Eva has been cross-cultural consultant for more than 15 years supporting companies with trainings and workshops in Europe, USA and Asia. Working with international companies, teams and different cultures, she inspires her clients to look for their new strategies on how to deal with cross-cultural challenges and differences. She helps companies to keep talents and develop a successful cross-cultural communication between leaders and teams. In the year 2016 and 2018 she was awarded Great Award in competition with trainers and consultants from USA, Europe and Asia. You can reach her via email egaborikova@gmail.com or www.evagaborikova.eu.
How to establish the first contact with Austrians?
Meeting business colleagues and partners in Austria, formal forms of address are preferred. It is common to keep formal titles and surnames for some time until being invited to switch to first names. First impressions are important and so it’s worth to consider making all your academic qualifications visible on business cards despite it could be perceived as boasting in your home culture.
Successful business communication with Austrian companies and teams requires an understanding how much tradition and hierarchy are locally esteemed. In general, expats feel that respect and conservatism are norms visible in a public behaviour. Displaying knowledge of Austrian history and culture is highly appreciated in a private or professional discussion.
What is a recommended communication style?
Talking to Austrians, expat leaders should switch on their decoding mechanisms not to be confused by polite communication style. Austrian partners and colleagues will rarely get emotional in a business situation but show their communication mastery commenting on something they are not pleased with.
Does your time management meet Austrian expectations?
Austrians are punctual people and keep the strict guidelines when it comes to scheduling. The Austrian attitude to time is monochromic what means that a new task should not be opened until the one before has been completed. They pay their utmost attention to the task they work on and interruptions are avoided. In Austria missing a deadline is a sign of poor management and inefficiency, resulting in shaking and even loosing people’s confidence. Successful people and teams meet deadlines and adhere to schedules.
In general, Austrians are not willing to work overtime very often. Employees usually prefer to know how their day will be structured and stick to the working hours they are contracted to complete.
How to behave during a meeting?
Leaders and businessmen should be aware that meetings are viewed as formal affairs and they are expected to arrive well-prepared. There are cultures which describe Austrians as pre-planners in terms of their approach to negotiations and team discussions. Meetings usually follow a rigid protocol, giving instructions what to discuss and when to finish. To follow the agenda is a safe step and deviations can mean a waste of time.
Austrians belong among cultures which enjoy small talk to establish relationships. However, they know the right time and let their business partners know when small talk is over and they are going to discuss business matters.
What’s an Austrian mindset for working together?
Austrian business cooperation is usually conditioned by a professional expertise which should be promoted openly and in a detailed way. Managers should be experienced in their fields and provide useful recommendations and guidance if consulted by their team members or business partners. They should provide feedback to be clear about strengths and weaknesses but at the same time to keep harmony and show appreciation to their team members. Decision making is slow and usually happens at the top. However, managers show a great effort to get their team members along together and warm the atmosphere to let them share their ideas and contributions.
Expat leaders enjoy cooperation with team members who take responsibility to handle the delegated tasks. However, the tasks should not go beyond the framework of their duties and tasks. Leaders should provide a clear set of guidelines. Deadlines should be specified at the outset as well as the roles of team members on their way to reach a common goal.
Austrian companies are usually hierarchical, ranks are established and carefully matched with organisational roles, clear structures and orders. Managers are responsible for performance and task’s fulfilment. Therefore they will tend to exercise a great deal of control over team members and departments and demand regular interim progress reports. Team members rarely question the manager’s authority and decisions.
How to introduce changes to be accepted?
Austrian business culture could be described as a low risk and low change tolerant culture. It means changes should be well introduced and their implementation takes its time. Introducing changes, each step is thoroughly reviewed, analyzed and agreed upon by the group as a whole, several parties invited to share their point of view and being consulted. Change is not thought to be implicitly good for its own sake. The reasons for a change, should be set out clearly, providing a lot of details and explanation.
Why compromise is your advantage?
Austrians dislike confrontation in a business discussion or in relationships. Although they are quick to complain on the processes and circumstances, they will rarely participate in a heated discussion. They rather look for a compromise than enter into an open disagreement with their colleagues or business partners.
Business partners should be careful to listen for unspoken messages. It can happen Austrians reveal a problem in an indirect way rather than voice it openly. Suppliers and business partners are expected to read between the lines and investigate among their colleagues and customers if something is wrong.
What should you know about Austrian lifestyle?
Family care is central to a private life of Austrians. Austrians devote a great deal of time to housework, refurbishment of their homes and gardening. Austrians show a lot of efforts to protect nature and spend a lot of time in nature. Climbing, skiing, cycling, swimming and hiking are popular sports and people will travel long distances at weekends to reach mountains.