Communication

As we have already seen, Britain has copied many social and business mannerisms from the USA. Therefore, in this apparently reserved society, people use first names almost immediately: many bosses actively encourage their staff to call them by their first name. This informality even extends to those you are dealing with purely by phone or email: the person you have just contacted responds using your first name even though they may know nothing about you. The practice is uncomfortable to many foreigners, and has one very obvious drawback. If the relationship goes wrong and disagreement sets in, you are left in an uncomfortable position: having to address someone in a friendly way when you are feeling anything but that.

British style is to be courteous and friendly but detached. It’s polite to shake hands at the beginning and end of meetings. However, if you are a frequent visitor to a company, you will not be expected to shake hands with everyone in the office, only with those with whom you’re dealing directly. You’ll receive a limp, tenuous handshake from a surprising number of Britons: it’s their nervousness at confronting someone new, combined with the British reluctance to reveal too much emotion too soon.

The British are practical, empirical people, and distrust too much theory, philosophizing and idealism. So pack your presentations full of attainable objectives, concrete detail and provable statistics. Time your presentation to last around 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the gravity of your proposal, and allow opportunity for debate and questions. People will concentrate more on the content of what you say than on how you say it or your body language. Remember that even if your audience is wildly excited about your project, their response may be muted: it’s that British reserve at work, that fear of being seen to be too enthusiastic. If your audience is highly divided, the discussion is unlikely to be heated: a sense of calm and proportion usually prevails in British business.

As we have already seen, Britain has copied many social and business mannerisms from the USA. Therefore, in this apparently reserved society, people use first names almost immediately: many bosses actively encourage their staff to call them by their first name. This informality even extends to those you are dealing with purely by phone or email: the person you have just contacted responds using your first name even though they may know nothing about you. The practice is uncomfortable to many foreigners, and has one very obvious drawback. If the relationship goes wrong and disagreement sets in, you are left in an uncomfortable position: having to address someone in a friendly way when you are feeling anything but that.

Do and taboo subjects of conversation

Making conversation and small talk is an important part of building social contact.

Do’s

Taboos

People happily talk about the weather, their holidays what they will do at the weekend or the situation you are both in, general business information (prices, cost of living) and general politics but nothing too personal, until they get to know you.

Personal questions about family, marriage, religion, political loyalty, income and personal standards of living are avoided in early contact, as is anything that might be seen as an invasion of privacy. Boasting of contacts or saying how important you are or how great your car, house etc is are taboo and leads to automatic disbelief and distrust. Name dropping (Saying who you know who is important) is frowned on as is being seen as too intense or enthusiastic. Detachment, humour and moderation is everything.

Leadership and decision-making

American management approaches and methods have also influenced this area of British business. Power is often devolved downwards, and people are expected to ‘champion’ and to take responsibility for their particular projects. Britain operates on a ‘tight’ time environment, so managers are also expected to deliver on schedule, or have a pretty good justification for why it’s not possible. The more enlightened companies welcome input from any member of staff, no matter how modest their experience.

British managers often have fewer academic and technical qualifications compared to people handling the equivalent role in other countries, but tend to compensate for this by having more experience on the job. Some cultures regard British practices as unprofessional and slack: ‘muddling through’ is the British term for pulling everything together in the end, but this approach does not impress the Germans, for example.

The general management attitude in the UK is warm but detached, and relationships tend to be functional rather than personal. If confrontation emerges, it will be resolved face to face by focusing on the issues rather than on the personalities.

Management in Britain is by objectives, agreed with senior managers at the beginning of the year and appraised annually or six-monthly. Learning on the job and in-service training are important. Managers are expected to manage their time efficiently to meet targets.

Teamwork and motivation

Management teams is a basic principle of British management. This includes, sharing information, regular team briefings and teams taking credit for success (or getting angry if the boss does do without crediting them.) Team members are chosen on the basis of experience and qualifications but also on the basis of ‘usefulness’. It is accepted that in team meetings, anyone can contribute, regardless of specialism. The team leader is responsible for setting and objectives and tasks but team members taker individual responsibility for implementation. Delegation is also an important principle of British management.

Consultation is important, although team members will normally abide by majority decisions. However, the way of giving feedback can sometimes be quite adversarial. Criticism should not be seen as an attack on personal competence.