The Two Sides of a Global Leader: "Liberating Agent" and "Intercultural Facilitator"

What if your team could transition from the idea of being just a group of employees that happen to work in this place, into a community of people who share the same values and rules? What if they could find a higher meaning, care about their work, and the company could access their full arsenal of talents and initiatives?

There is one way to have all this, says Isaac Getz, author of the book “Freedom, Inc.” and speaker at the HR Club event on October 4^th, HighFuture Conference.

And that way is to offer your employees more control and personal responsibility, becoming yourself a liberating leader.

“Strategy,” says Getz, “is an articulation of the vision of the company at a very high level for a period of time, one year, two years. Liberated companies are not particularly different in terms of strategy. But vision or purpose is extremely important. That answers the question ‘Why are we coming to work?’. It makes people dream. This is something that’s not valid just for this year.”

The key to a liberated company is the leader who, according to Getz, “must exhibit egoless behaviour, abandoning the need to control what’s going on or having the right answer all the time.” This includes avoiding the urge to validate employees’ decisions. “If an employee comes back to check your opinion, then the ultimate responsibility is still yours, you continue to infantilise them.”

Obviously, letting go is not that easy, to say the least. “It’s enough that this shows up one time that people say this is just all talk. Look, the boss is still around. He lets us take small decisions, like kids playing in the sand box, but when it’s serious he’s still here.”

Things can get even more complicated if you are an Australian manager leading a team in China, a Russian courting clients in Brazil, or a German acquiring a company in India.

“The ideal ‘power distance’ between the boss and his staff is deeply woven into the education system and family structure of each society,” says Erin Meyer, author of the book “The Culture Map” and our second international speaker at HighFuture Conference.

“If you’re the boss it’s particularly important to understand what to expect from the culture you are working with.” This is why Meyer points out the differences between an egalitarian culture and a hierarchical one, suggesting how we could adjust our behviour accordingly.

Thus, in an egalitarian culture:

• It’s okay to disagree with the manager openly, even in front of others.
• People are more likely to move to action without getting the manager’s approval.
• In a meeting with a client or supplier, it is not important to match hierarchical levels.
• It’s acceptable to e-mail or call people several levels below or above you.
• With clients or partners, expect to be seated and spoken to in no specific order.
   

On the other hand, in a hierarchical culture:

• People will defer to the manager’s opinion, especially in public.
• People are likely to get the manager’s approval before acting.
• If your manager plans to attend a meeting, your suppliers or clients will send their manager. If your manager cancels, their manager will likely not come.
• Expect communication to follow the hierarchical chain; people correspond with others on their own level.
• With clients or partners, you are likely to be seated and spoken to in order of position.

“It’s natural for us to experience our own way of doing things as normal,” says Meyer. “But as we gain cross-cultural experience, we begin to see that every style has its advantages and disadvantages. And over time, a leader can start to smooth over the cultural gaps in team interactions, while capitalizing on the assets each cultural group brings. This is the true value of leading in the global economy – getting the best of all worlds.”

Have the ideas of Isaac Getz and Erin Meyer tickled your curiosity? Come and watch them talk at HighFuture Conference, the HR Club event on October 4^th that will gather the most influential HR professionals, managers and entrepreneurs in Romania!