The Articulate CEO

A CEO Who Is Anything But Grounded

On the 29th of October, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced that he was grounding all the aircraft in his airline in a bid to bring a protracted dispute with numerous unions representing Qantas workers to a head. The dispute had resulted in ongoing industrial action that was costing the airline millions of dollars a day and despite so-called ongoing negotiations neither party seemed capable of moving towards a resolution. So the day after the AGM the shock announcement is made that the airline has effectively shut up shop and left some 60,000 passengers around the world stranded.

Alan Joyce claims this was necessary as the unions were 'trashing the brand' and the damage to the airlines reputation had to be stopped but this is disinegenuous at best. Not because the unions were not damaging the brand but because Alan Joyce and his board had effectively overseen the devaluing of the brand ever since his tenure began. In the past twelve months alone Qantas has seen its share price tank by more than 40% - considerably more than rivals like Singapore Airlines so you can't just blame the markets. A reputation that used to see Qantas regularly ranked No. 1 for safety and service has fallen away to such an extent that the airline is lucky to crack most people's top ten. Frequent Flyers (of which I am one) rate Qantas well behind airlines such as Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, JAL, Lufthansa and Qatar.

Despite this appalling record the Remuneration Committee of the Qantas Board recommended a salary increase for Alan Joyce approaching $2 million! All this at a time of declining profitability, share price, reputation, service standards and customer satisfaction. What is worse is that it was approved at a feisty AGM the day before the airline announces it is grounding all its aircraft.

I do not pretend to know the in's and out's of Qantas's business nor am I making judgments as to who is right or wrong with regard to the ongoing industrial disputes. However, the sheer stupidity from a public relations and moral point of view of undertaking these kinds of actions in these kinds of circumstances beggars belief. When a Board and CEO behave in this manner it destroys their credibility. Once and for all people, you cannot claim you need to restructure to save costs while at the same time significantly increasing costs through bumping up executive salaries. You cannot claim that you need to improve performance while continually rewarding executives for non-performance in terms of key measures like share price and customer satisfaction. You cannot claim to be negotiating in good faith when you use tactics to blindside your workers and your customers. As a CEO you cannot claim credit for anything good that occurs without taking responsibility for anything bad.

Ask yourself a question... for relations to become this strained and incendiary between a CEO and his workforce just how incompetent does that CEO have to be? Alan Joyce may have done fantastic things for Qantas behind the scenes but none of it is visible to any of us. From a public relations point of view he is an unmitigated failure and in the modern world of social media and a 24 hour news cycle that should be enough to get any CEO fired.

 

Cultural Differences - Monochronic versus Polychronic

Continuing our series looking at cross-cultural communication issues we now turn our attention to monochronic versus polychronic cultures and the impact that can have on communication.

Monochronic cultures like to do just one thing at a time. They value a certain orderliness and sense of there being an appropriate time and place for everything. They do not value interruptions. They like to concentrate on the job at hand and take time commitments very seriously.

In addition monochronic people tend to show a great deal of respect for private property and are reluctant to be either a lender or a borrower. This is part of a general tendency to follow rules of privacy and consideration as well as adhere religiously to plans.

Polychronic cultures like to do multiple things at the same time. A manager's office in a polychronic culture typically has an open door, a ringing phone and a meeting all going on at the same time. Though they can be easily distracted they also tend to manage interruptions well with a willingness to change plans often and easily. People are their main concern (particularly those closely related to them or their function) and they have a tendency to build lifetime relationships. Issues such as promptness are firmly based on the relationship rather than the task and objectives are more like desirable outcomes than must do's.

If you live in the United States, Canada, or Northern Europe, you live in a monochronic culture. If you live in Latin America, the Arab part of the Middle East, or sub-Sahara Africa, you live in a polychronic culture.

Interactions between the two types can be problematic. Monochronic businessmen cannot understand why the person they are meeting is always interrupted by phone calls and people stopping by. Is it meant to be insulting? When do they get down to business?

