Peter Fordos
Adjunct Faculty
- Office
- McCone Building
- Tel
- (831) 647-4185
- pfordos@middlebury.edu
Peter Fordos is an intercultural consultant, trainer and coach who specializes in global leadership development. Drawing on first-hand experience, Peter offers an insider’s look at the mindset and business practices of corporations around the world. He works with Fortune 500 companies as a consultant, facilitator and intercultural coach. Peter has worked with: 3M, Apple, Audi, Avery Dennison, Boeing, Bombardier, Bosch, Chrysler, Dell, Disney, General Motors, Graebel, Honeywell, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Tetra Pak, Travelers Insurance, Valero and many other global companies. In addition, he has worked with the US Military, including the Navy Seals and the Special Boat Team.
Peter Fordos was born in the former Czechoslovakia and has been based in the USA since 2001. Peter has conducted training and speaking engagements with a focus on working in multicultural teams, leadership across cultural and business practices, covering a range of countries world vide. He’s a faculty member at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, and an active member of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research.
Having worked and lived in six countries - and travelled to over 70 - Peter understands well the challenges that multinational companies encounter as well as the complex goals international executives must achieve while managing employees around the world. Before becoming an Intercultural trainer, Peter worked within multicultural teams in the Slovak military, in international engineering and in the travel industry. These experiences led to his passion to help global multicultural teams become effective when working across cultures and become exceptional global leaders.
Courses Taught
ICCO 8520
Intercultural Group Dynamics
Course Description
Why do global & multicultural teams struggle and most often fail? Why does performance drop once the honeymoon of team development/team formation is over? What are the factors of successful culturally competent and diverse teams? What leadership style is appropriate when managing/leading globally diverse teams? What is your role as a team member on such a diverse team? How would you manage multicultural team members from China, India, Brazil, Russia, Kenya and the US? Why is it so hard to get things done when such a diverse team is working together? Whose responsibility is to step up when conflict emerges in a diverse team? What is the greatest challenge of a leader managing such team? Could one’s behavior be a contributing factor in such situation/s? How can you or your team achieve their desired goals? How could such diverse teams outperform homogenous team? Are you up for the challenge of working within or perhaps managing a global team? Why not join this workshop and find out how?
Terms Taught
TRLM 8540
Working Across Cultures
Course Description
Global competition for talent is in high demand. Skilled professionals are needed to work across borders more than ever. According to McKinsey Global Report, by 2030 there will be 3.5 billion people in the global labor force many of them engaging across cultures. We know that lack of cultural awareness and cultural intelligence leads to misunderstandings and misinterpretation which can be very costly for the individual, their team and the organization. Therefore, the skills needed to work across cultures are no longer ‘nice to have’ but necessary.
This workshop will help you build the cultural competence and cultural intelligence necessary at work across the globe. We will explore cultural complexity, different values around the world, examine six ways how cultures differ globally and how to build bridges across the cultural divide. Case studies and examples will help us to analyze misunderstandings and build stronger engagement and relationships across cultures and for you in your work. Everything you learn will be practical and applicable right away.
Terms Taught
TRLM 8653
Leading Global Teams
Course Description
This is a course about developing as a leader who guides teams that operate in global contexts. We will explore models of leadership and leadership styles, teams and team dynamics, and the realities of working, communicating, and developing ourselves and our colleagues interculturally - with a particular interest in strategies and practices for leading with little or no formal authority. As such, we will focus on building our individual capacities to observe, reflect, and analyze; seek out and absorb new knowledge and perspectives; connect and engage extemporaneously; and manage on-going multifaceted projects.
Terms Taught
Areas of Interest
Global Talent & Leadership Development, Coaching Executives and Managers for Global Performance, Team Effectiveness & Performance Across Cultures, Multicultural Team-Building, Building Effective Global Teams
Programs
Academic Degrees
M.A. IPS – Specialization International Negotiations & Conflict Resolution, Monterey Institute of International Studies
M.A. IPS – International Trade Policy, Monterey Institute of International Studies