Coaching Across Cultures

Philippe Rosinski

This article first appeared in the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations, 2003, 1(4),99-106. It can only be reprinted and distributed with prior written permission from Professional Coaching

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2003

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Coaching Across Cultures

Philippe Rosinski

If coaching is largely about shifting and expanding people’s perspectives in a way that they can translate into daily actions,then working with individual belief systems and assumptions is vital. Beyond these individual creeds, coaching has toexplore the embedded collective paradigms, which feel to humans like the water that fish blissfully and obliviously swim in.This is why we are discussing coaching in a cultural context in this issue, choosing a fresh European coaching voice as ourguide.

-- Agnes Mura, Co-Editor

“Philippe Rosinski is a bridge builder. As the principal of a coaching and consulting firm who has worked with many largeinternational clients over the years, he is on a mission, he writes to connect coaching and interculturalism, while improvingboth professions. … Instead of looking at culture in an international sense, Rosinski addresses culture as a phenomenoninvolving people from different organizations and backgrounds. … Rosinski explains that by integrating the culturaldimension into his coaching style, he is able to unleash more human potential and achieve more meaningful objectives. … Hehelps coaches move beyond traditional coaching methods that operate within a single cultural norm, and challenges them toexpand past previous limitations and tap into possible world views. … Along with the many ideas, tools and examples thathe offers, Rosinski also presents a ‘Cultural Orientations Framework’ to help readers adopt a broader cultural perspective.Other issue he addresses throughout “Coaching Across Cultures” include: the sense of power and responsibility, definitionsof identity and purpose; organizational arrangements; notions of territories and boundaries; communication patterns; andmodes of thinking.”

-- From the book review of Coaching Across Culturesin “Soundview Executive Book Summaries”, June 2003.

Cultural differences can cause immense frustrations andrepresent a real mystery to many of us. Whenunderstood and used constructively however, thesedifferences provide a remarkable source of richness forinteractions, learning and growth.

Integrating the cultural dimension into coaching is notonly necessary to increase coaching’s validity andapplicability in today’s intercultural environment. It isalso an opportunity to learn from alternative culturalperspectives about crucial areas such ascommunication, thinking, time, power, identity,purpose, organization, or territory. Bridging coachingand interculturalism leads to a more creative and globalform of coaching. This article draws extensively on theauthor’s recent book, Coaching Across Cultures.1

A Japanese interculturalist lamented recently: “Myfellow citizens have come to accept US models ofmanagement at the expense of Japanese traditions.”Having lost confidence in their own way, she explainshow many Japanese are ready to turn to US concepts:Universalism, individualism and directness (typical UScultural orientations) may not feel right to the Japanesebut they reckon that, given the success and dominanceof the US, the American way must be the right way.Sadly, noticing the apparent acceptance of their models,

Americans are reinforced in their belief that theirapproach has universal validity. Japanese reservationsare not made explicit for cultural reasons and thereforego unnoticed.

Instead of ignoring or denigrating cultural differences,or simply minimizing their importance, participants incoaching relationships are invited to embrace culturaldiversity as an opportunity and to leverage thedifferences. A Japanese colleague saw this as a veryempowering message. It does not have to be either theJapanese or the American way; it can be both.

For example, let’s take the relationship between peopleand their environment. The Japanese have a culturallydominant propensity for harmony with theirenvironment; the US has largely the dominantpreference to feel it can control its environment. Intoday’s global world, my colleague realizes that thesetwo worldviews need not be mutually exclusive.Japanese managers foster the harmonious relationshipsnecessary to maintain team cohesion. At the same time,Japan also needs pro-active managers determined totake strong stands and forge the future. In other words,my colleague saw in the dialectical “both-and” modelrepresented in Coaching Across Cultures the antidote towhat C.K. Prahalad and Kenneth Lieberthal have termed

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an “imperialist mindset.”2

Incidentally, this philosophy of valuing differencesrather than imposing your norms, values and beliefs,not only applies to national cultures but to all forms ofcultures: professional, corporate, socio-political, etc.

