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Friday, September 5, 2014

The Best Leaders Are Insatiable Learners

by Bill Taylor | 9:00 AM September 5, 2014

Nearly a quarter century ago, at a gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, John W. Gardner delivered a speech that may be one of the most quietly influential speeches in the history of American business — a text that has been photocopied, passed along, underlined, and linked to by senior executives in some of the most important companies and organizations in the world. I wonder, though, how many of these leaders (and the business world more broadly) have truly embraced the lessons he shared that day.

Gardner, who died in 2002 at the age of 89, was a legendary public intellectual and civic reformer — a celebrated Stanford professor, an architect of the Great Society under Lyndon Johnson, founder of Common Cause and Independent Sector. His speech on November 10, 1990, was delivered to a meeting of McKinsey & Co., the consulting firm whose advice has shaped the fortunes of the world’s richest and most powerful companies. But his focus that day was on neither money nor power. It was on what he called “Personal Renewal,” the urgent need for leaders who wish to make a difference and stay effective to commit themselves to continue learning and growing. Gardner was so serious about this learning imperative, so determined that the message would get through, that he wrote the speech out in advance because he wanted “every sentence to hit its target.”

What was his message? “We have to face the fact that most men and women out there in the world of work are more stale than they know, more bored than they would care to admit,” he said. “Boredom is the secret ailment of large-scale organizations. Someone said to me the other day ‘How can I be so bored when I’m so busy?’ I said ‘Let me count the ways.’ Look around you. How many people whom you know well — people even younger than yourselves—are already trapped in fixed attitudes and habits?”

So what is the opposite of boredom, the personal attribute that allows individuals to keep learning, growing, and changing, to escape their fixed attitudes and habits? “Not anything as narrow as ambition,” Gardner told the ambitious McKinsey strategists. “After all, ambition eventually wears out and probably should. But you can keep your zest until the day you die.” He then offered a simple maxim to guide the accomplished leaders in the room. “Be interested,” he urged them. “Everyone wants to be interesting, but the vitalizing thing is to be interested…As the proverb says, ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.’”

In these head-spinning times, even more so than when John Gardner offered his timeless advice, the challenge for leaders is not to out-hustle, out-muscle, or out-maneuver the competition. It is toout-think the competition in ways big and small, to develop a unique point of view about the future and get there before anyone else does. The best leaders I’ve gotten to know aren’t just the boldest thinkers; they are the most insatiable learners.

Roy Spence, perhaps the most interested (and interesting) advertising executive I’ve ever met, recently published a book called The 10 Essential Hugs of Life, a funny and moving take on the roots of success. Among his wise and folksy pieces of advice (“Hug your failures,” “Hug your fears,” “Hug yourself”) is a call to “Hug your firsts” — to seek out new sources of inspiration, to visit a lab whose work you don’t really understand, to attend a conference you shouldn’t be at. “When you’re a kid,” he says, “every day is full of firsts, full of new experiences. As you get older, your firsts become fewer and fewer. If you want to stay young, you have to work to keep trying new things.”

Spence cites as one of his inspirations management guru Jim Collins, who, as a young Stanford professor, sought advice and counsel from his learned colleague John Gardner. What did Spence learn from Collins? “You’re only as young as the new things you do,” he writes, “the number of ‘firsts’ in your days and weeks.” Ask any educator and they’ll agree: We learn the most when we encounter people who are the least like us. Then ask yourself: Don’t you spend most of your time with people who are exactly like you? Colleagues from the same company, peers from the same industry, friends from the same profession and neighborhood?

It takes a real sense of personal commitment, especially after you’ve arrived at a position of power and responsibility, to push yourself to grow and challenge conventional wisdom. Which is why two of the most important questions leaders face are as simple as they are profound: Are you learning, as an organization and as an individual, as fast as the world is changing? Are you as determined to stay interested as to be interesting? Remember, it’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

BILL TAYLOR

William C. Taylor is cofounder of Fast Company magazine and author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself. Follow him on Twitter at @practicallyrad.

How to Network Across Cultures

by Andy Molinsky | 10:35 AM January 17, 2012

This post is part of the HBR Insight Center, The Next Generation of Global Leaders.