Polychronic businessmen cannot understand why tasks are isolated from the organisation as a whole and measured by output in time instead of part of the overall organisational goal. How can you separate work time and personal time? Why would you let something as silly as a schedule negatively impact on the quality of your relationships?

You can quickly see the problems. Recognising whether you are dealing with a polychronic or monochronic culture and the attendant differences in how time and relationships are valued is crucial to being able to communicate effectively across cultures.

Cultural Differences - High Context versus Low Context

In an increasingly connected and interdependent world effective communication not only becomes more important but also much more difficult. Ironically, it is often not dissimilar languages that cause the greatest problems but rather much more mundane and harder to detect cultural differences. One such difference is that of a high context culture versus a low context culture.

A low context culture is one in which things are fully (though concisely) spelled out. Things are made explicit, and there is considerable dependence on what is actually said or written. A high context culture is one in which the communicators assume a great deal of commonality of knowledge and views, so that less is spelled out explicitly and much more is implicit or communicated in indirect ways. In a low context culture, more responsibility is placed on the listener to keep up their knowledge base and remain plugged into informal networks.

Low context cultures include Anglos, Germanics and Scandinavians. High context cultures include Japanese, Arabs and French.

The implications are obvious. Interactions between high and low context peoples can be problematic. For example:

• Japanese can find Westerners to be offensively blunt. Westerners can find Japanese to be secretive, devious and bafflingly unforthcoming with information.
• French can feel that Germans insult their intelligence by explaining the obvious, while Germans can feel that French managers provide no direction.

High context cultures are vulnerable to communication breakdowns when they assume more shared understanding than there really is. They are strongly inclined to indirect methods of communication. This is especially true in an age of diversity.

Low context cultures, on the other hand, are not known for their ability to tolerate or understand diversity, and tend to be more insular. The explicitness with which they communicate can often cause offence and resentment.

The point, of course, is that in an age of diversity these cultural differences are just as likely to appear across a desk as they are across borders. Don't assume a common geographic location guarantees a common heritage.

5 Tips for Speaking to an International Audience

Increasingly, CEOs and senior executives are being asked to speak to audiences made up of entirely different social and cultural backgrounds.  Here are some tips to help you with the challenge of an international audience.

•    Slow Down
You may think I am stating the obvious here but it really is that important.  People who speak a different language to you need more time to absorb what you are saying. So, slow down and enunciate clearly and confidently. 

•    Watch your Body Language
In front of an international audience, before you even open your mouth, your posture and gestures can be sending a message to your audience.  Crossing your legs in the United States is completely natural; sitting in the same position in Kuwait can be offensive. Nodding your head can actually mean “no” in some parts of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Eye contact is considered a good thing in most Western countries but can be considered rude in many Asian countries and in Africa.

The point is, that which has a universal meaning in your part of the world may have an entirely different meaning in someone else’s.

•    Avoid Slang
Your audience, almost certainly, will not understand slang. Someone from Malaysia who rarely speaks a language other than Malay may not comprehend expressions commonly used in Australia. Phrases such as “having a fair go”, “wrong end of the stick” or even common ones such as “do this a.s.a.p.” may be confusing to non-native English speakers. Speak clearly and avoid your favourite shortcuts.

•    Beware of Stories
Stories and metaphors should always be included in any presentation because they make messages easier to understand and remember. When speaking to an international audience, however, you need to be careful about which stories you choose to tell.

In short, don’t use a metaphor that has the potential to be misunderstood by your audience because of their cultural background.

•    Know what you are saying
This is important for two reasons. Firstly, as numerous companies have found out the hard way, not every word in your language has the same meaning in another language. If you are going to be using some jargon from ‘back home’ make sure those words don’t have an entirely different meaning in your audience’s language. It can be very embarrassing!

Secondly, while using your audiences language sparingly is nice and often appreciated (for example in a greeting) unless you are sure of the meaning of the word you are saying in a foreign language and its pronunciation, do not use it. This is because similar words in foreign languages can have completely different meanings in different contexts that may not really convey what you are trying to say. Slightly varying a vowel or the pronunciation of a word can completely alter its intended meaning. In some cultures even the point at which a phrase is uttered in a conversation can completely alter its meaning.

