her colleagues and developed a strategy to help her acculturate
to her American office and to life in the U.S. By mastering tools
for communicating more productively with her coworkers while
at the same time channeling her ambition and energy into a
community-service project outside of work, Helen was able to
fulfill her own needs without stepping on her coworkers’ feelings.
A WORLD OF
RESOURCES
“Developing Global
Leaders: Policies,
Processes, and
Innovations,” by Torsten
Kuhlmann, Mark
Mendenhall and Gunter K.
Stahl (Praeger, 2000)
Communication is very personal, in part because we bring our
own sense of cultural norms into every interaction, interpreting
not only what is said, but how it’s said (tone, body language, et
cetera). By learning more about Helen’s communication style—
and understanding its relationship to my own—I was better
able to help my client. Although navigating cultural differences
between yourself and your client adds a new layer of complexity
to the coaching interaction, understanding the nuances of
intercultural coaching doesn’t need to be stressful. By mastering
theories of intercultural communication and adding some
best practices into your own coaching, you will develop the
confidence to step outside your comfort zone and partner with
clients from a variety of contexts and backgrounds.
“Evidence Based Coaching
Handbook: Putting Best
Practices to Work for Your
Clients,” edited by Dianne
R. Stober and Anthony M.
Grant (Wiley, 2007)
“Geert Hofstede on
Culture,” www.vimeo.
com/29036835
Research First
Proper preparation is the best way to demystify the crosscultural coaching process. Use research to better understand
your own culture so that you will ultimately recognize your
client or prospective client’s cultural context. The organizational
development scholar Edgar Schein describes three levels in
organizational cultures: artifacts (visible or audible elements,
such as clothing or inside jokes), espoused values (stated
philosophies, goals and rules) and basic assumptions (embedded
and often unconscious behaviors at the heart of a culture). Fons
Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner build on Schein’s
layers to explain cultures: the outer layer, aka explicit culture; the
middle layer, aka community norms and values; and the inner
layer, aka deepest, implicit culture. Observing aspects of the outer
layer, such as clothing, food preferences, language, architecture
and art, can provide insights into a culture. Other expressions
of culture include patterns of eye contact, physical contact and
emotional expression, as well as notions of modesty, parenting,
leadership and success.
“Global Coaching: An
Integrated Approach for
Long Lasting Results,”
by Philippe Rosinski
(Nicholas Brealey
Publishing, 2010)
The Power of Silence
“Riding the Waves of
Culture: Understanding
Diversity in Global
Business,” by Fons
Trompenaars and Charles
Hampden-Turner (3rd ed.,
McGraw-Hill, 2011)
“Global Solutions
for Teams,” by Sylvia
B. Odenwald (Irwin
Professional Publishing,
1995)
“Process Consultation
Revisited: Building the
Helping Relationship,” by
Edgar H. Schein (Addison
Wesley Longman, 1998)
One of the most identifiable intercultural differences coaches
must be attuned to is the role of silence—specifically, pauses—
in a conversation. Individuals’ conversational rhythms are
shaped by their cultural background and primary language.
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Coaching World |
August 2013
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