I consider coaching both as a profession and as animportant function of leadership. I define coaching asthe “art of facilitating the unleashing of people’spotential to reach meaningful, important objectives.”3

The distinctions made in Coaching Across Cultures allowthe unleashing of additional human potential bysystematically tapping into the richness of culturaldiversity, into the wisdom that lies in alternative culturalperspectives.

For example, if your culture considers time as a scarceresource, that belief might have lead you to learn tomanage time quite efficiently …but also to be caught ina permanent juggling act, running from one task to thenext. A coach, when stuck in this worldview that “timeis money,” could paradoxically exacerbate the problemby helping her clients to succeed at cramming even moreinto an already bursting schedule. By learning to viewtime as abundant, an outlook other cultures cherish,coachees are able to slow down and see more clearlywhat is truly essential. Similarly, believing that you arein control will typically lead you to pro-actively makeyour dreams happen (self-fulfilling prophecies). Yettaken to an extreme, this belief may incite people tosucceed at all cost, including cheating or breaking down.On the other hand, when you respect nature and allowit to be in charge, you have to listen to your body andallow time for recuperation. Considering thesealternative belief systems, as they are represented indifferent cultures, helps coachees to broaden theirperspective. By taking care of themselves and of othersthey may achieve more sustainable success.

These ideas have already been discussed in detail inthe book, along with tools and examples to show howto systematically put them into practice. Howevervarious applications have emerged over the last months,often inspired by readers’ questions and clients’challenges. This is prompting new solutions in areasthat can be grouped into four categories: individual,team, organizational and societal. In this article, I willelaborate on some of these applications.

Individual Coaching ApplicationsExecutive coaching that integrates the culturaldimension and a global perspective (e.g., “interculturalexecutive coaching” or “global executive coaching”) isdescribed in the book. Further applications typicallyinvolve a combination of consulting, training andcoaching.

Making the Most of Expatriate AssignmentsIn the spring of 2003, I was asked by Carol Braddick tocomment on the value of expatriate assignments.4

Expatriate assignments offer the opportunity forexpatriates to extend their own vision of the world andto see more options and creative solutions to challenges.An executive who tends to stress conciseness, precisionand detachment (i.e., neutral orientation) can discoverthe virtues of displaying emotions and warmth (i.e.,affective orientation) when confronted daily with thisalternative communication pattern. An executive whobelieved that the same rules and processes should applyworldwide (i.e., universalist orientation) learned tofavor tailored solutions based on particularcircumstances (i.e., particularist orientation). Thisattitude allowed him to support the subordinates whodeveloped a new product. It became a regional successand then was adopted by the entire company, bringingan important stream of revenues.

The cross-cultural environment provides a uniquechance to step outside one’s comfort zone. Adapting todifferences requires you to bravely step outside andexperiment with changing some of your behaviors.When executives become more cross-culturallycompetent, the whole organization has a chance todevelop as well and increase its performance in theglobal arena. However, the learning process is far fromautomatic. To make the most of expatriate assignments,a systematic and careful approach is required.

Selecting the ExpatriateEffectiveness in a cross-cultural environment dependson the expatriate’s genuine interest in learning aboutother cultures and stretching her/his vision of the world.These intrinsic motivations should therefore be present.Otherwise, the expatriate may spend his time abroadwith fellow expatriates and fail to seize opportunitiesto gain significant cross-cultural knowledge. Withoutcuriosity, learning is likely to be minimal.

Training the Expatriate Before the Journey AbroadTraining, when available, unfortunately often happensat a superficial level. Knowing the basic customs onexchanges of business cards and punctually is certainlyuseful. However, an appreciation for the deeper layersof culture involved with various human activities (e.g.,time management, communication, thinking,organizing, etc.) is probably what distinguishes anexecutive who survives in another culture from anexecutive who grows and succeeds in another culture.Training based on tools such as the CulturalOrientations Frameworks and Dealing With CulturalDifferences5 provide vital preparation.

