No Behavior Need be Enigmatic

You cannot divine attitude of anyone from behavior alone, whether you are familiar with his or her culture of not. Yet whenever a non-Japanese CEO tells me he is concerned about the attitude or mindset of Japanese people it is usually because he or she trying to do just that.

Years ago when I started a business in Paris, I hired a French woman to help me with sales and marketing. In one of our first meetings with a prospective client, I let her do the talking. I sat there, silently—aghast as the prospect challenged her and scoffed at what we had to offer. My new employee, ceding no ground, vociferously argued back. She seemed to be deliberately escalating the confrontation. What had started as a cordial initial meeting deteriorated into what seemed to me to be a shouting match. Then the meeting ended. I expected no follow up.

My employee and I exited the office building, and walked down the street side-by-side in silence. I was sullen, believing I had hired the wrong person. What could she possibly have been thinking? I was pondering how I was going to fire her, when she interrupted my thoughts and exclaimed with no hint of sarcasm whatsoever, “That went pretty well!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, without attempting to hide my shock and irritation. “That was awful! He seemed to hate what we had to offer, and the two of you did nothing but argue!”

“No, Steve. You misunderstand,” she attempted to placate me. “It would have been awful if he had not argued, and if I had not fought back! Confronting me the way he did means he is interested! He was testing us.”

I was doubtful, but she was right. A week later we had the contract.

The best ideas should be able to withstand vigorous debate. It is only the weakest ideas that merit no discussion. I saw this principle play out repeatedly during my time in France. Never again would I immediately presume a vociferous confrontation as a negative indicator of attitude—at least not in France. (Years later, I was asked to run a strategy workshop between French and Japanese teams. I coached the Japanese team not to be put off by confrontation.)

The CEO of a Japanese company once hired me to help a Japanese vice-president of sales reform her sales division. Right from the start, the vice-president resisted me, mocked me in front of staff, and scoffed at my advice.

Bad behavior? Yes, definitely.

Bad attitude, like say excessive risk aversion, conservatism, recalcitrance toward change, and why not add xenophobia or any other raft of attitude and mindset problems I often hear people ascribe to the Japanese?

Easy to presume any of these and more, but I knew her past accomplishments, and repeated success. No one with such attitude problems achieves what she had.

No, in her case her attitude was one of an acute sense of individual responsibility to achieve success. I understood that just by listening to her. She truly thought success in what I had been hired to help her achieve was a fool’s errand—impossible in her judgment. She wanted me to understand that and become her advocate in face of her superiors—to convince them to lower the bar for her.

I was not going to do that. After all, making the impossible possible is kind of my calling card.

Did that justify her poor behavior? No, but an acute sense individual responsibility for success is something I can work with.

“You might be right,” I said to her astonishment. “What we’ve been asked to do might be impossible. However, you and I both agree that your sales teams could be doing things a lot better. Neither of us is likely to persuade anyone that there is nothing you can do to achieve your objectives while there is still ample room for improvement in your team,” I explained. She could hardly disagree.

“You want to convince your bosses? Make the improvements first,” I advised. “Then you will have a credible argument. Anything less will be viewed as your failure by default.”

That perspective changed everything. To her credit, she followed my advice and accepted my help. Results began to show. Her behavior toward me improved substantially, and she ultimately delivered success for the business. Sometime later when this same vice-president was offered discretionary budget to hire a personal coach, she requested me by name.

Some people believe that international business skills are about mastering foreign language, deepening understanding of foreign cultures, and being able to interpret the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences in human behavior. These capabilities all help for sure, as long as you apply them right.

Yet the most adept and successful international business people I know are the ones who can work with people successfully anywhere in the world despite not having mastered their language or completely understanding their culture. They understand that observed behavior is an unreliable indicator of attitude. They have the discipline to seek to understand attitude, without presumption based on observed behavior.

You can make that your discipline too, if you want. It’s entirely up to you. .

As for the young woman I hired in Paris all those years ago—well—I did not fire her. Good thing too.