2014-15 Canada-China Business Forum Magazine | Page 74
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EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Then it became hard to find an
expatriate manager who had five or more years
of experience in China. Home offices would send
people to China on big expat packages and after a
two or three-year stint, these expats would return
to their home countries for promotions. Promotions
were used as incentives to go to China. So China
was often just a stepping-stone on the “Great Wall”
of career advancement.
by Paul von Wittgenstein
The New
China Hands:
Executive Leadership
in China Today
B
ack in the early 2000s, multinationals
were seeing fresh expatriate
managers with little or no China
experience struggling with Chinese
culture, language, localization and
the other challenging aspects of
leading local teams and managing
organizations in foreign countries.
Expat managers have decided not to rush home
after a limited engagement. Instead, they stay on
and develop their careers in China. And they are
very good at what they do. Good managers and
leaders are easier to find in China nowadays. These
managers form strong networks and share best
practices. They are better integrated with their
Chinese colleagues and make lasting friendships.
Loyalty and commitment among Chinese
employees becomes stronger, because the foreign
leaders are seen as less temporary than they used to
be. All of this is good for organizations.
Expats back then lived in closed, tightly-guarded
expat communities and associated mostly with
other expats at expat functions.
There was little integration into
These expat leaders often have
the culture and society around
more trouble convincing their home
them. They were not really
office about how things should
part of China. This attitude
be done in China, than they do
also carried into the workplace.
convincing Chinese staff how to do
Expat managers were typically
things the Western way. This is a
counting the days till they could
paradigm shift in leadership focus.
return to their home countries
The good news for organizations
– and their employees felt it.
seeking highly-capable expat
Needless to say, that attitude
leaders in China is that you may
“China was often just a
results in organizational cultures
have more success recruiting from
stepping-stone on the ‘Great
of continual flux, lack of stability
Wall’ of career advancement.”
the China talent pool than you
and a sense that leaders are
would by sending someone from
temporary – obviously not the best thing for
headquarters to work in China for a few years. It
organizations. As a cross-cultural consultant,
takes at least three years for a fresh expat leader to
trainer and coach, all of this worked quite well,
become effective in leading their teams – gaining
and it was easy to find projects to help with the
trust, establishing organizational culture, learning
basics of leadership, communications and team
and using communication channels etc. If their
development. However, things have changed over
planned tenure in China is only two to three years,
the years, and there is a more mature expat talent
then they are just starting to get good at leading
pool in China now. This is a good thing for China,
when they have to leave. If headquarters keeps
the companies and the people working here.
cycling leaders in and out, then the best they will
achieve is mediocre performance from the China
team. Good local talent is growing simultaneously
Recently, CanadAsia held a workshop in Shanghai
with the ever-increasingly attractive pool of expat
on Leading Teams in China to Win! Ten years ago,
leaders in China. There are even more highlyall of the participants would have had less than
qualified, experienced, motivated and capable
10 years of experience leading teams in China.
Chinese leaders. These managers and leaders,
This was the first time CanadAsia have seen a
some of whom have more than 20 years working
group where all of the participants had more than
in multinational firms, are able to balance the
10 years of experience leading teams in China.
business practices of headquarters with the needs
What a difference a few years have made. These
and realities of local teams. This is often the ideal
participant