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Those eager to have an international work experience often consider themselves open-minded spirits ready to embrace different ways of living and working. But when the initial high of being in a new country wears off and reality sets in, new expatriates very often go into culture shock. Big time.

“Most expats,” says culture trainer and author Dean Foster, “do not expect to actually go through culture shock to the degree that most actually do.” This compounds a melancholy, which can include irritability, depression or insomnia, that has already started to set in.

When expats relocate to countries they believe will be similar, such as going from the United States to Britain, Foster says there is an “unexpected disappointment of experiencing culture shock.”

For those moving to a totally different culture, he observes, “there is the disappointment at not being the ‘uber-human’ most expats expect of themselves, and the disappointment of not being able to handle something that at first they may have felt fully confident to do.”

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Carol S. Dweck, author of Mindset, the New Psychology of Success, contends that your success or failure in life, career and relationships is attributable to a fixed or growth mindset. The fixed mindset believes that your personal qualities - intelligence, personality and character - are set in stone. The growth mindset believes that your qualities can improve with effort and experience.

A fixed mindset can sidetrack your career - especially if you’re working for someone who views his or her subordinates as incapable of growing. Of course, says Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, leaders with a growth mindset are willing to admit when they are wrong and adapt to changing information.

People with a fixed mindset are:

• Inaccurate at gauging their own abilities
• Feel that their intelligence level cannot change
• Are judgmental yet misread other’s ability to grow and change

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Ask anyone who has sourced or managed a globally distributed project. Collaborating with a customer, supplier, or co-worker located in another country typically brings more than you bargained for - a multicultural learning experience.

You can muddle through on your own or get help. Specialized trainers can heighten your cultural awareness and teach you about the tendencies and work styles of one culture compared to another. But there’s a catch: Fostering multicultural awareness usually involves perpetuating generalizations.

Let’s face it, cultural stereotypes often have more than grain of truth to them, but they also tend to rub people the wrong way. Is it possible to educate globally-collaborative workers about different cultures without making generalizations?

“People don’t like to be generalized about,” concedes Craig Storti, one of the leading cultural consultants. “And they especially don’t like somebody from another culture doing it. What I say in my book and in my workshops is I’m describing how Indians come across to westerners - it’s not how Indians see themselves.”

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We look for star quality in politicians and actors, but rarely do we find it among corporate leaders. And, no, we’re not just talking about good looks. The quality known as charisma is an intangible, but valuable career asset, too.

Does it translate well from one culture to another? “The notion of charisma is extremely culture-specific,” says Olivia Fox Cabane, executive director of Spitfire Communications, who coaches leaders on this topic. “Be cautious with taking what has worked at home and trying to work it abroad. A big part of American charisma is making yourself look human and vulnerable - that can be suicide in Germany.”

Cabane, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, lawyer and author, who has two passports (U.S. & France), holds three degrees from two countries and is fluent in four languages, is one of the few among us who has shopped on different continents for where to live. Cabane, who has lived and worked in seven countries on three continents, says she evaluated countries on the basis of where her personal charisma would work best. She loves France, but felt that “lacking gray hair” she would never be taken seriously there.

She has gone to some extremes to win people over. “When I first started lecturing at the United Nations I was 24-years-old,” says Cabane. “I knew that I couldn’t go in there with my 24-year-old face and be listened to with any degree of respect - so I wore stage makeup.”  

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You give your word that you will accept a job, but then you change your mind. As they say in basketball, “no harm, no foul,” right?

Just 24 hours after Billy Donovan, famed coach of the two-time national champion University of Florida men’s basketball team, held a press conference to announce that he had signed a $27.5 million contract to coach the Orlando Magic NBA team, a funny thing happened. He changed his mind.

According to various accounts, Donovan, 42, informed the Magic that he had “a change of heart.” This reconsideration did not go over well with Magic fans or team ownership.

Or the local media: The Orlando Sentinel quips that “Billy the Kid has become Billy the Kidding.”

Who knew that even a champion coach should hire a careers coach to think his moves through? Instead, Donovan’s hiring a lawyer in case the NBA team comes after him. Fortunately for him, UF apparently wants him back and fan sympathies that are now with the Magic may turn against them if there is retribution against the coach.

“The basic rule in America is if you sign what is called a personal service or employment contract, even if you breach it, the court won’t make you work for the party you signed the contract with,” says Frank Snyder, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, in another Sentinel story. “There’s no way if Donovan wants to get out of the deal that he can be compelled to work for the Magic.”

To try to enforce the contract or extract blood from Donovan, the Magic will need to prove that they have been damaged by this ordeal, adds Snyder. There is some speculation that the team could try to bar Donovan from coaching in the NBA until the five-year-term of his soon-to-be-voided deal is up. But common sense suggests that the wiser course of action will be for the Magic to put this experience behind them.

Yet from Donovan’s perspective possibly there were no bad career choices here - the money and fame were good either way. A good careers coach might have helped Donovan to manage his off-court moves just as artfully as he does during a game.