Effectively leading Latino employees

It has been my experience that many times leaders of Latino employees attribute too many challenges to either the cultural or language barriers. If we stop and ask ourselves "How would things be different if these employees spoke English and were of a very similar culture to mine?" What exactly defines the gap between the challenge at hand and the ideal situation? No cultural difference should compromise the quality of a process. I have met and gotten to know excellent leaders of Latino employees who do not speak Spanish at all. I have also known of many ineffective leaders of Latinos who speak both Spanish and English fluently. What is it exactly that these two different leaders bring or do not bring to their multi cultural teams?

You need to understand and acquire leadership skills, regardless of whom you are leading. When leading people who are different than you, your challenge becomes the adjustment of the same leadership skills you already have, given the cultural tendencies of your team members. For example, Latinos may be more oriented to personable communication and Caucasian leaders may be more oriented to privacy and personal space. Most people like a personable environment, true, but Latinos may prefer it more than you think.

All teams need Performance Reviews; however, Latino employees may require more frequent and informal reviews than you have scheduled. Everyone needs privacy in terms of personal issues being known by people at work; however, Latinos may be much more sensitive to the disclosure of personal information at work. Latinos may place more emphasis on body language, tone of voice or gestures; however, to Caucasians, the words themselves may be the most important part of communication. By understanding to what degree an issue is important, you will be able to adjust your leadership skills accordingly.

To work effectively with Latinos, employees of other cultures, or with any unfamiliar people, places, or scenarios, an organization should go through the four "A" phases of a cultural transition:

Acknowledge. A leader must acknowledge the contrasts that exist, e.g., different ways to ask for Leaves of Absence.

Accept. Managers may acknowledge that there are such contrasts, but sometimes it is hard to truly accept the differences and accept that people have different ways of doing things. Many times we refuse to make that internal change in our minds. For example, the common sentiment that "Latinos should learn English if they want to work in this country" theoretically makes a lot of sense. Realistically, though, it may never happen.

Adopt. Once we have acknowledged that some of our employees don't speak English, and we have accepted that the challenge is not going to go away, we must adopt the necessary changes to work around the cultural differences. Sometimes, this transition is evident in a Golf club when a superintendent hires employees who do not speak English (acknowledges) and realizes that without a few changes the team will not be very effective (accepts).

The next step is for you to take steps such as translating manuals, hiring interpreters, teaching the employees English, or even trying to learn Spanish. This adoption of measures that work with and around the cultural differences is a vital part of the cultural transition.

Adapt. No multi-cultural organization can be effective unless they adapt to the various differences in the team members. These differences may be based on gender, age, religious beliefs, ethnic background, disability and others. An effective organization will adopt all necessary changes and transition from a company that is only nominally culturally sensitive to a company that is sensitive in deed.

Budget for bilinguals

If you don't already have one, retaining one or two qualified bilingual employees will make your team more effective. Allocate enough funds in the budget for the scouting and recruitment costs in addition to the employee's salary. However, once you have a bilingual employee on your team, do not mistake communication for leadership. Just because these bilingual employees can manage the crew does not necessarily mean that they can also be crew leaders in a way that you want your team to function. You are still the leader of your team; delegating tasks is different from delegating leadership.

Translate all relevant and job description materials into Spanish. As part of the acceptance and adoption of necessary measures described above, this translation must occur and must be done well. If you are using someone in-house to translate documents, make sure that this person is actually proficient in both languages. A mediocre translation job communicates a mediocre effort in making the cultural transition and may limit the effectiveness of the measure.

You should not pay more than 15 cents per Spanish word. The standard in professional translation services is to charge per word in the target language. To estimate translation costs, do a word count in English, add 15% to that number, then multiply the total by 12 to 15 cents per word. For example, 1000 English words become about 1,150 Spanish words, which at 12 cents per word totals $138. Translating materials alone will not do the job. A bilingual person should explain the contents of all-important documents to employees who don't speak English or who may not read well. This may be necessary regardless of an employee's language ability.

Consider employees with H2B work visas--State and Federal governments have devised a specific work visa for seasonal labor from other countries. The goal is to allow employers to recruit seasonal staff from other countries. This process may take as long as five months or more depending on the firm you retain for this service. Do not assume that you can call an H2B firm in January when you need the crew by March.

This type of Labor regulation provides the following benefits for a Club:

Peace of mind. Both employers and employees can be certain that each year the same staff can be available without the risk of questionable Social Security numbers.

