Cross-cultural leadership is vital in an increasingly globalized world. Specially after the Covid-19 pandemic the work ethic has revolutionized. Companies today prefer hiring people with skill and talent, regardless of geography. As the operations of companies expand globally, recruitment agencies in the UAE and other parts of the world are increasingly looking for people with leadership ethics and strengths. This is because it has become crucial for managers to adapt and lead teams effectively in culturally diverse environments. Therefore, executive search firms in Dubai, such as RFS HR Consultancy, provide executive services tailored according to the needs of the market.
To successfully lead a multicultural team, a team leader needs to have the right leadership ethic to cultivate a culturally inclusive and healthy atmosphere so that all members from diverse backgrounds feel comfortable. A team leader acts as a bridge between his diverse team members to create a connection in a team in order to establish a conducive environment for work that drives everyone to succeed and achieve their objectives.
This brief article explains what cross-cultural leadership is, why it is important for businesses to recruit managers with such a skill, and how you can learn this vital skill.
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Challenges in cross-cultural leadership
In a cross-cultural setting, it is one of the key challenges to identify a person with adequate leadership strengths and the right leadership behaviour. Due to cultural differences in a multicultural setting, a lot of misunderstandings emerge, leading to communication gaps, conflicts, and decreased productivity.
Additionally, cultural biases may also hinder decision-making and affect team cohesion due to a lack of trust and inclusivity. Moreover, without competent and effective cross-cultural leadership, companies also suffer as they find it hard to adapt to new diverse markets, and consequently, they fail to capitalize on the potential of cultural diversity in their teams. Therefore, it is necessary for companies to reach out to executive search partners, who play a key role in finding them the right person with all the required leadership strengths.
Some of the very common challenges that arise in a culturally diverse setting in the absence of competent leadership:
- Misunderstanding of different cultural expressions
In the absence of effective leadership to bridge the cultural gap, team members often misunderstand cultural expressions. For instance, imagine a meeting discussion where a team is discussing a project and a team member belonging to a Western culture disagrees with the proposed idea in the following words, “I don’t feel confident about it, let’s table it for now”. In this sentence, “tabling” is a confusing word, as in Western culture, it means postponing, whereas in Asian culture, it means going ahead. Thus, as a result of this confusion, the Asian team member will proceed with the project, creating miscommunication and conflict in the team.
- Inter-personal conflict arises in diverse cultural settings
In culturally diverse teams, it is natural and expected that team members engage in interpersonal conflicts. Now, with no effective leadership to resolve their conflict and navigate this challenge, the productivity of the team is going to suffer. Eventually, it will fail to meet its goals effectively.
- Different working styles
A culturally sensitive and effective leader is considerate of his team members. He is conscious of the different time zones his team members are from, manages his team, and works accordingly. However, in the absence of such a leader, the team finds it difficult to communicate with each other and coordinate their work progress.
How to be an effective cross-cultural leader?
In order to become a dynamic cross-cultural leader and achieve leadership goals, one needs to acquire a set of skills and adopt strategies and the right leadership behaviour. It is essential to understand that leading a culturally diverse team requires more effort and consideration than standard leadership practices. In this regard, retained executive search firms or executive search partners like RFS HR help organizations find a leader committed to leadership goals.
- Create a culturally inclusive environment by emphasizing similarities
To begin with, leaders need to create a culturally inclusive environment by cultivating cultural intelligence. He/She can do so by understanding different cultural perspectives and having an open-minded attitude when communicating with people from various backgrounds. Highlighting similarities and emphasizing them is the key to unlocking cultural inclusivity within your team. People from different backgrounds often feel ignored or misunderstood when working in a culturally diverse team, so finding similarities breaks the ice between different team members and fosters trust, enabling each team member to share his/her perspective and contribute fully to the project. This increases the productivity of the team and generates high-yield results.
- Bridge cultural gaps by decentering yourself from your cultural settings
Effective cross-cultural leadership requires creating an environment where each team member feels valued and included. A successful leader of a cross-cultural team adapts to the new environment, adopts a new attitude to deal effectively with cultural differences, and actively acts as a bridge to overcome cultural gaps within a team. So, in order to bridge cultural gaps, you have to decenter your cultural references and embrace a communication style that is relatable to all team members. For example, talk about pop songs that are globally known instead of talking about your locally produced movies or songs.
- Show respect towards all team members from different cultural backgrounds
Showing respect towards all your team members and encouraging everyone to do the same towards each other is pivotal to running a successful cross-cultural team. As a leader, you should appreciate the uniqueness of each member and respect their cultural identity. In culturally diverse settings, colleagues often show disrespect towards others in different ways. For instance, a colleague may change the name of a participant during a training session on video call just because it’s hard to pronounce the participant’s name. Such kind of practices create cultural biases in a team leading to disunity and poor performances that you need to overcome as a leader.
How to find a cross-cultural leader?
The process of effectively managing a multicultural team begins with recruiting the right person who exhibits essential skills such as cultural sensitivity, effective communication skills, empathy, adaptability, and a keen interest in learning about different cultures. For businesses and organizations that are aiming to flourish in diverse markets, it is crucial for them to find an individual possessing strong cross-cultural leadership qualities, including the ability to bridge cultural gaps, overcome cultural complexities, build relationships across the team beyond cultural constraints, and inspire a culturally diverse team to work towards shared goals.
In essence, effective and dynamic cross-cultural leadership is of utmost importance for businesses and organizations that employ diverse workforce from various backgrounds. As companies operate globally or in a diverse society like the UAE, the role of effective leadership ethics and behaviour cannot be overstated in achieving the objectives of the business. In this regard, it is of utmost importance for an organization’s growth to invest in the development of cross-cultural leadership by partnering with executive search firms providing executive search services for recruiting leaders with adequate qualities.
If you’re a company or organization operating in the Emirates, then it is crucial for you to partner with the right executive search firm in Dubai that is experienced in recruiting services and familiar with the talent tool both locally and internationally. Contact RFS HR Consultancy now to get in touch with the best recruiters in the UAE and hire professionals that fit your company culture.
