How To Develop Your Cross-Cultural Skills

Cross-Cultural Competence

cross cultural communication We are not all born equal with regards to communication skills. It’s obvious some people find communication easier than others and this is the same in cross-cultural communication.

No matter what your natural skill level is communication and people skills, you can always work on developing stronger cross-cultural skills. Of course international experience and exposure to different cultures plays an important role, but there’s a lot of work you can do to help you acquire stronger cross-cultural skills faster. This series of articles is about the personal steps you can take to develop stronger cross-cultural skills.

Check Your Mindset Before You Begin To Develop Your Cross-Cultural Skills

I know more than one person who has lived abroad for years and worked with people from different cultures without developing any real cross-cultural communication skills. The reason for this is their own mindset is blocked and no matter how much interaction they may have with different cultures, they will never move their cultural skills forward.

Developing cross-cultural skills starts first with revising your own mindset and opening yourself up to different cultures. Your own mindset lays the foundation for the level of cross-cultural skills you may acquire and it takes some work.

But this can require a significant amount of personal work for many people. And we are always able to do this type of personal work due to other things going on in our lives and occupying too much internal space. This is why working on our mindset is often a continually process. Even people with strong cultural skills have “bad days” and need to make the effort to align their mindset to be optimal for good cross-cultural communication.

With this in mind, here the resource page on developing the right mindset:

Mindset

Develop Your Cross-Cultural Skills

Once you are aware of the importance of your own mindset and begin to understand how to observe it and how it impacts your own reactions, then you are ready to continue and develop your cross-cultural skills.

Develop Cross-Cultural Communication

Getting Beyond Visible Cultural Differences
Checklist To Grow Your Cross-Cultural Skills

International Experience

Overcoming Barriers

Getting Acquainted With Your Cultural Baggage
Prejudice – A Cross-Cultural Business Barrier
Cross-Cultural Barriers

More Ideas To Develop Cross-Cultural Skills

Alternative Ways To Develop Cross-Cultural Skills

Now, It’s Your Turn

What tips do you have to share to develop your cross-cultural skills?
What cross-cultural skills would you like to improve?
How much time do you invest in developing your cross-cultural skills?

Please leave your comments below.

Cross-Cultural Topics On Facebook

Please click through and “Like” this Facebook page on cross-cultural topics. This is where I share the cross-cultural and international business links I find of interest.