Work Harder at Communicating When Managing Foreign Language Teams
The primary key to success when managing foreign language teams may be the focus on communication. Since the other team members may not speak your language fluently, you must adjust. The expression “let’s hit one out of the ballpark” may be very clear to an American team, but may not be clear to a team member from Singapore. Even within the same language there can be confusion; many Americans don’t really understand what a “sticky wicket” is. The language you use, when speaking and writing, must be clear or it must be explained until it is made clear if you want everyone on the team working together in the most efficient manner to reach the teams’ goal.
Here are a few specific things you can do to enhance your communications when managing foreign language teams.
Make your language a little more formal. Speak and write as if you were talking with a person you respect, perhaps your grandparent, rather than one of your buddies. This will cause you to use better grammar, more complete sentences, and fewer slang expressions. This will make it easier for others to understand you.
Stay away from slang, idioms, and jargon. A classic example is the brilliant foreign surgeon who was about to start his first operation. He told his colleague "I have cold feet." He did not mean he was afraid to do the operation, he meant that the draft coming under the door was making his feet cold. Slang that you have grown up with may be perfectly clear to you, but most people learn a foreign language in school, not by living in that country, so they are not often exposed to this level of informal communication.
Don’t use "don't". In my written communication with my foreign language teams, I always spell out contractions. While I am pretty sure most of them understand simple contractions like don’t and can’t, I am not sure which ones they do know and which ones they do not know. In a written document, they cannot ask me for clarification so I try to be very clear in how I write. People from some cultures may even find it difficult asking you for clarification of what you just said, so try to watch your use of contractions there as well.
Ask for feedback. When managing foreign language teams, you may encounter some people who will agree with you, nod their head, even say “yes, I understand” when you ask if the understand. That does not mean they actually understood. They may be embarrassed or otherwise reluctant to say no to you. The only way to be sure your message got through is to ask for them to repeat back to you, in their own words, what you asked them to do. Then you can correct the message if needed.
Be patient. It will take longer to do it this way, but it’s worth it. Recognize the effort the members of you foreign language teams are making to speak with you in your language. If you were as good in their language as they are in your, it wouldn’t be a “foreign” language.
Bottom Line
Managing foreign language teams is not as difficult as it might seem. Just remember that different is not wrong, respect for your team members is essential, and you must open yourself up to new ideas. Don’t lose your focus on the goal. And most importantly work harder at communicating at all levels.
II. Read text 1B and find answers to the following questions:
1. Why do you think it is becoming more common to have teams whose members speak different languages?
2. What is necessary to remember in order to manage a foreign language team successfully?
3. How can you comment: “different is not wrong”?
4. What is a common reaction to encountering something different?
5. Why is it useful to ask the team for suggestions?
6. Why people of different cultures can produce innovative ideas?
7. What is the best way to focus on the goal in a foreign language team?
8. Why the language you use must be clear?
9. What are specific things you can do to enhance your communications when managing foreign language teams?
TEXT 2 C. IS MANAGEMENT FOR ME?
I. Read text 2 C. Pick up all the information concerning work of a manager.
Are you wondering whether you want to be a manager, deciding if a management path is right for your career? Maybe the company has suggested a supervisory position for you. Maybe someone in your life is pushing you to "make more out of your life." Or are you trying to decide whether to get you Masters degree in your technical specialty or go for an MBA instead.
Whatever the reason you are considering a management career, this article will help you decide whether or not management is for you.
The Upside of Being a Manager. There are many positives to being a manager. Managers generally are paid more than others in the company. They appear to have more power. And the power and pay differences tend to give the position more status or prestige.
Pay. Certainly the top manager in a company, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is paid more than anyone else in the company. Managers below the CEO are generally paid more than everyone in their group as well, but not always. I managed a group of scientists in which the very top scientists were paid more than I. Smart companies pay their people based on their value to the company, not on their title or position, and in that company, key scientists were more valuable than their manager.
