#380 Why managers (often) need international experience

Why managers (often) need international experience

Key aspects of modern leadership

Travelling quickly becomes part of everyday life for managers and executives.

Visiting locations, talks and negotiations, planning and projects - as a manager, you will soon be travelling. One question that always causes discussion is how to deal with the requirement for international experience. Do managers really need international experience? Is it always good and helpful? How is international experience assessed and what gradations and classifications should be made here?

A comprehensive field that needs to be discussed.

Advantages

International experience obviously has advantages for every manager. On the one hand, your language skills improve significantly. The same applies to your cultural understanding. No book, no video, no reel on social media can give you cultural understanding as profoundly as first-hand experience can do. This aspect results in immediate personal growth. Self-reflection becomes more comprehensive and more experiences reveal a pool of options for action from which managers can select and implement excellent solutions. Your own network expands and creativity and innovation are encouraged. In addition, managers, especially those who have spent a long time abroad, are better able to deal with change. Uncertainties are tackled more confidently, proactively and with a focus on results. The ability to solve problems thus improves continuously and permanently.

Assessment

There are generally two aspects to be distinguished here, whereby a third aspect must be added.

The first assessment of experience abroad is in terms of content. What projects was the manager involved in? How were they involved? What could and had to be decided? What problems were recognised? How were they tackled and solved?

More than the factor of professional expertise, however, the real international-cultural experience must be taken into account. How was the manager integrated into the organisation? Did contacts, networks and friendships develop? How has social interaction outside of work been organised? Did the manager integrate into the society of the country or did they remain an external person with nothing else than a work assignment?

After assessing the expertise and experience, the third factor you need to consider is the intensity of the life abroad. In my own industry, there are always numerous trainers, coaches and speakers who give themselves the title of ‘International Trainer/Speaker/Coach’. You will find people who have worked in Vancouver but travelled from Seattle or people or who have worked in Vienna but just travelled from Munich, often unpaid and purely for reference purposes. Such behaviour is of course, and this must be clearly stated, pathetic and desperate. Although not formally wrong in legal terms, a distinction must be made as to whether people travelled abroad for short periods, stayed there for longer or even took up residence and thus emigrated from their home country. It is particularly important to analyse whether people left the area of their own language and culture, as this experience is the most important one.

Realisation

Be open to international experiences. Offer programmes to gain international experience. Unfortunately, most of the promises made to talented people about which activities are possible abroad do not fulfil what was previously promised. Official programmes, professional implementation, support if required and a clear structure as well as assessment are essential here. Please note that these programmes must be open to everyone and must not be aimed exclusively at singles without a relationship and children or family.

It should also be noted that not every position requires international experience. If you operate international locations but centralise all relevant activities in one country, international experience is good to have but not necessary. It should also be noted that international experience does not come for free. Appropriate salaries are a must-have for international experience and people must be paid accordingly.

Conclusion: if you pay attention to these aspects, the factor of international experience will also be handled correctly in your organisation and used in a targeted and profitable way for everyone involved.

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 More on this topic in this week's podcast: Apple Podcasts / Spotify
(Podcast Transcript: see below)

Is excellent leadership important to you?

Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com

Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn

Website: www.NB-Networks.biz

Niels Brabandt is an expert in sustainable leadership with more than 20 years of experience in practice and science.

Niels Brabandt: Professional Training, Speaking, Coaching, Consulting, Mentoring, Project & Interim Management. Event host, MC, moderator.

Podcast Transcript

Niels Brabandt

International experience is something that many employers demand in today's times, and now we need to talk about, does it make sense? Should we ask for international experience? So we all travel regional, national, international, and often when people talk about international experience, we have to make one thing clear. International experience means that you at least had some distance of travel and you most likely left the room or the area in which they speak your language. When we still have and I have to talk about my industry here. When we have people who claim that they are international speakers, while, for example, the English is on an embarrassing level and these international speakers sometimes are the ones who traveled from Seattle to Vancouver for a gig, or from Munich to Vienna. Short distance travel to call yourself an international speaker during unpaid gigs doesn't make you international in the slightest.

So when we now talk about how does international experience actually weigh in to what you as an employee bring to the table for your company. When many international companies say we want to have international experience, the main issue here is that there's a lack of structure in their programs. And often when they have these programs often people wonder it's quite expensive what we do here, is there any benefit? So let's talk about the benefits first. How do we deal with the national experience and the programs attached to them? So there are obvious advantages to being able to deliver with international experience. So first of course, it's language.

