Business_Spotlight_No3_202..

BUSINESS SKILLS 3/2020 Business Spotlight 43

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to assume that one’s own mindset and behaviours

are effective enough. You will then focus on getting

things done “in your own way”, identifying the fail-

ings of others when things get challenging. To avoid

doing this, take the time to understand your own

mindset better.

➻ Help to build teams

Working with others is about more than creating

friendships. Whether in a formal leadership position

or simply as a team member, your priority should be

to foster and cultivate a sense of “team”. This means

combining formal activities — clarifying the pur-

pose of the team, defining goals and roles, organiz-

ing people and structures — with the informal tasks

of supporting people, smoothing differences that

threaten to undermine cooperation, helping people

to connect and maintaining team spirit with positive

feedback.

➻ Influence others through listening

Effective influencing skills — the ability to convince

others to do what “I” need them to do — are the Holy

Grail of soft skills for many people. Yet curiously, few

really understand the mechanisms of influencing. It

is built on our ability to listen and empathize, and

to create the conviction that we are there to enable

others and not to manipulate them. If you want to

become a great influencer, you will need to become

a super listener and super supporter.

➻ Give and receive feedback

The only guarantee that I give my clients about work-

ing internationally is that they will be misunderstood.

As a result, they will frustrate and irritate others and

they will be frustrated and irritated in return. And

this despite the fact that all parties are probably work-

ing “professionally” to achieve the same objectives.

Why is this? Well, people define “professionally”

differently. And when these differences begin to

create problems, rather than engaging in open and

constructive feedback, people complain and play

the “blame game”. The confidence and ability to re-

ceive and give feedback effectively — and to create

a constructive learning environment that smooths

the inevitable misunderstanding — is perhaps the

single most important soft skill to foster in yourself.

5. International leadership capability
   Over the previous ten issues, Business Spotlight ran a
   special series that looked at the challenges of lead-
   ing internationally. As we discussed, leadership is a
   complex subject involving diverse, and sometimes
   conflicting, approaches and beliefs. Here are four im-
   pulses for your 2020 leadership development.

➻ Increase your contextual intelligence

Almost daily, we get bombarded with new manage-

ment literature describing the behaviours and mind-

set of the perfect leader, which we should aspire to

being. It may sound harsh, but much of this litera-

ture is nonsense. In the end, our style of leadership

should depend much more on a clear assessment of

the specific context. This includes the abilities and

motivations of the individuals concerned, the nature

of the task at hand, the time available and the quality

of work required. Focusing on leadership personal-

ity and related traits that should be displayed in all

contexts at all times is an outmoded way of under-

standing leadership. Learn to assess and lead people

in complex and dynamic contexts on the basis of the

situational needs — not your personality.

➻ Communicate the big picture

One of the most destabilizing phenomena for those

working in a large international organization is un-

explained change. Yet many senior management

assess sb. [E(ses]

, jmdn. beurteilen,

einschätzen

assessment

[E(sesmEnt]

, Beurteilung,

Einschätzung

blame game: play the ~

[(bleIm geIm] ifml.

, sich gegenseitig die

Schuld zuweisen

display sth. [dI(spleI]

, etw. zeigen, zur Schau

stellen

empathize [(empETaIz]

, sich einfühlen

engage in sth.

[In(geIdZ In]

, hier: etw. betreiben,

sich mit etw. beschäftigen

harsh [hA:S]

, hart

Holy Grail

[)hEUli (greI&l]

, Heiliger Gral

inevitable

[In(evItEb&l]

, unvermeidlich

irritate sb. [(IrIteIt]

, jmdn. (ver)ärgern

issue [(ISu:]

, Ausgabe

outmoded

[)aUt(mEUdId]

, überholt

previous [(pri:viEs]

, vorangegangene(r,s)

purpose [(p§:pEs]

, hier: Zielsetzung

smooth sth. [smu:D]

, etw. glätten;

hier: ausgleichen

trait [treIt]

, Merkmal, Charakterzug

Understand that

others might

think differently