As organisational development consultants, we see increasing cultural differences converge and collide in the global workplace. The divide can be wide. Work-life success requires specific skills for managing cultural challenges that are new and outside one’s repertoire.

Astin Brown’s cross-culture communication framework equips managers and leaders with strategies and approaches to tune into and work successfully with divergent cultural attitudes, beliefs and behaviour, as well as to acquire, use and transfer knowledge across different cultural contexts.

Our human capital options range from Executive Recruitment to Talent Management Solutions – in the shape of Executive Coaching and Training & Development. We support and train management to think and act systemically – both locally and globally.

Astin Brown Inc’s recruitment solutions help companies with one of their most critical challenges: to identify and hire the right person. Stereotypes, assumptions and a general lack of ability to read personality traits across cultures can mean that the right person is overlooked.

We use a combination of proven search methods and novel up-to-date approaches to identify and attract talent whose diversity fits the workplace culture and enables effective cross-culture management .

We work for clients across a range of industries, sourcing quality candidates for permanent and contract positions within commercial, professional and industrial environments.

Effective Talent Management reduces the risk to a business’s 'people portfolio' by ensuring that a company has a clear understanding of what is required to fill vacancies in order to minimize organisational churn rates. Succession planning is about promoting the right people, and then supporting them by developing capabilities integral to the job. Managing upheavals and challenges presented by cross-cultural differences helps employees prepare for change and career progression.

Astin Brown Inc’s Talent Management Coaching Solutions assist in strengthening leadership and cross-cultural capability. We honour the work of Dr Anthony Grant (University of Sydney) in our development of a range of evidence-based coaching interventions that take a highly practical and results-oriented approach to helping organisations develop management skills and leadership capability. Our coaching services assist individuals in setting and achieving high performance goals in a self-directed manner.

Our coaches apply elements of applied linguistics, NLP and educational kinesiology, within a larger structure of evidence-based coaching to produce significant and sustained behavioural changes in employees. In order to address real issues faced by today's global business communities, our talent management solutions – whether Executive Coaching programs or Training & Development programs – incorporate cross-cultural communication and emotional intelligence (EI) components.

Our coaching repertoire includes:

Recruitment Coaching
We train recruitment managers to identify cultural competencies important in a role and to then observe for signs of those competencies in potential employees.

Cross-Cultural Coaching
Employees working across geographical boundaries are today faced with a variety of cultural challenges related to managing and integrating with multicultural teams or transacting effectively with partners and clients across cultural divides.

Executive Development Coaching and Intercultural Communication have coexisted as separate, parallel disciplines. Our Cross Cultural Coaching model developed by Parveen Sandhu (PhD) weaves the two disciplines together into a coherent and accessible whole. Our training, followed by coaching, gives leaders a deeper understanding of the cross cultural nuances that make people tick, increasing their awareness of the interactions that occur around them. Managers learn to focus less on specific behaviors and more on understanding the drivers of behavior within different cultural contexts.

Leadership Coaching
Leadership Coaching enhances individual and organisational performance by increasing the strengths and skills-set of future leaders at all levels in the organisation. We encourage leaders to consider how their emotions and actions impact on themselves, their team and their desired business outcomes.

Our coaching is instrumental in producing significant behavioural changes. Observable results include:

• Enhanced ability to empower staff to take ownership and improve productivity
• Improved ability to lead, motivate and develop staff
• Increased staff retention through better relationships between managers and direct reports
• More effective and appropriate mechanisms for giving feedback to staff
• Improved team cohesion
• Consistent goal attainment through improved goal-setting strategies

Career Management Coaching
Underpinned by strong methodology and tailored to individual needs, our career management coaching stretches the employee to increase self-awareness, identify career goals and develop strategies towards achieving goals. Strategies to overcome perceived shortcomings and career path blockages are included. We offer a highly personalised, politically safe and supportive one-to-one relationship between the employee and coach.

Our Career Management Coaching is particularly relevant to:

• An employee in need of support to achieve effective performance in a complex new role
• Employees not well-matched within a new structure
• A manager who is not performing effectively in a new leadership role
• Long-term employees possessing valuable knowledge and skills required by the organisation but who wish to scale down their involvement
• Employees returning home from an overseas posting or about to leave on one
• Senior employees transitioning into a career change or retirement
  

Managing across cultures & Cross-cultured customer service
Working with multicultural clients effectively is a growing challenge for securing a competitive edge in today's marketplace. Organisations adapting their service delivery to satisfy a culturally divergent global market know the rewards. Working with clients and delivering to customers from different cultures and languages requires skills and abilities that frequently lie outside the realm of traditional customer service training & development.

Astin Brown’s executive cross-cultural communication training and development programs are for professionals and teams endeavoring to build more successful working relationships with colleagues, suppliers and clients from another culture.
Our programs are flexible and designed in close collaboration with clients. As part of the executive format, individual coaching sessions provide a combination of in-depth background information and hands-on practical tips and solutions for working effectively across cultures and languages.

Benefits include:

• A clearer understanding of key drivers that motivate business counterparts and clients from different cultures
• A framework for reading and understanding different business and service cultures
• Practical strategies for reducing cross-cultural misunderstanding and for establishing respectful and productive relationships with colleagues, clients and suppliers across cultures
  

Keynote Speaking – Leadership across cultures
Parveen Sandhu (PhD), a Principal of Astin Brown Inc, is an engaging storyteller who facilitates to crowds and intimate groups, unraveling the complexities of communication across cultures. She offers a flexible format to suit diverse schedules and themes, and incorporates case studies and scenarios to provide a balance of structured input and discussion.

Her repertoire leaps borders, belief systems, assumptions and cultural norms, unlocking the doors and inspiring audiences to ignite meaningful working relationships across cultures.