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Taking Care of the Practical AspectsTo make the most of the costly assignment, corporationsshould relieve the executive from worries that can onlydistract him/her from the assignment: helping to findcomfortable housing, adequate schools for the children,find fulfilling activities for the expatriate spouse (e.g., asuitable job), etc. I have seen on several occasions howfailures in any of these areas have resulted in missedopportunities (e.g., the spouse is unhappy and the familyeventually leaves).

Coaching the Executive During the JourneyWorking with an intercultural coach allows theexecutive to increase his/her awareness of culturaldifferences and to deal productively with challengingdifferences when they arise. Coaching enables effectivelearning.6 While stressing that the book cannot replacean intercultural coach (particularly since cross-culturaldynamics, often unconscious, can easily be missed bythe executive), I also encouraged executives to use thebook to become their own coaches. Costly mistakes couldbe avoided and profitable opportunities could be seizedif executives on expatriate assignments were given thechance to work with an intercultural coach.

Extracting the Lessons from the ExperienceMy experience is similar to that of Daniel Meiland whoobserves that companies often fall into the trap ofstationing people abroad and then forgetting about them:“If anything, advancement is even more difficult for theexpat when he returns to headquarters, having missedout on opportunities to network with top management…The companies that do handle these rotations well -Shell and General Electric come to mind - track theirpeople carefully over the course of many years. GE hassystems for examining people’s work histories anddesigning their next step toward becoming globalleaders.” Pro-actively extracting the lessons from theexpatriate experience means reaping more benefits fromthe expatriation investment. For top executives, this canbe as simple as taking the time to really listen to whatthe expatriate may have to suggest following hisexperience abroad.

Global Leadership DevelopmentIn their special issue “Leadership in a Changed World”,the Harvard Business Review editors observe that, “forall the talk about global organizations and executives,there’s no definite answer to the question of what,exactly, we mean by “global.”7 There is some consensushowever. First, the five top executives interviewed allagree that “the shift from a local to a global marketplaceis irreversible and gaining momentum”. Second, theyall insist on what Fred Hassan (Chairman and CEO,Schering-Plough) calls a “global attitude”: “an attitudewhich involves a real passion and curiosity about the

world, a willingness to accept good ideas no matterwhere they come from, and collaboration aroundgeographies.”

Beyond cultural sensitivity, which is characterized byopenness, understanding and respect, some of thesetop executives emphasize the value in culturaldifferences. Stephen Green (Group CEO, HSBC) declares:“If, for example, my French colleagues lost their French-ness or my Brazilian colleagues lost their Brazilian-ness,life would be a lot duller, and HSBC would be a lot lessprofitable. We prize our diversity. That’s all part of therichness and fun of working together, and it’s whatmakes us so creative and responsive to our clients’needs.”

Unfortunately, as Daniel Meiland (Executive Chairman,Egon Zehnder International) explains: “Manycompanies haven’t been all that successful atdeveloping global executives … The intentions are good,but the fact is, practice hasn’t caught up with intent.”

This is where global leadership development comes in.Strangely, many companies still assume that globalleadership competencies will somehow either comenaturally or through superficial training. On thecontrary, excellent international companies (includingUnilever, Chubb Insurance and IBM, where I had thechance to serve over the past several years) have foundthat developing global leaders requires a rigorous andsystematic approach.

They discovered that the unique combination ofcoaching and intercultural skills is essential for effectiveglobal leadership: being able to facilitate the unleashingof human potential and to leverage the richness thatlies in cultural diversity.

The author’s approach to developing global leaderstypically involves a combination of consulting, trainingand coaching. Consulting occurs in the initial phase todetermine what outcomes are most desirable andfeasible, given the company’s context and building onits current leadership development initiatives. In thisphase, the consultant also examines the various leversof progress (e.g., tailored design of a global leadershipdevelopment program that may combine training andcoaching, performance appraisal and reward systems,company’s culture, vision and strategy). Alignmentand consistency breed effectiveness: ideally, the leversshould reinforce each other rather than send confusingsignals (e.g., “employees are our main asset” but thecompany does not seem to care about its employees).

