How To Lead Local Staff In a Foreign Market by Benson Agoha

As I write this piece, you may have been finalising your packing, ready for check-in ahead of your journey. By the time I post tomorrow morning, you are headed to your local airport for your new destination - a foreign country. You were chosen for your consistent delivery of quality leadership and high productivity. You have even gone through the usual tutelage on how to manage abroad. You were a student of International business in your high profile institute.

Well as someone who grew up working for and learning from an expatriate working abroad, here are my suggestions:

A) Be Open Minded: Drop every preconceptions or assumptions you have made from your studies at school or in-house training and development programmes organised for your by your organisation. Of course, they have done their best to provide you with information as much as they were able to gather. But no two environments are the same and even if it can be simulated, reality sometimes, play out differently. Even if you have been in that environment before, no two individuals are the same. So you will always find yourself having to need to learn something new. How much success you record depends on how well you do this. Understand that you are going to an environment that should, perceivably be on-going, with or without you.

B) Observe and learn about the culture: Know as much as you can about the peculiar cultures in both the micro and the macro environment. Things may need to be done in a certain way around the office, but before you make those all important changes, find out what works and what doesn’t. The previous manager may have introduced a style that, with time, has been embraced. If that doesn’t suit you, please don’t wreak havoc immediately. Culture change, if unavoidable, is best gradual, timed and communicated.

C) Be ready to be changed. Working in a foreign land requires that you make changes where necessary, but more important, my advice is that you try to be amenable yourself. Many a times an international manager finds that his style is perceived as too rigid, too hard, unworkable or too aggressive. There will be two options left for him – either he leaves or he changes. For you, which one will it be? I witnessed a few, Mr. Fischer allowed himself to be changed, and adapted so well that he moved from one position to the next and from one job to the next – in the same environment. Mr. Jones, was a bit more rigid, perhaps because of his profession (Accounting, Audit and Taxation) and he had himself locked out of his office by a group of protestors who accused him of wrecking your payslips. He begged to come back and pick his personal effects.

D) Understand your subordinates and accelerate at a catchable pace. Try to understand their accent and ensure they understand yours and hear you when you speak. It is very advisable that you help them relax around you and work with confidence with or without your presence. Find out what makes them laugh and try to be attuned with their sense of humour, even if you are not necessarily going to stick around cracking jokes. Because subordinates are instrumental to a manager’s success when working abroad, it is vital that you patiently explain how you expect things to be. Earn their trust and loyalty and you will be the man or woman after their heart.

E) Recommend additional training if necessary and if you think that will help, do the training yourself. Standing in front of them and making yourself heard has unbeatable advantages as it helps them get used to your accent and expectations, just as you get used to theirs. Trying out jokes enables you access their capacity and ability to tune to your sense of humour.