Becoming a global leader

Companies love to present themselves as global. They are not in fact. They generally remain what they are i.e: large national corporations extending their business abroad to cover if possible most of the world economical areas and benefit from their growing economies. No, indeed the ones that are global are these managers and leaders shipped abroad to drive businesses they have been assigned to.
Let’s imagine you’re one of them. You’ve just been sent on the other side of the world, far away from home and the company headquarters. They gave you a nice package. You’re now costing twice your standard cost to the company. You’d better adjust quickly and start delivering. Where do you start? You don’t understand or speak the local language. It seems they don’t speak yours and you’ll soon be in a situation where the only way to communicate is English. English really? No! Globish is maybe a more accurate way to describe the idiom you share with locals. 200 words, some basic grammar and here you are, presenting the company plans, the strategy and the operational plan that needs to be implemented with them, the locals…They stare at you…
You’ve not been prepared to that type of situation. The intercultural training you received ( at best) before leaving is already far away and seems if culturally accurate, not very useful in your daily interaction with your team. You can’t even remember their weird names or pronounce them properly. And they all look the same to you. Don’t panic. Between the video-conference you just had this morning at 5.00 AM with the headquarter asking for a progress status on your business plan (!), your management team meeting and a visit to a customer with a sales manager you hardly know, you had the time to reflect on the situation and to organize yourself for success. Your recipe may be the right one:
Adopting a friendly demeanor and being easy to access seems to be the right thing to do for bounding with your environment and accelerate social adaptation .
Showing curiosity for the local way of doing things , trying to understand the reason why this is done and respecting it before delivering some creative way to change the habits with a lot of empathy for your counterparts efforts to adapt, will build the necessary trust among your team to start moving in the right direction.
For sure since your arrival, you’ve met some difficulties. Misunderstanding led to errors and frustration. You became angry but refrain from showing it. You’ve learned to deal with ambiguity. What they understood was not really what you had in mind. They did what they thought you wanted them to do without asking for clarification. Now you’ve learned to ask them to reformulate your request but you also learned to be better at communicating your expectation.
Progressively you adjust to your environment and they adjust to your requests and leadership style. It’s becoming easier, mutual trust and understanding is building up, you’re not anymore having this feeling of permanent confrontation with adverse forces. You’ve learned to deal with the difference and discovered a possible harmony with your environment without letting go your operational requirements.
You’re becoming a global leader.
Congratulation