At 2:05 p.m. on Thursday, Yin Jie was already ready in the conference room.

In accordance with the Employee Handbook, she booked 2 hours of meeting room use with Bella in advance.

Although Yin Jie has been to Europe many times with the group, she has never been to country S, so she has limited knowledge of this small country. The training materials sent by Marco and Lin Xia gave her a basic understanding. However, despite the fact that these materials include as much information as possible about the country's business, Yin Jie feels that these introductions are too brief and conceptual, and that they are completely two-dimensional, suitable for rote memorization, but cannot be understood thoroughly.

She distilled a lot of questions from them, and she hopes that Erdmann will answer them in today's training. In addition, based on her years of experience in attracting investment and foreign investment, she knew very well that Christina's previous regional development strategy was completely wrong, and she had already designed the initial framework on her own. But all of this must first be fully endorsed and supported by Erdmann.

At two o'clock, Yin Jie started the video conference on time. Erdmann on the other end of the screen was smiling, with a spring breeze on his face, and he was still full of vitality at the age of sixty.

During his university studies, Yin Jie was surprised by the difference in the external image of Chinese and foreign political and business dignitaries. Leaders in China usually dress dullly and behave in a steady manner. As for foreigners, once they are in a leadership position, even if they are 65 years old, they still do their best to show that they are still young in their words and deeds, and they must jump up energetically when they give a speech on stage, and an old face will smile brightly as long as they face the camera...

Yin Jie wondered for a long time. I also consulted a lot of information for this, and finally found that this should actually be a problem of cultural differences:

For most of China's 5,000-year-old culture, Confucianism was deeply influenced. The core leadership ideology of Confucianism, headed by Confucius, is "benevolence loves others", "the golden mean", and "government is based on virtue". That is to say, a person with leadership qualities should be a "benevolent" person who can benefit everyone, know how to "mean" so that others have room to play, and should follow the "morality" rule of conduct in management. It can be seen that the embodiment of its leadership usually exists in the collective oriented by the relationship with people. In other words, the leader is at the center of the network of people, an integral part of his/her charisma, and his or her charisma is reflected in the aspects of benevolence, intelligence, and people management. In Western culture, individualism and structuralism are celebrated, and the leader is at the top of the pyramid, and he needs to inspire his followers below to achieve goals for him. Therefore, first put forward a vision that contains the core values of the organization, and use various ways to render the vision particularly contagious, including creating a dynamic personal image, building the confidence of followers and strengthening the core values of the organization, so as to stimulate the lasting motivation and enthusiasm of followers, improve the self-efficacy of followers, and finally empower followers to achieve the vision. As former GE CEO Jack Welch said, dynamism is the first thing a successful leader must do. The vitality of a leader means energy, competence, and confidence for followers.

... ...

After a brief greeting, the two quickly cut to the chase.

"Dear Evita, please tell me what you know about LS?"

"My understanding of LS is not necessarily accurate, please correct.

In my opinion, LS is a project of the government of the state of Haosen, which aims to attract capital and industry from major economically developed countries to invest in the state of Haosen, so as to promote the local economy and increase employment. In order to achieve this goal, LS's work will not only be aimed at promoting enterprises, but also relevant government departments, industry associations, as well as media, universities and research institutions, to convey the message of country S as the best investment destination in an all-round way, and create a particularly positive atmosphere for promotion activities for enterprises, so as to improve the efficiency of investment attraction work. ”

"Congratulations, Evita, you've got it right. However, there is a slight deviation, universities and research institutes are not our main target of propaganda. Of course, if they are interested in investing in country S, it is another story. Now please open the training file, let's start with the first chapter, this is the most basic part, if you don't understand this part well, it will affect your understanding of the rationality of the investment policy and preferential measures in the state of Whausen. ”

Surrounded by Western and Central European countries, Country S is a transportation hub between northern and southern Europe, where many European cultures and languages converge. It covers an area of only 41,000 square kilometers, between Hainan Province (34,000 square kilometers) and Ningxia Province (6.64 square kilometers). Since the Alps and Jura Mountains run through the entire territory of the country, the territory of the country is a place of rich and colorful topography, such as mountains, hills, rivers and lakes, which is a place where many cultures meet. More than 20% of the country's permanent residents (emphasis added, this is "permanent residents", not "nationals with S nationality") are foreign residents. Two-thirds of the population lives in the five largest international cities. There are four Chinese languages in country S, and English is the common business language, so every person in country S can speak at least three languages, including English (Erdmann quickly switched between G, English, I, and F in front of Yin Jie).

Speaking of this, Yin Jie couldn't help but be envious.

Due to the small size and lack of resources in country S, the people of country S are proud of only two resources (Erdmann said with a proud look), one is the beautiful scenery, but the other is a smart and pragmatic mind. They have taken advantage of the beautiful scenery to develop a strong tourism industry, and with a bright and pragmatic mind, they have developed advanced industry, agriculture, and a strong service industry. At present, country S is one of the richest countries in the world, and the steady development of its economy is closely related to the direct investment of foreign industries and capital. Therefore, high-quality investment promotion has always been one of the important national policies of country S.

... ...

