The cultural divide between business leaders in the Western world and their counterparts in the East can manifest itself in the simplest of situations. To get an idea of how, think of a business lunch or dinner.
This business custom would not seem to be fraught with potential cultural landmines. After all, everyone eats regardless of where we live on the planet.
But the potential for missteps lies in each party's expectations when these gatherings happen.
For example, Chinese businesspeople see business lunches and dinners as an opportunity to show respect and develop relationships. Any hard sell will come later. For Americans, these meals are simply a setting where business deals take place. Certainly, there is still an expectation of being polite and respectful, but the talk quickly shifts from pleasantries to business.
Once, many years ago, I was involved in such a lunchtime meeting between a Chinese delegation and an American business. The Americans didn't even bother to arrange for the meal to take place in a nice restaurant. They ordered out for sandwiches and met in the office, talking business as they ate.
It was a shaky start to the relationship, with the Chinese side feeling disrespected.
These days, leaders have plenty more to concern themselves with than different ideas about business dinners. It's a volatile world, with trade wars, tariffs, and real wars affecting how we do business in the global economy. Technology, especially artificial intelligence, is also advancing at a rapid pace, creating potential new problems even as it solves old ones.
In many ways, such volatility is not new. The world has faced crises in the past — even as recently as the pandemic — and somehow plenty of strong businesses have persevered through such times. They will do so again.
Still, for leaders, their teams, and their organizations to thrive despite the volatility, it's helpful to have a good understanding of the world and the people beyond our own borders, right down to their approach to business lunches.
Deepening Relationships
Clearly, when we talk about the East and the West, more than geography is in play.
Our life experiences, along with the cultural norms and political systems we grew up under, can affect how we approach business and leadership. But we owe it to ourselves — as well as to those we lead and those we do business with — to continually learn about the larger world so we don't inadvertently cause tensions that could easily have been avoided or miss opportunities that were there for the taking.
Keep in mind, this is more than just an East-West divide. It would be nice if it were that simple. Although I have lived in the United States for more than 40 years, I grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, which promoted collectivism rather than the individualism of the U.S.
But while China is in the East, it is not representative of all the East. China is different from Taiwan, which is a democracy, and neither of them is the same as India. The more we can learn about each culture and its customs and expectations, the more our relationships with them will grow deeper and the more successful we will be.
Along the way, we may even encounter pleasant surprises.
After growing up in China, I lived for five years in France before moving to the United States, where I eventually accepted a job with Rheem. It was there that a different approach caught me off guard, but in a good way.
My predecessor, who had been promoted, handed me the key to his old office and inside I found that he had left stacks of files for me. All his hard work was right there so I could pick up where he left off. When I had questions, he shared information without hesitation.
Even though I was not a typical Chinese person, having spent several years in Europe, such openness, transparency, and generosity surprised me. If I had been in his place, I might have viewed that work as my personal property, a secret sauce I would not share with others.
For me, it was a revelatory moment.
When Silence is Not Assent
That manager's approach is emblematic of another difference between the East and the West. In the U.S., for example, many CEOs expect their teams to speak up if they spot a problem or have a difference of opinion. They seek to promote an openness that lends itself to better decisions and more innovation.
This is different from the hierarchy in many Asian cultures, where the leader is seen almost as a father figure, and there can be a reluctance to mention anything that might be controversial or displease this person.
That's another example of where cultural differences can undermine communication when business discussions happen. Americans are more likely to be outspoken, letting their views be known. If they don't say anything, then there's a reasonable likelihood that they agree with what is being discussed.
In China, silence doesn't necessarily mean agreement. They just don't want to verbalize their disagreements so openly because doing so might embarrass someone. Saving face is still an important concept.
But we should not see these or other differences as a negative. Differences can be an asset, helping us to view things from a variety of perspectives and make discoveries we otherwise might not have.
Plus, with the world shrinking because of transportation and communication advances, we will have the opportunity to learn how much alike we are despite our differences, and cooperation will become more important than ever. After all, we have a shared humanity even if we do come from different races, different countries and different political systems. And we have challenges today, such as artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons, that we have a better chance of addressing if we understand each other and work together.
And we can do that without abandoning all of the early influences — large and small — that helped make us who we are.
By this point in my life, I have spent many more years living in the U.S. than in China, but after all that time, my stomach still prefers Chinese food.
Some things you can change and some things you can't.
About Lintao (LT) Lu
Lintao (LT) Lu, author of "In Through the Window: On Forging Your Own Path to Success," is a global executive, engineer, and entrepreneur who rose from extreme poverty in rural China to lead multinational businesses across the U.S., France, China, and Singapore. Lu is the founding leader of NAVAC, a fast-growing brand in HVAC and industrial vacuum technologies. He is fluent in four languages, has a doctorate in energetic physics, and holds seven U.S. patents.
