Businesses continue to globalize at a rapid pace. For managers operating in this globalizing environment, adapting to the cultures in which they conduct business is a critical capability. It is also an often misunderstood capability and one that can be trivialized through over-simplification.

At Asian Leadership Institute, we believe that adapting to other cultures is an individual process based on understanding our own individual biases and how we reflect our biases in viewing and acting in a new environment. Reading books and taking classes have limited value in making these changes. Cultural adaptability must arise from a far deeper and broader understanding of ourselves as individuals in relation to other cultures.

To master cross-culture negotiation and deal making, managers must first understand that values are both cultural and individual at the same time. The manager must observe how the new culture is represented by the individuals and companies in that culture with whom the manager interacts. This understanding must then be combined with an intensive introspection of one’s own values and how one’s own culture and company’s culture uniquely manifests itself in each of us as individuals. In effect, managers must understand that they personally are the reflection of their culture and this is what they bring to the new environment.

This is an investigative process. Managers need in some ways to be anthropologists. This approach promotes an understanding that a new culture is also uniquely manifested anew in each person encountered. This continuous investigation creates the amazing opportunity for growth that comes with living and working in a new culture.

In working in cross-cultural environments, managers must also work from a sense of personal and professional integrity. If attempting to adapt to a culture entails violating one’s sense of ethics, it can lead to disastrous outcomes. Likewise, deciding to impose one’s own culture in a manner which violates the employees’ or partner’s sense of ethics can lead to similarly bad outcomes.

Global managers need to be keenly aware of all the ramifications of the cultural adaptations they do or don’t make. They must know both when to limit accommodations to other cultures and values and when to impose their own values on other cultures. These are not simple issues.

A global manager’s decisions and actions impact the perceptions and well-being of people in other cultures. This brings a responsibility to predict and understand the consequences of those decisions and actions. Managers need to revisit, renew and revise positions continuously as their understanding of the subtle levels of the culture increases. For the global manager to make this adaptation effectively it requires balance, focus, insight, skill and intuition.

ALI uses coaching as a learning process for global managers because of our fundamental belief that values are both cultural and individual at the same time. ALI believes that cultural adaptation and understanding must take place at a personal level to provide the depth necessary for success. Understanding how “my” values interact with a culture takes observation, investigation and time. We do a skill training that encourages global managers to pay attention, gather information and suspend judgement.

We do this through a personal two and one half day retreat at our facility in Chiang Mai. We combine this with continuous follow-up for six months after the executive arrives in the new culture. It is intensive, personal and transforming. It focuses on both professional growth and business success.