Everyone knows that our world feels like it’s moving faster every day; distances seem ‘smaller,’ and now a student in Norway can connect directly with friends in New Zealand through social media and other digital platforms. Space and time no longer matter. Information and images can be shared instantly. Want to know what a hotel is like in another part of the world? No problem; you can find everything you need online, where many people have already shared their reviews. The same goes for goods, products, and services that can be quickly ordered, shipped, and exchanged between countries. For people living in this world, distant places have come right into their homes through TV, computers, or other devices. Nothing seems to be a mystery anymore. Travel has also become affordable, so nowadays, anyone can visit any destination for a fair price and in almost no time.
The same idea holds true for today’s workforce: no one is limited to jobs in their home country; resumes and applications can be shared online, and connections can be made with recruiters around the globe. As a result, individuals from diverse nationalities and backgrounds often work together in the same office, not just in large corporations but also in small and medium enterprises and beyond. For instance, in sports, successful teams worldwide include players from different countries. The only requirement is to excel in the specific field, regardless of the candidate’s origin.
But: what at first glance seems to be exciting and simple, can become rather difficult in the day-to-day practice. Even though continents, languages and people have become ‘closer’ to one another, every single human being has its own culture, behaviour, pace and habits. As a result, business relationships have to take the cultural background of the different partners into account in order to ensure a fruitful collaboration. In short, nowadays a successful and mindful leader has to have much more competencies than social and technical skills. Intercultural competences are equally important and represent a huge challenge in multinational teams. Results are often affected and even hindered by irritation, embarrassment, resentment and conflicts within a team, problems emanating directly from cultural misunderstandings. How can such “disturbances” be overcome in order to establish a friendly and effective work environment? How can international business be smoothly conducted, even though people from different cultures
are involved? Leaders and HR often call upon specialised coaches to help them navigate the uncertain waters of intercultural management. How intercultural coaching and coaching in an intercultural management environment can be differentiated and how teams can be trained and coached to efficiently work together will be discussed in the next articles. Stay tuned!