The language barrier should never prevent the leadership from making a human connection with the front line employees. On the contrary, it is possible to turn this apparent handicap into a wonderful opportunity to earn the trust and respect from first generation, Hispanics in the workplace.
When leaders accept the language gap as a challenge, they can take steps to address this issue by learning specific, workplace related Spanish words and sentences.
Useful Spanish Words to Know
Communicating in Spanish, even if it's just a few words, will work like magic in developing healthy working relationships between the team leaders and the frontline Hispanic workforce. For example; the team leader can start by learning to say the greetings in Spanish such as:
"Buenos dias" ("good morning") (boo enos /dee as)
"Buenas tardes" ("good afternoon") (boo ehnas /tardes)
"Cómo está usted"? ("how are you?") (komo /estah /oos ted)
"Que tenga un buen día" ("have a nice day") (keh /tenga /oon /boo en /dee ah)
He can learn to interact with the employees by learning to say simple sentences such as:
"Cómo se llama usted"? ("what is your name?")(komo /se /yama /oos ted)
"Me llamo William" ("my name is William") (meh /yamo /William)
"Gracias por su buen trabajo" ("thank you for your good work") (gracias /por /sue /boo en /trabaho)
"Aprecio sus esfuerzos" ("I appreciate your efforts") (ap reh see oh /sus /es foo air sos)
It's not necessary to be fluent in Spanish but; a basic working knowledge will certainly go far. It makes all the difference in the world to be able to say these and other simple words and sentences in Spanish. Involving the Hispanic employees by asking them to teach the English speaking staff other words is also a very useful way to gain their trust and respect. By adding more words on a regular basis it will become increasingly easier to communicate with the Spanish-speaking employees.
While learning, it's important not to be self-conscious or concerned about making mistakes or sounding strange. The sincere effort to communicate is what matters most to first generation, front line Hispanic employees.
Making an effort to lean a few simple Spanish words and sentences sends a clear and loud message to the Hispanic employees. It demonstrates that the leadership considers it worthwhile to take the time and energy to learn and to attempt to communicate with them.
Addressing the Language Barrier
During a leadership training workshop, a young Hispanic supervisor shared a memorable experience with the class. He recalled the time his English-speaking production manager took the time to deliver an entire announcement in Spanish to the production crew. He planned this event by asking the young Spanish-speaking supervisor to translate and write the announcement. The production manager practiced it numerous times until he felt fairly comfortable enough to deliver it over the company's public address system. This made an enormously positive impact on the production crew and; they remembered this for many months afterward.
It is the attempt to connect that really matters. It's those sincere efforts to communicate that will create a lasting and positive impression with first generation Hispanics in the workplace.
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