successful-expat-is-agile/).
You would also rightly conclude that humility, agility and a high EQ are hallmarks of an effective leader … expat or not. This is an important point for it also underlines the importance of having a meticulous and thoughtful selection process to identify candidates with the highest probability of effectiveness and success as an expatriate.
Organizations know the importance of an effective selection process – to realize their return on an international assignment, commercial success, and effectively manage talent. Yet how many organizations truly have the rigor and objectivity to screen for expatriate success? I suspect a very low number –
The four characteristics: humility; agility; high EQ and curiosity are vital starting points to determining expatriate effectiveness at the workplace. The selection of expatriate leaders and the importance of a rigorous process will be the subject of future articles.
Lawrence Chi is a coach for expatriates and cross-cultural consultant. His mission is to grow expatriates professionally and personally and to make organizations more international. Visit his website www.TheExpatCompass.com.
Hearing that Premier McNeil had announced a strategy to build stronger ties between Nova Scotia and China was encouraging … not having any goals or accountability in it, is not.
Canadian government and business have demonstrated half-hearted engagement strategies with China and Asia in general: hoping something will happen won’t make it so. Recognition that China is an important market to engage with is tremendous, but if Nova Scotia (and other Canadian institutions) are serious and committed to increase its Asia Competence (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada term), the effort has to go beyond setting vision … there has to be measurable actions aligned to it.
I genuinely hope Premier McNeil’s vision materializes, let’s see what gains materialize in the near future.
Lawrence Chi is a coach for expatriates and cross-cultural consultant. His mission is to grow expatriates professionally and personally and to make organizations more international. Visit his website www.TheExpatCompass.com.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/china-strategy-trade-economy-ambassador-1.3557489