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Cross-Cultural Leadership Coaching Program
Names, projects, photos, logs used with permission.

Client: GSTI
Role: Leadership & Business Development Coaching
2014-2015
Cochin Area, India
Enhanced a Sr. Vice President – Offshore Delivery Services/Senior Business Analyst’s understanding and cultural authenticity when building his company’s presence in a new culture.

Jennifer’s coaching intervention set the groundwork to prepare a strategy to enter into the U.S. business environment which totaled $4.12 Mn a year. To learn more about this leader’s wins, read here.

Client: Wishtree Technologies
Our Role: Virtual Business Consultant & Leadership Coach
July 2018 – Present
Facilitated discussions that provide a strategic roadmap to cross-cultural business relationship building.

Client: Cascade Revenue Management – An AIMA Group Company
Our Role: Individualized Corporate Coaching (Roll out of L&D Initiative)
May 2015 – July 2018 (3 years 3 months)
Cochin Area, India
Consults with individuals and small groups to identify and improve customer service interaction strategies, workflow, team development, and management approaches. All coaching and training is conducted with language and fluency coaches over the telephone. Works along side management to provide a comprehensive development approach and upskilling program for employees to enhance internal and external communication with global stakeholders and clients.

Client: Third Wave Business Systems
Role: Leadership and Communication Coach
August 2013 – January 2014 (6 months)
Cochin Area, India
Small group and individualized business leadership coaching provided to team members to build cross-cultural teams.

Client: Techolution
Our Role: US Culture Expert & Communication Consultant
June 2015- December 2017
Provided group and 1-1 coaching to high potentials on the dev teams to work more effectively with US Americans.

Codework Solutions
Role: Team Coaching for Sales Teams and Dev Teams
2015- present
Provided ongoing sessions to employees to work more effectively across cultures in virtual and digital environments.

Client: Advenser
Our Role: Sales Team & Client Facing Coaching
Since 2015
Provided communication and coaching to teams and employees working with onsite prospective clients and current clients outside of India.

Client: UST Global
Role: Virtual Team and Cross-Culture Business Communication Trainer
Learning & Development Consultant, Stakeholder, Instructional Designer, Facilitator for a minimum of 3 long-term program roll outs benefiting over 2,000 employees
July 2013 – current (7 plus years)
Cochin Area, India
With expertise in onsite and offshore facilitation, Authentic Journeys has so far trained close to 400 people in UST Global. Liaised with the HR and Training Departments as well as Team Leads to carry out training needs analysis (TNA), instructional design, program creation, branding, implementation, session delivery, follow-up, correlation, and feedback analysis for offshore (India-based) and onsite (US-based) teams. Delivered training to staff in India (Kochi, Trivandrum, Bangalore, and Chennai) and in the US (Indians and Americans).

More Pictures & Information about Our Work with UST Global

Client: Wishtree Technologies
Our Role: Onboarding and Induction Trainer
July 2018 – Present
Provided team building and onboarding for over 80 employees during the pandemic work-from-home period.

Client: Cabot Technology Solutions Inc
Our Role: Building Rapport on Virtual, Co-located Teams
May 2013 – Present
Fast track software developers are selected for targeted, on-going workshops to fine-tune client-facing skills in virtual environments (Skype, email,chat, IM) and over the phone. Candidates learn to how to negotiate the cultural differences and expectations while working with US Americans and Canadians.

Client: EY
Role: International Team Builder/Facilitator
November 2013 – January 2017 (3 years 3 months)
Cochin Area, India
Provided classroom and individualized coaching to improve team dynamics and communication across global borders.

Feedback: “I never imagined that by changing my emailing skills I could save time in getting work done. I was often frustrated as my U.S. colleague was not answering my emails or turning in work on time, which delayed my work as well. I often had to escalate these problems to my manager, who would email and call the colleague to sort out the issue. I never realized that changing afew simple approaches to writing email subject lines, using a few American English words and making small talk in emails would be so helpful. Within a month of applying Jennifer’s tips, my manager received about 75% less escalation requests from me, making it possible for him to spend his time on more productive work.” ~Global Team Member at EY, Kochi, India

Client: ThinkPalm Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Our Role: Working With US Americans on Virtual Teams
October 2013 – Present
Cochin Area, India
Provided cultural business orientation programs to developers working on virtual teams with US Americans.

Client: Litmus7 Systems Consulting
Our Role: US Culture Expert & Facilitator
July 2012 – Present
Cochin Area, India
Provide context building to work effectively with Americans onsite or on virtual teams on a consultant basis.

Client: Armia Systems, Inc
Our Role: Engaging With Americans in Sales and Beyond
June 2018 – June 2018 (1 month)
Cochin Area, India
Enhanced the customer service approach with US Americans through targeted consultation and coaching with the focus on solving pressing cross-cultural misunderstandings and communication challenges.

Client: Talking Chalks
Our Role: Cross Cultural Business Consultant
Since July 2020
Facilitated online onboarding sessions for virtual tutors to prepare for facilitating learning with US based students. In addition, I provide consulting around course development, program promotion (webinars), and marketing communication.

