Leadership

I have been working in the Middle East since 2011, a short time compared to many expatriates. It is very common to see expatriates who have spent close to 30 years or more in the Middle East. I spent around 13 years of my career in India and then moved to the Middle East working across Oman, Saudi Arabia and now the UAE. There are times when I sit and reflect how in the world did I manage to reach this far. I currently lead a team of around 40 staff, from various cultures and countries. Each day is a new learning experience and each interaction with my team members is an opportunity to learn, inspire, be inspired and jointly working towards achieving a common goal. I would like to share with you some of the insights and learning from my career on managing a multi cultural workforce. I am in no means an expert but I have failed many times in my journey here and I hope that some of you can avoid the mistakes I made. After 6 years of working in Mumbai as a senior manager and leading a small team, I was selected for a global leadership program. I was excited since this was a unique program which included only a select few participants from several countries across the world. The group was a mixed set of professionals from USA, Europe, China, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Africa and Russia. The program was a two year management course with 4 two week on site training in four different countries. The first segment of the program was held in Holland and Denmark, with a one week boot camp program in the forested area of Denmark. The boot camp program changed my perspective on global leadership completely. As part of the boot camp, we were grouped into teams of 10-12 persons and I was put in charge of a multi-cultural group . The teams were given a mission to complete, where we had to compete against each other to rescue a ship wrecked passenger from a ship that had sunk close to the shore. There were Chinese, American, British, Russian and Danish to name a few nationalities in the team. After a day in the field with the team, my team would not listen to me, they had internally chosen a different leader and we did not win the contest. I was extremely disappointed and all my self esteem had spiralled downwards. The boot camp left a lasting impression on me and let me learn some very hard truths about leadership across cultures. While I was in India, my team would listen to every word I said and we could achieve the tasks we set out to do. I kept thinking why did this approach not work when I had a team of people from different countries? Thankfully, we had experienced mentors on the program with us who could reflect on my actions and give me some insight on where I could improve. We could bounce off our thoughts and concerns with these well experienced mentors from the industry real time, which made the learning more practical. Here are some of the learning from my boot cam experience in the Danish jungles: 1. Realize that people are people: At first, when I took charge of the team with people from different countries, I was confused. Each person looked different, spoke English differently, had different values and responded differently. Having spent time with them for a full day, I realised that in the end, all of them are people with the same feelings, aspirations, goals and nature. They may look different and have different mannerisms which may be reflective of the country they were from but in the end they are human beings just like you and me. They recognize leadership traits irrespective of the country you are from. This is why we see Global MNCs led by people from different countries. It does not matter which part of the world you are from, leadership qualities are recognized and respected equally the world over. 2. Be there for the team: One of the parts of the mission was for each team member to carry different parts of a stretcher across a few kilometers of sandy beach. Once we reached the final destination, we were supposed to assemble the stretcher as a team. Some of us had lighter components and moved ahead of the group and there were a few who lagged behind who were carrying the heavy logs for the stretcher. A few of us reached the final spot early and started resting. It took almost half an hour for the rest of the team to reach and they were pretty angry to see us resting. In hindsight, I realized that once I had reached the final spot, I should have gone back to help the lagging team members. This is what leadership is about. To have a genuine concern for the team and to pull them through difficulties. You have to do the tasks assigned to you and also help your team members with theirs. 3. Give clear instructions: Another part of the mission was to carry the stranded woman on the stretcher and row a paddle boat across the ocean for around six kilometres. Our boat did not move for quite some time in spite of us all rowing very hard. Each of us were rowing in a different direction and due to the different groups that had been formed within the team, they were not listening to me. It is important to build trust early on with the team members and let them know that they can depend on you and you know your job. They will respect you then and will follow directions to achieve the common goal. 4. A leader must know when to serve: One of the hindrances during our team program was that I was always trying to take the driver's seat as a leader. Irrespective of my skill level in a particular task, I tried to pretend that I knew what I was doing and tried to give directions to the team. This is a mistake. They can easily understand that you are not aware and will call your bluff. There is no shame in admitting to the team that you do not know something and giving the reins to another team member to lead a particular task, even though you are the leader by title. The team will respect your humility and will be inspired to work together and contribute positively. 5. Give Respect to be respected: Whichever country and culture you belong to, bad manners is never appreciated. I quickly learnt that team members genuinely respect you if you give them respect. For example, we had a Chinese person who was very quite most of the time and there were others in the team who made fun of him. During one of our class room sessions, we learnt that he had the most sharpest IQ in solving logical questions way before all of us and the reason he was quiet earlier was because he was not very good at speaking English and he felt that the others would tease him. Each person is talented in his own way and it is the leader's job to find out the talent and put it to use. We need people with different skill sets and talent to build a powerful winning team. People will come forward if you respect them. 6. Smile- The Universal language: Finally, there is one language which every person from every country understands and that is the language of the smile. The picture says it all. A smile builds a bond quickly within the team. Smile often and be patient and tolerant with the other team members . Over the two years of the program, there was much more learning and opportunity to correct my mistakes. We all grew together as a group and when I graduated, my colleagues in the group and my tutors voted me as one of the "Best graduates" for that year. All of us grew as leaders during this program and I am no better than any of them. I thank them especially, for the tolerance and goodwill they showed towards me, during our time together. We are good friends even to this day and I feel confident to pick up the phone and speak to them, if I need be, whichever part of the world they are in. Cheers, Bobby