Power. Most people, including most managers, believe that managers have more power than the people in their groups. While it's true that managers commonly have certain functional authority delegated to them, like setting work schedules for the group, true power cannot be delegated to you from above. You are only as powerful as you are capable of making your group more successful. And while your ability to lead the group greatly influences it, your power comes from the willingness of the people in your group to grant it to you.
Status/Prestige. In our society, people value titles. A title of Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing sounds much more impressive than Research Chemist. However, the marketing person may work for a 3-person company and make $30,000 per year while the chemist works for a major oil company, supervises 4 other chemists, and makes well over $100,000 per year.
Sense of Personal Accomplishment. If your goal is to be CEO of General Motors, you probably should start now on a management career. If you want to be President of the United States, a management track isn't required. Several recent Presidents have managed nothing but their campaigns. If you want to brag to your mother-in-law about what a success you are, and power, prestige, and money are important to your definition of success, management may be they way to go. If you measure success by friendships and how soundly you sleep at night, a management career can give you that, but so can many others.
The Downside of Being a Manager. Nobody likes the boss and it's lonely at the top. You're the person who always has to make the decision, right or wrong, and somebody is always out for your job. On top of that there are legal liabilities that non-managers don't have as well as financial restrictions.
Lonely At The Top. You are not as close to the employees in your group when you are the boss. You can't afford to be. A manager needs to be a little removed from the employees in order to objectively make the hard decisions.
Many first time supervisors, promoted from within the group to supervise it, are amazed at how quickly former friends become cold and distant. Even an experienced manager, brought in from outside, finds the employees more aloof than they are with each other.
No Immediate Reinforcement. A painter gets almost immediate feedback on whether or not he's doing a good job. Is the paint the right color; is it going where it should. A programmer also finds out pretty quickly whether or not a new sub-routine runs. Management isn't that way. Goals are usually more long-term, quarterly or even annual. The real measure of a manager's success, an improvement in their people management skill is even more long term and more difficult to manage. If you want immediate feedback on how well you're doing, try widget manufacturing. If you can wait months or longer for feedback, management may be for you.
Buck Stops. You may, and in most cases should, have your employees make many of their own decisions. However, ultimately the responsibility for the final decision rests with the manager. When it appeared that insulation might have damaged the space shuttle wing, it was a manager who had to make the decision. It's the manager's job to make the decision, right or wrong.
Somebody Always Wants Your Job. There is always someone after your job. Sometimes several people are. As a first line supervisor, you may have several people in your group who think they could do your job better and are actively working to get that chance. As CEO of a company, you have several people within your own organization who want your job and more people on the outside who are after it as well. They may not agree with the decisions you made (see above) or felt they could have made better decisions. You may have actually made a wrong decision and they will use that as leverage to try and push you aside.
The higher you go in any organization, the fewer positions there are at that level and the more competition there is for them.
Legal Liabilities. Managers have legal liabilities that most workers don't. Managers frequently have to sign documents, they have to ensure the workplace is free from harassment, they have to keep their people safe. If a manager fails in any of these responsibilities, they may be held legally liable.
Financial Restrictions. Managers often have financial restrictions placed on them because of their position. The most common of these are the insider trading restrictions. The insiders list at a company is almost exclusively managers. While a worker can exercise stock options or trade in the company stock whenever they wish, the managers on the insider list are restricted to windows of time that exclude immediately before and after quarterly financial results are announced.
Bottom Line. Management as a career path is not right for everyone. You have to like responsibility. You have to enjoy working with people. You have to be able to deal with uncertainty and making decisions when you never seem to have all the facts in time. You probably will get paid more, but believe me you'll earn it.
II. Think about Pros and Cons and decide whether a career of a manager is right for you. Put the Pros and Cons into the table.
II. Look through text 2C and fill the table
III. Take into account your personality traits and explain why management is for you.