Coaching foreign counterparts either at a distance or in person?
The Global Challenge
Anyone who coaches international counterparts either face-to-face or via phone and fax will tell you that such business relationships can sometimes be a bumpy ride.
Misunderstandings, confusion and frustration are common events. However, when you get it right the potential synergies can be a most positive and rewarding experience from which both the organisation and the individuals concerned can greatly benefit from.
Coaching as Culture Shock
In a one-to-one situation, where the focus is on the behaviours and values of one of the party it can be very easy to give offence unintentionally. Not only that but because of cultural factors you may never know that offence has been taken.
Our expectations for a meeting where feedback is expected, vary widely from culture to culture. How direct or not the language is; how much the individual is positioned in relation to the business in hand. When expectations are not met then culture shock, the sense of disorientation when we are deprived of familiar cues and get unexpected reactions, can take place.
Ironically, when we feel culture shock, we usually think it is the other person who is causing us discomfort -- we forget that we are probably, unintentionally, causing the same unease for them.
Culture shock can also be the feeling that foreigners are irrational, unreasonable and untrustworthy.
Key Themes
- Hierarchical & status issues
- Coach & coachee relationship issues
- Building and maintaining rapport
- Adjusting the coaching communication style appropriately
- Direct Vs indirect communication (speech Vs thought)
- Problems and pitfalls of using English as the Lingua Franca of coaching
- The role of emotions in giving and receiving feedback
- Expectations clash -- and how to manage it
This two-day programme has the following Key Learning Points:
- Develop a deeper understanding of the values, behaviours and attitudes of target countries with a view to adopting a flexible international coaching style.
- Acquire a flexible framework from which to choose techniques for dealing with the cultural and business issues faced in an international context.
- Practice new approaches to giving and receiving negative feedback -- motivating foreign counterparts and developing rapport across borders.
- Understand how hierarchy and status issues can impact on the coaching process and
develop strategies to overcome them.