Robert W. Selander, former president and CEO of MasterCard, was asked, “What are the most important leadership lessons you have learned?” He responded by describing his international experience:
I spent a reasonable amount of time living overseas. So relatively early in my career, I moved first to San Juan, then to Rio, then to London, then to Belgium, running businesses in those markets. Pretty early on, I recognized that more is the same than is different—fundamental values, wanting to give your children more opportunity or at least as much as you had in life, etc. It's present all around the world, and that happens to be true in a lot of aspects of the business as well. More is the same than is different, but we tend to focus on differences, and perhaps exaggerate or accentuate those beyond the reality of what we have to worry about. I can remember when I moved to Brazil and I had spent two years learning Spanish. I was out visiting branches. I was working for Citibank at the time and had responsibility for consumer businesses there. Brazil is a big country. I was living in Rio and it's like living in Miami. I was out visiting a branch in the equivalent of Denver. Not everybody spoke great English and I hadn't gotten very far in Portuguese. As I was sitting there trying to discern and understand what this branch manager was saying to me, and he was struggling with his English, the coin sort of dropped that this guy really knows what he's talking about. He's having a hard time getting it out. As I thought about the places I'd been on that trip, I realized this was probably the best branch manager I'd seen, but it would have been very easy for me to think he wasn't because he couldn't communicate as well as some of the others who were fluent in English. I think that was an important lesson. It is too easy to let the person with great presentation or language skills buffalo you into thinking that they are better or more knowledgeable than someone else who might not necessarily have that particular set of skills. So that was something that sounds obvious in hindsight, but as I was sitting there, boy, for me this was a thunderbolt. I think that's another thing that sort of served me well, not letting the veneer distract you from the substance.
Based on Selander's comments and your own experiences, respond to the following questions:
1. In what ways might you misjudge the competence of others based on language skills?
2. What are several strategies to overcome language barriers?
3. How can you improve your ability to be a good listener for those with limited English abilities?