Teams and cross cultural coaching: real life challenges and solutions!

This article is about cross cultural coaching: how to tap into the strengths of your diverse team and get results?

Having a team that communicates well, show a great deal of engagement whether they are working around the world or within a multicultural team in a single location.

Working with your team on personal and social skills is something that leaders today should pay attention to. This week in one of our in-house workshops, working among Brazilian-American leaders, we tapped into social and cultural intelligence and how to overcome conflicts in teams where culture norms differ, by adopting a more common and efficient communication, by increasing self-awareness, self-confidence, self-control and empathy on individuals and on teams.

One specific case that we focused on was the importance of using the diverse perspectives of a group of leaders to find new common grounds, accommodating a diverse team based on their own personal strengths. Challenging? Yes, indeed! But is was overall a success in resolving ethical issues within the ethical viewpoints of each one x inside of the company culture, for instance.

On another level, the various social and emotional skills exercises we applied to that group (e.g. mindfulness practices, positive leadership, growth mindset techniques, among others) helped them to find new ways to strength their interpersonal relationships, leading ultimately to sharing new business opportunities among them, getting actually the expatriate leaders onboard too in various issues that previously were not shared with them and by them. Can you picture how liberating that was for all involved?

In summary, obstacles may show up in so different ways and in forms that we had not anticipated, but I could easily say that tapping into the strengths of that diverse team and adopting an integrated language within the cross cultural coaching practice (mainly based on E.I. skills and coaching supporting exercises) saved them a lot of time, money and across cultural management issues – all spenders that one can not afford in today’s integrated, pressured and dynamic market.

So, now my question to you: Are you into a cross culture organization? Have you had these issues before? Or perhaps others? I would love to hear from you on that.

This article was first published in Portuguese in this bilingual website; it is a free translation from its original version. The author Fernanda Alem is a Brazilian Lawyer (LL. M., B.U. Law), International Consultant (D.C. Bar, Brazilian Law), Professor and Speaker, with 20+ years of practice Brazil – USA, and currently works as Leader Coach & Mentor (In and Out of the Law). Fernanda assists individuals and organizations, in person or online, maximizing their growth potential through integrated practices and innovative tools in Coaching, Leadership Training and Mentoring. Fernanda manages her business Brain U Coaching and hosts its YT channel,with weekly videos and local and international series, all in a bilingual set. You can reach the author by Skype @coachfernandaalem or by E-mail: fernandaalem@brainucoaching.com