The Global Rockstar Program
It’s another Monday, and instead of starting your laptop to go through another day of meetings (that could have been an email), you look at the globe you got from your grandmother as a kid. You have been sitting at this desk for too long and wish to smell the spices in a market in Amritsar, walk through the East Village of New York City, sit in a rickshaw in Lahore, or take a long hike in Northern Italy. Isn’t that why you originally wanted to be in your profession?
You always felt like you were born in the wrong country as if your soul belongs elsewhere. You were delighted and inspired when travelling. You always felt more connected to the broader world than your home village. You want to be a nomad, join the minimalistic lifestyle, and live in a tiny house while doing good in the world. Thinking about moving “back home” would feel like a complete failure.
You also feel like you don’t have access to the group inside the circle of trust. You miss a guide, a wizard, a Yoda, a teacher on your path. You feel a bit alone. You want sisterhood and camaraderie, but all the official events are for in-house HR professionals only or are way too expensive for your budget.
You would like to continue deepening your knowledge of other cultures and work in a global context where you usually speak English.
You want to become a more inclusive leader.
Join the Global Rockstar Program
The Global Rockstar Program is for all of you who want to take a step forward, move to another country, lead global virtual teams, and improve your executive presence and thought leadership.
We will agree on your three main career goals and work through your hurdles together. We will get you out of the rat race into a productive flow state where you lead yourself and your global virtual team with purpose, performance, and productivity.
We will work together to ensure you successfully transition into your next role within the next 365 days.
🌟 Available Global Rockstar Licences 🌟
Solo Artist
with Expat Coach Angie Weinberger
Duo
with Expat Coach Angie Weinberger
Garage Band
with Expat Coach Angie Weinberger
What is included in our Global Rockstar Program?
- One career goal-setting session and tracking of your career goals.
- Your co-created Personal Development Plan (PDP) in our RockMeApp.
- One 1:1 online coaching session per week (45 minutes long, reserved slot for you) with Inclusive Leadership Coach Angie Weinberger.
- Access to our Global Rockstar Community with regular input.
- Access to RockMeApp for your weekly progress report and Personal Development Plan.
- Access to Resources (handouts, checklists, worksheets, templates, research, and literature lists).
- Depending on your three main coaching goals, level, and needs, you will receive content from “The Global Rockstar Album,” “The Global Mobility Workbook,” and “The Global Career Workbook.” – I will individually select what is good for you and make further reading recommendations.
- Paper Certificate Global Rockstars – will be issued at the end of the program.
Private Client Onboarding
We onboard all our clients to the RockMeApp.
If you want to join us but you can’t afford it, there are two options:
1) We offer a monthly payment plan to private clients only.
2) You can work with the accompanying workbook, “The Global Rockstar Album – 21 Verses to Find Your Tact as an Inclusive Leader”, and join our online community only.
Let us know what works best for you by emailing angela@globalpeopletransitions.com. You can also request to be added to our waiting list for 2025.
What is a Global Rockstar and Inclusive Leader?
A Global “Rockstar,” an inclusive leader of a global, virtual team, must juggle six cube facets. None of the elements should be neglected.
- Brand: An inclusive leader creates a brand representing the team’s reputation and values. This involves creating a high-performing and inclusive team identity that aligns with the organization’s brand. The leader should ensure that the team’s brand reflects diversity and that team members feel represented as individual voices. The brand provides that the team’s work sells inside and outside the organization. The leader co-creates their brand and is responsible for the team’s reputation.
- Clients: An inclusive leader understands their client’s diverse needs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds and seeks to create an inclusive and respectful working relationship. They prioritize building trust, effective communication, and delivering high-quality work that meets client expectations while considering cultural nuances.
- Process: An inclusive leader ensures that the team’s processes are designed to be inclusive and equitable, allowing diverse perspectives, contributions, and decision-making. They promote transparency, foster collaboration, and regularly seek feedback from team members to improve processes and address any barriers that hinder inclusion and productivity. The team also ensures that processes use minimal resources and are built for long-term sustainability.
- Team: An inclusive leader recognizes and values the diversity of the team members in terms of their backgrounds, experiences, skills, and perspectives. They create an environment where everyone feels safe, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique insights and ideas. Inclusive leaders foster collaboration, provide equal opportunities for growth and development, and actively address any issues of bias or discrimination within the team. They demonstrate respect, empathy, and fairness in their interactions with others, regardless of status or power. Inclusive leaders also support the growth and development of their team members by providing mentorship. Power distance can be reduced by involving team members in decision-making and promoting shared ownership. They value input from all team members and attentively engage with their members’ viewpoints, regardless of their hierarchical position. This creates an environment where power differentials are minimized, and diverse perspectives can be heard.
- Community: An inclusive leader encourages the team to actively participate in the community, fostering connections and building inclusive partnerships. They promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual support within the team and extend these principles to engage with other external communities within their industry, promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and sustainable leadership at a broader level.
- Self: According to the Global Competency Model, an inclusive leader invests in their development by learning about different cultures, perspectives, and inclusion best practices. They demonstrate authenticity and inspire others to embrace inclusive leadership principles. They have a growth mindset and challenge their thinking and biases. Inclusive leaders seek coaching and work on all of their relationships in their personal and professional lives. They understand being a role model and a team leader requires ongoing education. They show genuine care and concern for their team members, creating an atmosphere of trust and psychological safety. Inclusive leaders actively listen to others, trying to understand their experiences, challenges, and needs. They also take care of their needs first and know how to rejuvenate and reenergize themselves in taxing times.
What is Global Competency?
