Coaching Model: Expatriates’ Powerful Transformational Cycle

A Coaching Model Created by Masami Kanaguri
(Business Development in/with Asia/Asian, JAPAN)

Coaching Model designed for globally challenging Expatriates

As a performance maximizer of global business leaders, I often interface with various expatriates. Although they have excellent skills, experience, and education, the majority of them are stuck. Most of them are struggling to effectively utilize their excellent competencies in their work places. I can relate to them because I was in a similar situation as an expatriate in Europe. They tend to be overwhelmed and uncertain on whether things are going the right way. It is like a marathon runner wearing an eye mask. You know you have a goal and the drive to get there but can’t find the route to your destination.

Why is this absence of a path typically observed? I believe that they do not lack competency nor motivation, but instead struggle because of poor relationship building with their two main stakeholders: people at the headquarters and at the local site. Often people at the headquarters require targets, improvements, and changes based on what they see from their side, but do not deeply consider what problems there could be. This affects how the local site achieves their requirements. Typically, people at the headquarters are not fully aware of political situations, environmental legislation’s, labor laws, cultural norms and other conditions in the specific region. Therefore, people at the local site often show strong resistance to the requirements as some requirements from the headquarters appear to be illogical, unfair, risky, and unreasonable.

By using the below described coaching model: “The Powerful Transformational Cycle,’’ Expat coaches can help all the struggling but highly potential expatriates build engaging and trusting relationships with these two key stakeholders and create high performances for the corporates’ growth.

Transformation 1 – Trust building with headquarters

In order to maximize the business performances in Local Site, Expatriate needs to take the role of good “Transformer.’’ The higher/lower voltage sent from headquarters needs to be transformed by him/her to the level that fits the local site.

In this stage, the Coach supports the Clients (Expats) in identifying what information to share and what should be mutually agreed upon with headquarters for future growth/success of the Local Site. The Coach will ask the Clients what they think the key person in headquarters knows and does not know, or should know or does not have to know. The powerful questions can be:

• In order to earn good support and understanding from the people in headquarters, what do you think you should start sharing with them?
• What should you ‘not’ share with them?
• By sharing such information/voices, what kind of support do you want from them?
• In order to grasp their attention more firmly, what sort of data, statistics, evidence can you provide them?
• When it comes to X matter, who is the key person in headquarters and how you can elicit support from him/her?

In this stage, visualizing, power listening, releasing judgment, and creating awareness skills are appropriate tools to use.

Once you build trust with people in headquarters and make them aware of what your environment is like, it is much easier to set reasonable or even challenging goals for the Local Site. Relationship building with headquarters is crucial to establishing rational targets and maximizing the dynamics of corporate performance.

Transformation 2 – Gap Identification and Action Planning

Once Client sets up a mutually agreed target with headquarters, the next step is to think about how to achieve it. The Client knows what the target is at this stage but is not clear about the process of achieving it. At this stage, Coach helps the Client identify where they (himself/herself or the local site) are and what actions need to be taken in order to achieve the targets. To dig down to the action steps, the Coach also helps the Client get clear ideas about who will do what, what needs to be investigated, and by when X needs to be done.

Powerful coaching questions might be:

• On a scale of 0 to 10 (10 being a situation where all targets are achieved), which score do you rank your (his/her or the local site’s) current situation?
• What needs to be improved/changed/removed to reach the target?
• In order to achieve the target, what resources do you already have and which are missing?
• What can you do alone and what KPIs do you impose to yourself? By when do you expect to complete them?
• What are the tasks that need to be allocated to local staff? What are in their KPIs? By when do you expect to complete them?
• In order to take X actions, are there any possible constraints from a political and legal perspective?

You need to identify where you are and what needs to be done as concrete as possible. Scale questioning and SMART goal setting would effectively work at this stage.

Transformation 3 – Team Building with Local Staff

While the Client conducts actions for the tasks to be done alone based on the SMART goals created on the previous stage, he/she also discusses the expected KPIs and SMART goals with the team.

In other words, it is time for the Client to show his/her leadership to local staff and motivate local staff in order to create a high performing team. The Coach supports the Client to enhance his/her leadership and help him/her make an ideal team.

In addition to leadership, another challenge for Expats is how well you increase their cultural competencies.

In a cross-cultural environment, it is often said the way local staff is motivated is different from your expectations. For example, Indians (in general) find their positions/job titles to be very important but Scandinavians (again, in general) find the time they spend with their family is much more important than their positions/job titles. This difference often attributes to their cultural values. If the Client knows local staff’s cultural values, he/she can effectively motivate them. Some would be very motivated by getting higher titles/more authority. Some may appreciate if you offered more vacation days to spend with their family. As an Expat coach, it is important to monitor how well you support your Client and realize the gap between his/her cultural values and the Local Staff’s. The effective way to start is for the Coach to recommend to the Client and his/her key Local Staff to take some of major cross-cultural assessments such as Itim International’s Culture Compass, Cultural Intelligence Center’s CQ assessment or Richard Lewis’ Communications’s Culture Active, and see the numerical differences in their cultural values/norms/perceptions.

In order to enhance the Client’s leadership & Cross-Cultural Competencies and finally build a highly motivated and performing team, the Coach supports the Client by asking powerful questions such as:

(For Leadership Enhancement)

• What kind of team do you want to create? What kinds of energy are there? How do you fill in their energy?
• To be a good role model, what can you do for them?
• How do you support local staff in visualizing the successful future?
• In case he/she (local staff) is stuck, what support can you give?

(For Enhancement of Cross-Cultural Competencies)

• Comparing your and his/her (local staff) assessment results, what kind of communication styles effectively work to motivate him/her?
• Comparing your and his/her (local staff) assessment results, what could be some pitfalls that could lead you to miscommunicate with him/her? How can you prevent those from occurring?
• Based on his/her (local staff) assessment result, what kind of reward do they appreciate? And how do you tell him/her?

Visualization, Structuring, Mindfulness and Appreciative inquiry might be some of the tools that could be useful.

Well-suited leadership and high level of Cross-Cultural Competency are the keys needed for expatriates to succeed in building a highly motivated and well-performing team at the Local Site.

Transformation 4 – Self Reflection

Based on the SMART goals Client set for him/herself and agreed to with the Local Staff, now it is time to review performance. At this stage, the Coach and the Client review the progress together, study the gaps still remaining and plan the next actions and steps to get even better.

Questions typically asked by the Coach at this stage may be:

• What have you and your team accomplished?
• What do you acknowledge about yourself/your team?
• What strong wins did you and your team make?
• What did not go well? What do you think was the cause?
• On a scale of 0 to 10 (10 being a situation where all targets are achieved), which score do you rank your (his/her or the local site’s) current situation?
• In order to be a 10 (all targets achieved), what do you think you and your team need to improve, change or remove?

Conclusion

What is critically important as a Coach is to acknowledge small (even tiny) progresses and celebrate together with Client, and support him/her to be more confident, so they gain more energy and continue to grow so that the second round will surely bring higher results. These 4 transformation stages are followed endlessly as long as the Client wishes to be better, as long as the Client believes in a better future, and as long as the Client believes in success.