Personal Trainer
Als Ihr Personal Trainer gibt KEN TAYLOR Ihnen Expertentipps, wie Sie Ihre Kompetenzen im Geschäftsalltag verbessern können. Hier spricht er mit einem gebürtigen Ungarn über die Vorteile und Schwierigkeiten beim Arbeiten in internationalen Teams.
Ken Taylor on communicating in international teams
Ken Taylor: Laszlo, you have had a lot of experience working in international IT teams. What would you say are the key benefits of having a mixed-nationality team?
Laszlo Zoltan: The main benefit is having people in the team with very different backgrounds and approaches. We can learn a lot from each other’s ways of working.
Taylor: In order to do that, you have to build the right team atmosphere. Team members need to be able to trust each other. When new teams are formed, it’s really important to spend some time building trust.
Zoltan: I agree. You need to take the time to share experiences and to check expectations.
Taylor: And what were the main challenges you faced when working internationally?
Zoltan: Communication problems. The international teams worked in English and we often had a mixture of native and non-native speakers.
Taylor: That can be challenging.
Zoltan: Of course, there were often misunderstandings. Some speakers had very strong accents and others had a very limited command of English. This made them difficult to understand. Taylor: What about the native speakers? Zoltan: Some of them were difficult, too. But I was lucky because most of the native speakers I worked with were able to speak slowly and clearly.
Taylor: You were lucky indeed! In my experience, native speakers often need to be controlled in an international environment. They speak too quickly and use words and expressions that are not familiar to non-native speakers.
Zoltan: I’ve also worked with IT specialists from India. They were very competent professionally, but their English was often difficult to understand. On the one hand, they spoke with a strong Indian accent and, on the other hand, they introduced many of their own words and expressions, for example the verb “prepone”, which is derived from “postpone”.
Taylor: How did you deal with that? Zoltan: You had to ask them to repeat words and phrases until you got used to their accent and way of speaking.
Taylor: It’s important to make sure you’ve understood each other fully, even though it might seem a bit impolite to keep interrupting. And the more you work together, the more you gradually get used to each other’s way of communicating.
Zoltan: Some misunderstandings can be quite funny. When you use a false friend, for example. Once, my German boss told an English colleague that he “must not” do something. The English colleague was a bit upset and offended until we explained that the boss had meant to say, “you don’t have to”.
Then we were able to laugh at the misunderstanding.
Taylor: Misunderstandings can be very funny. Laughter is often the best response to those situations. Zoltan: Telephone conferences could be challenging. You often did not know who was speaking. You couldn’t get any help from the body language. And technical interference often made it hard to hear people.
Taylor: Remote communication is always a bit problematic. Conference calls need a good meeting facilitator who knows what they are doing and who is a good example to the others. If the facilitator speaks slowly and clearly, for example, others are more likely to do the same. It’s a good idea to start off the conference by discussing and defining some meeting rules together. These can be quite straightforward, such as saying your name before each input. Don’t talk over each other. Speak slowly and clearly. Keep it short and simple. This discussion usually makes the conference participants more aware of possible communication problems.
Zoltan: I wish we had had those rules in some of the conferences I took part in! Taylor: If you were the mentor of young IT specialists starting out in an international career, what advice would you give them?
Zoltan: Keep improving your Englishlanguage skills. I was continually trying to improve mine. I went on language courses, finally doing the Cambridge Proficiency Examination held by the Cambridge Institute in Munich. I also took every opportunity available to practise. When there were native speakers around, I tried to chat with them in the coffee breaks and over meals.
Taylor: Many native speakers are happy to help you practise. They enjoy the mentor role. Zoltan: I had one British colleague who was an excellent language mentor. Henry would often correct my mistakes after apologizing for doing so. I really appreciated his help. He was the perfect English gentleman.
Taylor: You have to find the right person — someone who is open to the idea of helping you.
Zoltan: That’s right. I had another British colleague who was not able to do this. His German was excellent, and he insisted on using it whenever possible.
Taylor: Do you have any more advice? Zoltan: Watch films in English. Put English subtitles on so that you can hear and see the language at the same time. By the way, it’s a great shame that Englishlanguage films are dubbed on TV in Germany. Watching a film in English is a great way to improve your passive skills.
Taylor: I agree totally. And reading in English is also good practice.
Zoltan: At one point during my work at Siemens, I decided to read as many technical textbooks in English as possible. It really helped increase my technical vocabulary. Taylor: What else would you say to young IT specialists?
Zoltan: Be prepared. Before any situation — a meeting, a presentation or a phone call — know what you are going to say. If you are well prepared, it gives you confidence.
Taylor: True. I would also say to them: be curious. Especially in international situations, people appreciate it if you show an interest in their background and their culture. Besides being your language mentors, people can be your cultural mentors. Zoltan: Working internationally gives you the chance to learn a lot about other people and the chance to learn about yourself, too!
“Keep improving your Englishlanguage skills”