A global leadership development program using thisapproach can be designed to develop the followingleadership competencies (non-exhaustive list):

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• Empowering leadershipIntercultural coaching – being able to adopt a

coaching style enhanced with a global and intercultural perspective.

Intercultural excellence – having a capacity to work effectively across cultures through an appreciation of cultural differences augmented by an ability to leverage these differences.

Integrity - being true to oneself and genuinely committed to serve others.

• Visionary leadershipDialectic/synthetic leadership – uniting and

interconnecting (“and”) rather than dividing and excluding (“or”).

Creative leadership - being curious and able to see reality from multiple perspectives, particularly for addressing leadership challenges.

Farsighted leadership – framing organizational goals in the broader context of improving the world. (Editor’s note: see, for example, Strategic Planning Plus8 for this “mega” perspective.)

• Effective communicationCommunicating effectively, including acrosscultures. Being able to rely on various forms ofcommunication: explicit and implicit, direct andindirect, affective and neutral, formal andinformal.

To develop these competencies, several new globalleadership tools described in Coaching Across Culturesare particularly useful (e.g., the Cultural OrientationsFramework, the Global Coaching Process, the GlobalScorecard). Several activities mentioned in the book canbe included in training/coaching programs: inductiveand deductive methods to decipher cultures and bridgecultural gaps, videotaped role-plays to raise awarenessand effectiveness, and so on.

The emphasis can be on various levels: leading diverseindividuals, cross-cultural teams and acrossorganizations:

At the individual level, participants discover newcultural choices for dealing with challengingsituations.

At the team level, they learn how leveraging diversitycan lead, somewhat paradoxically, to increasedteam unity and performance.

At the organizational level, participants find out howto integrate disparate cultures during mergers,acquisitions and alliances. They also sharpen theirability to define the new company’s culture and tomake it become real.

Participants have an opportunity to progress on theirown high-performance and high-fulfillmentleadership journey while helping others progress ontheir own journeys.

In today’s global, multicultural, dynamic andcompetitive world, organizations have to achieve greaterresults with scarcer resources. Furthermore, they needthe creativity and farsightedness to seize the new ideasand aspirations that are also inherent in our turbulentand changing environment. Effective global leadershipis necessary to address both the threats and theopportunities, thereby enabling sustainable businesssuccess. Therefore, global leadership development isbecoming vital to attract, develop and retain the humantalent necessary to achieve this success.

Finally, in my view, global leadership is inseparablefrom a global ambition: global leaders are concernedabout improving the world at large. The good news isthat leaders who genuinely care about people andsociety as a whole are more likely to inspire people,provide meaning and elicit best efforts. In the end allstakeholders are better served.

Team Coaching ApplicationsTo develop high-performing teams, traditional teamcoaching and leadership will only go so far. By leavingculture out of the equation, they are indeed ill equippedto draw the best from geographically and culturallydispersed teams. Conversely team coaching and leadingcross-cultural teams represent two natural applicationsof Coaching Across Cultures. Let me refer you to thebook for more on this subject, excerpting from chapter5, the section “Individualistic/Collectivistic”:

As global coaches, we need to resist the tendency tojudge differences. To Maslow, affiliation needs maybe less advanced than the self-actualization needsthat top his pyramid. His model reveals anindividualistic bias. From a collectivisticperspective, this statement is not true. Traditional coaching has normally promoted self-actualization by reinforcing an individualisticorientation. Hopefully, this is not done at theexpense of collectivism.Affiliation to multiplegroups can be encouraged. Service of self and otherscan be simultaneously promoted.

In the case of team coaching, I have developed anapproach that pro-actively seeks to leverage both

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poles in considering both the individual and thegroup dimension.9 A somewhat paradoxicalinjunction I like to use with teams is to invitemembers at times to be selfish. The rationale is thatindividual commitment to the team is higher to theextent individual needs are met in the team context.When I started using this injunction in the mid-1990s it violated the common belief that good teammembers should banish personal agendas (despitethe fact that only lip service to this rule existedbecause it was going against “human nature”). Mygoal was instead to legitimize individual desiresand use them as engines for action. Consciously orunconsciously members need to have goodpersonal reasons to engage in collective action andbe fully committed to the team success.

