Canadian HR Reporter

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER & STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK Credit: Decorwith.me (Shutterstock) Don't let good leadership get lost in translation Accepting, embracing cultural diff erences key to international success BY LIZ BERNIER Should you bring a small gift to a business meeting? Do you eat with your hands, chopsticks or cutlery? Would it be inappropriate to have a junior employee address a group instead of a senior employee? Now, more than ever, it's impor- tant to consider such culturally sensitive questions. e world of business is no longer limited by geographical, linguistic or cultural boundaries, and business leaders need to expand their own bound- aries to keep up, according to Ste- phen Miles, COO, international, at Harlequin Enterprises, speak- ing at a recent Strategic Capability Network event in Toronto. "Working in diff erent cultures is the way to succeed," he said. "If you're an average business man- ager in Canada, half of you either report to someone in a diff erent country, have someone report to you or have customers in a diff er- ent country." International is already a big deal and if a business is not inter- national, it is by defi nition a small business, said Miles. So it's impor- tant to understand the diff erences among diff erent cultures, and how to operate in those environments. " ere's a range of individuals within cultural norms," he said — and if an employer can learn to operate successfully in those different ranges and cultures, then operating in the offi ce here in Canada will become very easy." Canadians have an advantage when it comes to operating in di- verse cultural environments, said Miles. In fact, Canada is among the most successful countries in the world when it comes to send- ing expatriates overseas for work assignments, he said. "It's because we're a very mul- ticultural country — that's the fi rst thing. e second thing is, we — especially in Toronto — we embrace that diff erence. We ac- cept it and we engage it… we love diff erent cultures and we love to experience that." And that's critically impor- tant when it comes to working and succeeding in other cultural environments. "Firstly, you've got to be aware that there is a diff erence. Second- ly, you've got to not only be aware, you've got to appreciate them… and, fi nally, you've got to engage in it and embrace it," said Miles. Miles, who has lived and man- aged businesses in fi ve diff erent countries and been responsible for businesses in 25 countries, said there are a lot of minor dif- ferences and some really big major diff erences. "There's lots of little things that will cause ripples if you don't get it right — minor ripples in a business relationship. It's not go- ing to be a huge big problem, it's not going to bust open the whole relationship… these are the re- ally small things that, if you've got a good sense of humour, are hilarious." ose little things are always nice to know but if you don't, it's not the end of the world. It's more important to fi rst get an under- standing of the big things that can cause confl ict across cultures. "There are two fundamental diff erences across cultures that cause almost all of the really big confl icts when people work to- gether. And those are time and relationships," he said. " ere are huge diff erences in the way people approach relation- ships and time." Mind the time change When it comes to diff ering atti- tudes around time, the world is grouped into three big categories, and these categories view time in three very diff erent ways, said Miles. " e fi rst one is the way we view time: Canada, the U.S., Swit- zerland, Germany, England, the Nordic countries. We view time in a very linear fashion — there's a future we do something to prep for, there's the present where all the action takes place, we make decisions, we do stuff , and then there's a past," he said. "Everything happens in the present — we are very focused on getting things done. And we treat time in the present as a thing, as a commodity. We talk about saving time and investing time and wast- ing time. "When we go to a meeting, we expect it to start on time, we ex- pect it to end on time, we expect decisions to be made… it's very structured, and it's linear." So it's pretty easy to work with countries that also take a linear view of time. Where it gets tricky is in dealing with cultures that take a diff erent view. " e second category of coun- tries — Latin America, Mexico, Spain, Italy — they view time as very event-based or relationship- based. So it's not so much linear, it's not a point in time you have to start and stop, it's much more about what you're working on and who you're working on it with," said Miles. In these cases, they will have a general idea of what the day will be like but it's much more fl exible, much more about relationship- building and spending time with people. Meetings generally won't have a prescribed "end time" — they'll keep going until everything is accomplished. "It's much more important that you're spending the time you need to with Joe than that you stick to your schedule and you stop talk- ing to Joe at 11. So to work in this kind of environment, you've got to be fl exible," said Miles. Trying to force relationship- based time cultures into a linear APPRECIATING > pg. 12 " ere are two fundamental diff erences across cultures that cause almost all of the really big confl icts. And those are time and relationships."

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