Finally, take the time to try and find out and understand whom you are talking to. Know a little bit about the background of your audiences and their cultural norms. Do they say “bike” or “bicycle”? Are they metric or empirical? Should you shake hands or bow? 

Be respectful of their language, currency, beliefs and traditions and recognise there is no single correct way to do anything. Every audience has its own norms, culture and heritage and you should try to incorporate those same norms, culture and heritage in your communication.

Why Changi International Airport is my Favourite

Having just returned from visiting clients in Singapore and Phuket I was reminded of why Changi International Airport remains one of my favourites.

Changi Airport is the main airport in Singapore and handles about 37,000,000 passengers each year making it the world’s 21st busiest airport and 5th busiest in Asia by passenger traffic in 2009. 13,000 people are employed at the airport and, in addition to being an important passenger hub, Changi is also one of the busiest cargo airports in the world handling about 1.66 billion tons of cargo each year.

Since its opening in 1981 the airport has made its mark in the aviation industry as a benchmark for service excellence, winning over 280 awards in a 20-year period from 1987 to 2007, including 19 Best Airport awards in 2007 alone. Most recently it was named World’s Best Airport in the 2010 Skytrax World Airport Awards – awards that are based on passenger choice with over 9.8 million completed survey interviews!

No doubt there would be many reasons as to why Changi receives so many accolades. From available leisure activities to security to dining and shopping, the options are many; but for me there is one thing that stands out every time I visit: the toilets are clean.

Not just clean, but scrupulously clean in a hermetically sealed kind of way that makes me think I could eat off the floor. They are an absolute joy to visit and symbolic of the pride and attention to detail the Changi Airport employees have in their work.

As you enter the toilets there is in fact a photo on the wall of the staff member responsible for keeping them clean! Had I run into him on my last visit I would have warmly shaken his hand (and possibly gone back into the toilets to wash my hands again).

It strikes me: this is what service should actually look like. Not the oft-mouthed, self-bestowed superlatives so many companies indulge in to try and convince us of the quality of their service, but service that can actually be seen. 

Demonstrable quality, clearly identifiable responsibility and a personal touch that doesn’t have to be shouted from the rooftops for the simple reason that it is so blindingly obvious to anyone who has the privilege to experience it.

That is why Changi International Airport is my favourite.

 

Source: skyscrapercity.com

You're Welcome...Really?

Many people outside of the US like to criticize America for the perceived insincere customer service culture that is popular there. 

You know what I mean ... the automatic "you're welcome", the banal "my pleasure" and the insufferable "those pants look fantastic on you". 

Every phrase seems to come out of the mouth completely lacking any sort of authenticity or depth of meaning and leaves you feeling a bit hollow and jaded. Consider this though... is it better to have someone say nice things to you out of some false sense of duty or politeness, or is having a customer service person all but ignore you preferable?

In other words, which is better - a false service culture or none at all?

The reason I ask is because the other day I had a communication experience that made me realise just how cynical living in Australia has made me. 

I landed at Auckland International Airport and as I entered the terminal was shocked to discover a member of the ground crew warmly welcoming every individual passenger to New Zealand. Now every country talks about warmly welcoming the visitors to their country but this was the first time in all my travels that I actually got to experience a genuine welcome (other than some sort of generic cultural performance). Bear in mind the sole purpose of this person was to welcome us off the flight. She wasn't there to open the door... her job was to say "hello and welcome to New Zealand".

The reason it made me realise how jaded I had become was because I didn't know how to respond. I found myself caught between a weak smile and a faint bristling at what felt like some sort of personal challenge. 

So, which is better - the false service culture or none at all? 

As much as I encourage honesty in all communications, I find myself starting to think that the false recognition often communicated to customers is nowhere near as damaging as no recognition at all.