Picture this: You are at a networking event and see across the room a potential employer from a company you’re interested in. You walk over to that person, look him in the eye, and say the following:

“Hello, I noticed that you’re from IBM. I’m very interested in IBM and would love to give you a sense of my background.”

I recently posed this scenario to a group of foreign-born professionals in the United States and then asked whether they believed that according to American cultural norms, the person’s statement was:

(a) Too direct
(b) Not direct enough
(c) Appropriately direct

I also posed the same question to a group of American-born professionals, and the answers from the two groups were telling.

All the American-born professionals in the room answered (c), that the statement was appropriately direct, and was a reasonable way to begin a networking conversation in the United States.

The foreign-born professionals, on the other hand, saw the situation quite differently. A few with extensive experience living and working in the United States agreed with the Americans. However, the large majority didn’t, answering (a) — that the behavior was too direct and assertive for an American-style networking event.

I then posed an additional question:

Imagine that a few minutes later you see another person across the room from a company you’re interested in. You walk over to that person and say the following in a tentative manner:

“Hello, sir. My name is ___________. I am so very honored to meet you. Would it be possible for me to introduce myself to you?”

Again, I had seminar participants assess the appropriateness of this statement according to American cultural norms: in particular, whether the statement was:

(a) Appropriately polite: When talking with someone at a networking event, especially someone senior to you in either age or professional background, it is important in the United States to be highly deferential.

(b) Too polite: Even when talking with someone senior to you in age or professional background, it is important not to be overly polite and deferential. It makes you look like you lack confidence and professionalism.

Again, all American-born individuals answered (b), whereas a large group of the foreign-born professionals, many of whom were from India, answered (a) — that the statement was appropriately polite for the situation.

The ability to network — to develop contacts and personal connections with a variety of people — is a critical skill for any global business leader. The only problem is that global networking can be extremely difficult to do when the rules for networking vary so dramatically across cultures. In fact, these cultural challenges can be so strong that many of the young potential foreign-born global leaders that I know often purposefully avoid networking opportunities in the United States — despite how important these opportunities can be for developing their careers.

Listen to the words of Ravi (name disguised to protect confidentiality), an Indian management consultant, who describes his experience participating at a networking event in the U.S.

I feel that I am performing a sin, trying to become something that I am not, being artificial and fake. For example, while trying to network, I try to sell myself, bragging about my abilities to a stranger. And that feels so weird and selfish to me, making me feel like I am doing things to achieve my objectives at all cost.

So what can be done? How can budding global professionals like Ravi acquire this critical global leadership skill?

In working with young global leaders like Ravi over the past 10 years, I have found three key tools for success in learning to adapt behavior across cultures in a networking situation or in any other situation where you need to switch your cultural behavior to be effective in a new setting.

Learn from those around you: Watch carefully how others operate in networking situations, and learn what behaviors work and don’t work in that setting. Customize your own approach from what you observe to develop a style that feels authentic to you, and that is also effective in the new setting.

Master the new cultural logic: Learn the rationale for this new behavior from the perspective of the new culture. Learn, for example, why “small talk” is such an important part of networking in the United States. Understand from the American point of view why it’s actually appropriate to speak positively about yourself and your qualifications. Master the logic of the new culture and the behavior will feel much more comfortable to perform.

Finally, Practice! Practice multiple times, and ideally in settings that mimic the stress and pressure of real situations. Integrate the behavior so deeply into your psyche that it becomes your “new normal” — something you do naturally and instinctively.

Use these tools and you will master networking in no time. The bonus is that you will also learn a method that you can apply to any other global leadership situation you face — which perhaps is the greatest learning of all.

In addition to these best practices, in a future blog post, I’ll talk more about how American-born professionals can improve their networking skills overseas.

ANDY MOLINSKY

Andy Molinsky is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Brandeis International Business School. He is the author of the book Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior across Cultures without Losing Yourself in the Process (HBR Press, 2013). Follow Andy on twitter at @andymolinsky.

The Big Challenge of American Small Talk

by Andy Molinsky | 8:00 AM February 27, 2013

You are a new expatriate manager at the American subsidiary of your German firm in Chicago. With a few minutes to spare between meetings, you walk into the mail room to retrieve your mail and get a quick cup of coffee.

“Hey, David, how are you?” one of the senior partners at the firm asks you.