A factor often underestimated in Global Mobility is the critical importance of developing intercultural competence. As long as we do not see cultural differences, we do not know why men and women from other cultures behave and think differently than we do. We assume that they are “strange.” We might also believe that we treat others respectfully, but respect is defined differently in other cultures. Even if we consider ourselves open-minded, we might not have developed the intercultural skills needed to be more effective in different cultures.
Our brains today still work in a way similar to that of the caveperson. We often think only in terms of fight or flight. We hardly ever step back in stressful situations and think, “Why is that person behaving like this?”. We rarely sit down, take a deep breath, smile, and then write a polite email to say that our judgment of the situation might have been misguided by our values and assumptions. No. We usually jump to conclusions first and put other people’s behavior in a box (Like / Not Like). Facebook does not help, either.
We rely on our mental images and can become prejudiced because this is the way our gut decides if we are safe or in danger. Our mental images are influenced by our inner landscapes and mainly by the daily pictures we see on the news channels. When some Westerners hear “Pakistan,” they think of “terrorism,” “Islamists,” “oppression of women,” and “Osama bin Laden” instead of “IT professionals,” “tourism,” or even “Benazir Bhutto.”
Holistic Global Competency Model for the Global Rockstar
To develop global competency, I have created a simplified model with five elements: knowledge, attitude, skills, experience, and body learning. I first explained this model in an article in the German-speaking HR magazine Persorama (Weinberger, 2013). I work with this model in executive coaching; it also helps junior professionals develop their effectiveness in an intercultural context. The model is based on the intercultural competence research of my coaches, Dr. Eva Kinast and Drs. Boudewijn Vermeulen.
What is Global Competency?
Global Competency is the ability to work effectively in a global, complex environment with a high-stress level while achieving goals sustainably and following one’s resources. It combines knowledge, attitude, skills, reflected experiences, and body learning. (Weinberger, 2019)
Knowledge
You can gain knowledge of a country’s history, politics, economy, and religion. It is helpful not to focus only on factual information but to prioritize all the topics you enjoy reading about. As mentioned, start with the home country and move on to the knowledge areas of other legislation. The areas of knowledge you need to study are tax, social security, immigration, local employment law, business terms, compensation and benefits, country-specific history, and processes.
Attitude
You must develop openness for ambiguity, the potential to accept new experiences, and the questioning of your cultural minting. You develop a more open attitude by making yourself aware of and verifying your cultural beliefs. Once you understand and know your cultural attitude and behaviors, you can change your behavior to be more effective. You want to develop a global mindset and become more open to ambiguity and not knowing. You want to practice curiosity and learn to be humble and serving.
Skills
By developing your foreign language skills, active listening, and empathy, you can gain better access to people from other cultures. In today’s technology-driven times, I believe it is also essential for a globally active professional to have media competency. It’s important to be effective in telephone and video conferencing but also equally important to build connections via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If you are working in Global Mobility, you must develop your analytical problem-solving skills; you need a feel for numbers. You want to develop your language skills (especially English). You might need consulting and communication skills. It would be best if you improve the way you build relationships. You must work with information and communication technology effectively and grasp Social Media.
Reflected Experience
When dealing with other cultures, analysing critical situations and incidents is helpful. One option is to search for proof of the opposite. You could, for example, have an assumption about a person’s cultural behavior and then assume that it’s the opposite of your assumption and find proof for this theory. Applying systemic thinking, You can start writing an intercultural diary and reflect your cases. It would be best if you could record cases, decisions and exceptions. You need to be able to note the details while not losing focus of the overall process. You could debrief challenging assignees with an external coach.
Body Learning
By learning dances or practicing martial arts and relaxation methods, you learn to focus. This helps you feel better in your body. Thereby, you will be able to handle the stress and global complexity a lot better. A good physical constitution is helpful to remain globally competent and effective. Other creative tasks such as painting, playing the piano and photography are also helpful. You want to develop a good routine for processing information. You can increase your presence in meetings and with your clients by following our advice on learning a dance, martial art or relaxation method.
Free Guide to Finding a Job in Switzerland as a Global Rockstar, Lifestyle Expat or Rainbow Talent
Looking for a Job in Switzerland and Europe?
Are you looking for a career opportunity in Zurich, Zug or Basel. Do you still need help to land an interview? Do you have a work permit and Swiss address and still need help getting people to call you back? It’s not you, it’s us.
With a highly competitive job market,
- high language requirements,
- strict certification regulations,
- and a slightly perfectionist attitude…
…landing a job in Switzerland can be daunting.
You might search on #LinkedIn and apply for jobs with 101 other applicants. You apply to jobs where you know the brand. That is the straight path into the #ValleyOfTears.
🌎 You might not know that four (5) positions are sourced through “Vitamin B.” (which is a short form of “Beziehung” = relationship in German) and never even posted officially.
👩🎤 You might not know that hiring managers prefer to hire “mini-me” versions of themselves and that there are unconscious biases against rainbow talent and lifestyle expats everywhere in the world. Your experience, skills, and qualifications are often misunderstood or accepted here.
🇩🇪 You might not know that English is not an official language here and that you can’t learn German professionally in six months. (Just kidding, you know that.)
⭕ You might not know that there is a “Circle of Trust” and that you are not in it (Thank you, Robert de Niro, for the term.)
But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
💫 In this free guide, I spill all our secrets. These tips are based on our extensive experience in the Zurich and Basel job market and will help you navigate the job search process. 💫
Content:
💡 My Top Ten Tips for Landing a Job in the German-speaking world
💡 My 21 Checkpoints for creating a fresh resume (Swiss-style)
💡 My Favorite Job Boards
✍ Sign up for your free guide and start your journey to a successful career in Switzerland. http://eepurl.com/hitraT