Emotional Awareness Is the Edge of Managers with a Global Experience

JULIE BELLANI, BOCCONI ALUMNA AND BRITISH TELECOM CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER, SHARES HER DISCOVERIES FROM A LONG INTERNATIONAL CAREER

Despite having been raised in Italy, Julie Bellani’s professional experience has little to nothing in common with that of her Italian peers. Indeed, within a couple of months after having graduated at Università Bocconi in 1994, she started her career in Human Resources in Belgium (although she always thought that her future would have been in Finance). Following a unique professional path, which took her from Belgium to the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Canada, and after having worked for the American GE (General Electric), Julie Bellani is now Chief HR Officer for BT (British Telecommunications) and is based in London. As a matter of fact, Julie Bellani’s multicultural background started very early and was always intertwined with her personal life. When she was 17 she spent one year in the US during her studies and, while at Bocconi, spent another year as an exchange student in France.

Judging from your personal and professional journey, you represent the quintessential international manager. In which ways does an international experience relate to management?

In a global world where companies need to handle linguistic and cultural diversity on a daily basis, one of the key tasks mangers are confronted with is that of integration. Integrating means enabling people from different cultures, genders and educational pathways to work together at their best, thus turning diversity into an asset.
With regard to personal skills, managers who have experienced contexts where they were the element of diversity have an edge in terms of awareness. When I found myself operating in a cultural environment that was not the same as mine, I soon realized that people will talk and act very differently depending on their background. Being exposed to such behavioural patterns trained me to question myself consistently over the real meaning behind people’s words and gestures. And I can personally testify that working with colleagues from virtually everywhere in the world helped me to grow enormously, both as a leader and as in individual.

Managing conflict has always represented a crucial issue for managers. What are the additional shades of the question in an international company?

Clearly, managing conflict represents a permanent source of concern in every company. According to my experience though, what leaders should pay special attention to is recognizing conflict first and foremost, before they move on to decide how to deal with it. Typically when people disagree they will stop talking to each other, thus making it more complicated for a leader to realize that there is a conflict going on. And the issue can become even more complex in today’s multicultural corporate environments, to the extent that the ways of expressing disagreement vary immensely across cultures, but also depending on personality. Some cultures tend to be connected to a typical pattern of (not) expressing contrast, depending on where they locate on an imaginary scale whose opposite ends are transparency and opaqueness. However, while their placement on that scale might not necessarily reflect reality, festering conflicts turn out to be a recurring  difficulty in most companies.

Provided that the lack of communication has been solved and contrast identified, what are the best methods an international leader can adopt to manage disagreement?

It almost goes without saying that in order to overcome cultural barriers, and communication barriers in general, strengthening relationships is a fundamental challenge for all international leaders. Basic requirements are good listening skills and empathy. Being empathic means caring  about people as individuals and creating a relation of trust with them, hence being able to understand what they deem to be important – even though sometimes they omit to say it openly. To demonstrate empathy, one must engage in active listening, with an open-minded and judgement-free attitude. Even though the approach to handling conflict largely depends on the cultural and corporate context where a manager operates, empathy and active listening prove to be effective tools regardless of the environment.

Another aspect of tackling contrasts is the way in which asking for help or for advice is seen in a given company – the matter is often one of corporate culture rather than of country culture. While in some organizations it is still perceived very negatively, reaching out to others to ask for help activates behaviours that encourage dialogue and cooperation over conflict or antagonization. Not only does this pattern minimize the potential for conflict, but it also conveys a concept of leadership in which a leader’s duty is not having the answer to every question, but rather enabling others to contribute.

What, if any, are the paramount values that an international leaders should always bear in mind?

The aspects of being empathic and encouraging communication are surely crucial and they are both closely related to that of networking. By building a constructive network, leaders can foster relationships of trust and put their own willingness to help and connect with others to the test. It is important to consider that networking is not necessarily seen as positive in every corporate environment though. This proves that the key to being a successful international leader is taking advantage of every opportunity to experience new, diverse contexts, because that is the best way to keep developing our intercultural skills.

by Elisa Bazzani