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Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

Four Steps for Selling a Change You Don’t Like

By Guy Harris

Have you ever had to sell a change to your team that “came from above” and that you did not like? If you have not yet, that day is coming. It happens for everyone in a front-line leader role.

Here is how the process often looks from the front-line leader position:

Someone in the organization, a customer, or a vendor has a problem or frustration.
They propose a change that gets accepted by a senior level leader.
The senior level leader communicates information about the change.
The change trickles down to the front-line leader to make it happen with little or no conversation about the front-line costs or implications of the change.

When you find yourself in this situation, there is a strong temptation to slip into negative interpretations of your senior leaders (assumptions like: they do not care about us, they do not know how this affects us, they made a stupid decision, etc.). Tempting, yes. Helpful, no.

If you allow yourself to drift into and dwell on these negative assumptions, you will struggle to get your team to implement the change. To sell the change to someone else, you first have to figure out a way you can buy it for yourself.

Here are four things you can do to sell a change you do not like to your team:

1. Assume Benign Intent

While it is easy to fill gaps in your knowledge about the reasons for the change with negative assumptions, beware of that temptation and actively work to avoid it. I hope that you can find a way to see the change in a way that is positive, and I realize that might be too much of a stretch. If you cannot view the reasons for the change positively, at lease see them as benign. Here is what I mean by benign: while the change might be difficult or uncomfortable for you and your team, assume that the person proposing the change does not intend for the change to be difficult or uncomfortable. Assume they either know something you do not know or that you know something they do not know and that you need to have a conversation to better understand each other.

2. Get Your Questions Answered

Engage in a conversation with your leader(s) to fully understand the reasons for the change. Approach them with a “help me understand” perspective rather than a “let me tell you why this is a bad idea” perspective.

3. Look for reasons that you can support the change

As you engage with your leader(s) to better understand the change, actively seek reasons to accept and support the change. It is often easier (and more natural) to see what is wrong with the change than it is to see what is okay with it. You do not necessarily have to like the change. You can look for reasons that you can support it, though.

4. Be honest about your reservations AND express hope that you can work it out

At the end of this process, you need to sell it to your team. You might still have reservations about it, and that is okay. Your team will notice your reservations and ask you about them, though. When asked, be honest about your reservations, and express optimism that you and your team can overcome the challenges you will face with the implementation.

Bonus tip – Focus on HOW to implement the change more than on WHAT you are implementing

While you and your team might not get to decide WHAT is changing, you can probably make important decisions about HOW to implement it. If you focus on HOW you and your team will implement the change, you improve the odds of getting positive momentum towards the change and to creating a sense of ownership of the process for you and your team.

I cannot promise your team will magically, miraculously, and enthusiastically get on board with every change even if you do everything I suggest. I can promise these steps will improve the odds that you get positive movement towards the changed future with minimum (not zero) pushback on changes you do not like and have to implement anyway.

Coaching & Developing Others, Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Personal & Professional Development, Productivity

Maybe is a Powerful Word

By Kevin Eikenberry

Maybe is a powerful word. It can be a word of contemplation and consideration.

And it can also be a word of procrastination and delay, which is not as helpful.

For me, when I am honest with myself, I know which it is when I say it or think it.

I might say it hoping people think I am in consideration, when I am really procrastinating, delaying, denying, or avoiding.

Considering something is necessary and valuable. However, procrastination, delaying, denying, avoiding, etc., do not have the same value.

As a new front line supervisor, it might be even worse. Your “maybe” likely creates delay, uncertainty, and perhaps stress for others.

In leadership development workshops that I teach, decision making is a topic that always seems to come up. In consulting and coaching, I see habits and the approaches that leaders take when it comes to decision making.

Consider the situations, issues, and decisions you are thinking about today:

You could have employees whose performances are sub-par, yet no coaching is happens.

If there is a conflict, and no one decides to do anything about it, do you really think it is going to get any better without intervention?

Look around– there are decisions that you need to make that you aren’t making.

Actually, that’s not true. By not making a decision, you are deciding.

If you are thinking “maybe,” determine why. If are contemplating and gathering information, carry on. But if you are avoiding or delaying, stop.

