Support Staff Thriving in International Schools (Part 2)
Henry was born and raised in Singapore and pursued his tertiary education in the US. He lived in China for 16 years and is now semi-retired in the US. He worked with many westerners and Chinese. He always sees himself as the East meets West and a bridge between the academics and the business administrative division. He will share a few additional tips on how you can thrive in an international school and with colleagues. His article focuses on the working relationship between you and the foreign colleagues.
#1 Build rapport
First, you use common courtesy like saying “Good morning” and smiling. And you make small talk. Small talk is instrumental in building a comfort level between colleagues. In his 17 years of working and living in China, he observed that the Chinese are relatively weak in making small talk with people they do not know well. On the other hand, westerners are more comfortable with this activity. For example, he was opening an account with a bank in the US for his new business. The whole process lasted about 25-30 minutes. Throughout the entire time, the banker made small talk with Henry. They talked about the weather, living in the city, Asian foods, traveling, and the pandemic. Small talk is essential to relieving work-related stress and anxiety. It also allows the parties to relax before discussing a pertinent issue or executing a job. When a foreign teacher comes to the Finance department for reimbursement, you can talk about mundane topics to sustain small talks, such as the weather, traffic, the weekend, or an event at school. There’s another reason Henry created the 12-piece Identity Puzzle (see Part 1 of the article). The 12 topics in the puzzle are good conversational starters or content.
#2 Establish a relationship with your foreign colleagues
To effectively support and serve your foreign parents and teachers, you need to know them and their preferences. It is only when you establish a friendship with someone from a different culture that you better understand their needs, preferences, and concerns. Knowing a person changes how we converse and makes it more polite and non-confrontational when we encounter an issue. Over the last two years, Henry has done a cross-cultural survey with more than 200 respondents. He discovered a direct correlation between people who have a strong working relationship with their foreign colleagues and people who have foreign colleagues as their friends. His definition of friendship is a relationship between people who like each other and enjoy each other’s company. An example of friendship is when you have a buddy with whom you want to do things together. For example, dining out, hiking, going to the movies, or just hanging out. Of course, you don’t have to befriend all the foreign teachers. Here’s Henry’s suggestion: you first practice making small talk with someone you know, then someone you feel comfortable with, and so on. Or you can do this: during his workshop on Delivering Stellar Service to Parents & Teachers, he asks his participants to study some magazine photographs of people in everyday life situations. He then asks them to come up with statements or questions they might use to make a pleasant, light conversation with. Wait, Henry. “I have difficulties conversing in English. How am I going to make small talk or establish friendship?” Good question. That leads us to the next point.
#3 Try to speak and write better English
Language is the window to the world. In our case, the English language is the window to the world of your international school. We all know the benefits of learning English. In one of Henry’s schools, a foreign teacher conducted a 12-week English class for their security guards and school drivers. They learned about greetings, making small talk, asking questions, and giving directions. For those of you who already know some English, good for you. Try to speak and write better English. Keep improving. Keep learning. The more you learn, the better you do.
#4 Understand and embrace different cultures
The school comprises people from diverse cultures. Learning about other cultures helps you embrace and appreciates people that are different from you. The more you interact with people from different countries, the better your communication and the more you respect and value them. Cultural education ensures that there is effective communication between people of differing cultures. Even if there’s a common language of interaction, without necessary cultural education, there’s always the risk of stereotyping or misunderstanding the other person. Henry worked in three international schools and one bilingual school. Unfortunately, it is uncommon to witness a divide between the academics, where the teachers are mostly foreigners, and the business administrative division, where the employees are primarily local. His former teacher, who has worked in international schools for more than ten years, aptly observed this: “I so often observed misunderstandings between teachers and other staff members (especially those from the host country) at the three international schools I worked at. Generally, everyone has good intentions, yet things get ‘lost in translation’ on both sides” by Sarah Hubner. Besides helping you professionally, there are also personal benefits of learning about other cultures, such as stimulating your mind and promoting understanding. Cultures are interesting. You understand various ways of doing things and become more prepared to cope with the ever-changing world.
#5 Develop trust
We need to build trust in ALL relationships whether it be romantic relationships professional relationships. Without trust, you second guess your counterparts’ intentions and what they are doing. When that happens, we withdraw our energy and level of engagement. It weakens the school’s effectiveness and efficiency. On the contrary, trust makes people eager to be part of a group, with a shared purpose and willingness to depend on each other. We willingly contribute what is needed by sharing our dedication, talent, and energy. Building trust usually takes months or even years, but you could lose it in one incident.
A: Competence
It is imperative in a professional setting. You are employed for a reason: to do a job. Excel in what you do. Raise the service standards…not according to your perception alone. We always think that we do a good job, don’t we? In Henry’s years of conducting performance appraisals with his direct reports, he rarely hears them saying they do a below average or a poor job. Seek feedback from your peers and your supervisors with an open mind and identify how you can improve. Find out how counterparts from other international schools are doing the job. For example, Henry sent a group of cleaning ayis to a 5-star hotel during one of the PD days to observe how its cleaning staff do the job. If you don’t do your job well, there is no trust in the people you support and serve. Besides excelling in your work, be helpful even if it is NOT your job description. Go above and beyond your call of duty. Here’s an example. Dursley not only did well as a school bus coordinator; he went above and beyond his call of duty. Suzhou is where he worked. The city doesn’t have an airport; the nearest airport is Shanghai and Wuxi. To take an international flight, foreign teachers have to travel to Shanghai. This is before the invention of DiDi. There are taxis, but they are not very reliable when you are trying to catch a ride to the airport with your check-in luggage. Concerned about catching the flight on time, one foreign teacher asked if Dursley could help find a private car to the airport. Dursley willingly helped her. The teacher was very appreciative. You know what? People tell other people about it if they receive good service. She tells another teacher about it. She tells 5. The five tell another 5. Before long, all foreign teachers are getting help from Dursley. It is not just making arrangements for the ride. Sometimes, the teacher is waiting at one spot, and the driver is waiting at another. Dursley sometimes had to coordinate between the teacher and the driver.
B: Empathy
Connect. You connect better when you try to speak and write better English and seek to understand other cultures. It is essential to put yourself in the shoes of foreign colleagues. Remember this: most foreign colleagues do not know Chinese, and many don’t understand Chinese culture. They don’t know what to do when they run into plumbing issues with their apartment. They do not know how to communicate with the plumber in China. Do you anticipate teachers’ challenges and offer your help? Daniel is our new secondary school principal. When he came from Suzhou for interviews, HR did an excellent job picking him up at the airport and checking him in at a decent hotel. They picked him up for interviews. They dropped him off at the airport after the interviews and meetings. When he was finally hired, he drove his car from Suzhou to Beijing. He was going to drive to school from his rented apartment on his first day at school. He has been to the school, but he never drove to school. There’s GPS. No directions are needed. But he didn’t know where to park his car. It didn’t dawn upon him to ask the question. We didn’t allow any vehicles to park on campus even though we have space for car parking inside. We put ourselves in his shoes and gave him directions on where to park one day before. We acted before he even asked. We anticipated his needs. That’s empathy.
C: Reliability
Are you reliable? Do you see it through if you say “yes” to a request? Do you follow up? Or, worse still. If your foreign colleague makes a request, you don’t respond.
D: Integrity
Let your “yes” be yes. You may have to stop saying “没有问题” when you cannot complete a task. Explain what kind of assistance you need to turn it into a truly “yes” response.
Always remember this: You are a valuable member of the school. You have much to contribute.
