Chinese organizational structures typically feature multiple layers where most people both lead and follow simultaneously. You may direct a team while reporting to a director who reports to a VP. Learning to navigate these layered hierarchies—leading confidently downward while deferring appropriately upward—is essential organizational competence. Each level translates direction from above into guidance for below while representing subordinates’ performance and needs upward.
Understand your position in these chains: what authority you have, to whom you’re accountable, how information and decisions should flow. Appropriate behavior differs by direction—you don’t interact with your subordinates the way you interact with your supervisor. Comfort with leading in one direction while following in another is expected of mature organizational participants.
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