Foreign Leadership: a continued learning exercise

"Being a leader with many different cultures beneath you is not only a challenge; most of all it's rewarding. When I look back, the greatest gift in my career - apart from a good job and salary - was that I could work and live in many different countries. It makes your tolerance and appreciation for other cultures grow substantially. When a company like Shell sends you on assignments abroad, ambiguous perceptions fade away and you grow fast."

Kurt Döhmel, CEO of Shell Germany and President of the The Dutch-German Chamber of Commerce , in conversation with Josine Koeleman, Program Director at de Baak .

By Petra Baars and Marleen Bijleveld

The physical and the emotional journey
Kurt Döhmel has spent a lot of time abroad, working for Shell. Josine wants to know whether he has experienced it as a personal expedition, like 'discovering the world'. Döhmel: "Every human being starts an expedition from childhood on. You learn from various impacts every day: at school, sports clubs, or from your parents. When you enter your professional career you again get different inputs. Such personal development is a strong emotional 'expedition' and it is not essential to physically travel around for that. However, the only way to really change your mind set about a certain culture is by actually living in that country. Hopping from country to country as a tourist or staying in an expat-community, will not give you real engagement with a local society."

Continuously setting goals
Speaking of expeditions, one can make a comparison with the journeys of Galileo or Darwin. They never really knew what they would find or what they were searching for. Did Döhmel ever set a certain goal for a specific journey? Döhmel: "I am continuously on a journey. When you're young you set yourself goals: first to pass your A-levels, then to go to university, after which you enter your career life. Your horizon widens step by step, and your goals get increasingly higher. It's like climbing a mountain; only when you're close to the top can you see the next mountain that is a bit higher. People, who say they had set their goals very high from the start, sound somewhat arrogant and unreal. If someone had told me thirty years ago that I would be the CEO of Deutsche Shell, I wouldn't have believed it."

Arrogance fades
You can only recognize a feeling of a broader horizon once you've experienced it. Döhmel: "For example, we Germans believe we do everything best. But if you live in another country for three years, you start to see that Germans are only right 50% of the time. Then if you move to yet another country, you'll find 'those guys are doing a number of things better'. Your arrogance starts to fade away, and you become more tolerant to the behavioral patterns of others. Today this knowledge puts me in the position where I am dealing with the ways of thinking of 5600 people! I could not do my job in a company like Shell properly today if I had stayed in Germany my whole life." When asked if he still feels German, Döhmel replied that he feels more international. Döhmel: "From 1996 to 2002, I was looking at 28 countries of Europe. That's when you get the full spectrum: the small Gibraltar with its own culture; Poland and Hungary with their emerging markets; countries like The Netherlands, UK and France; the Scandinavian nations. All of them have completely different mind maps. I was involved in quite a few change processes in different countries throughout that time. It was rough, but it made me appreciate how different cultures involve human beings."

Expats good for business!
According to Döhmel's experience, the presence of expats in a company is good for business: "Maybe Shell has overdone it, but they are a great asset! What expats do, is to bring the good things from one country to another. Think of business processes, transport issues, etcetera. The bad things disappear quickly. It automatically leads to a change in processes, for the best. Another thing is that your managers grow up in a far more professional way; exposure to other cultures makes them appreciate the different values behind the multinational team they manage. But the most important thing is the customer. You have to get a finger-tip feeling of how to deal with a customer from Austria or New Zealand, if you want to clench a deal. You can do that by price, but fine tuning to the customers needs usually achieves greater value."

Herr General Director and his jacket
Was Döhmel ever shocked by a cultural experience abroad? Döhmel: "A positive shock was moving from London to New Zealand, which is a very extrovert society. Lots of young people go abroad for a few years after their graduation for an overseas experience. So the Kiwi's have a good understanding of different cultures, and how difficult it is to get a foothold in an unfamiliar culture. I felt very welcome in their open minded, informal society. The negative shock came when I went from New Zealand to Austria, the key example of a formal society. They address people by their titles, like 'Herr General Director' and 'Herr Ingenieur'. In New Zealand nobody wears a suit jacket, but in Austria your secretary will run after you when you leave the office without one: 'Herr, you can't do that here in Austria!' Sometimes it was uncomfortable, but the Austrians say they enjoy living in this culture. So again, it's all about appreciating how people in different cultures evolve."

Ask the right questions
It is only human according to Döhmel, to put people in boxes within 10 seconds of meeting them. Döhmel: "But by doing that, you miss a great opportunity. And it requires a big effort, by the person who is in the cubicle, to get out! The trick is, if you've been through this cultural 'expedition', you develop the right skills to put the person in the right box. At first you act in your own mind set and don't receive the signals properly, but then you start to think 'Am I right? Why don't I ask a few questions to confirm whether I selected the right box? ' In this process you need to open up a clear and proper conversation; challenge yourself to ask the right questions."

Just human
We can conclude that Döhmel has an impressive way of thinking about other cultures. Döhmel: "To learn from them, you have to open up. If you want to lead and be in the hearts and minds of people, you have no choice. Sometimes it's not easy and it can be heartbreaking. We are all just human beings, and I'm not 'mister perfect' either. But if you challenge yourself and face your mistakes when it gets tough, it's a big learning exercise that will continue your whole life."