Conversely, good coaches also avoid“groupthink”10 and peer pressure. A skillfulfacilitator might be tempted to use peer pressure tomanipulate. Manipulation is a negative form ofinfluencing where you convince somebody of doingsomething he does not really want to do. Beingcommitted to serve each individual and the teamoverall requires avoiding manipulative shortcuts.In an individualistic culture this takes time. If timeis not available, then a different process to coachingcan be used. It is important for the team leader andteam members to consciously decide what they hopeto achieve, and the level of participation that can beexpected.11 In a collectivistic culture, the notion ofindividual needs may be less pronounced andpeople may more readily come to consensus. In anyevent, the art of coaching consists here in exploringand integrating individual and collective needs tothe right level.

Organizational Coaching ApplicationsLet’s look at an example. The training and developmentdepartment of an international corporation contactedme to help design a new management program aroundcoaching competencies. The overall organizationalcontext quickly became part of the conversation. Doesthe corporation want a coaching program becausecoaching is ‘en vogue’ and managers are now supposedto learn about coaching? Is that why the assumption isthat top managers don’t need to learn coaching, butmiddle managers “should?” Or is there a real sense ofwhat coaching really means, of how coaching canpositively affect the corporation and of what it takes toseriously embrace coaching?

The importance of carefully defining coaching is oftenoverlooked. This step is crucial however, because yourdefinition can either limit you up front or allow you toreally gear up the corporation to a new level ofperformance. If coaching is merely about listening,

questioning and encouraging, its capacity to transformthe organization might not be apparent. This is why Ihave defined coaching as the art of facilitating theunleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful,important objectives.

Gearing up the CorporationTo gear up your corporation, it is of course crucial todevise a sound business strategy supported by adequateorganizational structure and business processes. Butleaders have known for a long time that the ability tomobilize human energies is critical to translate thestrategy into action and results. This involvesconnecting with people’s desires to foster genuineexcitement and whole-hearted commitment. If coachingis about facilitating the deployment of human talent inthe organization to achieve success, then it has got to beseen as something essential by top management.

To gear up the corporation and unleash maximumenergy, striving for the alignment of levers of progressis key.12

Culture is one of the levers. Establishing a coachingculture (i.e., coaching is a typical leadership behavior,employees believe in and value coaching). This is moreeasily said than done. However, Coaching AcrossCultures already includes examples and tools to helpyou (e.g., the Cultural Orientations Framework,bridging cultural gaps the current culture and thedesired one, etc.).

Motivators is another lever. Are leaders rewarded whenthey demonstrate coaching behaviors with subordinatesor do they get away with ignoring coaching as long asbusiness results are somehow achieved? What is thepenalty for not developing subordinates, for not helpingthem to make the most of their potential?

When levers are aligned, reinforcements operate fullyand the organization can reach new levels ofperformance. When they are not, mixed signals are sentand sub-par performance is inevitable. That should notdiscourage you though from doing something topromote coaching. Intrinsic rewards exist as well: thepersonal satisfaction of helping people to makeconstructive use of their talents.

When the training and development departmenteffectively helps leaders to acquire new coaching skills,even without top management full buy-in and withoutalignment, the positive impact becomes apparent andmore leaders become interested in acquiring these skillsas well. Ripple effects occur leading eventually toorganizational transformation. Rather than simplyexpecting that the results will speak for themselves, youcan speed up the process by engaging in pro-active

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internal marketing to promote the successes.13 Addingthe cultural dimension into the equation makes thematter more complex but has the potential of gearingup the corporation even further. This leads us to thenext section about diversity.

Diversity: Leveraging Differences beyond VisibleCharacteristicsJeff Barbian wrote two interesting articles in the February2003 issue of Training: “Racism Shrugged” and“Moving Toward Diversity”. Barbian remarks thatdiversity training can be so much more than it is today[in the USA]. He points out that “after many years as aniche initiative, diversity training is gathering strengthas an essential business practice… The key is dressingdiversity as a business practice and communicating toemployees that it’s about harmony that extends to theoutside world. And how a company represents itself tothe outside world has a lot to do with whether or notpeople of color, age, or disabilities gravitate to aparticular organization.”

