New Leader Assimilation in Multicultural Teams

Throughout my career, I have been intrigued by how executives are integrated into established leadership teams. Following a verbal or written announcement, many times, executives entering the organization are left in isolation. At best, they receive mandatory compliance training, a template to write a 30-60-90 day plan, and a list of key stakeholders to engage with. The underlying assumption is that if you are a capable executive, you can manage the integration yourself. But isn’t that a rudimentary way of thinking?

Firstly, research shows that about a third of new executives fail to pass the first year, and about a further 40% don’t make it to the second. Great news for search firms like Boyden, but a waste of time and resources for organizations investing in growth. In addition, there are plenty of examples where key talent leaves due to misalignment with a new leader coming in. This is equally, if not more, detrimental to any growth strategy.

Secondly, learning organization theories demonstrate that integrating into a new team is one of the toughest challenges. This is true for professionals as well as executives; in other words, assimilation is unavoidable whether you like it or not. Prof. Schein from MIT distinguishes a couple of “layers” that leaders coming new into an organization go through.

Decoding the “Layers” in a Multicultural Team

Most new executives start by decoding the first layer of “artifacts,” such as organizational structure, financials, ESG figures, and other visible policies and processes. While meeting stakeholders and participating in their first meetings, they also discover “how things get done over here.”

In their exploration, they find out more about the “values,” which form the second layer and can be both visible and invisible in nature. Through conversations and observing behaviors, they receive their first impressions of the new organization. Many times, this is where the first surprises kick in, as the explicitly communicated values are often not in sync with the perceived values. Also, meanings can be completely different in a multicultural context. For example, teamwork in the US relates to people doing what they are good at, specialized in, and paid for. Whereas teamwork in Japan means you complete an assignment together independent of your abilities, seniority, and level, e.g., brooming the pavement together.

While cracking the more visible parts of a team culture, the real challenge is to unlock unconscious beliefs and perceptions. These can be rooted in the history of the business, in the cultural background, or the personal styles of their team members. That innermost layer, called “assumptions,” is built through collective experiences. They include past successes and failures, team dynamics resulting from roles people take on naturally, or responses related to their cultural backgrounds. Being new to the team, it is difficult to understand what drives the key patterns of behavior in your team. By revealing these elements at an early stage of the onboarding, a new leader can build new connections faster and without causing unwanted disruption.

Let me illustrate the above with an anecdotal example. A new leader coming into an organization is tasked to develop a mission, vision and corresponding strategy. Team members from a more hierarchical background expect this leader to know their subject, set the direction, provide structure, and share expectations. In the same team, members from an egalitarian culture first want to engage in a discussion, extract a joint vision, and exercise their influence to set the course of action. What kind of approach should this leader embark on? This example shows one of the many dilemmas a newly appointed leader will be faced with. Using our multifaceted assimilation approach will help the leader set the most effective way of developing the mission, vision, and strategy.