Almost every company that does business in India is sooner or later confronted with negative experiences from their Indian employees. Lack of commitment, lack of adherence to deadlines and lack of quality awareness are typical symptoms and indicate weak points in your own management process.
To ensure that your cooperation with Indians does not turn into frustration, you must discard the assumption that Indians think like Europeans as quickly as possible and readjust your own behavior for India.
The following list should clearly list the most important differences between Germany and India
Differences in leadership behavior
| Mitteleuropa | India | |
| Building organization | today largely team-oriented | still exclusively hierarchy-oriented |
| organizational structures | ... are adhered to | Weaknesses in the organization are identified and exploited |
| Process organization | Processes are adhered to | “Everything that is not explicitly forbidden is allowed” (To test limits) |
| Understanding of authority | Expertise is enough to be taken seriously | Without authority, no one is taken seriously (only superiors determine tasks) |
| Give in | ... is seen as a strength in many situations | ... is always interpreted as a weakness |
| Targets | Rough planning is sufficient | precise and detailed targets and work instructions are necessary |
| Control | ... is understood as distrust | ... is an absolute must and is also expected |
| Feedback | Internal feedback processes | Internal feedback is not enough |
| information gathering | Official information channels are sufficient | Whole truth only through informal information channels |
| individual responsibility | ... promotes personal initiative | Only act on instructions: “Let things run on your own responsibility” is seen as a lack of interest (“it’s not important to the parent company”) |
“Typical Indian” employees (from a slightly different perspective)
The Indian mythologist and management coach Dr. In this short video, Devdutt Pattanaik names and analyzes the four different characters found in Indian organizations. He describes their typical behavior and how they can be motivated or led.
(You can judge for yourself which type occurs and how often in practice or in your company.)
To successfully run an organization in India, you have to adapt yourself and your leadership behaviors.
Maybe Devdutt Pattanaik's model will help you adapt to the different needs of your Indian employees in order to raise their potential.
