Cross Cultural Skills

Clarity In Cross-Cultural Communication – Tip 5

by on 5 June, 2009

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Cross-Cultural Communication 30-Day Challenge – Get Extreme With Clarity

Today is the last tip on listening to improve clarity in cross-cultural communication. Hopefully you have seen how active listening alone can help you identify ways to improve your cross-cultural conversations. Today’s tip is about reaching out further to the other person and trying to pick up signs that show you what they need.

Clarity In Cross-Cultural Communication Tip 5

Here it is:

Listen to identify what the other person needs to hear to make the communication easier

Sometimes this is easy. Isn’t this why we all seem to start using our hands to communicate with foreign people.

I now use my hands much more than I did before living abroad. In social settings I tend to use my hands a lot, too much for some people. They become part of my creative expression. But in business settings I stop this and control my hands. Many cultures, and people, associate different meanings to hand movements and signs. In addition, it often seems like most of these associations are negative. As my awareness increases during a cross-cultural conversation, I keep control over all hand movements and facial expressions

But sometimes it is not easy to see where others need more clarification. Sometimes you need to get to know them a little bit more. Sometimes all you need to do is to ask what the other person would like to know. But you must remember that these things are not always easy to identify.  Don’t assume that your communication is as easy for the other person to understand as it is for you.

The next 5 tips are how to stop automatic assumptions from interfering with your communication.

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.

Further Suggested Reading & Viewing

Tagged as: 30-day challenge, clarity, Cross-Cultural Communication, cultural skills, International Business, International Sales, listen

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  • http://www.hotelabis.pl Noclegi Kotlina Klodzka

    This is not only cross-cultural. In regular interpersonal contacts if you want to achieve some results you need to know exactly what the other person’s expecting you to say and say it.

    • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

      In some cultures most people would not think of this. In cultures with high individualism scores for example.

      And in cross-cultural communication, anything that does not move towards clarity increases the risk of miscommunication and cultural blunders.

  • Pingback: Cross-Culture Tweets – Week 23 of 2009

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