“Good, thank you, Dr. Greer,” you reply. You’ve really been wanting to make a connection with the senior leadership at the firm, and this seems like a great opportunity. But as you start to think of something to say (secretly worrying whether it’s actually appropriate to say anything at all to a senior partner), your American colleague swoops in to steal your spotlight.

“So Arnold,” your colleague says to your boss, in such a casual manner that it makes your German soul cringe. “So what’s your Super bowl prediction? I mean, you’re a Niners fan, right? Didn’t you do your MBA at Berkeley?”

The conversation moves on, and you slink back to your desk with your coffee. You know how important small talk is in the U.S., and you feel jealous of people like your colleague who can do it well — and with no remorse.

There’s nothing small about the role that small talk plays in American professional culture. People from other countries are often surprised at how important small talk is in the U.S. and how naturally and comfortably people seem to do it — with peers, subordinates, men, women, and even with superiors like Dr. Greer. You can be the most technically skilled worker in the world, but your ability to progress in your job and move up the corporate ladder in the United States is highly dependent on your ability to build and maintain positive relationships with people at work. And guess what skill is critical for building and maintaining these relationships? Small talk.

When searching for a job, the ability to make effective small talk is essential for creating a quick sense of rapport with potential employers. Once you secure a position, small talk is essential to bond with colleagues, create a positive relationship with your boss, and win the trust and respect of clients, suppliers, and people in your extended professional network. What is also crucial in the eyes of a potential employer, boss, or client is whether they feel they can trust you — and whether they like you and want to work with you. The ability to forge connections and relationships through small talk is a critical tool for achieving this purpose.

This is certainly true in formal situations such as an interview or a meeting, where small talk is often used as a friendly, lighthearted precursor to the main, “serious” portion of the discussion. It is also critically important during more unpredictable and unscheduled moments of organizational life, such as that impromptu chat you happen to have in the elevator with your boss or on the subway home. Or the discussion you have with a colleague or client seated next to you at a corporate event.

In all these situations, small talk is a critical tool for creating a personal bond. Although ultimately you will likely be accepted or rejected based on more concrete aspects of your work, the fact of the matter is that these interpersonal impressions matter a great deal along the way and can even shape how people judge your more technical production.

The problem, of course, is that small talk differs across cultures, not only in how it’s done, but also in terms of its role and importance in business communication. In many cultures — especially those with more formal rules for communication and with a strong emphasis on social hierarchy — it’s considered inappropriate to engage in casual conversation with superiors. In addition, it can also feel impolite and even dangerous to openly express your opinion during small talk, especially if it could potentially conflict with the other person’s opinion. For example, if you express your allegiance toward a particular team or a point of view about any other topic without knowing that of your colleague, you might put them in the uncomfortable position of having to either suppress their own preference or express something that conflicts with yours.

In many cultures, it can also be particularly inappropriate to make small talk with strangers or to share any personal information with someone you don’t know. America may be one of the only countries in the world where it’s common to strike up a personal conversation with a complete stranger.

Finally, the way that Americans ask others how things are going or how they are doing can feel superficial to people from other cultures who are used to providing an actual, elaborated answer to such questions. They might understandably assume that if someone is asking them how they are doing, the person is genuinely interested in the answer, when in the U.S., this may just actually be a ritualized way of greeting that doesn’t really actually demand a long answer — and, in fact, a long, elaborated answer to the question of “How’s it going?” would likely be inappropriate for most people in the U.S.

What can you do if you are from another culture and want to learn to use small talk in the U.S. to build relationships and establish trust? First, work hard to hone your own version of American-style small talk. Watch how others do it — the topics they cover, the tone they use, their style of verbal and non-verbal communication. You don’t have to mimic what they do; in fact, that would likely backfire because people would see you as inauthentic. But if you can develop your own personal version, that can go a long way toward making you feel comfortable and competence.

Second, as you are honing your style, also work hard to appreciate why Americans make small talk as they do from their cultural perspective. Yes, from your point of view, American small talk might feel superficial or irrelevant or unnecessary, but is that how Americans see it? The more you can appreciate the new culture from that culture’s own mind-set, the more legitimate you will ultimately feel adopting their norms.

So the next time someone asks you, “How’s it going?” or “What do you think of the weather?” don’t think of it as an imposition. See it as an opportunity! Use small talk just like Americans do — as a way to build and establish connections and to set the stage for potentially deeper relationships.