Moving from avoidance motives (e.g., anti-discrimination initiatives to avoid lawsuits) to positivebusiness reasons (e.g., appreciating the benefits ofdiversity) is a significant step indeed. I propose to goone step further.

Diversity is not solely about external attributes such asrace and gender (i.e., the two usual aspects of diversityfrom a traditional US perspective) and nationality (i.e.,common kind from a non-US perspective). It is also,and perhaps more fundamentally, about mindsets,about cultural orientations related to human activitiessuch as those identified in the Cultural OrientationsFramework: sense of power and responsibility, timemanagement approaches, definitions of identity and purpose,organizational arrangements, notions of territory andboundaries, communication patterns, modes of thinking.

Leveraging diversity means taking advantage of visibledifferences as well as alternative viewpoints. In fact,focusing on mindsets and cultural orientations has theadvantage of avoiding the following stereotyping trap.I have seen many times executives expecting nothingbut stereotypical manifestations when meetingforeigners: he is Japanese, thus automatically inclinedto hierarchy and formalism; she is American, thereforeI am going to get “US-like” explicit, direct, somewhatpushy communication. They fail to appreciate theuniqueness of their interlocutor and to build anauthentic relationship with him/her. They overlook themultiplicity of cultures (we belong to several culturalgroups at the same time: nation, profession, gender, etc.)and their dynamism (cultures change).

For Jenifer Rinehart, Chief Diversity Officer and VicePresident of the Chubb Corporation, promotingdiversity entails giving managers a chance to evaluatetheir own cultural orientations and learn to applydifferent perspectives. Leveraging diversity contributesto Chubb’s effectiveness in the business world. Diversityprograms should go beyond raising awareness aboutdifferences. This is where coaching comes in, takingsuch activities beyond what classical cross-culturaltraining could do, and yet including culturaldimensions.

Trained interculturalists are familiar with culturaldifferences (unlike many coaches today), but they facethe following challenges:14

• How to durably extend people’s worldview andfoster lasting behavioral changes after the training;

• How to avoid generating opposite, undesiredeffects by virtue of teaching people about othercultures. Cultural stereotypes rather than mutualunderstanding could still build (the “Brits”, the“Japanese”, … as if all Brits, or all Japanese, couldfit the same mould);

• How to relieve people from a sense of beingoverwhelmed and stressed when confronted, dayafter day, to the reality of cultural differences, orculture shock.

Cross-fertilization between the interculturalist andcoaching disciplines offers new solutions to thesechallenges.15

Coaching enriches training or consulting interventionsby engaging coachees on a high performance and highfulfilment journey. Coaching is a process carried outover time, it is not a one-time event. Coaching is results-oriented, focusing efforts on the attainment of targetobjectives. In one particular study, training, whenaugmented with coaching, yielded productivityincreases almost four times the level achieved bytraining alone.16 Coaching offers support throughoutthe journey until targets are reached, including to helpdeal with the stress17 and the temptation to revert backto stereotyping.

In the case of Chubb Insurance, I already showed in“Coaching Across Cultures” how the companysucceeded in synthesizing Western and Asiancultures,18 notably leveraging the polarities of controland harmony, individualism and collectivism,directness and indirectness. This resulted in morecomplete and effective leadership, and increasedbusiness performance.

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Mergers and Acquisitions: Capitalizing on theCultural DifferencesLeveraging corporate cultural differences will not occurspontaneously post-M&A. Strategic reasons usuallyprompt the move toward a merger or an acquisition, butlack of attention to the much-needed cultural integrationprocesses has derailed many such endeavors. Thecombination of deductive and inductive thinkingmethods (e.g., applying the Cultural OrientationsFramework and the Postcard Exercise pp. 61-73) can beused for assessment purposes as well as for bridgingcultural gaps by reconciling differences. In any event,systematic and determined actions are called for.

