As more and more Indian nationals join global organizations and rise through the ranks it's helpful to look at some of the best practices for global team work and managing cultural differences with Indian professionals.
I recently provided a series of intercultural coaching sessions with an
Indian national working at a global financial company. Because he was such a good manager in India the company sent him to take over an
Asia regional team based out of Singapore. This was his first assignment outside of India and he had received some very concerning feedback from HR from his non-Indian colleagues who were not happy with his management style.
He admitted that he was thrown into an expatriate role largely because of his technical expertise and strong results in India and it was his first time having to manage non-Indians. He told me, “I’ve been making business trips to the
USA, Singapore, Thailand, China and Japan for the past year. But I didn’t really understand how different each of their cultures are and how their work styles operate until now. In the past two months I am starting to understand how they want me to work professionally. It’s really quite different than what I am accustomed to in India.”
Here are some tips for working effectively with your Indian colleagues:
1. Team leads managing Indian members should build in small talk and socializing time in meetings and telephone calls. Indians work best when they get to know their colleagues and can build rapport and trust.
2. When working together on a project make sure you state the priority of tasks assigned and keep reinforcing its priority. Your Indian colleagues multitask, and often re-prioritize activities.
3. Create periodic project review mechanisms with Indian colleagues, e.g., conference calls, e-mails, web chats. This will help you find out about any challenges before the final delivery date.
4. Give your Indian colleagues a good comfort level about your openness and accessibility. When delegated to, Indians often want their decisions approved by a peer or senior person.
5. Indians are typically very good team players and prefer group harmony. However, individual pride can play a role and intense competitiveness can arise between team members. An adept team leader is necessary to manage team performance and conflict.
For information about GTP global workshops, seminars and coaching in over 100 locations worldwide contact us at info@gtpworldsite.com and visit www.gtpworldsite.com
