Why Our Best Regional Hire Leaves Sooner Than We Think

We hired well. It took them the best part of a year to find their feet — and then, just as they got good, they resigned. The exit interview said "a better opportunity," so it went in the file under money. It usually wasn't money.

This episode is about the person every international team has: the one who ends up as the bridge between head office and the local team. They're the one we ring before a difficult call. The one who explains each side to the other and quietly sorts out the misunderstandings, usually before we've noticed there was anything to sort out. None of it is in their job description, and none of it is in their review.

We look at the two forces that push that person out, neither of which gets measured anywhere. First, the second, unwritten job they're doing — what researchers call cultural brokerage — where the only reward for being good at the bridge is more bridging. Second, the small signals that tell someone they belong: asked first, copied in, credited by name, hearing the news when everyone else does. Those signals rarely reach the person furthest from head office, and nobody withholds them on purpose. Put the two together and the person carrying the most is the person feeling the least secure. Then a recruiter calls, and the pitch isn't more money — it's someone finally giving the work a name.

Then four things we can do about it this week, none of which costs anything: name the bridge work and count it, share the load, fix the belonging signals on purpose, and check in early and regularly rather than finding out in the exit interview.

The people most worth keeping are the least likely to complain.

IN THIS EPISODE
(0:00) We hired well — and four months after they got good, they resigned
(1:00) Today's problem
(1:15) The person who became the bridge between head office and the region
(3:30) What it really costs us when they leave
(5:00) Reason one: the second job nobody wrote down
(8:00) Reason two: the belonging signals that don't reach them
(10:30) Why the two combine — and why the recruiter's pitch works
(12:00) Move one: name the bridge work, and count it
(13:15) Move two: share the load
(14:30) Move three: fix the belonging signals on purpose
(15:45) Move four: check in early and regularly
(17:00) THE ONE THING
(17:45) Work with Brendan

WORK WITH BRENDAN
If this is a live issue for your team right now, that's exactly the kind of thing I work through one-to-one with leaders — advisory, coaching and workshops. You can find out more about the work I do at brendanthomasquinn.com, and you can also find me on LinkedIn.

If you don't want to miss the next episode, hit subscribe wherever you're listening.

MUSIC
Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay

SOURCES
Coyle, D. (2018). The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. Bantam.
Molinsky, A. (2013). Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures Without Losing Yourself in the Process. Harvard Business Review Press.
Jang, S. (2017). Cultural Brokerage and Creative Performance in Multicultural Teams. Organization Science, 28(6), 993–1009.

Source article: brendanthomasquinn.com/retaining-international-hires-multicultural-teams/

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Two Companies Merged. Two Cultures Didn't.

The deal closed. The org chart was redrawn. On paper, two companies became one. So why, eighteen months on, are there still two of everything — two systems, two chat channels, two sets of people who quietly stick to their own side?

In this episode we look at why so many mergers stall without anyone noticing, and why "we're one company now" so often isn't true. A merger isn't one team with a mix of people in it — it's two whole teams pushed together, each arriving complete with its own tools, habits and trusted colleagues. So they sit side by side instead of becoming one. It's a quiet stall that costs real money, and it won't close on its own.

You'll get four practical, structural moves to weaken the divide — plus the one idea to take away: we don't get rid of a divide by pretending it isn't there; we weaken it by building things that cross it.

Cultural Friction with Brendan Thomas Quinn — twenty minutes, one real problem, and what we can actually do about it. If this is live on your team, find out more at brendanthomasquinn.com, and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Cultural stereotypes at work rarely arrive as prejudice. They arrive as preparation — and that's exactly what makes them so hard to spot.

You did the reading. A new colleague was joining from a region you hadn't worked with much, so you learned what to expect and adjusted: softened your delivery, slowed the meeting down, held back the direct question. Then you met them, and none of it fit. The careful accommodation you'd built landed as hesitancy, and it took weeks to work out what had gone wrong.

The guide wasn't lying to you. It was describing an average. You were dealing with a person.

This episode unpicks why even the most diligent, well-prepared leaders walk into this — and what to do instead:

• What cultural frameworks actually measure — populations, not the person in your Tuesday meeting
• The ecological fallacy, and why the variation within any country dwarfs the gap between countries
• "Sophisticated stereotyping" — why a stereotype built from real research is harder to shake than a crude one, because we defend it instead of dropping it
• Four moves you can start this week: hold the framework as a hypothesis not a conclusion, ask people directly how they like to work, widen the explanations you reach for before culture, and update fast — out loud

The frameworks earn their place when they make you curious. They cost you when they make you certain.

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If cultural friction is a live issue for your team right now, that's exactly the kind of thing I work through with leaders one-to-one — advisory, coaching and workshops. Find out more at brendanthomasquinn.com.

New here? Hit follow so you don't miss the next episode.

References: Osland & Bird (2000), "Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping"; Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov (2010), Cultures and Organisations; Gerhart & Fang (2005); Robinson (1950); Meyer (2014), The Culture Map.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.