Moving From Proficiency To Fluency - For Non Native English Speaking Professionals
Updated: May 30, 2022
Written by: Tolulope Okudolo, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It’s no secret that English is the global language today and an increase in globalization has resulted in more non-native English speakers working in global organizations.
Many are considered proficient in English – i.e. having passed the certification exams which confers working knowledge, and with experience working in global organisations, they are able to understand and speak at a professional level, however, research points to communication gaps as one reason why business professionals who speak English as a second language (ESL), hit the career glass ceiling and are often passed over for more visible or leadership specialist employment in global companies.
What communication gaps reduce the chances of moving up into leadership roles?
According to Forbes, one reason for this, stems from the fact that – They are deemed less “politically skilled” than native speakers
Political skills are "[t]he ability to effectively understand others at work, and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one’s personal and/or organizational objectives”. Ferris, Treadway et al. (2005)
Political skills also include the ability to:
Maintain effective relationships through developed interpersonal skills
Use interpersonal skills to influence others
Be perceptive (read between the lines – use active listening skills)
Communicate with empathy and openness
Not surprisingly, these are important soft skills for leaders in all settings. For ESL speakers in the global workplace though, the challenges faced by most when broken down, and even when they are seemingly proficient in the language, stems from 3 major barriers as follows:
Problem solving - Effective and timely articulation of ideas and suggestions for problem solving (converting and communicating ideas from their native language to English).
Confidence- (Engage colleagues, contribute and build rapport) – in order to positively influence others
Comprehension- Reading between the lines /understand native speaking colleagues due to inadequate knowledge of phrases/vocabulary used.
These barriers affect the ability to establish trust /maintain relationships which translates in the inability to influence others to act in ways that will positively impact the organisation’s objectives.
It’s no wonder why the road to leadership opportunities for these professionals is littered with glass ceilings which they find challenging to crack, as the traits of a successful leader, is directly linked to the effectiveness of their communication skills, and based on the ability to connect, influence and problem solve in a timely manner.
How can professionals who speak English as a second language increase their political skills and break the career glass ceiling?
To break this glass ceiling, they must first move from proficiency to fluency and become more agile with their English communication skills.
Being fluent means, you are able to smoothly adapt the language to different scenarios, and produce continuous speech that is easy for your listener to understand. This requires working on leveraging your current strengths to develop the requisite functional language skills and close identified communication gaps through specific strategies which will result in a more natural engagement with the language.
Developing a growth mindset while discovering and working on limiting inhibitions that affect confidence and growth are also often overlooked but very important steps for English language learners to help them develop the much-needed confidence to achieve English fluency.
However, despite it being a very critical step, improving fluency in English alone, will not achieve the end goal of developing the political skills needed to break the glass ceiling. Effective communication is not just about fluency, but also about the ability to have the desired impact on listeners.
Fluency is not the end goal for developing effective communication skills
As a result, the move from proficiency to fluency must also focus on developing the ability to connect to your listeners
There are many fluent English speakers out there that do not have the skillset needed to make the desired impact on listeners in business settings when communicating. This proves that fluency is not a total measure of the ability to make a connection with and impact your listeners positively.
A lot of professionals who speak English as a second language in global workplaces are acutely aware of their communication gaps, and feel inadequate in meetings or in other business and social scenarios with native speakers. As a result, they hanker after fluency. For the most part, they feel this is what will help them communicate effectively with native speakers and fulfil the requirements of their roles more effectively. While admitting that fluency is a necessary step, it is important to know that it only goes half way to achieving the objective of being effective with your communication skills.
Connecting with your listeners, enables you read between the lines and adapt your communication styles as necessary. It also enables you influence your listeners positively. Effective communication is all about knowing your audience/ listener, – that’s how you are able to figure out how to communicate with them to make an impact! Connection helps you with the “how to communicate”. Fluency helps with the “what to communicate”
Leaders are solution focused and that means they need to be people centric, and use a more collaborative and adaptive way of communicating. When you are people centric, you are better able to meet your listeners at their needs by using empathetic communication skills, emotional intelligence, active listening and intercultural competency skills – this is where the connection piece becomes a part of the fluency goals.
Being fluent only for its sake does not result in that connection piece needed for effective communication.
However, when proficiency and fluency are combined with a focus on using functional language skills to connect and engage, then, you are well on your way to becoming effective and acquiring the political skills needed to break the glass ceiling and achieve your personal and professional goals in a global workplace.
It’s a journey for sure, but one that is well worth it especially if you want to develop the English communication skills to function effectively as a non-native English-speaking leader in the global business arena.
Tolulope Okudolo, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Tolu Okudolo is an advocate for the importance of mindset changes in advancing the communication skills of international people managers & leaders. Having worked through challenges as an introvert and a woman of color, she discovered that the precursor to success is mindset and intuitive alignment and adapted different strategies to connect to her real self, and unlock her potential as she climbed the ladder into leadership positions in HR in the corporate world. Even though Tolu is a native English speaker, she understands the challenges faced by and similarities between introverts and non-native professionals in a global world.
She has since devoted her time to helping both introverted and extroverted non native professionals discover their self-limiting blocks and leverage their strengths with the goal of advancing their English communication skills. Her approach uses mindset shifts and cognitive reframing to magnify communication horizons and impact roles and careers positively. She is the founder of Magnifying Horizons a language coaching enterprise that delivers online customized Business English coaching programs to international people managers and leaders all over the world. Her mission: Communicating without constraints.
