Global Work

In the course of career discussions with mentors, managers, colleagues and friends, working globally is always something that comes up. Working internationally is something I’m paid to do, and I’m happy about that! Working globally is often hard, and it is a challenge that I truly enjoy. Why?

Maybe it’s a natural strength. According to Marcus Buckingham, each of us has strengths. He defines these as specific activities that “make you feel strong.” In his methodology, you can look for signs of strength in the following ways:
• If you have some success at it, it may be a strength.
• If, before you do it, you find your self instinctively looking forward to it, it may be a strength.
• If, while you are doing it, you find yourself easily able to concentrate (your synapses firing, your brain literally growing), it may be a strength.
• If, after you’ve done it, it feels like it fulfills a need of yours, it may be a strength.

I have had success working globally, I do look forward to it, I can lose track of time when I’m engrossed in a conversation or running a workshop with colleagues halfway around the world, and I do get a sense of fulfillment. I love learning about people everywhere, and in the process learning about myself. This sums up as a set of positive emotions around this kind of work. (NB – I get a similar charge working with colleagues nearby, but there is a little something extra that comes with connecting with others around the planet.)

Maybe it’s enlightened self-interest.  As Thomas Friedman has written about with such clarity in The World is Flat, if politics and terrorism don’t get in the way, knowledge workers like me will increasingly be part of a single global network. The ability to collaborate with others throughout the world will be more than an advantage, it will be table stakes to get into the game of knowledge work. As we continue to find activities that can be digitized and decomposed and shared with lower cost providers around the planet, then the touchy-feely human relationship and consulting skills that I have will also become more important than ever. Effective communication among people is hard enough, and even more so across distance and culture. So maybe it’s not just a natural strength, but also a sober reckoning of economic advantage.

Maybe it’s a family legacy. Although my grandfather Martin L. Ehrmann passed away when I was only six years old, I retain strong memories and a feeling of attachment for him. He was a mineralogist, and traveled the world collecting minerals at a time when global travel was far more difficult and far less comfortable than it is for us today. He wrote several chapters for a book about some of his adventures to Burma (Myanmar) and other locations where just getting there took a week or more. He seemed to be able to adapt to do business in any country and relished extending his network around the world; I aspire to the same. He was able to pick up a little of the language wherever he went; I too, find it easy to learn at least a few words of any language (and I can do better than that in several). He counted many of his business counterparts as his friends; the same can be said for me (even in a company where this sometimes feels a little counter to the culture). So maybe the explanation goes beyond strengths or skills or economics to something that lies in my genes.

Of course, there is a lot to complain about, too, working globally.  But that's for another post.

Do you work globally?  How do you find it?