Canada has become more culturally diverse over time, says Tina Varughese, public speaker and president of t Works Inc. She adds that today, more than 20 per cent of Canada’s population wasn’t born here.

“This changes depending on the urban centre you’re in,” she adds. In Calgary, we’re looking at about a 26 per cent foreign-born population. For those of you based in Toronto, you’re looking at a 39 per cent foreign-born population, and for those of you situated in Vancouver, British Columbia, a whopping 48 per cent foreign-born population. Those are very high demographics,” she says.

Varughese was a speaker at a Financial Planning Week virtual conference hosted by FP Canada.

A client or employee’s background – whether they are from an individualistic or collectivist society – will greatly affect how they give and receive feedback,” she adds. Communication styles will also be dramatically different among those from different countries.

“Would you be hiring inclusively if a collectivist interviewed in Canada for a position with your firm?” she asks. “Or would they be screened out before they’re screened in, just because you’re potentially using outdated Canadian human resource questions that are more behavioural in nature?” Instead, she says firms should be thinking about the inclusivity of those questions and how they should be adapted for changing demographics. 

Collectivist and individualistic cultures 

It may help first to know the difference between collectivist and individualistic cultures. “What is important to note is that all of our top source immigrant countries currently coming to Canada are collectivist in nature. They’re more family-oriented, community-oriented, relationship-oriented, referral-oriented. Think of how that might impact your own business,” she says. “What’s important to note is that we as Canadians are much more individualistic.”

She says while many advisors believe they need to market themselves in costly ways, when serving collectivists, it is not usually the money invested in marketing that matters, but the time invested in the relationship that makes the difference.

In managing, meanwhile, she says it will likely be natural to provide feedback by pointing out errors in the singular. “We will say you made a mistake. We wouldn’t even think about it, we would just want to offer them that feedback.” A collectivist who is new to Canada, however, could be put off by the practice. “How feedback is offered in most collectivist societies is that it will be more of an organizational, team, collaborative approach to performance, not only when it’s positive, but when it’s negative as well. If a mistake is made, they won’t singularly point somebody out. It’ll be an organizational error or a department error that we all have to work on,” she adds. “You’re definitely going to have to think about that when you offer feedback.” 

She says the “feedback sandwich” often used in Canada – that is, to offer criticisms sandwiched between two pieces of praise or good news – is also outdated and not terribly inclusive. “From a global perspective, this isn’t how feedback would be offered.” 

Even within North America she says feedback practices can be wildly different and misleading to advisors who are not attuned to the differences. In the United States, for instance, she says Americans will statistically offer three pieces of positive feedback before they offer anything negative. “Think about that if you have any Americans on your roster,” she says. “If they’ve given you all of these positive pieces of reinforcement, have you really heard what they’re trying to say?” 

Offering feedback effectively 

The best way to offer feedback, she adds, is for it to be continuous and specific. “It can be positive, it can be negative, but it needs to be specific. And if it’s coming from a place of compassion, we want to make it continuous. If you’re only reviewing something with your clients once a year, if you’re only meeting internally for a performance review once a year, you’re outdated. This is something to be painfully aware of.” 

Direct and indirect communication is also a cultural difference advisors might encounter. Some clients may interrupt conversations continually. “Are they trying to be rude? Are they trying to be irritating? No, it’s the speaking style. If the speaking style is one that we’re unfamiliar with, or one that is challenging or irritating, our customer service is going to deplete. But when we recognize that it’s simply a speaking style and it’s cultural, with that understanding, our customer service goes up.” 

Indirect communicators 

Indirect communicators can be especially challenging. “Indirect communicators want to keep harmony,” she says. “They’ll say yes, but they really mean no. It’s not to frustrate you. It’s not to confuse you, it’s actually to show you respect.” To work with such clients, she says advisors want to refrain from asking yes or no questions.

“You want to make sure that you’re always asking open ended questions, ensuring that you’re paraphrasing, ensuring clarification so that you will not have those potential issues.” 

This Advisor Coach article was first published in the April 2022 issue of the Insurance Journal