You leave Taipei, Montréal or Casablanca with a hefty CV, and on landing you suddenly feel… tiny.
New country, new language, new network: the dream-fuelled adrenaline often flips to vertigo.
In this article :
- The “I feel tiny” symptoms
- Zoom out: replace fantasy with facts
- Re-program: from dream to plan
- Shrink the language mountain
- Key take-aways
1. The “I feel tiny” symptoms
- Confident manager in front ➜ shoulders slump, voice drops.
- Legendary VP walks in ➜ self-censor: “He won’t listen to me.”
- Meeting ➜ “I’ll speak once my idea is perfect” … result: silence.
- Local colleague questions me ➜ instant conclusion “I’m wrong.”
- Default explanation: “It’s my fault, my English (or French, or German) is too weak.”
Diagnosis : smallness springs from biased comparison – we enlarge the other, shrink our own journey.
2. Zoom out: replace fantasy with facts
Return to the mandate
- What exactly does the company expect?
- Why did it invest in an expat talent?
Roles & criteria
If you had to recruit your successor, what three must-haves?
👉 View the function from above, not just its daily execution.
Distinctive strengths
- Unique technical skills?
- Working method, attitude, APAC/EMEA network?
- Past testimonials (former bosses, peers).
Result : legitimacy shifts from an outside stamp to an internal, verifiable statement.
3. Re-program: from dream… to plan
| Step | Concrete action |
|---|---|
| Goal | Phrase the next step (e.g. lead a regional project) plus the step after (e.g. role at EMEA HQ). |
| Mapping | Coffee map: 5 key people (hierarchy, peers, support functions, external mentor, informal influencer). ☕ Schedule 1 coffee a week. |
| Metrics | Diary “daily wins”: one line = a fact + its impact → raw material for quarterly / year-end review. |
| Tuning | Spot one blockage = one hypothesis to test (e.g. is the brake really language?) then mini-experiment: 90-sec pitch to a friendly colleague, instant feedback. |
4. Three hacks to deflate the language mountain
- Separate content & form: draft ideas in your native tongue first, then translate only what’s essential.
- Micro-meeting goals: ask one strategic question or summarise a decision at the end.
- Native buddy: 15 min/week – correct three key phrases; in return, ask for a market insight.
5. In short
“Don’t call it a dream, call it a plan.”
You’ve already crossed half the globe; the rest is iterations, not a reset.
Need a boost to turn vertigo into strategy? → Book a free 40-min discovery call and walk away with a personal compass.