Clarity In Cross-Cultural Communication Tip #15

It is not always easy to identify all of the different cultural filters that come into communicating with your international clients. It is also easy to miss the differences in cross-cultural communication in a business environment. So what do successful international business professionals do?

Well, here is one simple tactic:

Look at your communication from a different angle

Many successful international business professionals use this tactic systematically. As you gain experience with different cultures you get to know where the difficulties pop up often. This gives you at least one different angle to use when reviewing your communication. The more experience you have, the more angles you look at instinctively.

This tactic helps you to identify areas in your communication that you should try to improve for easier cross-cultural communication. You might want to:

• Look for a different way of saying something
• Add some additional information
• Include a different form of communication
• Include a third person in the conversation
• Reinforce the context
• Take a different approach
• Confirm mutual understanding

Looking at your cross-cultural communication from a different angle helps you to become creative with your communication… and it often makes your communication three-dimensional giving it more depth and meaning. A great way to connect with different cultures.

Use this tip as a starting point. Think about what this means to you. Not sure what you think about this? There are a few links below for suggested reading to get you started. Follow each of these tips this month to improve your cultural skills.

What do you think? Is this helpful? Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Photos from Shutterstock.

  Filed under: Cross-Cultural Communication

Cindy King

Comments

• Clarity In Cross-Cultural Communication – Tip 16 · 16 June, 2009 · 

  [...] we looked at why it was useful to look at your cross-cultural communication from different angles.  And the reason you do this is to identify possible sources of confusion and lack of clarity.  [...]

• 

  Sushi · 18 June, 2009 · 

  Trust is a very important point. You can’t forget that people from other countries will be very careful while doing business with you because if anything goes wrong it’ll be a lot harder to correct.

• Cross-Culture Tweets – Week 25 of 2009 · 22 June, 2009 · 

  [...] #CCCCTips 15 – When the cultural connection is missing, look at your communication from a diff… [...]