Savings. The costs associated with consistency, training, turnover, and quality are far too big when employees come and go. Your H2B employees can return each season and grow with your company. The more the Industry retains these services the better the prices and quality. Club organizations should drive this mode of employment by demanding better services from H2B firms.

Advancement. The principle in human resource management states that each employee must be trained and given the opportunity to advance in the organization.

Consistency. Familiarity and trust come with an ever-increasing efficiency by a team of employees who return each year.

There are a number of such firms in the market. Make sure you look at well established companies who also make a number of logistical arrangements for the work force they bring, such as transportation, health, room and board and other important aspects of the total process. An Internet search with the word "H2B" should direct you to a number of options.

There are two general situations where you will need interpreters: personal matters and work management matters. The principle states: if an employee spoke English, his or her personal issues wouldn't be public information. What can we do to achieve the same goal? An outside interpreter should be used for those issues that require an employee's dignity and privacy to be respected. These are situations like serious coaching and counseling meetings, performance reviews, personal conflicts, conflicts between employees and others. It is also a good idea to use an interpreter not employed by the Club when there are a number of items to cover in an employee meeting. You may want to save your items for one longer meeting. I have experienced more satisfied employees once a Club has used a non-biased interpreter with whom they feel more comfortable. One of the key issues that transpire after bringing an interpreter is that the Spanish-speaking employees "feel heard." There is a sense that this interpreter can actually speak on your employees' behalf and with the words and clarity that they might never be able to convey.

Objective review systems

There are number of Performance Review Systems that use a numeric value to track an employee's performance. However, the line items to be addressed are sometimes too broad and not descriptive enough, they do not describe the critical process or task at hand. If we are realistic, and truly want to measure quality, we should clearly spell out the standard expected in a task.

For example, an item may read: "Rakes bunkers well." Although it is critical to evaluate an employee on these important jobs, by not being explicit enough in the process, we may not be giving the job the importance it deserves. These are such a critical processes that they can easily be broken down into several more descriptive and still critical tasks. For example, more lines could read: "a) Does not rake sand out of the bunkers b) Understands the importance of 2-in. lips and bunkers edges, c) Places rakes on the correct places and orientation." Not only do these statements make the job more descriptive, but also become an operating value for your operation. Each line item should be given a numeric value, 1, 2 and 3, or 1 to 5. A final average of all tasks evaluated will determine the amount of raise for that employee. The line items themselves become the way in which an employee reaches the best raise possible, and not popularity, seniority or ambiguity in job performance assessments.

Resolve team conflicts effectively. Latinos and other cultures from warm climates may be more group oriented. It is suggested that Latinos gain their sense of identity from the degree in which they belong to a certain group, family or company. This natural inclination some times leads to conflicts among different groups of Latino employees. In my experience, these conflicts are created by issues that are either too personal or too simple/silly. Here are some suggestions on how to solve conflicts in a bilingual setting:

* Hire an outside interpreter.

* Identify who is part of what group.

* Hold separate meetings with the subgroups in conflict. Do not bring the leader or possible person involved in the conflict or his/her "second in place."

* Let the employees tell each side of the story.

* Confirm the stories and validate them as much as possible.

* Reach a conclusion and decide on an intervention measurement or disciplinary action.

* Bring the parties involved and gather more data if need, or communicate the intervention you have decided.

If the issues are too personal it may only be necessary to tell the parties involved that they must solve their issues personally, if these conflicts continue to affect in any way the work morale of the team, then you may have to terminate one or two people. Many times, when these issues become too frequent or too complex to solve, terminating one "trouble maker" magically solves them all. Be prepared to justify the termination with valid arguments.

There is no black and white answer when it comes to people's differences. A Club's ability to become an effective multi cultural organization may lie in the paradigms held by the key leader or leaders of the Club.

Arturo Castro is the principal of Spanish Systems, Inc., Chicago. To learn more, go to www.spanishsystems.com or call 847-772-6474.

Environmental Management info en Espanol

Through a partnership between Audubon International and TGM, an Argentina-based Spanish-language magazine serving the green industry, bilingual articles and fact sheets are available for download in either English or Spanish. Visit http://www.auduboninternational.org/e-source/index.htm to download the fact sheets.

"Providing environmental information in both English and Spanish was the next logical step in better serving our members, and in ensuring that environmental management information is as widely available as possible and can be put to use by green industry professionals everywhere," says Peter Bronski. Visit http://www.tgm.com.ar.

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