How the Book is Organized

Here is a short overview of each chapter of Leadership Success in China: An Expatriate’s Guide. Click here to read a chapter of the book.
 
Chapter 1—Your Number One Problem: The Talent Shortage. Why are there too few talented local managers and leaders in China? China has many universities and millions graduate from them each year, so what are the problems? This chapter discusses the shortfall in the numbers and quality of local graduates and experienced middle managers relative to the demand. It also examines the implications of the shortfall: high employee turnover, title inflation, and salary escalation.
 
Chapter 2—The Chinese Employee. China’s population is diverse; as a result, there is no single, defining model of the Chinese employee. This chapter looks at some common characteristics that most mainland Chinese share and then examines the age variations and each age group’s differing experiences caused by China’s recent political upheavals. The management and leadership challenges that arise from these differences are then assessed. 
 
Chapter 3—Attracting Qualified Applicants. Companies compete fiercely to acquire qualified graduates in China. How to attract them is the subject of this chapter. Well-known multinationals with excellent reputations have little trouble in attracting good applicants, but how do lesser-known or new entrants to the China market make themselves appealing to desirable job seekers? What are these applicants looking for? And what turns them off?
 
Chapter 4—Selecting Your Team. Once you have acquired a strong field of applicants, how do you choose among them in the China context? This chapter looks at the hiring traps in China and the strategies you can use to avoid them.
 
Chapter 5—The Essential Nature of Trust. Perhaps the singularly most defining characteristic of all relationships in China is trust. You will achieve very little with your China team if trust is absent. It takes time to establish, it’s easy to lose, and once lost, it’s difficult to regain. Even when you have lost it, that fact may not be immediately apparent. This chapter examines the trust traps that lurk in the Chinese workplace and strategies to avoid them and to enhance trust.
 
Chapter 6—Setting the Direction for Your China Team. Chinese culture demands strong, decisive leadership. You must lay out a vision for your team—one in which each member can see his or her place. This will garner trust and respect and help with retaining your staff. But how do you do this and get your team to buy in? This chapter explains how. 
 
Chapter 7—Getting Your Team to Act Like a Team. Younger Chinese have little experience at being “team players.” One of your tasks as a leader will be to forge your young, ambitious reports into a cooperating, communicating, and cohesive team. Cultural factors will make this much harder than you expect. This chapter outlines a plan to achieve this goal.
 
Chapter 8—Training Your Employees. Training is essential in China. Your Chinese staff will need to gain many more skills so that they can work effectively in your international organization and improve their cultural fit within it. But also in China—perhaps more than anywhere else—training serves as a key retention driver for your staff. How training should be delivered and how it can be leveraged are the subjects of this chapter.
 
Chapter 9—Coaching Your Team. Coaching complements training, and it represents one of the main methods by which people learn on the job. The dearth of managerial talent in China means that your role as a coach will never be more important. How you coach also depends on whether your local reports are younger or older. This chapter examines what conventional coaching techniques can be used in China and how they should be modified for China’s unique conditions.
 
Chapter 10—Managing Your Team’s Performance. Managing a team’s performance represents many managers’ least preferred task. But in China, performance management is even more difficult. This chapter explains why and offers a series of strategies aimed at overcoming the difficulties and getting your local staff more accustomed to accepting accountability.
 
Chapter 11—Growing Ready Local Leaders. Recruiting local senior leaders and managers often is not an option in China. At this stage in China’s economic development, there simply are too few. So many organizations have no option other than to develop their own pool of leaders. This chapter provides valuable advice on how to do this in China. 
 
Chapter 12—Keeping Your Team. Personnel poaching is rampant in China. The chances are that your best local reports will be tagged by headhunters. What makes people susceptible to outside offers? Is it simply a matter of money, or are other factors important? This chapter examines what you can do to keep your team. 
 
Chapter 13—Getting Off to a Fast Start. An expatriate assignment in China requires plenty of predeparture preparation and a well-conceived plan for the first few months after your arrival. This chapter provides advice on what to do, based on the experiences of other expatriates who have held China assignments.