As a front-line supervisor, making decisions comes with the territory. That doesn’t mean you should be a tyrant that decides for everyone without considering others in the decision making process. Rather, there are many occasions where including others in the process is beneficial.

Take a stand.

Make a decision.

Decide already.

Are you looking to be a better frontline supervisor? Make the decision to sign up for the next Bud to Boss workshop. You can find the details and how to sign up here.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

You Are the Brand

Personal branding. You might think that is a topic for writers, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs. That is actually who You are the Brand by Mike Kim is written for. But if you are a leader trying to lead more effectively and influentially, this might be the most unusually valuable book you read this year.

While branding is usually thought to apply mainly to organizations or products, this book is about personal branding. Mike defines branding as about:

Ideas
Expertise
Reputation
Personality

When you look at those four items, you can see the direct connection to how clarity and effectiveness with those four areas can help you be a better leader.

Now that I have your attention, let’s look at the book.

It is a practical, conversational read to help you step into who you are to create a more consistent and intentional brand for yourself.

The book isn’t written for leaders directly. But all the chapters will speak to you if you open your mind and look a bit more broadly. Whether it is the chapter on style and approach, on stories and storytelling, or on positioning, all have relevance for us as leaders. The chapter on creating your point of view might be the most valuable as we continue our leadership development.

Sometimes when I recommend books, I get specific with the ideas you might want to focus on. Here, since most of you are practicing leaders, my hope is that you will read this book and find your own key lessons and ideas.

If you want a deeper dip into this book and its ideas as a way to “try before you buy” or to learn while you wait to get your copy, I recommend listening to the conversation Mike and I had live last week.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, New & Frontline Leadership, Personal & Professional Development, Video

How Do I Get People to Follow Me?

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Hi, I’m Kevin Eikenberry, answering the questions that new and frontline leaders ask us. Actually, it’s our goal to help all leaders be more productive, successful, and confident. And this video series is just one way we do that.

Today, I’m asking the question. How do I get people to follow me? Are you ready for my answer? Let’s get started. It’s a great question, how do I get people to follow me because it frames a really important point?

It frames the point that it’s not about the fact that you have the title that people automatically follow you. Right? Here’s the big point. You can’t make someone follow you. This is not something that’s in our control, we can influence it.

But ultimately, if someone’s following, it’s because they choose. One of the first things we need to remember and recognize to be a more effective leader is to recognize that just because we have the position doesn’t mean they’re going to follow.

Just because we have the position of power doesn’t mean they’re going to listen. Ultimately, the question is, are they choosing or how will they choose? And so the rest of this video is going to think about and help us think about how people choose to follow us or not.

Right here it is very simply people naturally follow people that they know, like and trust. And we could go into a lot more detail about that idea. But let’s just unpack it a little bit with three questions. Let me say it again.

First, though, people naturally follow people that they know, like, and trust. If you would stop and think about that for yourself, I bet you’d say that’s true for me. The people that I follow now or have followed are people that I know, like and trust, so.

Three questions for you to consider

Question number one: Do they know you? Do your people know you beyond the nature of the work? Do they know a little bit about what you care about, what your passions are, what your values are?

Are you open enough? You don’t have to share everything about your private life, but you can share some things about your personal life to people. Know something about your background or they know about what you care about. Do they know you?

Second question, do they like you? Now some people say, Oh, are you saying, Kevin, it’s my job to make friends with the people that I lead. I am not saying that. I am not saying that we should try to make friends, but I am saying we should be friendly.

I’m not saying that we should try to get people to like us, but we should be like a ball. And if we’re likable, like the people generally want to hang around us, at least a little bit. I mean, I know we’re the boss and so we might get invited to every barbecue.

But if every time we walk into the room, are people looking for a way to leave? That might be a sign of what we don’t want.

Question number three is do they trust you? There’s a lot that we could unpack there, but let’s just go back to you as a follower.

Aren’t we far more likely to follow people that we trust? So the question is, do your people trust you? And the best thing that you can do to help them trust you is to be trustworthy, be consistent so they know what to expect from you and to offer trust to them.

