The health crisis has impacted the career of one of our employees in France. Janusz, the new sales manager for our subsidiary in China, was supposed to join his new team based in Wuhan.
"When I applied for the position of sales manager in China in December 2019, I could not have imagined what would happen next," Janusz told us with a touch of emotion. He added: "I understood when the lockdown in France was announced that the journey to join my team would be longer than expected.”
As he was unable to travel to our subsidiary, Janusz adapted his approach. He started training his team remotely and got to know them and analyze their working methods from France. “In spite of the distance, my role today is to lead my team, to train them and make sure we get good results by following the business procedures we apply here in France," he said.
The geographic distance is not the only challenge Janusz has faced. Learning a new language and getting to know another culture were among the prerequisites for becoming a sales manager in China.
VirtualExpo Group has supported Janusz in his professional development thanks to a tailor-made training program covering leadership, recruitment, remote team management and language learning. "I'm very lucky to work closely with Qiongyao who is also based in our office in Marseilles, France," Janusz said. "She helps me structure my training and adapt my communication to my Chinese audience."
Other challenges include the time difference that limits videoconferencing opportunities. Meetings can only be held in the morning. Since the tools used in China are not the same as the ones used at the headquarters in France (Google suite), Janusz has started using WeChat (the Chinese mobile phone messaging app) and Voov Meeting (videoconferencing tool) to maintain regular contact with his team.
Empathy, humility and patience are the three cornerstones of Janusz's approach to dealing with this unforeseen and unprecedented situation. This stubborn polyglot has only one wish: to fly to China and be with his team as soon as possible.
