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Cross-cultural coaching

Coaching as an approach to managing and leading originated in Western cultures. However, with the increasing globalisation of organisations it is also being adopted by other cultures. As leaders and managers work in an international context, often away from their own country, they are finding that they must coach people from a wide variety of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. We offer the following tips many of which are based on our own experience of multicultural coaching.

What you can do

• Be curious. Ask the right questions. Don’t make assumptions about the other person’s culture. Show that you are interested and ask about the culture and how they like to work. Above all, show respect for the culture in which you are operating.
  
• Think about expectations. What are the cultural expectations of a leader? What are people’s expectations of a coach? How formal or informal is the culture? If it is very formal then you might expect that a coaching style of leadership will be more difficult, at least initially. So if a coachee asks you for advice, for example, you might inform him or her that you are happy to give some advice but that you need to ask some questions first. That way you reassure the coachee that their expectations will be met, while also having the opportunity to encourage them to reflect about the situation by first asking some open questions. Over time the questions can go on a little longer, and gradually as you develop mutual trust, you may find that they accept your coaching style more readily. We have run coaching sessions for managers in countries where we have been told that using a coaching approach is difficult, but in our experience we have found that the approach was generally welcomed and felt to be useful. The key is to take a step-by-step approach and not try to impose a style that is unfamiliar.
  
• Explain what you are doing. We think that it is also important to explain the coaching process in a rational way, and not to just start coaching people without letting them know what that actually means, or explaining the purpose of coaching. You have to be clear that coaching is perhaps a different way of thinking and managing, but that it has a clear purpose in helping people’s development. If possible, make links to the culture you are coaching in. In China, for example, Confucian culture might value the leader’s wisdom, authority and advice. This might lead Chinese employees to expect to be told what to do and to defer to the leader’s decision. But if you explain what you are doing by asking questions and reassuring people that you can and will give advice, but only if necessary, then that might help convince people about the benefits of a coaching approach.
  
• Show humility. It is sometimes the case that managers from one country can appear to make the assumption that their culture is somehow better or more advanced than the one in which they find themselves. It isn’t, it’s just different. Telling people how it’s done better back home isn’t helpful. Of course it may be difficult working in a different environment; some of the values and working practices may be frustrating, but showing empathy and patience will be noticed and appreciated. Focus on the quality of the relationship between yourself and your coachees, even if you do not understand everything that goes on or why.
  
• Recognise differences. You probably won’t know all the differences between your own culture and all other cultures, but there are frameworks you can use to help you identify possible differences. For example, Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede’s research originally came up with four dimensions, to which he later added another two dimensions.
  

  The original four dimensions are:
  

  • Power distance
    
  • Individualism versus collectivism
    
  • Masculinity versus femininity
    
  • Uncertainty avoidance
    

  The two latest dimensions are:
  

  • Long-term versus short-term orientation
    
  • Indulgence versus restraint
    

Power distance is about inequality or the way power is perceived. High power distance means that the boss, for example, considers themselves different to workers. He or she has a higher status, more power and so the culture is more autocratic. Low power distance cultures have more equality, bosses don’t see themselves as being different and they would have less formal power. In a high power distance culture people are unlikely to openly disagree with people higher up in the hierarchy. In a low power distance culture, however, it would be quite normal to challenge the boss. In one multinational company that we worked for, the European vice president in charge of an Asian country told us that one of the key challenges he faced was to get his subordinates to tell him the truth. His experience was that employees would never tell bosses the bad news. When asked how things were going he was always told, ‘Things are fine’, or ‘No problem!’ The culture was such that it would have been impossible to give a local boss bad news, but the VP actually wanted and needed his people to tell him the bad news as well as the good news.

Individualism versus collectivism is about the degree of dependency on other people and how individuals are integrated into groups. Collectivist cultures have a high degree of dependency and integration, and individualistic cultures a low degree. In individualist cultures, ties between individuals are generally quite loose, whereas in collectivist cultures, people are integrated into strong cohesive ‘in’ groups. For example, the United States is considered an individualistic culture, while Arab and Eastern countries are generally collectivist. This can affect the way organisations work, with the focus being more on the individual contributor in the United States, and on the group or team in collectivist cultures. This might imply that as a coach you would have to take into account the power of the ‘in’ group that the coachee belongs to far more than in an individualistic culture.

Masculinity versus femininity is about gender roles within a culture. The masculine culture is about assertive values, whereas the feminine culture is about caring values. Are the values in the culture you are coaching more masculine or feminine? If they are masculine values then the coaching approach could be perceived as a weak approach, but might be more readily accepted in a feminine culture. Another aspect to look at is the way you might choose to coach others in each of these cultures. You might, for example, find it easier to get a response to a question about emotions in a feminine culture.

