Getting the very best results through their employees is the value of a great manager. In a changing world, their are huge opportunities where intercultural challenges can be both overcome and leveraged.
Managers with responsibilities around the globe who can adapt their style will have the edge. Not only must the mamager have great people skills, but they have to embrace the differences cultures bring to the workplace.
Almost all the major companies nowadays get involved with buying, selling or working with people from varied cultural background.
Every well known worldwide business has a global reach today, both to create new markets, as well as sourcing opportunities.
Value-creating diversification management skills are, for many, the challenge of the new millennium and beyond.
Intercultural Management - What You Need To Know
The bottom line is that there is now, in a tough marketplace, a need for exceptional managers who can work worldwide to get the best from cultural differences.
The term "intercultural management skills" is loosely defined as the ability of a manager to deal and communicate with people from different cultures.
In all forms of people management, communication is a recognized key ingredient for success and intercultural communication is a term of increased complexity.
It's vital to recognize just how shared understanding is the most important piece of the puzzle in businesses that work across international boundaries.
Where a manager is able to inform, communicate (and this means 'two-way' of course!) and value the local population, business will grow and flourish.
Then there is also the talent required to extract the potential from a valuable team drawn possibly from all four corners of the globe too.
Externally a multicultural manager will have expertise in broad and varied cultural awareness for supervising the entrance into foreign markets. The selection and training of people who will work in foreign interests must be overseen.
And, of course, it's vital to be able to build relationships on all sides to make this work as a mutually beneficial exercise.
Where things work out well, bank those for the future. Where there are some shortfalls, careful scrutiny of what could be done better will also forge the way for future success.
Intercultural Management - Different Skills - Or Not?
The first challenge that a manager in such a suituation is likely to face will be about even understanding the langauge.
Then it's down to work and life experience, added to previous opportunities to work elsewhere on the planet. These four angles are worthy of consideration:-
1. Know the key business opportunities
2. Vision to capitalize on differences
3. Multicultural and personal behavioral flexibility
4. The capacity to pace change appropriately
Intercultural awareness is the basis of wide ranging management skills. Having a hands-on experience of working amongst varied cultures is critical.
Knowledge about the different relationships and their manifestations across international boundaries is necessity, because such managers can only develop the requisite skills by absorbing the many intercultural differences in the target country.
Cross-cultural Managers Need To Be Very Flexible
Simply having lived in a number of different countries gives people the capacity to work almost anywhere. Their approach is to be flexible and ensure that they pace themselves and understand that things do not always go to plan.
When you have a flexible approach these problems can be handled with a certain amount of ease.
Yet 'diversity', which was once used to ensure equality for those with poor sight or hearing; from different ethnic backgrounds; with varied approaches to their personal lives, for example, is not yet the strongest lever to pull to any manager's benefit. The best intercultural managers recognize the possibilities and value the differences.
It's a great chance to find the best people; new items for sale and varied rules and regulations to make a better deal possible.
A good manager, well versed in the possibilities (rather then the problems!) of working in different parts of the world, will create profitable opportunities for their organization.
"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains", as the Dutch are known to say.
Thus patience is the key for success in intercultural management, because it helps maintain focus and leads to a coherent analysis and an effective solution. - 16738
Managers with responsibilities around the globe who can adapt their style will have the edge. Not only must the mamager have great people skills, but they have to embrace the differences cultures bring to the workplace.
Almost all the major companies nowadays get involved with buying, selling or working with people from varied cultural background.
Every well known worldwide business has a global reach today, both to create new markets, as well as sourcing opportunities.
Value-creating diversification management skills are, for many, the challenge of the new millennium and beyond.
Intercultural Management - What You Need To Know
The bottom line is that there is now, in a tough marketplace, a need for exceptional managers who can work worldwide to get the best from cultural differences.
The term "intercultural management skills" is loosely defined as the ability of a manager to deal and communicate with people from different cultures.
In all forms of people management, communication is a recognized key ingredient for success and intercultural communication is a term of increased complexity.
It's vital to recognize just how shared understanding is the most important piece of the puzzle in businesses that work across international boundaries.
Where a manager is able to inform, communicate (and this means 'two-way' of course!) and value the local population, business will grow and flourish.
Then there is also the talent required to extract the potential from a valuable team drawn possibly from all four corners of the globe too.
Externally a multicultural manager will have expertise in broad and varied cultural awareness for supervising the entrance into foreign markets. The selection and training of people who will work in foreign interests must be overseen.
And, of course, it's vital to be able to build relationships on all sides to make this work as a mutually beneficial exercise.
Where things work out well, bank those for the future. Where there are some shortfalls, careful scrutiny of what could be done better will also forge the way for future success.
Intercultural Management - Different Skills - Or Not?
The first challenge that a manager in such a suituation is likely to face will be about even understanding the langauge.
Then it's down to work and life experience, added to previous opportunities to work elsewhere on the planet. These four angles are worthy of consideration:-
1. Know the key business opportunities
2. Vision to capitalize on differences
3. Multicultural and personal behavioral flexibility
4. The capacity to pace change appropriately
Intercultural awareness is the basis of wide ranging management skills. Having a hands-on experience of working amongst varied cultures is critical.
Knowledge about the different relationships and their manifestations across international boundaries is necessity, because such managers can only develop the requisite skills by absorbing the many intercultural differences in the target country.
Cross-cultural Managers Need To Be Very Flexible
Simply having lived in a number of different countries gives people the capacity to work almost anywhere. Their approach is to be flexible and ensure that they pace themselves and understand that things do not always go to plan.
When you have a flexible approach these problems can be handled with a certain amount of ease.
Yet 'diversity', which was once used to ensure equality for those with poor sight or hearing; from different ethnic backgrounds; with varied approaches to their personal lives, for example, is not yet the strongest lever to pull to any manager's benefit. The best intercultural managers recognize the possibilities and value the differences.
It's a great chance to find the best people; new items for sale and varied rules and regulations to make a better deal possible.
A good manager, well versed in the possibilities (rather then the problems!) of working in different parts of the world, will create profitable opportunities for their organization.
"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains", as the Dutch are known to say.
Thus patience is the key for success in intercultural management, because it helps maintain focus and leads to a coherent analysis and an effective solution. - 16738
About the Author:
(c) 2008 Martin Haworth has written Super Successful Manager!, a very simple, step-by-step weekly performance improvement program for managers of EVERY skill level. You can get a sample lesson for free at http://www.SuperSuccessfulManager.com.
