I am writing the memo to share some issues I have with one of my employees. Ten moths ago I hired a salesman with Chinese origin to help the company to take over the Chinese businesses in Plano, Texas. I cannot “click on personal level” with him since the very beginning of our relationship which is causing troubles in our communications. Another reason for our communication problem could be the different cultural background we have and our opposite personalities. I believe employees should be able to connect to their leader to become good followers.
I think I am extrovert and should be able to get closer to him over time but there are some other issues that I need to address immediately. I have a problem with Wu’s performance inconsistencies his vision of how things should be done, obviously conflicting with my leadership style. He definitely is able to do “as I say” but not willing - he does not keep daily contact, works outside the office more than normal and his various meetings usually conflict with AccountBack activities and meetings.
I do not know if this is based on cross cultural differences or situational leadership. I definitely should consider a mismatch of leadership style and development level of my subordinate. I should reconsider my participating approach towards my employees. It definitely worked for our branch and the financial results are proving it but most of the salesmen were new to the company. In case of salesmen with more experience and high readiness to do the work and accomplish results I should lower relationship behavior and delegate more duties.
Low level of cooperation that we have causes a competition between us and solving the conflict could come only after compromising with each other, accommodating our expectations and collaborating to achieve our goal. To make things worse Wu came to me with a request for a personal assistant or otherwise he would leave the company. In our company only a few senior salesmen have personal assistant which gives me to choose between cave to Wu’s demands or terminate him. Managing subordinates with different cultural backgrounds and working styles from your own is very hard because it makes your decision as manager subjective.
Managers tend to evaluate the attitude of the subordinate not his performance and any differences are seen as problems. This creates tension at workplace, atmosphere of low cooperation. Dealing with situation like this should be done with reflecting mind set and self regulation. The manager should step back, explore the issue, weight positives versus negatives, accept the person the way he is and try to be objective in his evaluation. Dealing with “different” subordinate involves paying specific attention to the concept of “psychological work contract.”
According to this concept the employee will maintain the high production, low grievances if the manager guarantees and respects the norms of the employee informal culture (let the employees alone, make certain they make adequate wages, and have secure jobs). The issue is that subordinate’s norms of informal culture are altered and usually managers keep requiring the same input without keeping his part of the contract. Understanding the different cultural background and accepting the different working style should help you in taking rational decision.
A manager should not be thinking about a problem employee but an employee with problems. When problems are caused by a broken psychological contract the self regulation of the manager would help to deal with the situation and maintain balance between the company’s and employee’s input in the “work contract”. Wu is a self-confident, intelligent person with entrepreneur experience. In his first moths he exposed himself as a dedicated student. He arrived early and stayed late nearly every day. He showed curiosity and attention to detail.
He, also, enjoyed being expert for a change. After his first month he started his real sales efforts. Then he spent only early mornings in the office. He was not updating me for his daily progress with clients; his attendance at our weekly pipeline meeting was inconsistent, as well. Definitely he fell short in his routine and administrative duties. On other side, Wu enjoyed passing knowledge along to his colleagues and I was pleased wit his office conduct. The only concern I had was his disconnection with the rest of us on a personal level.
He never talked for anything beside business. I was impressed when he signed his first client; with a contract of over $ 400,000. 00 he almost doubled his annual goal of $250,000. 00. Another dark spot on his performance was the sale of additional services to the existing client without manager’s approval. Overall he achieved his goals but I am very unpleased by the way he did it. Allowing Wu to have personal assistant would be a precedent for AccountBack with negative consequences for the company in long run and it is unacceptable.
Every true manager should show empathy and melt the cross cultural differences with his employees. I believe his request for assistant is also a counter reaction of my negative feedback for his office and administrative work. I believe that repairing my relationship with Wu and make him feel appreciated in the company would improve his performance. Doing some research in Chinese culture revealed that Asians are high context culture and Americans are low context culture. What does it mean?
This table gives explanation for Wu’s behavior and differences in his work style. In order to improve his performance I have to acknowledge his Chinese culture and try to incorporate him in our American organization. I would try to sponsor some Chinese activities in Plano to have their community to recognize our company as a friend. This should help me connect better with Wu as well. It is very complicated situation and explaining the reason for refusing the request for an assistant is only the beginning of the solution process.
I have to face the cross cultural differences and find the explanation of Wu’s behavior. Also, I have to revise the psychological contract with him and assure myself that as a company we guarantee our input in it. I also have to revise my leadership style to his personal norms based on the cultural differences and his readiness to accept more duties. In our conversation tomorrow I will clearly set my expectations from his work so he have the performance standards by which he will be evaluated.
Acknowledging the cultural differences I will insist for him to do his office work as every other salesman. (I am thinking of giving my salesman more freedom to sign and manage accounts and spend less time in paperwork and useless reports. I do nor want my employees to feel that they have been micro-managed. ) As far as staying close with the customers after signing the contract I could allow if this pleases the customer. Pretty much will show him the way to solve the conflict is moving from competitiveness to cooperation trough compromises from both sides.
