The 5 benefits of intercultural management coaching

You are an international leader and want to adapt your management style to the cultural differences of your teams.

“The important thing is not to open others to reason, but to open oneself to the reason of others” – Claude Lévi-Strauss

You must manage multicultural teams, either from France or elsewhere, either locally or remotely, either in several countries or in just one. In any case, the management style that you had previously developed runs the risk of not being adapted to this new context and to the cultural gaps between you and your teams.

Indeed, “effective communication with its partners and within the company is one of the key elements to create a sustainable competitive advantage in the changing environment of the modern corporate world.

However, having good communication with partners or even within an organization is already very difficult. What to say when you add cultural differences to it” (1)

(1) Translated from Mira Bergelson, RUSSIAN CULTURAL VALUES AND WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION STYLES in « Communication Studies 2003: Modern Anthology »

Our experience is that coaching is the fastest and most effective way to adapt your management style to the cultural differences of your teams and to increase the range and impact of your managerial behaviors.

In concrete terms, here are the 5 benefits of coaching in intercultural management as offered by Cadran.

▶️ Benefit from our “Coaching in Intercultural Management” program

The 5 benefits

Benefit n°1: Identify cultural differences

The first benefit of coaching in intercultural management is to allow you to become aware of the reality of cultural differences in your new managerial environment. Like any human being, your brain’s natural impulse is to believe in the illusion that “everyone sees things, feels things, and thinks like me.” However, the reality is quite different. Within the same community and the same culture, everyone sees, feels and thinks differently. In an intercultural situation, this gap is even greater. The first step is to clearly identify it.

Benefit n°2: Decoding culture and subcultures

The second benefit of coaching in intercultural management is to get you out of the big clichés about a culture or a country, to be able to have a more detailed vision of cultural variations at different community (national, professions, companies, etc.) and generational levels. . By decoding cultures and subcultures, you will become able to adapt your mode of communication and your behavior according to your audience.

Benefit n°3: Understanding intercultural mechanisms

The third benefit is to make you understand and feel the intercultural mechanisms at work in the various professional behaviors and interactions. In particular, this coaching allows you to understand the difference between a relationship with an employee, a partner or a client.

For example, you will explore, for each situation, the following dimensions:

• The representation of the world and time
• The interpersonal relationship
• Communication Styles
• The relationship to emotions
• Values and anti-values
• Management styles
• Conflict management
• The keys to motivation and influence

Benefit n°4: Develop know-how and life skills in intercultural interactions

The fourth benefit of coaching in intercultural management is to acquire real know-how and interpersonal skills in various management situations. At this stage you have clear benchmarks on the behaviors adapted to the different universes in which you manifest the range of your management styles.

Benefit n°5: Become agile in an intercultural situation

The fifth benefit of this coaching is to allow you to be resolutely on the way to full mastery and real agility in an intercultural situation. Of course, you will never have finished exploring the culture of your new environment – it is the ambition of a lifetime – but you will have full confidence in your ability to evolve in it adequately. Your management style will have become multicultural

References

− Abdallah-Pretceille M. (2003). Former et éduquer en contexte hétérogène. Pour un humanisme du divers. Paris : Anthropos.

− Chevrier S. (2003/2006). Le management interculturel. Paris : PUF.

− Cuche D. (1996/2001). La notion de culture dans les sciences sociales. Paris: La Découverte.

− Dervin F. (2011). Impostures interculturelles. Paris : L’Harmattan.

− Giordano Ch. (2003). Préface. De la crise des représentations au triomphe des préfixes.

Dans A. Gohard-Radenkovic, D. Mujawamariya & S. Pérez (éds), Intégration des «minorités» et nouveaux espaces interculturels (pp. XI-XVII). Berne: Peter Lang.

− Gohard-Radenkovic A. (2002). Histoire critique des théories de l’interculturel en usage dans le management international. Dans Ch. Giordano & J.-L. Patry (éd.), Multikulturalismus und Multilinguismus (pp. 57-68). Freiburg: Universitätsverlag Freiburg Schweiz.

− Gohard-Radenkovic A. & Stalder P. (2013). Pour en finir avec la conception ordinaire de la notion de culture… Universitas, no 1, octobre. Fribourg : Université de Fribourg.

− Han F. (2013). Une brève histoire du management interculturel. Dans X. Yang & L. Zheng (coord.), Culture et management. Paris : L’Harmattan.

− Mutabazi E. & Pierre Ph. (2008). Pour un management interculturel. De la diversité à la reconnaissance en entreprise. Paris : L’Harmattan.

− Pretceille M. A. (2012). Quelle anthropologie pour quel enseignement ? Dans F. Dervin & B. Fracchiolla (éds), Anthropologies, interculturalité et enseignement-apprentissage des langues. Berne : Peter Lang.

− Rivera A. (1997/2000). Culture. Dans R. Gallissot, M. Kilani & A. Rivera, L’imbroglio ethnique (pp. 63-82). Lausanne: Payot.

− Stalder P. (2010). Pratiques imaginées et images des pratiques plurilingues. Stratégies de communication dans les réunions en milieu professionnel international. Berne: Peter Lang.

− Stalder P. (2013). Management international: développer les compétences en innovant les formations », in X. Yang & L. Zheng, Culture et management. Paris : L’Harmattan.

− Stalder P. (2014). Strike Season ? Gestion des diversités linguistiques et culturelles dans les réunions en milieu professionnel international. Les Cahiers de l’Acedle, volume 11, no 2, Plurilinguisme(s) et entreprise : enjeux didactiques.

− Stalder P. & Tonti A. (dir.) (2014). La médiation interculturelle : représentations, mises en œuvre et développement des compétences. Paris: Editions des archives contemporaines.

Learn more about our support

Cadran offers dedicated support to managers who wish to adapt their management style to the cultural differences of their teams.

Our offers:

• Les webinars gratuits mensuels du cycle « Le Leadership international avec la CO-CREATiVE Communication®» 
• Notre programme individuel : « Coaching en Management Interculturel » — to increase the impact of your managerial actions

Our “Challenge” Items:

• Comment faire grandir l’autonomie de vos équipes à l’international ?  

Our “Coaching” Articles:

• Les 3 bénéfices de l’Executive Coaching dans un parcours de dirigeant à l’international