Since I work in a multicultural corporate environment, the needs
of such work culture have shaped my current competencies, a few of them being cross
cultural communication, ownership of work, and adaptability.
My current work involves regular interactions with customers,
management and my own teammates which involves extensive cross cultural
communication. Since my customers and management belong to Nordic region, their
comfort level with English language is not necessarily at par with Indians.
Hence it becomes extremely important to talk in slow yet steady, and short yet
meaningful statements. For written communication, concise statements are
preferred to verbose elaborate details. It has taken me significant efforts to
become good at how the receiver will perceive a communication, and I was given
an initial responsibility of overseeing the communication of new/junior members
of the team with customers.
Another aspect of such work culture which helped me was a sense of
ownership. In Nordic cultures, when a person is handed over a task, it is
expected that he/she will perform that task independently without a needless follow-up
from supervisor. Manager is accountable for the task but he may not be
necessarily responsible for employee’s work. I tried to learnt this quality and
have been using in my daily work, so often tasks assigned to me or my team are
done independently or within the team but managers do not directly control the way
of work. This gives me sense of freedom and surely gives the supervisors time
to focus on other important tasks. Self-ownership goes a long way in organizing
yourself without need of a push.
An additional skill I learnt in my previous organization and which
continues to guide me even today, is adaptability. The organization was known
for quick and cost-effective solutions to customer. This meant that the dates
promised to customer for delivery had to be adhered to, even if it meant
stretching beyond regular working hours. Moreover, at times same person had to
perform multiple roles, such as development, documentation, testing etc. Hence
it was very important to be flexible in my approach to work, making me an adaptable
person so that project does not suffer. Today when I promise my customer of
something, I ensure that timelines are maintained and the team is able to adapt
itself to each other’s needs.
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