1. Introduction
Relocating senior European executives and professionals to the United States represents a significant investment. Yet research shows that up to 40% of international assignments fail, often due to cultural friction, misalignment, or personal stress. The consequences can be substantial: disengagement, missed deadlines, stalled projects, and early repatriation, all of which carry a high financial and reputational cost.
Studies also indicate that coaching delivered after relocation (when real challenges begin to surface) significantly increases the likelihood of assignment success. Coaching at this stage is more relevant, more personal, and more impactful.
This paper explains how our coaching services are designed to meet that need. We detail the methodology we use, how it differs from training, and why it effectively addresses the human dynamics behind global mobility challenges.
2. How the Coaching Engagement Works
Our coaching approach is tailored to mid and senior-level executives and professionals working in fast-paced environments like consulting, fintech, or finance. The engagement typically spans 4 to 6 months, with two coaching sessions per month. The engagement is broken into three key phases:
Phase 1: Orientation & Insight
We start by creating awareness, not just for the sake of understanding cultural differences, but to help clients begin to recognize their own potential blind spots in real-world interactions. We want to heighten their sensitivity to cultural nuances so they can catch themselves in the moment and adjust accordingly.
This isn’t about learning stereotypes or generalizations; it’s about deepening self-awareness and situational understanding in order to lead more effectively.
To support this, we use two key frameworks:
- The Culture Map (Erin Meyer) to highlight key dimensions where the client’s native culture may differ from the American work culture, such as communication style, decision-making, trust-building, and feedback. We emphasize that while cultural norms provide context, every individual and every company culture is different. We help clients notice patterns without falling into overgeneralization.
- VIA Character Strengths Assessment to identify personal strengths and explore how those strengths are perceived differently across cultures. This helps clients learn how to adapt without losing authenticity.
Phase 2: Application & Experimentation
We move to real-world application. Clients bring in topics from their current work situation (e.g. a difficult team dynamic, a challenging stakeholder, communication issues). We coach them to:
- Apply insights from cultural frameworks.
- Experiment with new behaviors.
- Reflect on results and adjust.
The topics arise from their reality, and the coach helps guide exploration, offering perspective and frameworks to support meaningful insight and change. The coach facilitates exploration, feedback, and change, always in service of the client’s goals.
As clients gain confidence and begin to see patterns in what works for them, we naturally transition into the next phase, where the focus shifts from trying new approaches to reinforcing and sustaining what’s effective.
Phase 3: Integration & Growth
As the client becomes more self-aware and confident navigating the American context, we focus on long-term integration:
- How to sustain their performance.
- How to maintain authenticity while adapting.
- How to lead effectively in a hybrid or cross-cultural team.
We also revisit the VIA strengths and cultural dimensions to track growth and ensure alignment between the client’s intent and their perceived impact.
At the end of the engagement, we conduct a review to assess the impact coaching has had. This final review not only provides the client with insight into their development and accomplishments but also helps quantify the return on investment (ROI) of the coaching journey, supporting better decision-making for future coaching engagements.
3. What Makes Coaching Different from Training?
Training delivers general knowledge. Coaching delivers personalized transformation.
Unlike training sessions, which are often generic and one-size-fits-all, our coaching is:
- Highly personalized: Clients explore their own topics, not a preset curriculum.
- Flexible and adaptive: We adjust based on real-time work challenges.
- Results-oriented: Our approach is practical, helping clients solve real problems, perform more effectively and efficiently, and bring measurable value, ultimately protecting your investment in the relocation.
We use cultural frameworks and models as tools to spark meaningful insight and help clients become more aware of their own filters and reactions. Our approach is deeply personalized and focused on making each expat as successful as possible in their specific business context. We help them adapt faster, reduce the stress of transition, and accelerate their ability to create value in their new environment.
4. Tools and Techniques We Use
- 360-degree stakeholder feedback: Optional for executive clients, this tool gathers input from key colleagues to reveal perception gaps, highlight blind spots, and track progress over time, helping align coaching goals with real-world impact.
- The Culture Map by Erin Meyer: focusing on eight dimensions of difference: communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing, and scheduling. This model offers a structured, research-based lens to uncover where misalignments may occur between cultural norms. It gives coach and client a shared vocabulary to explore cultural dynamics without falling into stereotypes—supporting practical insights and authentic adaptation.
- VIA Character Strengths assessment and integration: used alongside The Culture Map to explore how personal strengths align—or clash—with cultural expectations. This helps clients adapt effectively while staying true to themselves.
- ABC model (cognitive-behavioral coaching): to identify thought patterns and shift behaviors
- Session logs and reflection tools: to track insights and actions
- Flexible action planning: Some clients already know areas they want to work on, like stakeholder management or team leadership. As insights emerge, we co-create a simple, evolving action plan that keeps growth focused and aligned with real-world goals.
Each tool is used purposefully, to support reflection, insight, and sustainable behavioral change.
5. Why You Should Care
Cultural misalignment and personal adaptation issues are among the top reasons why relocations underperform or fail. These challenges often show up subtly, through poor communication, low engagement, or ineffective leadership, and are often first observed by HR.
By providing executive coaching tailored for expats, you:
- Protect your relocation investment
- Increase project and leadership success rates
- Support the well-being and engagement of your most valuable talent
Our coaching helps turn potential derailers into opportunities for growth, ensuring that your international assignees are not just surviving but thriving.
6. Let’s Talk
If you’re ready to explore how coaching can help your international assignees succeed, reach out for a conversation. We’ll walk you through our approach and explore how it could support your expats.
Certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the gold standard in coaching. Professional coaching education received at the University of Texas at Dallas. 30+ years of international consulting and leadership experience.