Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of teaching Leadership classes in India. I observed some distinct differences in people management in India. I think they are worth mentioning to managers in the US. While my learning is generalized from one company in one part of India with about 80 managers over the course of only 1.5 days, what I noticed was significant enough to mention. In fact, these behaviors were not demonstrated in the same class given in the same company in the US, UK or Canada.

I have grouped my observations into 2 areas: People Centered Coaching and Culture Conflict: Task Focus vs. People Focus

First of all, the people in India are so warm, so gracious.

This carried through into their management style. They had a very people oriented approach.

In the role plays we did, some leaders acted out discussions with their employees. Instead of the leaders approaching a low performing employee with "Here is your problem and this is what I think you should do about it", they started with "How are things going with xyz?"

Then, after the employee shared their point of view, the leader took a moment to acknowledge what the employee said, with a statement like "That is a good point. I see your point of view, etc" (and done heartfelt).

Next, the leader would ask some questions about what the employee said.

Then..... and only then....leaders would give their point of view if it added to understanding the performance problem. Finally, they would discuss how to proceed by asking the employee about good next steps.

When teaching in the US, we often have to push leaders to do what they did in India did naturally: to let the employee drive the content while the manager guides the process. This often makes US leaders feel uncomfortable and out of control, so they resort to TELLing the employee how to fix the problem. Not so in India. When we discussed the role plays as a class, the leaders in India said that approaching employee problems in this way was in the long-term beneficial to employees taking responsibility for their performance.

This approach enabled employees to take ownership of their problems. Even in the role plays, the employees had to come up solutions to their problems.

I am not saying they were all perfect, and did everything perfectly, or that we can or should change our culture to be like India. However, it was very clear they understood the importance of encouraging employees to take responsibility for solving their problems, and how building support and encouragement helps employees grow.

Another interesting observation was about how people relate there. During one of the coaching role plays, a manager put his arm on the shoulder of the employee (both men). I had noticed while sightseeing over the weekend that the men hold hands and/or put their arms around each other while walking around the city. I asked the class about it, and they told me it expresses support. They said that the manager's job is to support the employee, and doing this tells the employee that they understand their problem and they support them.

I bring this point up as it relates to working with people in India. US based people often tell me that if they want to communicate with people in India, they send an email. Not always just because of the time zone, but also because they can't understand them. Yes, it can be hard to understand some people accents here, however with a little energy, patience and inquiry, you can make it out.

More importantly, culturally Americans are so busy getting the job done (task focused) that they don't want to WASTE their time on the phone trying to ''get it". People from India, on the other hand, get work done by building relations, making contact, and having personal contact. So it is 2 cultures passing in the night. The Indians want the phone call and the contact to build the relationship and therefore be more productive. The Americans want the email to get the work done and be more productive.

What is the solution? Each side doing their part to adjust to the other's culture.

A fascinating trip on many levels.