Of the 10 years of my experience in the software services industry, I have spent more than half of that time onsite interacting with customers. I am the onsite Lead – the face of the vendor, the contractor, the consulant. It’s a key role – a complex mix of delivery and client services.
You are a leader in your domain and you are embarking on your first or repeat onsite trip. Your proven communication skills, your success in your domain, your high “like-factor” with the customer during the many phone/email communication, and your team coordination abilities… these are the skills that undoubtedly makes you the ideal candidate to perform the very crucial role of the onsite Lead. You tell yourself, “I am ready!”.
I have been in an Onsite Lead/Manager role for nearly 8 years now, intially on rotational stints before becoming a permanent face for the customer. I have worked in the Middle East and the USA; with the Qataris, Palestenians, Jordanians, Germans, Brits, Koreans, Americans and ofcourse the NRIs. Cultural etiquettes to cuisines to movies – my understanding and most importantly my adaptability to these cultural differences became a key factor to help me build key relationships.
Do you understand your customers culture? Are your confident of changing your customer mindsets to accepting your own culture? Can you bridge that cultural gap? Now ask yourself “Am I ready?”.
To be successful at your onsite mission, you need to develop this underlying, yet not often talked about, skill that will prove to be critical. You need to be able to bridge the cultural gap between the onsite and the offshore teams because in our line of work, it is important to understand and respect cultures.
To build that bridge, a simple thought process might help:
At the beginning, you have “Your Way” of doing things and your customer has “Their Way” of doing things. As an oniste Lead, your job is to work your way towards forming a mutual understanding and acceptance of the two different ways of doing things. This takes time and this is where you will struggle but if you have the right attitude, focus and some patience, you will get through this stage. In the end, when “Your Way” and “Their Way” becomes “Our Way”, you know you have succeeded. Until then, keep trying.
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I liked this post. Cultural etiquettes do play an important role when you are customer facing. I have seen you very closely doing an excellent job in this zone. However understanding the customers culture is not alone going to fetch a great deal. What is more important is to understand the customer’s product space. The key is:
1. Identify the ecosystem in which your customer’s product is positioned.
2. Understand where in the ecosystem your customer’s product stand (ranking).
3. Help customer to build more strategic goals which would add value to their existing product profiles.
4. Help customer to understand the long term perspective.
Just adding new features to the existing product will fetch a great deal or should the product be revamped altogether.
I think winning customer’s heart would require more of strategic involvement. If you are able to contribute in that space – you are bound to get more business and succeed. Innovation is the key.
I would hope to see a blog from you on innovation in the future.
You are absolutely right, sxj. Crossing cultural boundaries is just one aspect of it, towards building a strong foundation. Understanding the product, the services, the business, the challenges etc are equally crucial and so is innovation.
Interesting post! Cultural etiquette does play an important role when you are customer facing. Leading at the edge means playing to win as an individual, as a team, and as an organization. Companies that create a leadership development culture excel because they become talent magnets by always providing people with opportunities to learn, grow, and build leadership competencies. Regardless of their professional and organizational roles, all top leaders must understand how leadership, culture, and operational effectiveness are closely intertwined to achieve outstanding results. Drawing on the latest studies of high performance leadership from the world of business, sports, education, hostage negotiation, music, theater, and personal achievement, we will translate this cutting-edge knowledge to the real world of leading especially in times of change and transformation. At the IMD OWP 2010 you will learn what leaders in the top companies, who are known for their outstanding leadership cultures, do so successfully to continue leading at the edge.