You of course can speak the language a lot better and a lot more native when you speak it fluently from the area in which you lived. The second one also is the cultural understanding. I give you a very simple experience and when you, for example, speak English and you talk to British people, you might be a master in the English language. However, you most likely will not know what British people just told you because British people never tell you in straightforward words, especially as a German. I can tell you that. They never tell you in straightforward words what they really mean. So you need to be able to decipher the code of what they tell you and what they really mean.

So this cultural understanding will help you a lot when you have to deal, for example, with clients or customer demands from certain areas, cultures, backgrounds, or countries. Also, when you are able to go to a certain country, maybe settle down there, you will have a personal growth moment and also more self reflection. You grow because you face certain challenges and the self reflection happens because you see, oh, look, this is how they do it here. This is how they do it where I come from. And you can sort of pick the best out of every single culture and say, hey they do this right here and they do that right here. And then just offer a best off to your organization. You also grow your network which of course means you will have more creativity, more innovation, you have a huge number of people you can connect to especially when you work with them very well and also you're better in dealing with change.

When people ask why are you better dealing with change when you have international experience? Well, you went through the change by yourself. When you move somewhere else, especially when it's not next door, you will see significant differences between where you grew up, where you lived, and where you are right now. And dealing with change on that level is quite as challenging. However, when you overcome these challenges, you will grow personally, you also have a lot more self confidence, you also have more options to solve problems because you saw a 1,000,000 problems happening and when you see one culture solving them and another one, you can pair and do again the best of the 2. When you've seen 10, you can do the best of of 10. Also when you work in international communities, you have more tolerance, you're more open minded which is very important especially in leadership level.

And besides your self confidence, you have a global mindset. And this global mindset to know that everything we do is interconnected. There's a globalized world in which we live and every action we do as a consequence somewhere. But But also when we work together properly, we have advantages together somewhere or in our location, in our company, in our organization. And that is a huge benefit for you. It also adds to the emotional intelligence. I could now go on with an endless list of other opportunities, chances, and benefits as you see it is blindingly obvious that international experience has an advantage for your organization.

However, because often you now say, well, why do so many companies then struggle with dealing with this kind of international experience very well? And the reason for that is again again is pretty simple. When you now think of what do they do? And often they ask, do you have a national experience? You end up with a yes no question. A very superficial interview on what have you done where. And they only look at 1 out of the following 2 options they have.

Option number 1 is you look at the content, what they did. What have you done there? What was your job? In which projects, which tasks, which processes were you involved? That is the expertise level and the expertise level is important. No question about that. However, it is not enough.

Especially in leadership positions, you need to talk about the other part which is the experience part between human beings. What kind of interactions did you have? What did you learn on a leadership level? What were the challenges and problems you overcame? Because when someone had international experience but they were in a situation where the economy was booming and everything was running by itself, you can't derive that they're actually a good leader. Anyone is an excellent leader when no challenge happens. So look at both of these aspects.

Number 1, the expertise and number 2, the experience. In addition to that, so moreover, you have to distinguish between what kind of international experience on a time scale do they have. We have 3 main categories here. The first category is the usual temporary travel somewhere. You have a business meeting somewhere. You have a conference somewhere. So you travel somewhere.

You do your job and then you fly back. That has some international experience but to be fair not much. It is it is okay. It's better to it's better than having nothing but to be fair it's not much. When you travel somewhere you stay there for a week or 2 and then you leave. You really didn't dare dive into the culture. You you've seen a couple of things which often were hand picked for you. You often even come back with a wildly disturbing image of a wildly different view of the culture and the cities and the people compared to what reality really is.

So when people stay a bit longer and that means they stay there for a couple of months, they become part of social circus. They actually settle down for a bit and they become part of private lives of other people as well. That is where you really dip into some society and you really experience how life is going on where you just live. And of course, the highest level of international experience is when you reside somewhere, when you get residency rights. So you settle down somewhere, you become part of the taxation system, part of the residency or visa program, part of the Social Security system, and everything, including public services and everything you will see, suddenly becomes available to you. It becomes part of your everyday life. And also, please distinguish between the ones who did it by themselves and the ones who had some sort of expat organization doing everything for them.

Because these people got a certain share of very filtered international experience but not the real international experience you have when you really settle down somewhere, own your own bills by your own deeds. So always distinguish between the two factors, expertise and experience. Of course, both are needed, so check for both. Also distinguish between the main three time tiers which is temporary business travel, longer business travel, and getting residency somewhere either temporarily or constantly. And anyone who has this permanent residency and has done that 1, 2, 3 times in their life, they have a different view of the world because many things you appreciated, you suddenly will feel they're not available somewhere else or vice versa. And then you again have a different view of the world, which you can integrate into your leadership. So when you've done all that, the main question now remains, how do I implement this kind of international experience in my everyday life as a leader.

