The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

Author:Erin Meyer [Meyer, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781610392594
Publisher: PublicAffairs

WHEN INTERNATIONAL STAFFERS SHOW TOO MUCH RESPECT—OR TOO LITTLE

“In China, the boss is always right,” says Steve Henning, reflecting on his years of managing in Beijing. “And even when the boss is very wrong, he is still right.”

If, like Henning, you find yourself managing staff in a culture that is more hierarchical than your own, you may be surprised and uncomfortable to see how much importance is placed on what you say and how difficult it is to hear the opinions of those in positions below you. “When I would ask my staff members for their thoughts, advice, or opinions, they would sit quietly staring at their shoelaces,” Henning remembers. “I later learned that this type of questioning suggested to them that I was trying to test them to see whether they knew what I wanted them to say. And since they didn’t know, they felt it was safer to remain quiet.”

For Henning this situation was initially perplexing. “How can I make good decisions if I don’t know what my group really thinks about an issue?” he used to wonder. If you are managing a group that respects your authority so much that you are unable to get the input you need to make informed decisions, there are a few steps you can take without completely compromising the authority of your position. These strategies include:

•Ask your team to meet without you in order to brainstorm as a group—and then to report the group’s ideas back to you. Removing “the boss” from the meeting removes their need to defer, allowing people to feel more comfortable sharing ideas.

•When you call a meeting, give clear instructions a few days beforehand about how you would like the meeting to work and what questions you plan to ask. Tell your team members explicitly that you will call on them for their input. In this way, they can show you respect by preparing and sharing their ideas. It also gives the team members time to organize their thoughts carefully and to check with one another before the meeting.

•If you are the boss, remember that your role is to chair the meeting. Don’t expect people to jump in randomly without an invitation. Instead, invite people to speak up. Even if team members have prepared well and are ready to share their ideas, they may not volunteer unless you call on them individually. When you do so, you may be surprised to see how much they have to contribute.

On the other hand, you may find yourself in the same situation as Carlos Gomez, managing a group from a culture that is more egalitarian than your own. As Gomez explains, “I sometimes feel as if I have no idea what my staff is doing, because they rarely ask for feedback. For me, it has been a short step from feeling ‘hands off’ to feeling ‘out of control.’”

Gomez began poring over management books recommended by his Dutch colleagues to learn their preferred leadership systems. He found that the management-by-objective system he had used in Mexico could easily be adapted to the egalitarian Dutch environment.

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