Uncertainty avoidance is about the degree to which a culture is at ease with ambiguity. A high uncertainty avoidance culture is one that doesn’t tolerate ambiguity well, whereas a low uncertainty avoidance culture is one that accepts ambiguity more readily. This can be important for coaches to be aware of. It is likely that a coaching approach that is based more on asking questions than giving answers would be more difficult to implement in a high uncertainty avoidance culture.

Long-term orientation versus short-term orientation as its name suggests is about the time perspective that a culture has – do we look at the short-term and immediate results or take the long-term perspective? Long-term cultures focus on virtues such as saving, persistence and future rewards. Short-term cultures tend to focus on the past and the present and on virtues such as respect for tradition, and fulfilling social traditions. The implications for coaching someone from a long-term orientation country might be that the coachee could respond better to questions about the future. The danger might be that if you are from a short-term orientation country you might focus too much on short-term issues when coaching.

Indulgence versus restraint is about how a culture looks at things like happiness, leisure, the degree of control over your life, and freedom of expression. So called indulgent countries score high on happiness, having control over your own life, and freedom of expression. High restraint cultures play down the importance of control over your life and freedom of expression. Again, the implication might be that you cannot assume that coachees in a high restraint culture will speak freely to you about any issues they have with their managers or colleagues.

Clearly your ability to coach and lead others, and how you do that, will be affected in some part by the culture within which you are coaching and leading. This is especially important when you as a coach come from a culture that is very different to the person or persons you are coaching. To give an example – if you are from a low power distance culture then as a coach you might assume that a person who is lower down the hierarchy from you would be comfortable in your presence and be prepared to speak up openly about any issues facing them. But if they come from a high power distance country their approach would be likely to be ill at ease and very guarded about what they say.

We have seen this, for example, on relations between managers from France and Sweden. French managers working with Swedes have told us about their frustration at the way Swedish managers make decisions. In Sweden it is normal to take time over a decision, involve everyone, discuss and challenge the ideas before finally coming to a consensus. This clearly takes time, and is what frustrated the French managers. The Swedish managers, however, thought that their French counterparts were too autocratic, too hasty in decision-making and didn’t take the time to involve and listen to others.

As a coach, you need to be aware enough to understand, and flexible enough to adapt to, your cultural environment. What is interesting is that our research into Gen Y attitudes show that Gen Yers have a different approach to a coaching style of leadership than their parents. Even in cultures where you might expect a coaching approach to leadership to be difficult, our research into Gen Y attitudes has found that younger generations are often more open to coaching.

Another example is from India. Although India scores high on power distance, many of the country’s best-run companies are using a coaching style of management. In a Harvard Business Review article entitled ‘Leadership Lessons From India’ (Cappelli et al. 2010) Indian leaders said that one of their key responsibilities is to be a guide, teacher or role model for employees. They spoke of a new approach, empowering employees by helping them find their own solutions.

Where is your country on Hofstede’s dimensions?

It could be interesting if you are working cross-culturally to reflect on Hofstede’s dimensions and see if there are any differences between your own culture and that of the coachee. You can read his books or consult his website at www.hofstede.com

For example, the following is a breakdown of the UK scores on each of these dimensions compared with other countries with significantly different scores (these are taken from Geert Hofstede’s website).

Power distance

The UK scores 35 on power distance, making it a low-scoring country. Compare this with France, for example, which scores 68, making it fairly high on power distance and therefore a generally unequal society. Hierarchies are greater in France than in the UK and the approach in business is generally more formal in France than in the UK.

Individualism

The UK scores 89 on individualism, which makes it a highly individualistic culture. China and Japan, on the other hand, score 20 and 46 respectively. China is more collectivist than Japan, but Japan still scores much lower on individualism than the UK.

Masculinity

The UK scores 66 on masculinity, which is high and makes it a success-oriented and somewhat driven culture. To compare, let’s look at Sweden which scores 5 on masculinity, which makes it a culture where feminine values (in general), such as caring for others and quality of life, are important.

Uncertainty avoidance

The UK scores 35 which is low and so makes the UK generally quite tolerant of ambiguity. To compare, let’s look at Germany which scores high on 65, making it less tolerant to ambiguity than the UK.

Long-term orientation

The UK scores 51 which is an intermediate score. To compare, Japan scores 88, making it a country which has a long-term outlook.

Indulgence

The UK scores 69, which is high and makes the UK a culture which is oriented towards gratification and enjoyment.

Japan, however, has a score of 42, which makes it a culture where restraint is valued.

Remember that when coaching people from different cultures you may have to flex and adapt your style to suit your coachee.

Tips for success

• Ask questions and show curiosity.
  
• Be respectful of different cultures. Your way may not be their way.
  
• Be prepared to spend some time discussing and agreeing the benefits of coaching and the processes you will adopt.
  
• Flexing your style is vital when working in different cultural settings.