After Erdmann introduced the training materials, he picked up the mineral water next to him and took a sip, motioning for Yin Jie to start asking questions. Yin Jie raised a lot of questions around the development of LS's business in China. From Erdmann's answers, it became clear to her that Erdmann had indeed lost patience with Christina. It was Mr. Ning's idea to keep Christina on the team, citing Christina's "cheapness" – she was asking for a lower salary and good English interpreting and translation skills among those with years of study abroad. Although the LS project belongs to TH in principle, the China team belongs to Ning's Planning in terms of administrative management and human resource management. So, since Ning felt that Christina was valuable to keep, Erdmann's minimum requirement was to ensure that she was removed from her position as LS project leader with less disruption to future work.

Erdmann said to Yin Jie:

"Evita, I'd rather Christina stay at LS to assist you in your work, I personally don't understand his thoughts. But it's his company, so we should all respect his decision. But I want to remind you that we, me and you, including our team, must be held accountable for the LS project in the first place. So, if Christina adversely affects the work of the LS project in the future, please let me know as soon as possible, and I will negotiate with Ning. ”

When it comes to business development in China, Erdmann listened carefully to Yin Jie's advice. After Yin Jie introduced his understanding of the Chinese government's "going out" strategy and a brief analysis of the development stage of China's manufacturing industry, he very much agreed with Yin Jie's proposal to "shift the focus of LS promotion from tourism back to manufacturing and import and export trade", and he also agreed with Yin Jie to focus on the three regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta in the first stage. Yin Jie took the opportunity to make a request to expand the team, which Erdmann rarely refused, citing the downturn in China over the past year that had severely affected the state government's confidence in LS China. He tentatively agreed that Yin Jie would form a three-person team and apply for expansion after he had "visible" work results.

Yin Jie also focused on understanding his work ownership and reporting line. As expected, in the future, her work will mainly report to LS head, the kind old Mr. Marcus and Erdmann, and Marco and Lin Xia will provide her with the necessary work coordination services, and there is no reporting relationship.

This training activity has been fruitful for Yin Jie. In addition to having a deeper understanding of country S, Haosen Prefecture and LS business, two important objectives were also achieved: one is to determine the idea of adjusting LS's operation strategy in China in the coming year, and the other is to clarify the KPI assessment standards of LS China and the way of working with LS headquarters in the future, including reporting lines, work coordination, and their own work authority, which is very important for the smooth work and internal resource allocation of the team in the future.

Erdmann's training was generally a success (aside from the number of team members), and it was clear that he had high expectations for Yin Jie. Yin Jie himself is also full of confidence, is it possible for him to disappoint him? Yin Jie, who has many years of experience in attracting investment, has never considered this problem.

After the meeting, Yin Jie asked Bella for and revised the copy of the external recruitment, asking her to send it out as soon as possible. She was a little eager to assemble this small team and get into the project right away.

At 5 p.m., after Mr. Ning returned, Yin Jie took the time to report to him on the afternoon training, focusing on the business adjustments in China that had been determined after discussing with Erdmann. Mr. Ning looked tired, but he still cheered up and listened to the report, and finally he reminded Yin Jie to send him and Erdmann the results of today's discussion with Erdmann in a memorandum at the same time, and start drafting a new LS business development plan for approval.

Yin Jie returned to his seat. Christina finally couldn't suppress her curiosity and asked:

"How did you feel about the training in the afternoon? If there is anything unclear about LS, please feel free to ask me?"

This made Yin Jie's perception of her decline again. As the former leader of the project, the first task of the new colleague is to hand over the complete set of materials after they arrive, and then the induction training. Curiously, Christina never provided her with any training materials, neither paper nor electronic. What Bella handed over was only the previous annual work plan, annual budget, the target industry information collected by the company so far (...), and some LS-related meeting documents sent to Mr. Ning by LS headquarters. As for onboarding, it's even more impossible to look forward to.

For such a person with no work ability, lack of initiative, and lack of professionalism, why Mr. Ning still insists on keeping her in this team, Yin Jie still has no clue. The so-called language is good and the salary is low, Yin Jie didn't believe it at all. As far as she knows, Christina's salary is not low, and in today's highly open world, how difficult can it be to find someone with a good language?

But while confirming that her professional attitude is extremely lazy, Yin Jie also mentioned caution - this attitude is very lethal to the team, which will affect the mutual trust between team members, cause conflicts, and then pollute the team atmosphere.

She secretly thought that if Mr. Ning still kept her in the LS team after the communication, then she must find a way to correct this attitude.

Taken captive from the position of team leader, it is normal for her to have loss and even self-doubt, which Yin Jie understands. Since Mr. Ning's apparent reason is that her English level is good, then try to let her play more of this advantage in her work for now. Let her play to her strengths and restore her self-confidence, which should help the future "correction" plan... However, Christina is already in her thirties, and her thinking pattern is basically fixed, and it can be seen to the naked eye that she is stubborn and careful, and it may be quite a difficult project to correct her thinking and work style!

"The training has been very good. Yin Jie has no intention of talking to her too much now.

Just two days later, Bella received a piece of good news that made Yin Jie extremely happy, they had received 8 resumes. After Bella's initial screening, two applicants, a man and a woman, appeared to meet Yin Jie's requirements. The girls are from the Second Foreign Language Institute and the boys are from the Beijing University of Economics and Business. Yin Jie asked Bella to help arrange the initial interview as soon as possible, with her own second round and Mr. Ning's third round.

Bella wisely remained silent and didn't ask why Christina wasn't put in charge of the initial interview. In fact, the reason is very simple, Yin Jie admits that she has no masochistic tendencies, and Christina has already predicted that it will be a difficult job, and she has no interest in finding another "Christina" to hone her resilience.