Because when we let people know that we trust them, they begin to trust us reciprocally. How do you get people to follow us? How do we get people to follow us? We get people to follow us by helping people know us like us and trust us?

Let me close with today’s tweet: People don’t follow a position. They follow a person. If you want to be a more effective leader, strive to be someone people want to follow. I hope you liked my answer to this important question.

And if so, there’s lots more resources here. So you should subscribe so you can get all future of these videos now. You also might have a question of your own and if you have a question that you want me to answer in the future.

Send us an email info@budtoboss.com, or if you have any other ways that you think we can be of service to you. And lastly, if you go to budtoboss.com, you’ll find a blog and lots of resources there, beyond these videos, that will help you become a more effective, more productive, a more successful, a more confident new leader.

https://youtu.be/hWBSW853d6I?rel=0&showinfo=0

Tweet it out: People don’t follow a position, they follow a person. If you want to be a more effective leader, strive to be someone people want to follow. @KevinEikenberry

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Work, Organizational Leadership

Put it in Writing: The New Generation Gap?

For the first time in human history, two-thirds of our daily work communication and a growing amount of our interpersonal and social communication is being done in writing. Texts, e-mails, and collaboration tools are asynchronous and ubiquitous. How you respond to this probably depends on how old you are. Is this good news, since electronic text can cover time, space and dimension? Or is it a sign of the apocalypse, with nonverbal communication ruining how we interact and build relationships?

The answer is both, probably. Or neither.

This isn’t really a new development

First, a non- judgmental statement of fact. In the 30-40 years that email has been in the workplace, the amount of workplace communication done in writing (email, SMS text, instant messaging) has replaced the amount of face to face communication in most knowledge-worker (used to be called white collar but nobody wears white button-down shirts at work anymore) jobs. The COVID work-from-home diaspora has only expanded this trend that was going on anyway.

I was on a panel discussion recently with three young entrepreneur/CEOs and was bemoaning this fact. Basically, all three of them told me that for anyone under 40, texting has become the default form of communication and maybe I’m just too old to realize it. One even said, “We don’t rely on verbal and in-person communication to get things done, unlike the previous generation.”

It’s still a pretty big deal, though

First, you insolent young puppy, it’s not the previous generation. It’s generations. Like, all of them. Since the dawn of time. This is the first time in human history that this amount of communication has been done in writing. Whether that’s good or bad, it is a fact. What it means is open to interpretation, but here are some interesting facts about how work gets done today.

It’s not just whether we communicate in person or not, it’s the tools we choose. 91% of adults 60 and over prefer email for written communication, and it drops by age group until we see only 16% of those 18-24 who prefer to use email over other methods in the workplace. In personal communication the numbers drop even lower. (McKinsey research)
Texting, on the other hand, works the other way around. The average 18-24 year-old receives or sends 110 text messages per day, while those of us over 60 send or receive about 5 texts a day.
The average email has gotten shorter over this same time frame. Originally emails were letters that got sent really fast, and followed the traditional rules for business communication. Thirty years ago, most emails were 200-300 words long. Today they average 60-70.
The average text message is 7 words.
Emojis first appeared in online message boards as “emoticons”- smiley faces and the like typed into text to add richness and context (and to let people know you were kidding, or happy). The first emoji, the smiley face, appeared on Japanese cell phones in 1997. Currently one out of every 5 text messages contains an emoji.
The eggplant emoji is not used to talk about eggplant. Just so you know. Lesson learned. Don’t ask.

What does all this mean?

None of these facts in and of themselves is good or bad news. Like all data, it is simply information. It does raise several important questions, though.

Are older workers (and the organizations they run) missing out on ways to collaborate and communicate more effectively through technology?

Does the fact that younger workers prefer to communicate in writing (and shorter and shorter messages all the time) mean it is the most effective means of communication?

There is a paradox at work here. The desire for face-to-face communication can often result in too many meetings and an interruption in productivity. Yet, relying on fast, short, written communication can undermine relationships and create misunderstandings that could have been avoided. (If you’ve ever witnessed teenage texting drama, you know it’s true. Adult work is more like junior high school than we’d like to admit.)