So first, you need to be open for international experience. Just demanding it but not being open for it. So for example, when people say we expect it from people but we don't offer it and we don't have time for it so it's all your task. That is not very credible towards any person applying for a job with you. So be open and offer international programs. However, these international programs need to be a fit for the role. Not every single role needs international experience.

When you want every team lead to be internationally experienced because you have an internationally culturally diverse operational level, be aware of the fact that international experience comes with a price tag. And of course there are certain positions where you can simply say, sorry international experience is a must have and I give you a very simple example here. If someone for example wants to, educate your leaders or if they want to do consultancy with you, Having someone from just one country background really only works when you're a midsize company that works within one company. When someone wants to put the expertise up there, I would always expect from them that they have seen multiple countries, lived in multiple countries, not from a privilege someone pays you for everything but from a worked your way up, been there, done that kind of first hand experience that always enriches the experience with them and they work for you so they hand on all the experience and expertise they have into your organization and you can benefit from that directly. There are, in my opinion, way too many people out there who have strong opinions and lot of internet or book knowledge but that knowledge about other cultures or countries is worth not much when it comes to real world implementation. So as soon as you have these kind of programs, be sure that you communicate the benefits openly so people apply for these programs because it can be fright quite frightening for many to to even thinking of applying there. And always look at the personal circumstance in which people live.

Way too many programs for expats or for international experience are focused pretty much on single people with no relationship and no family and when you claim to have diversity within your organization, you need to have diversity on your international experience level including your programs as well. And that is very important when it comes to offering these programs in your organization. Offer flexible path to access these programs. So don't put random don't just stick random limitations somewhere into this program. So when you, for example, say, oh, you can be maximum of that age, which is by by the way, ageism and age discrimination illegal in many countries. Or when you say, this is only available for that kind of program. And when people ask why you say, oh, because we decided on that that way.

There is no reason. We just decided that. You need to give reasoning for why you open up or limit the program to certain people. Taking this all together, when you want to be a leader and that's the question, is international experience important for leaders? When you work for a midsize company that works within one company exports from there, but basically everything is centralized in your location, probably you don't need it.

Probably you don't need it. So don't do international experience for the sake of international experience to polish your CV because you won't see any benefit of that. As soon as you work for international brands which are truly international which also includes that you are traveling quite a significant amount of time, then excellent leadership becomes crucial. An excellent leadership has many dimensions and you only know these dimensions when you had firsthand experience with them. So that means as soon as you have people who should lead internationally, be sure that you only employ or hire people who give you the appropriate amount of international experience. And that international experience will add great value to the teams, to your leadership, and to your whole organization. I wish you all the best implementing that.

And when you now say, well that was quite something and quite a bit of work. I think, yes. It is. It is. And there's no question about that. When you now think, I'd like to have a chat about that.

Just drop me an email. Nbnb networks. com. You'll also find my email. It's in the show notes of this podcast. We can discuss anything if you like to talk about something very specific. Training, speaking, or coaching, what you need, we can discuss that.

But we can also just talk through your different questions. And by the way, I'm recording this podcast out of question that came up when people saw that I'm in New York City. I'm quite lucky this year to have a hotel close to Central Park. So I'm living what I'm talking about here. So this international experience is working internationally is extremely important. Nbnb networks. com. You'll find my email address in the show notes of the podcast.

But you also find my LinkedIn where we can connect and of course chat. And you find my website nb networks. Biz. By the way, there you also find the articles which we publish every week and you find the transcripts of the podcast. So you can also read through all the notes there And of course, all of that available right now. In addition to that, I always get questions if we have any live sessions. Yes. We have live sessions when you go to expert. Nb networks. com. Then we can chat live.

But what you have to do to get access to that is put your email address in there. You receive only one email every Wednesday morning. It's a 100% content at free guarantee. You get access free of charge to all the podcast, all the publications. So when you have people in your company who prefer article or podcast or vice versa, it's all available in there. And in this weekly email you always see when do we have the next live sessions and how to access it. And the link to access it is immediately mentioned in that email.

So I'm looking forward to seeing you there. It's available by the way in English and German. So feel free to bring colleagues and your international colleagues with you. Last but not least, aspect number 3. Apply, apply, apply what you heard in this podcast because only when you apply what you heard, you will see the positive benefits of what you obviously want to implement in your organization. I wish you all the best implementing that. I'm available for help 247, so feel free to contact me anytime.

And at the end of this podcast, there's only one thing left for me to say. Thank you very much for your time.