Eva has been a cross-cultural consultant and trainer for more than 15 years, facilitating companies with trainings and workshops in Europe, USA and Asia. Coaching virtual teams and team members from different cultures, she inspires her clients to look for new strategies on how to deal with cross-cultural challenges and differences. She consults companies to keep talents and develop a successful cross-cultural communication between leaders and teams. In the years 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.
As an intercultural consultant I have been facilitating virtual teams of international companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Some years ago no special attention was paid to cross-cultural differences. However, these days many team members are aware that culture plays an important role in their project communication and performance. They ask their leaders and HR managers for cross-cultural trainings to embrace cultural differences and avoid misunderstandings. Recently I have been asked by an IT company to support their virtual teams which cooperate with customers and colleagues in India. The following questions were raised by Czechs and Slovaks during our training:
Question 1: How to deal with Indian “Yes”?
1. One of the biggest problems that international executives face when working with Indians is their tendency for indirect communication.
Czechs and Slovaks are also known for their indirect communication. However, when they meet with Indians, their indirectness can be perceived as strong directness, especially in business life. Czechs and Slovaks are lost and often complain about the “Indian YES” which they hear all the time but don’t often see the results they have agreed on. While they themselves are careful with saying “No” in their private lives, the Indian“Yes”in business settings is often a source of frustration for them.
Strategy to deal with Indian “Yes”: Ask openended questions, follow up on agreed tasks and read between the lines. Agree on the company’s communication strategy and facilitate employees with crosscultural training.
Question 2: How to create supportive working environment?
2. Indians like to develop positive relationships at work and thrive in environments that allow for team bonding. Often, they will go out of their way to develop these relationships by inviting team members for celebrations, sharing traditions with them and sometimes asking quite personal questions that may make some people feel quite uncomfortable. Due to this need to have a group that they identify with, Indians often tend to group together, especially if they feel that it is too difficult to forge a relationship with others. As a cross-cultural consultant I have been supporting a lot of Indian professionals moving to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And to be honest, their first impressions are not very positive, arriving from the culture where people take care of building relationships. I do not exaggerate when I say that many of them regret their decision and would like to return home because they miss the friendships and relationships they have at home with their Indian colleagues.
Strategy for Czechs and Slovaks: Take care of your Indian colleagues. Offer your help especially during the first days and spend some time talking about their private life challenges and experience. They do not perceive your interest as invasion into their personal space. Just the opposite, they will appreciate it.
Question 3: How to deal with “Jugaad” under time pressure of deadlines?
3. “Jugaad” is an Indian term roughly translating to “improvisation”. Indians are generally comfortable with things not going exactly the way they plan. There is a saying in one of the religious texts of India: “Invest 100% effort to the task at hand but expect 0% in return”. This resonates in the Indian psyche as “nothing is under our control”.
Czechs and Slovaks find this attitude as frustrating because it can come across that Indians don’t take anything too seriously. However, what you may be observing is the Indian tendency to say “chalta hai!” (“anything is ok”). However, Indians are quite adaptable to work styles so if a project plan needs to be strictly followed and timelines adhered to, this can be managed well with regular follow ups and early expectation setting.
Strategy for Czechs and Slovaks: Don’t make quick judgments based on the words you have heard. Try to discover what’s behind the words and what reasons shape the behavior of your colleagues. Virtual teams or multicultural teams usually work under time pressure and do not have a lot of time to talk about their cultural values and approaches. Find some occasions for open discussions about crosscultural differences.
Question 4: How to get and deliver feedback?
4. Indians tend to be non-confrontational in their communication style. This is closely linked with their inherent need to forge and preserve harmonious relationships. Rather than engage in a face-to-face confrontation, they prefer to discuss calmly in oneon-one settings and might seem to avoid discussions that can lead to confrontation. The best way to get feedback from your Indian colleagues is to build enough trust with them so that they are comfortable enough to speak with you face-to-face. Else, an anonymous system of feedback works very well too. The Indian way to deliver feedback seems to be in agreement with Czech and Slovak styles as they prefer more anonymous and one-on-one settings. However, even in such situations Czechs and Slovaks sometimes struggle to decipher the real messages Indians try to send.
Strategy for Czech and Slovaks: Cross-cultural communication brings a lot of challenges on one side and advantages and enrichment on the other side. Try to be open-minded and do not assume your understanding is shared by your colleagues and team members.
Question 5: Who is an ideal boss in India?
5. Like in Central Europe, Indians are also used to a hierarchical structure in organizations, but this hierarchy is manifested quite differently. The ideal boss in India is a patriarchal or matriarchal figure: someone who is competent enough to be a leader but also cares for and inquires after his/her people. Such a superior creates loyalty within the organization or team and this can result in lower attrition rates.
Indians who work in Czech and Slovak republics are missing a boss who takes an interest in their private life and can understand unanticipated needs and duties related to their family.
Strategy for Czechs and Slovaks: People do not lock their cultural values behind the doors of their houses on the way to join their multicultural teams. They would like to feel respected and happy at work.
The article was written in cooperation with Divya Susan Varkey. Divya Susan Varkey is an Intercultural Trainer and Coach based in Den Haag, the Netherlands. She focuses on bridging the gaps between Indian and other cultures and has till date coached and trained executives from over 50 different nationalities on how to work with Indians. She is certified by Hofstede Insights in Intercultural Management and has double masters’ degrees in Communications and Intercultural Communication.
Eva Gaborikova