Let’s draw on an excerpt from Coaching Across Cultures,Chapter 2, the section “Leveraging Unilever andBestfoods Cultures”:

Research has shown that “over one merger out oftwo fails. Two out of three do not produce the valuecreation promised during the operation. Thequestion of people and company culture is by farthe number one failure factor.”19

In 2000, Unilever acquired Bestfoods for just overUS$25 billion. The operation was among the twentylargest mergers and acquisitions worldwide thatyear.20

Rather than de facto imposing its culture, Unileverunderstood that to make the merger work, culturaldifferences between the two companies had to be wellunderstood.

A task force, with the help of the Hay Group,identified the following differences, realizing thatthere were many exceptions to thosegeneralizations:

The integration team recognized that all the orientationshad potential merits. They considered amalgamatingthe best of both cultures but soon realized that a contextwas necessary to make that evaluation. The overallvision and strategy provided that context. What wascalled for was a new corporate culture that would drawcharacteristics from Unilever and Bestfoods.

To that end, an enriched cultural repertoire has startedto develop, leveraging Unilever and Bestfoods cultures.For example, Unilever executives are learning to makequicker decisions whenever extra analysis would onlyimpede action. Bestfoods executives are developing ahabit of constructively challenging decisions, to avoidengaging in a hasty, inadequate course of action.

I noticed the intellectual versus operational focus withseveral senior executives I coached from both

companies. I urged them to learn from the other cultureto enrich their original company culture. For example, Ichallenged one Unilever executive to describe his visionin more specific terms and to spell out his operationalpriorities. Meanwhile, I invited a Bestfoods executive toarticulate a general philosophy and a compellingbusiness case, building on his intuitive ideas andconcrete initiatives in order to bring his colleagues onboard with his novel approach.

Time will tell how successful the Bestfoods acquisitionwill prove to be. But it is clear that this eagerness tolearn from the other merging company has alreadystrengthened Unilever-Bestfoods. Talent from theacquired Bestfoods has been retained and developed,rather than alienated, as is too often the case.

Societal Coaching ApplicationsLet me conclude with my letter to the Harvard BusinessReview editor, which was published in the April 2003of the journal.

“Thanks to Charles Handy for his excellent article“What’s a Business For?”21 During my executivecoaching conversations with senior corporateexecutives, I’ve heard many of them express the desirefor more than business success. As these leaders reflecton the legacy they will leave behind, they often discoverthat what’s missing is a sense of genuine pride in doingsomething useful for humanity. Handy makes a strongand important case for defining a business’s success interms of its contribution to improving the world. Hewrites: ‘We should, as charitable organizations do,measure success in terms of outcomes for others as wellas for ourselves.’

But if we want to promote Handy’s vision, we mustalso deal with some practical questions: How can wedevelop this new breed of leaders who will bring aboutthe cultural changes necessary to turn this vision intoreality? How can we enlarge the scope of the businessscorecards currently aimed at achieving competitiveadvantage, without genuine consideration forenvironmental and social objectives, unless an obviouslink with business success is established? Whichscorecards will reflect the need to balance work withthe rest of people’s lives?

Executive coaching (at least as described in CoachingAcross Cultures) facilitates the unleashing of humanpotential to reach sustainable results in the service ofmultiple stakeholders. Furthermore, coaching acrosscultures (a form of coaching that integrates multiplecultural perspectives into the practice of coaching)allows executives to gain valuable new insights fromother cultures by taking a step back and systematicallylooking at their circumstances from fresh angles.

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The Global Scorecard found in chapter 13 is preciselydesigned to set objectives that promote business successwhile encouraging people to take care of themselves,nurture relationships and serve society at large. Settingobjectives that are truly important and meaningfulfosters genuine commitment and liberates considerableenergy. Coaching then facilitates human journeys inpursuit of sustainable success. Incidentally, the GlobalScorecard is currently used by several executives atUnilever, a corporation that actively engages inleadership development –notably through executivecoaching- and is one of the exemplary companiesHandy mentions in his article._____________________________________________

Phillipe Rosinski

E-Mail: philipp@philrosinski.com

Principal of Rosinski and Company, a global consult-ing firm that helps leaders, teams and organizationsunleash their human potential to achieve both high per-formance and high fulfillment. In addition to the pio-neering book features in this article, Rosinski has writ-ten several articles on the power of multiple perspec-tives to compliment traditional coaching and leadershipdevelopment approaches. Phillipe lives near Brussels.

