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<p class="" id="publicationDate">
<span class="">December 2, 2015 12:50 pm</span></p>
<div class=""><h1>Rise of the multilingual boss creates a ‘monoglot ceiling’<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0dbf22c2-9824-11e5-95c7-d47aa298f769.html#" class="" id="newShareBtn_top">
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Having another language can aid your brain. Not having one can hurt your promotion chances
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<div class="" id="storyContent"><div class="" style="width:600px"><span class=""><img alt="" src="http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/7644769f-2947-4a29-b8c7-083f04ab143a.img"></span></div><p>When Isabelle Allen joined <a href="http://www.ft.com/topics/organisations/KPMG" title="KPMG related articles - FT.com">KPMG</a> in 1991, she says, the professional services group valued, promoted and rewarded those people who had deep expertise.</p>
<p class="">“We were looking for people who were master of a task and
getting better at doing the same task year on year,” says the French
executive, who is now global head of sales and markets at KPMG. </p><br><div class=""><div id="firstft" class="" style="padding-left:8px;padding-right:8px;overflow:visible"><h4>Andrew Hill</h4><br><p><em>irst</em>FT is our new essential daily email briefing of the best stories from across the web</p></div></div><p class="">These
days, the company is looking for breadth as well as depth, seeking
staff “who thrive on change, people who are comfortable with ambiguity —
solvers of problems that didn’t even exist two years ago”.</p>
<p class="">Having studied the latest research into the cognitive
benefits of multilingualism, Ms Allen wonders whether knowledge of
foreign languages may be one hidden signpost pointing towards those
future stars. </p>
<p class="">“The multilingual brain might actually be better at doing
business than the monolingual brain,” says Antonella Sorace, professor
of developmental linguistics at the University of Edinburgh.</p>
<p class="">Multinational companies have long
recognised the functional benefits of multilingualism as a bridge
between business cultures. Not speaking other languages may even be a
block to promotion these days, according to early findings from the
British Academy’s <a class="" href="http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/Born_Global.cfm" title="Born Global - British Academy" target="_blank">Born Global research</a> into language policy in the UK. </p>
<p class="">“We are being told that there’s a ‘glass ceiling’ developing
for monoglots within global businesses,” says Richard Hardie, who
chairs UBS in London and heads the Born Global steering committee. Staff
will not get into “the more rarefied atmosphere” of the senior ranks
unless they have had “overseas experience, cultural awareness and
probably have [another] language”.</p>
<p class="">Increasingly, though, there are other ways to achieve operational efficiency in foreign languages. <a class="" href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8cae0fec-3aac-11e5-bbd1-b37bc06f590c.html#axzz3t59QQKCm" title="Google Translate: good enough to use in business? - FT.com" target="_blank">Google Translate </a>and
other machine applications seem to be eroding one justification for
learning languages, by performing — adequately, if not perfectly — some
of the basic functions of translation. Native English speakers can
simply take advantage of the rest of the world’s desire to learn the
lingua franca of international business. Even non-English speakers can
avoid the wearying long route to fluency in English and take <a class="" href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f1672ac0-69e4-11df-a978-00144feab49a.html#axzz3t59QQKCm" title="Globish - FT.com" target="_blank">a short-cut to Globish</a>, a system that teaches a basic working vocabulary of 1,500 words.</p>
<p class="">If they do so, however, they may potentially miss out on the
cognitive advantages of learning and speaking other languages,
according to much recent scientific research. </p>
<div style="padding-left:8px;padding-right:8px;overflow:visible" class=""><h3 class="">
</h3><strong class=""><p class="">How to talk the talk</p>
</strong><p class="">• Build language training and hiring of multilingual staff into longer-term strategic plans for executive development.<br class="">• As managers, set an example by learning and speaking other languages.<br class="">• Champion policies to support multilingual workers and language-learners.<br class="">• Include multilingualism as one attribute for members of diverse teams.<br class="">•
Don’t forget the importance of written communication: develop or hire
people who can write as well as speak foreign languages. </p>
</div><p class="">Researchers at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University found, for instance, that people seem to <a class="" href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001002771300228X" title="“Piensa” twice: On the foreign language effect in decision making" target="_blank">make more rational decisions</a>
in their second language — possibly because it distances them from the
decision. Other benefits could include a greater ability to negotiate —
because multilingual people can <a class="" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3593058/" title="Perspective-Taking Ability in Bilingual Children: Extending Advantages in Executive Control to Spatial Reasoning" target="_blank">see others’ perspectives more easily</a> — improved capacity to switch between tasks, and a greater focus and ability to set priorities. </p>
<p class="">It makes no difference whether the second
language is widely spoken, such as English or Hindi, or a less common
language such as Gaelic, says Italian-born Prof Sorace, who is also
founder of <a class="" href="http://www.bilingualism-matters.ppls.ed.ac.uk/" title="About us - Bilingualism Matters" target="_blank">Bilingualism Matters</a>, set up to spread science-based information about languages and language-learning.</p>
<p class="">Languages acquired later in life can have the same effect.
