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Here at the-Coaching Blog-run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate. Today’s guest author is David Clutterbuck (United Kingdom).
Studies by two professors at French business schools identify seven characteristics of a multicultural manager:
Their observations and analysis provide a valuable foundation for selecting and developing mentors for cross-cultural learning alliances. In selection, it is logical that relationships are likely to have higher rapport and greater intensity of learning, if mentors are able to recognise and value the cultural perspectives that mentees bring to the mentoring conversation, to empathise with different ways of interpreting events and to recognise when linguistic differences may lead to divergent interpretations of meaning.
The qualities identified in the French study can be described as multicultural intelligence. This is valuable in any organization that encompasses a variety of cultures. Even where the language is the same – for example, the US and UK English – lack of cross-cultural awareness can be a barrier to effective operations. I have been involved in a number of instances of communication failure, where US and UK nationals have taken radically different and, in some cases, opposite meanings from the same words or phrases. (For example, “put an issue on the table”, which may mean dealing with an issue now or park it, according to your cultural upbringing!)
The problem is that only a small proportion of coaches and mentors within companies typically have high levels of multicultural intelligence. Even amongst people, who have spent considerable periods as expatriates, multicultural intelligence can be relatively low – especially in multinationals, where expatriates live in relative isolation from their host cultures.
Some of the general steps, which organizations can take to support coaches and mentors in developing multicultural intelligence, include:
Within the coaching or mentoring relationship, coaches and mentors can be proactive in developing their own multicultural intelligence. Based on the seven characteristics from the French study, they can, for example:
While it is ideal for coaches and mentors to have developed these skills before they enter into a cross-cultural learning alliance, for most the relationship is their opportunity to acquire multicultural intelligence in a relatively safe environment, where experimentation is both accepted and a reinforcement for the rapport between them and their coachee/ mentee. The coach/ mentor is therefore strongly recommended to create and share with the coachee/ mentee a personal development plan built around their increasing multicultural intelligence.
Credit Source:
David Clutterbuck (United Kingdom)
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