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Endnotes1 Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, Nicholas BrealeyPublishing, 2003. www.CoachingAcrossCultures.com2 C.K. Prahalad and Kenneth Lieberthal, “The End ofCorporate Imperialism”, Harvard Business Review, August2003.3 Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, Nicholas BrealeyPublishing, 2003, pg. 4.4 My comments appear in the article “Valuing InternationalWork Experience: the hidden benefit in expat packages” byCarol Braddick and Tom Tilghman, FOCUSnews, June 2003.5 See Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, NicholasBrealey Publishing, 2003.6 See Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, NicholasBrealey Publishing, 2003, Chapter 13.7 Stephen Green, Fred Hassan, Jeffrey Immelt, Michael Marks,and Daniel Meiland, “Leadership in a Changed World”,Harvard Business Review, August 2003.8 Roger Kaufman, Strategic Planning Plus. 1991. Glenview, IL:Scott Foresman.9 This is a powerful way to acknowledge and deal with bothpolarities. See, for example, Barry Johnson, PolarityManagement, HRD Press, 1992 for a fuller description of thetechnique.

10 Groupthink is a “phenomenon in which the norm forconsensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternativecourses of action.” [Stephen Robbins. Organizational Behavior.Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989.]Individuals who hold a position that is different from thedominant majority are under pressure to suppress, withhold,or modify their true feelings and beliefs.11 Confronted with a crisis situation, the team leader may haveto make a quick and unilateral decision. This certainly is notcoaching, but, then, we do not claim that coaching is apanacea.12 See Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, NicholasBrealey Publishing, 2003, pp. 85-86: Visioning Model.13 See Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, NicholasBrealey Publishing, 2003, pp. 123-125, 138-140: ConstructivePolitics and Building Alliances.14 See Jean Mandelbaum and Daniel Haber, “Le managementinterculture: vrai ou faux probleme? Les Echos, January 16,2001.15 However, traditional coaching - because it is culturallybiased without even knowing it- cannot adequately helpinterculturalists. For example, some coaches advise beingstraightforward and direct, without seriously considering thepossible necessity and merits of indirect communication.Coaching Across Cultures avoids these pitfalls by integrating thecultural dimension into coaching, thereby making the coachingdiscipline accessible, relevant and applicable forinterculturalists.16 See Gerald Olivero et al. “Executive Coaching as a Transferof Training Tool,” Public Personnel Management, 26 No. 4(Winter 1997). The study showed how management trainingalone resulted in a 22.4% productivity increase, while trainingplus coaching enabled a 88% increase.17 Coaching offers a remedy to the stress issue by focusingenergies on constructive uses of cultural differences. Negativestress comes from a sense of feeling powerless in an unusualculture. People perceive differences as insurmountablebarriers, unbridgeable gaps. Coaching Across Cultures looks forsynergies, uses cultural differences as a lever for progress.New possibilities arise. The sense of powerless causingharmful stress is substituted by increased personal power.Coaches help people discover new options and new solutionsto achieve more of the success they desire, instead of feelingstuck and mired in frustration.18 See Philippe Rosinski, Coaching Across Cultures, NicholasBrealey Publishing, 2003, pp. 43-44.19 Source: “Global research project study of 115 mergeroperations by AT Kearney in 1998-1999,” in “Fusions: LaGuerre des Culture,” Enjeux Les Echos, January 2001.20 See “Fusions: Les 20 Principlaes Opérations Announcées en2000,” in “Bilan du Monde,” Edition 2001, Le Monde.21 Charles Handy, “What’s a Business For?” Harvard BusinessReview, December 2002.

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