As with so much in life, it’s not that one side is wrong and the other is right. Written communication isn’t evil, and actually talking to someone may shorten the time to a solution or clear up misunderstandings but can also slow things down.

We need to be intentional about which tools we use under which circumstances. So, yeah, we old guys have to get with the times. The young’ns though, might want to slow down and think about whether a 20-text thread is the right way to solve a problem.

Improve your remote or hybrid team’s communication with these on-demand courses.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Wayne Turmel is the co-founder and Product Line Manager for the Remote Leadership Institute. For twenty years he’s been obsessed with helping managers communicate more effectively with their teams, bosses and customers. Wayne is the author of several books that demystify communicating through technology including Meet Like You Mean It – a Leader’s Guide to Painless & Productive Virtual Meetings, 10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations and 6 Weeks to a Great Webinar. His work appears frequently in Management-Issues.com.

Wayne, along with Kevin Eikenberry, has co-authored the definitive book on leading remotely, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership. Wayne and Kevin’s follow-up book, The Long-Distance Teammate, offers a roadmap for success not just for leaders, but for everyone making the transition to working remotely.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Leadership, New & Frontline Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

How Do I Implement a Change I Don’t Like?

By Guy Harris

If it has not happened already, the day is coming when you will need to implement a change that was not your idea and that you either do not like or at least have reservations about. As a new, front-line leader, that situation is incredibly difficult. You might feel stuck between your team and “management.” You might struggle to satisfy both your desire to do an excellent job as a supervisor and to be loyal to the concerns of your team. Frankly, it is a tough line to walk.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to make the situation easier to manage. I cannot promise that the ideas below will remove all stress from the situation, and I do believe they will help.

Here are four ideas to help you more successfully implement the changes you do not like:

1) Assume Benign Intent – Beware of Negative Assumptions

When you have reservations about a change you have been told to implement, a perfectly normal response is to fill in any gaps in your knowledge with negative assumptions like:

They do not care about the problems this change will cause for us. (“They” is the generic “they” who makes all decisions we do not like)
They only care about making more money.
They are dumb.
They do not care about us.

I will not pretend that these assumptions might be true in some situations. The more likely case is that “They”:

Do not have all the information you have.
Have information that you do not have.
Have limitations or constraints that you do not understand.
Do not realize the level of difficulty it creates for your team.

When confronted with a change driven by someone else that is frustrating, irritating, or confusing to you, a better way to proceed so that you can more smoothly implement the change is to assume a version of the more positive assumptions during your effort to gain better understanding.

2) Get Your Questions Answered – In Private

Starting with positive or at least benign, assumptions, have a conversation with your supervisor to get a better understanding of the reasons behind the change and the desired outcomes. Ask questions, push for answers (respectfully, of course), and dig for deeper understanding. Express your concerns and frustrations. I suggest that you do this in a way that is focused on understanding the change rather than on objecting to it.

The “in private” part of this suggestion is a reminder to have this conversation in a setting that does not put your supervisor in an awkward position in front of your team. You want to have this conversation in an environment where they can be completely open and honest about any reservations or frustrations they have. Some teams have a high trust, and this is a minor point. Other teams have history that makes this conversation more difficult if several people are in the room. Remember to consider this dynamic before you start questioning your supervisor.

The more you understand, the better you can communicate the change to others and answer their questions.

3) Look for the Reason to Support the Change – For Yourself AND for Your Team

As a person who frequently notices what can go wrong before seeing what can go right with a change, I offer this next thought knowing that it is not easy for everyone. Here it is: focus on how the change benefits you and your team more than you focus on what it will cost you. (I know – easier said than done.)

Change acceptance is always affected by a cost-benefit analysis, and every change has both costs and benefits. If it costs more than it benefits you, you will reject it. If it benefits more than it costs you, you will probably accept it. Unfortunately, many of us tend to notice and focus on the costs more than on the benefits. By consciously choosing to look for the benefits, you might find excellent reasons for acceptance that you can highlight for your team.

