Let the Adventure Begin! A Week-by-Week Guide to Moving Abroad
13 Weeks Until Overseas Move: Working Abroad - Strategies for Preparing for Your International Assignment
Learning about the Country's Working Culture
If you're going to be working abroad, learning about the culture is imperative. One member of ExpatExchange explained, "Be open to what your trainer has to offer. We assumed we understood the British culture since we speak the same language, and come from the same "roots" if you will. But the things our trainer shared have been so helpful! For example, my husband had a habitual hand gesture that we were told was quite offensive here, and why. He had been offending people for a month, but the cultural attitude dictated that no one tell him about it!"
Tips for Preparing for Your International Assignment
At work, offending people can be a real deal breaker, especially when it comes to interacting with customers. The article, Strategies to Help You Prepare for an Overseas Assignment, by Sondra Sen, Sherisen TSI offers some great suggestions to help you prepare for your new job abroad. Here are a few of the highlights:
Prepare a country profile.
Learn the geographic, historic, political and economic factors that have shaped your host country and its people. Start by reviewing a map to determine the country's location, distance from the U.S. and neighboring nations. Read history books about the country or region, and familiarize yourself with recent current events. Investigate various topics that will make the country and its people seem more "real" and ease conversations with host nationals.
Learn how business is conducted and people are managed in your host country.
Discuss in advance what's expected at business/staff meetings. Also learn about typical leadership styles, boss-subordinate relations, decision-making, teamwork, and differences in pace, pressure and protocol from U.S. norms. Ask others who have been successful overseas how they handled sensitive work or management situations.
Practice "style switching" when learning how to manage key cultural differences. For instance, if you're transferring to China and you learn that "the Chinese are like...," recognize that you must continue the thought with, "If the Chinese are like..., then to be effective, I must..."
Practice conflict management and international negotiation skills.
While you can't insist on doing things the way you've always done them in the U.S., neither can host country nationals have things entirely their way, either. There must be an accommodation, and you'll likely have to arrange it. Becoming a good global manager requires tact, diplomacy, a genuine respect for others and the ability to develop and maintain relationships.
Become aware of verbal and nonverbal communication styles.
Recognize that such gestures as raising an eyebrow, nodding, crossing your arms or leaning forward send a message, but its meaning may vary in your host country. For instance, a smile and a nod in Japan can be a polite refusal. Moving your head from side to side means "yes," not "no," in south India. Learn to interpret common gestures and body language in your assigned country.
When using English with host nationals, speak slowly and distinctly, and avoid using idioms until you know how well they speak it. Use feedback mechanisms to determine if your message has been understood.
Understand time and space concepts in your host country.
Knowing these issues can help you successfully navigate social and business engagements. In general, most foreigners are more relaxed about time and schedules than U.S. and western European executives. When conversing with others, Latin Americans and Arabs prefer to be physically closer than the 30 inches preferred by most Americans.
Study social customs and behavior that will help you to interact with your hosts.
These include learning how to make appropriate introductions and greetings and understanding native food habits, mores about drinking and smoking, conversation topics, relationships between the sexes and gift-giving.
As a manager, you'll need to be culturally savvy concerning business entertaining and social protocol. Who should initiate an invitation or pick up the tab? Are spouses normally invited? What's an appropriate gift? Can you discuss business at a social gathering, and if so, when? For example, the French have a saying, "Nous concludons les affaires entre le poire et le fromage," which means, "We conclude business between the pear and the cheese." In other words, they consider it gauche to concentrate on business discussions during a meal and not on the food, wine and conversation.
Note: This article first appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly.
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