Category Archives: Gobal

Making Your Message Memorable by Kimberly Wiefling (Wiefling Consulting)

KimberlyNikkeiAd-2010-1024x469(Originally posted on SVProjectManagement.com)

For years I’ve been using a rubber chicken in my consulting work to burn into people’s consciousness the concepts of personal accountability and a belief in an internal locus of control. Holding the chicken at shoulder height, I release it and ask why the chicken fell to the floor. Victims blame gravity. (Some people even blame the chicken!) Leaders say “Because you released it, Kimberly.” It’s a simple message, but an important one for leaders. No matter how tempting it may be, if we blame circumstances for our problems we give away our own power. Continue reading→

Becoming Global-Minded by Kimberly Wiefling (Wiefling Consulting)

HeartWorld-iStock_000018974106XSmall

(This article is first published in Japan in the English Journal by my agent ALC Global Leadership and Talent Development Division.)

QUESTION:  “My subordinates are younger than me, but they seem much more global-minded. I know I need to change, but I’ve never worked abroad, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to change. How can I become more ‘global’ and continue to be a leader at our company when the world is changing so quickly?” Continue reading→

Too Much Work! by Kimberly Wiefling (Wiefling Consulting)

multitask

(This article is first published in Japan in the English Journal by my agent ALC Global Leadership and Talent Development Division.)

QUESTION: “I have twice as much work as I have hours in the day. No matter how hard I work I’m always behind. Help!”

ANSWER: I know how you feel! There will always more work than time, so being “behind” is kind of normal. These five practices will help you reduce your stress and optimize how you use your time. Continue reading→

Working Remotely … Face-to-Face! by Kimberly M. Wiefling, M.S.

Business Team Meeting by Ambro

(Originally posted on ProjectConnections.com)
Image courtesy of Ambro/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Globalization in today’s business world is rapid and inescapable. As a result, many projects these days involve geographically dispersed teams comprised of members from a wide variety of countries and cultures. While language barriers, decision-making style, and time zones are well-recognized challenges, the positive benefits of global teams continue to drive this trend.Continue reading→

Feedback – Painful, but Essential to Growth

Initially published on http://careershorts.com/startalk-blog/

Do you work with a global team? Have you ever wondered how your colleagues from around the world perceive you? If not, you should. We’re often unaware of how we are perceived, even misperceived, by others. You might be surprised if you took the time to inquire. Getting co-workers to share their impressions honestly may be a bit challenging, especially with a language barrier. (After six months of absolutely no feedback from his boss, one colleague from Eastern Europe asked his Japanese manager “How am I doing?”. The manager stopped checking his email momentarily, looked up and grunted “Hmm.  Good.” . . . and promptly returned to typing.) If you can tease out a bit more than this fellow was able to extract from his manager you’ll gain enormous insights into how effective you are as a global professional, and what’s getting in the way of improved relationships and results.Continue reading→

Changing the Cultural Cement in Which Your Company Swims

Originally posted on ProjectConnections.com

I was recently told by another smarty-pants consultant that, “As long as the team makes a logical proposal to the executives, they will support their recommendation.” My retort: “Then why do people smoke?” I mean, it’s not logical to smoke. There’s plenty of data to suggest it’s bad for your health. If logic alone were sufficient to change behavior we wouldn’t find ourselves staring at the hauntingly familiar “lessons not learned” at the end of every project. What keeps us locked into behaviors that don’t make sense, at least to other people?Continue reading→

Whose English is it Anyway?

Originally published on CareerShorts.com where Kimberly has been invited to contribute blogs periodically on global leadership and project management.

My work takes me from my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, where more than 50% of the people living here don’t speak English at home, to Japan and elsewhere around the world nearly every month. I have the distinct honor and pleasure of working with people from all over the world, and recently had an incredible adventure with 37 people from 12 different countries who all came together as a global team to propose the future direction of their company. It’s an incredible experience to work with such a diverse group, and a heck of a challenge due to the most basic of reasons – we all speak different languages.

Even though  all members usually speak some version of “English”, it might as well be Klingon. Continue reading→

Collaboration is Killing Me!

A lot of my work in the past couple of years has been consulting with a company in Tokyo called ALC Education.  It’s the biggest project of my life, with the longest time horizon of anything my A.D.D. brain has ever had to wrap itself around.  The goal of this project is nothing less than planetary transformation, something I’ve had a hankering to work on since my youth, but lacked the personal vision of exactly how to go about it.  All kidding aside, the senior executives who lead this company have told me quite matter-of-factly that they intend to transform the Japanese economy for the better, for the good of the world, through shifting the mindsets of leaders in international Japanese businesses.  When pressed, they estimated that it will take somewhere around a decade to get some traction on this whole mindset shift that will enable their clients to “solve global problems profitably”. Continue reading→