4) Be Honest about Your Reservations AND Be Hopeful for the Future

Since change always has both costs and benefits, it is perfectly natural that you might have reservations about a change even after you have done everything above. When you go to speak with your team about the change, they just might ask you – directly – if you are 100% onboard with the change. I encourage you to be honest about any reservations you have while maintaining hope that everything will be okay. You might say something like this: “Well, I do have concerns about some of the details, and I believe we can work thorough those challenges to get a good outcome.”

As I said at the start, I do not pretend that these suggestions will miraculously fix strained relationships and make every change implementation go perfectly. I do think they are great starting points for improving your ability to implement changes even when you do not like them.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, New & Frontline Leadership, Personal & Professional Development

What Choices are You Making?

by Kevin Eikenberry

As a new supervisor, you are constantly making decisions. You are bombarded with thousands of decisions every day.

We make thousands of micro choices each day, most of them subconsciously guided by our habits and beliefs. These micro choices have a tremendous impact on our lives. It is the culmination of these micro choices that create our perspectives, outlook, results, and our lives. They keep us alive (breathing!).

We need many of these micro choices to be driven by our subconscious, because if they weren’t, we would be in constant decision overload. Yet since these micro choices are so powerful, we need to take a look at some of them, on occasion, to see if they are best serving us.

Here are a couple of things I have been monitoring and thinking about lately:

When and whether I need to pick up my phone right now. I ask – Is this serving me now?
How I mentally react to a setback. I listen to my inner voice and ask- Is this an accurate and helpful response?

These are just a couple of my choices shared as examples. Therefore, these are not suggestions of the micro choices you may want to examine in your own life.

What micro-choices are you making?

Don’t forget, your choices make an impact on your team, as well. I encourage you to pick one or two of your micro choices – your automatic responses and decide if they are the right choices for you, or if it is time to change those choices. As a result, you may find it easier to make bigger decisions when the micro choices work for you.

Need help making those changes? Or maybe you want to share how you have changed or are going to change your micro choices. Email here or drop us a line below in the comments.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, New & Frontline Leadership

Communication: The Secret to Inspired Leadership

A guest piece by Colonel Carla D. Bass, author of Write to Influence!

Think about it – you instinctively know the attributes of a good leader: courage to make bold decisions, taking care of your people, empathy, gratitude, communication, etc.

Well, I disagree with the aforementioned list. Why? It places communication on par with the other traits – one of several. I propound that communication … the ability to influence … undergirds all of these leadership characteristics. It is the cornerstone for leadership – inspired and inspirational!

1. Know your staff, and let them know you, too.

Mingle with your people. Make time for walkabouts, pull up a chair, listen to their ideas (outside formal meetings). You’ll be amazed at the talents they possess not listed on resumes! People notice your interest, word spreads, and morale soars!
Provide your workforce a roadmap. Share your vision, goals, and priorities for your organization and the plan to achieve them.

2. Position your organization to succeed. The ability to write powerfully is requisite to defend budgets, justify additional resources, build support for an issue, attract and retain talented employees, win contracts and grants, market products and services, correspond effectively with clients, and much more.

3. Solicit input from your people – The +3/-3 Survey. When assuming a new leadership position, ask people to identify the organization’s three strengths and weaknesses. Correlate the feedback, prioritize the problems you will tackle, and share the results – good, bad, and ugly – with the workforce.

4. Herald success. Showcase accomplishments of individuals, your organization, and even yourself.

5. Strike the “write note.” Send personalized notes to your people recognizing occasions – joyous and sad. People appreciate this caring gesture, which speaks volumes about the leader.

6. Throw a party! Take time to play as a group. Yes, this is communication, too! Whether an office luncheon or a larger event, it’s a great way to build camaraderie.

7. Grow the next generation. Communication undergirds this, too! Delegate authority and empower subordinates. Let them present that important briefing or accompany you to senior-level meetings, when appropriate.

8. Work the occasional miracle. “They say ‘It can’t be done!’” – Prove “them” wrong! It CAN be done!

About the Author

Colonel Carla D. Bass, USAF (Ret), authored the multiple award-winning book “Write to Influence!” now in its second edition. Writing powerfully was central to her success. Throughout her 45-year career (30 in the Air Force and 15 with a federal agency), she composed items sent to Congress, the White House, generals, and ambassadors; hundreds of performance reviews; awards nomination; and budget justifications.

