120 people, 6 nations, one roofing project — what Singapore taught me about leadership

Singapore, 1997. 38 degrees, 90 per cent humidity. I am standing on a construction site looking at an enormous area where, over the next two years, we are to build 45 roofs covering 77,000 square metres.

120 people from six nations are to manage it in two years, and delays are not permitted. Italians, Indians, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Thais, Germans. Some speak English. Most do not. Some shake hands. Others bow.

I am 33, freshly appointed as managing director, and I have no idea how to lead this. I am not good with heights either.

In the third week, the first real conflict. An Italian foreman criticises an Indian subcontractor in front of the whole crew. Factually correct. Culturally a disaster. The next day his team does not show up.

That was the moment: leading across cultures is not a soft skill. It is the hardest skill there is. It demands that you take off your own glasses. Every day.

Three lessons from two years:

First — respect is universal, its form is not. In Germany you show respect through directness. In Asia through indirectness. Both are sincere.

Second — trust is not built in meetings, but over food, over tea, in the moments in between.

Third — the people on that site had everything they needed. My job was to create the space in which they could come together.

The roof is still standing. What has stayed with me: leading across cultures demands essentially the same thing as leading anywhere — listen before you speak. Ask before you judge.

My question: when did you realise that your way of leading did not work in a different context — and what did you make of it?

Lead yourself, and everything else follows.
— Ralf