Working and Leadership in London: 3 Things you need to know
As an American ex-pat, I worked as a Director of Operations in the London office of a multi-national company. When I first moved, London wasn't a culture shock, but our multi-cultural office was!
But, with a little understanding and some pivoting on communication styles and leveraging internal resources, I became successful and ended up loving my time in the London office.
Here are my main takeaways that anyone moving to London for work can learn from:
1. London has a highly educated workforce
2. There will be people from many different cultures (and many people will be educated abroad)
3. Many people in the office spoke English as a second, third or even fourth language
London has one of the most educated workforces in the world! Around 59% of people in London have at least a bachelor's degree. Compare that with around 40% of people in New York who have a degree!
Around 37% of people living in London were born outside of the UK. You might find a higher percentage in your office depending upon the kind of work that you do. For me, working in a business services industry, our office had about 80% non-British staff.
I've selected three examples from my own experience that you can learn from:
Example 1: The highly capable 6 month team lead
You’ll find many highly capable but short term resources
Very useful but can lead to higher turnover in staff
I needed a team lead for a growing Operations team. I got a fantastic internal candidate and after bringing her onboard, I learned she was a dentist in India. Her qualifications had to be refreshed in the UK for her to practice dentistry in her new home. Unfortunately, I would only have her for 6 months because of this. Frankly, she was a god-send. She was incredibly bright and I was able to harness all of her non-dentistry abilities for the short time I had her. Of course, I understood that I wasn't able to retain her for the long-term so she was able to help me groom her backfill.
Example 2: The overqualified Data Entry Analyst
People from outside of the UK are sometimes underemployed.
Be aware of what resources you have internally. There may be opportunities to elevate great internal candidates to retain them for longer.
I was working on a project which included bringing some proprietary software from the US to the UK. I trained a few people on the software and one picked it up really quickly.
His role was largely administrative so I gave him what I thought was a compliment telling him he picked up on this data entry task really quickly. He smiled shyly at me and told me that back home in Pakistan he had earned a degree in computer programming.
Ouch! I felt like a real heel. So, I quickly looked for a better fitting internal opportunity for him. Thankfully, we were able to retain this fantastic resource for much longer than we would have as just a Data Entry Analyst.
Example 3. Clear communication
English is probably not everyone's first language!
So, be really clear with your words.
You’ve probably already been told that you shouldn’t speak in idioms and certainly not American sports terms! (Saying like "that will be a homerun" may not make sense to everyone!)
But you might not have been told that you also shouldn’t be overly flowery with language. Be polite and direct.
I was meeting with some Operational leads about a new process. I described the process in great detail. I told jokes, I summarised points at the end. In the US, this would have been really clear. However, I later got feedback that I droned on and on. While parts of my presentation were entertaining, I lost people by carrying on about describing things too much.
I did the same presentation again for a second group of Operational leads a couple days later. Using what I learned from the first training’s feedback, I drew the process as I talked on a whiteboard. I was clear and direct. I followed up with a summary over email rather than in person. BINGO! This training proved to be received significantly better.
In my experience, making sure major communications are received both verbally with an opportunity to ask questions and in writing really makes things go smoothly.
Communication works differently in different cultures. This book really helped me navigate communications between our US, European and Asian offices. If you’re working with a multicultural staff or a multicultural company, I highly recommend reading The Culture Map by Erin Meyer. This book breaks down communication in a way I never thought of before and then compares each element across several different countries. It also provides lots of practical advice about how to provide instruction or feedback to people from different cultures.
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