FastTrain

The other day I was having a coffee with a friend when the conversation turned to business etiquette, particularly when doing business in a foreign country.

In my friend’s office there is a Serbian staff member. He had commented that it is incorrect to go into a business meeting in Serbia and smile. He said that this could be seen as being flippant. Having visited Belgrade on a number of occasions I was surprised by this and decided to check it out. So I contacted a close friend and interpreter in Belgrade.

He responded back by saying that smiling is fine, but it would be wrong to crack a joke or be flippant at the start of a meeting. That left me wondering how much more bad advice was circulating the taverns and coffee houses of the City.

Here’s another one; if you look up business etiquette for Serbia you will find advice that people greet each other with three kisses to the cheek. That advice is correct, but my Serbian friend confirmed that it would be inappropriate for a stranger to do this and it is reserved only for close colleagues and family.

We all know the etiquette for China includes not giving clocks or handkerchiefs because they are associated with death or funerals, we also know that the number 8 is lucky, but very often other advice is unspoken or unrehearsed.

Of course the symbolic issues are important, but most businesspeople need straightforward advice about how to greet, hold meetings and negotiate in the country concerned.

I had an experience last week of running a training course in Greece and I was reminded once more on the varied expectations and behaviours of different nationalities. There was a variety of nationalities in attendance – predominantly Greek but also Bulgarian and Romanian.

The big difference in this kind of audience was the constant conversation going on during the training. You don’t normally get this in the UK and it took me a little while to get used to it. However I soon realised they were actually translating and explaining things to each other, rather than discussing the previous night’s football! Different people work and understand at different rates but this was even more pronounced in an international group where English is not the first language. It becomes really important in such groups to pace them rather than trying to lead.

They were MBA students and so keen to learn but also very tired after an exam and early morning travel. I gave them plenty of breaks but also concentrated the material in a shorter time span than I had planned as I realised what a long day they had already had.