ANDY MOLINSKY

Common Language Doesn't Equal Common Culture

by Andy Molinsky | 10:00 AM April 3, 2013

“Finally,” you think to yourself as you board the plane to London for a series of business meetings with the British subsidiary of your American corporation. “I can finally travel somewhere without one of those cultural guidebooks for understanding how I’m supposed to behave in a new place.” In the last year alone, you’ve been to China, Korea, and India, and in each place, you’ve worked hard to learn the key differences in how people behave in each of these cultures and how business gets done. But on this final trip of the year to London, you’re pretty sure you can make it on your own. After all, how different could British and American people be in their behaviors and orientation at work?

Turns out, quite different! Just because two cultures share a common language or are in a similar part of the world does not necessary mean that they share a common business culture. This sounds like an obvious point, but it’s one that people often overlook when doing business overseas, especially in countries with superficial similarities that can mask important underlying differences. Assumptions like these can lead to awkward — or unprofessional — interactions in a different culture.

Let’s start with self-promotion, which is one of the strongest differences I found in my research over the past year interviewing managers in the U.S. and the UK. As anyone familiar with U.S. business communication culture knows, Americans aren’t shy talking up their accomplishments and selling themselves. We do it all the time — at job fairs, interviews, sales calls, performance evaluations, and when vying for prized internal assignments and positions. Of course, there are limits to self-promotion in the U.S. Not everyone feels equally comfortable selling themselves — nor is everyone equally adept at doing it — and some corporate cultures and contexts are more forgiving of self-promotion than others. But the overall point is that self-promotion is clearly a necessary and useful skill for getting ahead in the U.S. professional world.

In the UK, on the other hand, overt self-promotion isn’t only uncommon; it’s essentially taboo. Most Brits are very uncomfortable with being praised in public and are quick to deflect and deflate such compliments with a witty counter. You don’t promote yourself and your accomplishments to your British colleagues, and if you do, you’ll definitely suffer the consequences, most likely in the form of some serious “piss-taking” (mocking and ridicule). If you want to tell your boss what you have accomplished in the UK, describe it in a straightforward, non-exaggerated, fact-based manner. No embellishment and certainly no grandstanding. In fact, if self-promotion is an art in the U.S., the corresponding art in the UK is self-deprecation.

Another key difference between the two cultures is how emotionally expressive people are at work. In the U.S., it is culturally acceptable — even admirable — to show enthusiasm. When arguing for a point in a meeting, for example, it is quite appropriate to express your opinions enthusiastically. Or when speaking with a potential employer at a networking event, it is appropriate to express your interest enthusiastically. In fact, in this particular situation, the employer might interpret your interest as real and genuine because of the enthusiasm you express. Not true in the UK, where Brits are typically much more understated in their emotional expressiveness.

A great performance, for example, in the UK would typically be characterized as being “not bad.” Or when someone asks how you are doing, the typical answer is “fine” (as opposed to “Great!” or “Good!” as it might be in the U.S.). In general, people in the UK value moderation and self-control rather than emotional expressiveness. High fives aren’t part of the typical UK cultural repertoire. If you strike a really big deal or make a significant achievement at work, people will typically celebrate or congratulate, but with a certain level of self-restraint. They might very well be excited for a short time and celebrate with some light applause and congratulatory gestures; however, the level of outward, visible excitement would typically be far less than in the U.S. and last for a shorter time.

Of course, not all Americans are characteristic of the “typical” American style, nor are all Brits typically British. When considering how to act in any given situation that you happen to encounter, it’s important to know about other aspects of the culture you’re in as well. The culture of your industry might matter a great deal, for example (investment banking might have quite different norms in the UK, for example, than television or media). So too might your corporate culture (e.g., Google vs. Barclays), as well as the particular cultural background of the person or people you’re interacting with — especially since the U.S. and UK workplaces are comprised of people from so many different nationalities.

But still, despite these finer points, the overall message remains: Just because the U.S. and UK share a common language (and even that could be debatable), we don’t necessarily share a common business communication style. Realizing that superficial similarities can mask important underlying differences is a key point to remember no matter what culture you’re adapting to.

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Friday, September 5, 2014