As a squadron commander, Carla transformed her 480-person unit from the most losing in state-wide, professional awards into the one to beat. How? She developed her writing methodology and taught her troops to write. So successful was her program, she taught thousands of Air Force members for the next 15 years.

She now gives highly acclaimed presentations to government agencies; corporations; private businesses; NGOs; and academic audiences. From tips to frame a winning argument to crafting powerful resumes, grant submissions, input to performance reviews, and essays for college applications … she covers it all!

Her battle cries are twofold: 1) “Powerful writing changes lives” and 2) “Powerful writing is the lifeblood of successful organizations”

Carla’s assignments included Germany, Bulgaria (as the defense and air attaché), Turkey, Korea, and Washington, D.C. For more info, see www.WriteToInfluence.net.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Work

Just Sending Messages Doesn’t Work

Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get a message through to your remote and hybrid team members?

“I told them.”
“I put it in an email last week.”
“I know this meeting could have been an email. But nobody reads the darned emails! Then we have to have the meeting anyway.”

It can be frustrating when you spend time delivering a message, only to feel like people intentionally disregarded it. It’s possible that nobody is paying attention. More likely, it’s because you, as the sender of the message, only did part of your job.

Communication isn’t just transmitting the facts. There are actually three steps to real communication, and unless you factor them all in, there’s a pretty good chance your message won’t be effective.

The three factors are: message sent, message received, message understood.

Sending the message

First, what’s the message you want to send? To whom? What’s the best way to deliver it: Email? Text? Go old-school and use the phone? An unclear message isn’t going to be effective. A clear message sent to the wrong audience probably won’t do much better. And using the wrong medium for the message may give people a false idea of how important it is, or might not catch their attention in the first place. Clarity, focus, and effective transmission will help you send the message. That should do it, right?

Receiving the message

Once you send the message into the world, you’ve lost control of it. You can’t MAKE someone pay attention. You can’t tie them to a chair and force them to put down their phone and focus (That may be tempting, but it’s against almost all HR policies). The other person has to be open to receiving the message. While you can’t guarantee it will be received, you can increase the chances of success. Does the receiver know what the message is about? What is your relationship with them? How do they like to receive information? And what else is going on in their world that might distract from your message?

There are ways to help overcome some of these hurdles if we stop and think before sending the message. Will the subject line of the email catch their eye and stand out from the rest of their inbox? Does the message give an appropriate sense of urgency? Are the consequences of not receiving or acting on the message clear so people will make it a priority? Maybe.

Ensuring they understand the message

This factor is also out of your direct control, but when the communication is important, it’s not a great idea to “set it and forget it.” Rich communication such as face to face meetings, allows you to gauge the reaction to your message. When their nose crinkles in disgust, or they look at you like they have three heads, you can tell there is a problem. Maybe the message wasn’t as clear as you thought. Maybe you misjudged how it would be received and have to scramble to ensure clarity. Often, people don’t know what to do with the information you’ve sent, so you get no response at all.

Ask people to acknowledge the message. Follow up to see if there’s any misunderstanding or questions, and help the receiver understand the stakes involved. There is a lot competing for people’s attention. If people don’t care, they won’t put much effort into really understanding your communication.

A good way to plan for better communication is to go through the process in reverse. If you understand how to get their attention, and what will make them respond, you can send the message in a way that will cut through the noise. Once you understand what will give you the best chance of success, you can plan with the end in mind.

Sending a good message is important, but it’s only one-third of the communication process.

Check out these courses that can help you and your team become experts at remote communication.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Turmel
Co-Founder and Product Line Manager

Communication & Interpersonal Skills, Long-Distance Leadership, Long-Distance Work, Organizational Leadership

Are You Practicing Linguistic Racism?

What is linguistic racism?