Client: Tutorwaves Solutions Inc.
Role: US Culture Consultant
March 2013 – March 2014 (1 year 1 month)
Two day onboarding programs for Indian professionals working as tutors to grade school and high school students in the US. Overview of the US education system, small talk with students and parents, culture of education,and teaching philosophy of American teachers. Call handing, sales, and rapport building strategies for engaging American, Indian-American and NRI parents.

Client: QMiS Systems
Role: Team Communication and Cultural Sensitivity Programs for Global Teams
February 2016 – present
Cochin Area, India

Jennifer Kumar, author of this post, with some of the QMiS team in 2016,

Chronicle of Cross-Cultural Training Programs – Culture Sensitivity for Working Virtually

Client: 123RPO
Role: Communication & Culture Trainer
2016
Provided training and consulting to aid the team in providing culturally competent and targeted messages to their US stakeholders.

Client: Microsoft
Role: Offshore Team Culture Educator
November 2013 – December 2013 (2 months)
Provided Western Business Communication & Culture sessions to over 50 Indian IT professionals based in Hyderabad and Bangalore who were in the process of transitioning to US, UK, Australian and Canadian offshore projects.

Client: Arbitron India
Role: Working With Americans Programs
June 2012 – August 2013 (1 year 3 months)

Chronicle of Cross-Cultural Training Programs

What people liked about the program:
“Through the role play, I could learn what the U.S. people like and dislike, the gestures to be made, and how to start a conversation, how to greet people, how to start a voice mail, and finally how to talk to a U.S. college through the phone.” ~Maria

“From this 2 ½ day training, I came to know more about you and your character. You just changed my image that I already had about American people and their culture. Thanks a lot! You were just brilliant! Love you sooo…. Much!…..

About the training, I think we had all that we wanted. Through activities like ‘rocket launch’ and ‘role play’ of American cultural situations, we learned how to develop team spirit, more about each other’s qualities, and how to talk and behave in different situations. Games on presentations and summarizing helped me to raise my confidence level. Your encouragement was absolutely fantastic for me! Thank you! Take care! God bless you and your family.” ~Shijina

“We learnt about American values, how to communicate with people across borders, so many things about the U.S., eating manners and so on. We were enlightened learning everything about the U.S.” ~Laxmi

Learning & Development Chronicle of Cross Cultural Training Programs

Client: Wrench
Role: Accent & Virtual Communication Consultant
2016
Aided teams over a several month period to speak with more confidence and clarity working on global, virtual teams over digital platforms. This was achieved through classroom settings, homework, recording and meeting analysis and role plays.

Client: Undisclosed (Multinational Bank)
Role: Learning and Development Consultant, US Culture & Language Subject Matter Expert
Years: 2013-2015
Collaborated in an organization wide effort with stakeholders in India, the US and other countries to deconstruct and reengineer 10 US culture training modules that would be delivered to those working in customer service call centers. In addition to participating in a wide range of stakeholder standup meetings, focus groups, and instructional design brainstorming sessions, I also was the official train-the-trainer for all modules created.

Client: GSTI
Role: US English Marketing and Sales Assistance
October 2013 – July 2015 (1 year 10 months)
Cochin Area, India
Consulted, edited and wrote copy for company’s marketing materials that would be circulated to a US American audience.

Client: MariApps Marine Solutions
Role: Documentation Consultant
January 2017 – June 2017 (6 months)
Cochin Area, India
Provided 1:1 and small group coaching to members of cross-sectional teams on best practices in writing Software User Manuals/Guides, website copy and marketing materials. Created Style Guide for writing teams to utilize based on best practices identified in brainstorming sessions.

Client: Global Force
Role: Communication Consultant
2012-2013
Global Force, Inc. founder, Randy Bassin, operates an all-English speaking office in Kochi. His workers had previous training to build confidence in speaking but still found it difficult to understand the American accent and pronounce English words so that Americans understood them. Randy contacted Jennifer to enroll the workers in the “Introduction to American Accent” training. Jennifer taught them to pronounce difficult sounds found in English that do not exist in many Indic languages and how to identify sound combinations in American speaking patterns. The training includes role-plays, self-analysis, coaching and completion certificates.

What participants took away from the sessions:
“I learned how to be more polite while sending e-mail requests. I also learned how to combine words and sounds [in American English].” ~ Shimmi

“It’s not important to enact the same accent, but to understand it, so we can communicate better with the client.” ~Linda

“Being direct is not always polite in American English.” ~Tony

“I learned tips on how to talk in English more slowly and clearly so Americans can understand me better.” ~Praveen PS

Let’s add you to our list of success stories and chronicle of cross-cultural training programs!!

 

 

Jennifer Kumar is a PCC ICF certified coach since 2017, she has created and facilitated all the programs listed in this chronicle of cross-cultural training programs. She enjoys creating and facilitating hybrid 1:1, team and group coaching programs.  When you are ready to get started, feel free to get in touch with us!

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