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.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16