As well as hiring more multilinguals, companies should devote more time
to training language skills, work with universities to promote the
research, and support the workforce in raising multilingual families,
says Prof Sorace. </p>
<p class="">Sending English-speakers to foreign postings, she points
out, “is a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn languages,
rather than being protected in an English-only environment”.</p>
<p class="">It still takes time, though, to get fluent enough in a
language to find it useful in business — and linguistic ability is not a
catch-all way of overcoming cultural differences in business. </p>
<p class="">When Jo Dawson, who studied German and Swedish at Cambridge
university, went to work in financial services, friends said, “You’re
not using your languages — you’ve given up. Why did you bother
studying?” Now an executive coach with The Alexander Partnership, she
notices that senior managers with English as a second language still
cannot “read” a room of native English-speakers or uncover others’
hidden agendas. They do not know “what people are really saying”, she
says. </p>
<p class="">Cultural blindness such as this may not have much to do with
whether executives speak another language, says KPMG’s Ms Allen: “I’ve
met a lot of people who are totally monolingual and can’t read a room.”</p>
<p class="">A more serious concern is that time spent
learning a language could be better spent acquiring other skills, some
of which — such as learning to play a musical instrument — also <a class="" href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/44993988-6f65-11df-9f43-00144feabdc0.html" title="Notes on the brain - FT.com" target="_blank">offer proven benefits for the brain</a>.</p>
<p class="">Bill Anderson, a senior vice-president at Pearson English,
which recently hosted, with the Financial Times, a discussion on
bilingualism’s challenges and opportunities, warns that tight annual
operating budgets do not allow for long-term language-learning goals.
Make a “short-term commitment [to language courses] and you will get
very short-term benefits”, he says. </p>
<p class="">Pearson (until this week the parent company of the FT) is
devoting energy to measuring the return on investment from the language
services it sells but Mr Anderson says that clients claim an improvement
in productivity of 45 hours a year for each staff member they put
through English classes. Prof Sorace says: “It is not an either/or
choice: having languages can benefit whatever one does.”</p>
<p class="">Some research suggests that the effects
of language learning on the brain — specifically in improving
multilinguals’ ability to screen out irrelevant information and set
priorities — may <a class="" href="http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/bilingual-advantage-aging-brain" title="Is Bilingualism Really an Advantage? - The New Yorker" target="_blank">not be as dramatic</a> as first thought. <a class="" href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/26/1/99" title="Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias?" target="_blank">One paper</a> shows academic journals prefer to publish positive studies about bilingualism.</p>
<div class="">
<div class=""><div class=""><div class="">Your opinion</div></div><a class="" name="pd_a_9209467" style="display:inline;padding:0px;margin:0px"></a><div class="" id="PDI_container9209467"><div class="" style="margin-bottom:0px;margin-top:0px" name="PDI_form9209467" id="PDI_form9209467"><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""> Should companies spend more on teaching foreign languages to their staff?</div></div></div></div><div class=""><span class="" id="pds-answer9209467"><span class=""><span class=""><input class="" id="PDI_answer41945487" value="41945487" name="PDI_answer41945487" type="checkbox"></span><label for="PDI_answer41945487" class=""><span class="">Yes</span></label><span class=""></span></span><span class=""><span class=""><input class="" id="PDI_answer41945488" value="41945488" name="PDI_answer41945488" type="checkbox"></span><label for="PDI_answer41945488" class=""><span class="">No</span></label><span class=""></span></span></span><span class=""><label for="PDI_answerOther9209467" class=""><span class="">Other:</span></label><span class=""><input class="" maxlength="80" id="PDI_OtherText9209467" name="PDI_OtherText9209467" type="text"></span><span class=""></span></span></div><div class=""><div class=""><a id="pd-vote-button9209467" class=""><span class="">Vote</span></a><span class=""><a class="">View Results</a><span class=""></span></span><span class=""></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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<p class="">Even so, there is no evidence that multilinguals are
disadvantaged and, as they become more interested in their staff’s
cognitive potential, businesses see an opportunity to reap any benefits.
Ms Allen says companies have not done a good job of “harnessing the
huge pool of potential of all the people around the world that are
multilingual”.</p>
<p class="">In countries where many languages and dialects are spoken —
or among immigrant communities — having to know more than one tongue is
sometimes regarded as a burden, rather than an asset. </p>
<p class="">Even those countries that take bilingualism for granted —
Norway or the Netherlands, for example — tend to focus on the most
direct advantages.</p>
<p class="">Where does this cognitive and cultural head-start in business leave citizens of countries that are more resolutely monolingual? </p>
<p class="">Training in how to handle cross-border business is helpful
in bridging the gap, but, referring to the UK’s position as the EU
laggard in language skills, Mr Hardie warns against falling behind in
the linguistic chase. </p>
<p class="">“Others will continue to widen their language base,” he
says, “but we can at least get into third gear and give a reasonable
proportion of the ‘born global’ generation the chance to operate as
global players.” <br></p><p class=""><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0dbf22c2-9824-11e5-95c7-d47aa298f769.html#axzz3tH7J2aOo">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0dbf22c2-9824-11e5-95c7-d47aa298f769.html#axzz3tH7J2aOo</a><br></p></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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