Of course, racism is such an emotive word, we need to use it cautiously. “Bias” and “racism” share many similarities. I believe that even the most fair-minded of us are biased to some degree – it’s an inevitable consequence of our life experiences. But racism takes it a step further by introducing the notion of “superiority.”

When we’re talking about the English language specifically, linguistic racism is the perception that native speakers (NS) are superior to non-native speakers (NNS), that an idea or opinion expressed in “broken'”English is inferior to one expressed in “perfect” English. In its most extreme forms linguistic racism leads to bullying, shaming and exclusion, simply because of a person’s foreign-accented English.

There is also a perception among some British, Americans and Australians that when communication breaks down, it is solely the fault of the international speaker … “I’m a native English speaker; therefore, the problem cannot be mine. It must be yours.”

We often believe that since “everyone speaks English,” there is a level playing field. But how do those who speak English as a second (or third) language feel?

It’s true that English is the lingua franca of global business, science and the internet. There are approximately 2 billion English speakers in the world, but 75% of these speak English as a foreign language. As a NS (born and educated in the UK) I am very much in the minority. The reality is that English is not my language – the nature of English is changing. Pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar have been adapted as English reflects the first languages of international speakers. English as a lingua franca may now be spoken with a Spanish twist, an Italian rhythm, or a Japanese lilt.

Twenty years ago, for many NNS’s, having English on your resume / CV was something to be proud of. Today, for anyone serious about pursuing an international career, competence in English is simply expected.

NNS’s are not arguing against English being the world’s lingua franca. They acknowledge that English is the logical choice. But they do feel aggrieved when NS’s lack empathy for the challenges they face, and make no allowances for the fact that they are communicating in a foreign language.

Our research shows frequents complaints of feeling sidelined and overlooked in meetings (whether intentionally or not), of being interrupted and not being given sufficient time to express their points of view.

This has been referred to as “linguistic ostracism.” And of course, if certain employees are not being heard or taken seriously because of their accented English, then we are all the poorer.

And the problem is becoming greater still as we move away from in-person communication towards more and more remote communication. For the NNS, communicating on a platform like Zoom is considerably more difficult. So much of communication is about facial expressions and body language and these disappear from view during a voice-only call (even on a video call the gestures are much harder to read than during an in-person encounter). We have been honing our face-to-face communication skills for 10,000 years. The recent move to remote communication requires a completely different sets of skills and best practices (but that’s a subject for another blog!)

What are some of the things even well-meaning native English Speakers do to make things harder for their colleagues?

In our research with over 1,000 NNS’s, we found that 88% find it more difficult to communicate with NS’s than with other NNS’s. It seems native English speakers typically don’t know how to adjust their English for their audience . They speak too fast and use complicated grammar and idiomatic language. They don’t do it intentionally, but they do it nevertheless.

But perhaps more troubling still is that there is plenty of research which shows that NS’s regard NNS’s as ‘less trustworthy, less intelligent and less successful’, simply because of their accented English. We need to work harder to process accented English and our brains then shift the blame for this extra effort onto the veracity of the speaker.

As the psycholinguist Dr Shiri Lev-Ari (University of London) puts it: “We’re less likely to believe something if it’s said with a foreign accent.”

It is staggering to me that these issues are ignored in almost all current Diversity and Inclusion training.

What are some practical ways to help level the playing field?

An employer’s first course of action should be to carry out research with their NNS’s to determine the precise nature and size of the issue within their organization.

The next stage is appropriate training for the NS’s to:

Learn how to filter and adapt their English when communicating with NNS’s.
Become more empathetic to the challenges faced by their international colleagues and customers.
Change any unconscious bias they have that their opinion somehow matters more because they can say it in ‘perfect’ English.

Being a great remote teammate means adopting a mindset where we’re not just thinking about the job we have, but of those we work alongside…even if they’re miles or even continents away. Find out more about how you can develop that mindset on your team.

About the author

Paul Stevens – CEO, Mayflower College, Plymouth, UK

Paul has been involved in English language training and testing for the past 30 years, specializing in Aviation English. His latest project is SayWhat? which looks at the communication process “from the other side”; how native-English speakers need to filter and simplify their English and have a better understanding of the challenges faced by ESL speakers.

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