Cross Cultural Skills

Do You Have Any Culture Tips To Share?

by on 12 August, 2009

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Improve Your Cross-Cultural Communication

This year I am running 4 different month-long cross-cultural communication challenges. During each of these monthly challenges there is a new tip each day to help you build your cultural skills.

Why 4 Cross-Cultural Challenges?

For 2 main reasons.

First, I notice that many of the issues people have with developing their business internationally are related to their own cross-cultural skills.  Cross-cultural communication plays a major role in developing these cultural skills.

The trouble is that many people:

  • Do not think they need to improve their skills
  • Think it is beyond them
  • Do not realize how easy it is to improve cross-cultural communication if you take it in small steps

This is why I broke cross-cultural communication into 4 areas.  There are probably more ways to look at developing cross-cultural skills, but these are the 4 different areas that I find the most important ones to look at first.  Here are the 4 different angles:

  • Mindset
  • Clarity
  • Trust
  • Personal Development


The second reason why there are 4 challenges, is simply because I did not have the time to tackle this all at once.  This is why I decided to spread the work out over the year.  Of course, I hope to put all 4 parts together early next year to give you one complete guide to improve cross-cultural communication skills.

I also feel that if you are serious about international business and want to develop your cultural skills, it takes time.  These 4 challenges spread out every 3 months make them easy to follow and absorb.  Strong cross-cultural skills requires personal involvement.  It is not just a question of reading tips and books.  Cross-cultural skills require some introspection and small steps of improvement.  These 4 challenges are spaced out to give you time to make these adjustments.

The First 2 Cross-Cultural Challenges

The first 2 cross-cultural communication challenges covered ways to:

  1. Expand your mindset
  2. Get extreme with clarity

Click on the links above to see a list of all of the tips.  And don’t forget to download and print out the one page posters:

  1. Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge 1 – Expand Your Mindset Poster
  2. Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge 2 – Get Extreme With Clarity Poster

The Next Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge = Cultivate Trust

The next cross-cultural communication challenge is during the month of September. This time we look at how we can cultivate trust in our communication.  Trust is a huge issue in cross-cultural communication and even more so for international business.

Cross-cultural differences naturally create barriers.  All sorts of barriers.  And the consequence is that:

  • Building trust demands constant attention
  • You can lose trust in the blink of an eye

These cross-cultural differences can run as undercurrents in international business.  It is important to understand how you can build trust and where things can go wrong.  Because when you do lose trust in an international environment, the cultural differences make it very hard to regain any lost ground.

No matter how you look at it, the more you work at building and maintaining trust, the easier it is to make international sales.

The Critical Element Of Trust In International Sales

After each of these cross-cultural communication challenges, I spend the following month reviewing each of the communication tips again… with a difference. Instead of focusing on improving communication, the following month we put this into an international sales context.  And when I look at the sales context I use one of Jeffrey Gitomer’s little books.

So in October we will review the cross-cultural communication tips in a sales context with the help of short quotes from Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Teal Book Of Trust.

Can You Help Me?

Do you have any cross-cultural communication tips to share? 

Of course, I would love any tips specifically aimed at building and maintaining trust in international business, but all other culture tips are welcome. I regularly share all kinds of tips to improve cross-cultural competence.

If so, please leave them in the comments below.  If I can use your tip in next month’s challenge, I will mention your name.

  • Do you have any culture tips to share on developing trust in international business?
  • What culture tip has helped you the most to develop strong culture skills?
  • How have you built trust in cross-cultural communication with international clients?

More On How To Improve Your Cross-Cultural Communication:

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Tagged as: Cross-Cultural Communication, International Business, tips, trust

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"Cindy is a real authority on all things international marketing.
She is who I turn to when I have questions and you should too"
-- Chris Garrett, co-author of the "Problogger" book
  • http://www.aparcher.com/ Apryl Parcher

    Hey, Cindy:

    My daughter Christine, who studied in Shanghai has a good networking tip to share for those who may have business dealings with people in China. Establishing business relationships in China is an art called “guanxi.” When you’re networking with Chinese persons, pay particular attention to both your business cards and theirs: treat them like $100.00 bills!

    When receiving business cards in a person-to-person exchange, for instance, always take their card in both hands and read it carefully before putting it away. And make sure your own cards have your information translated into Chinese somewhere on the card. This shows the proper respect for both parties.

    Hope that helps!

    Apryl
    .-= Apryl Parcher´s last blog ..San Diego, Here I Come! =-.

  • http://www.dragosroua.com Dragos Roua

    When in Romania, don’t drink too much tzuika. Although it’s a common habit to greet your guests with this drink (as tough as whiskey) if you’re not careful you can make your feet into noodles pretty fast.

    Hope this helps :-)
    .-= Dragos Roua´s last blog ..Assess – Decide – Do for Programming =-.

  • http://www.bizsugar.com/story/8871 bizsugar.com

    Do You Have Any Culture Tips To Share?…

    How have you built trust in cross-cultural communication with international clients? Please share your tips for next month’s cross-cultural communication challenge to cultivate trust. Read the tips for the 2 previous monthly cross-cultural communicati…

  • Hurt Tkanin

    Well the truth is that cross cultural relationships (of any kind) are not easy. The differences of lifestyle, language and priorities can sometimes lead to total misunderstanding and (sadly) aggression. It is very common that misunderstanding makes people more aggressive because they start to think that the other side is trying to do something wrong intentionally. If someone tells you that you can’t eat that because that piece of meat was one saint animal? That could be hard to swallow. It is one of the most important things to that person, and what can you do? Do not eat? Throw it away? Ignore complains? There is no good way out of it.

  • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

    Hi Hurt,

    Thanks for your insights. Cross-cultural communication is indeed difficult. And yet, international business professionals do learn to go a certain distance along the path that separates two cultures. It is not always easy, and it takes personal commitment, but people can improve their cross-cultural skills.

  • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

    Thanks Dragos! I wonder if I should try this tzuika one day… or keep it handy to offer to others :)
    It’s funny how food is part of so many cultural differences. And also funny how I remember so vividly the foods I loved in different countries and can imagine myself spending a fortune just to go eat them again. Which makes me think that people must have a good memory for foods.

  • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

    Hi Apryl,

    Thanks for this tip! So business cards are not likely to go out of fashion are they? Here in Europe I have seen many people with fun tiny “moo” cards. It seems like business cards are not exchanged as often as they used to be.

  • http://www.canycomsales.com Morgan

    Hello Cindy,

    Apryl’s networking tip for dealing with Chinese business people also applies to dealing with Japanese business people. Business cards are of high importance in Japanese personal business exchanges.

    Business Cards: When receiving a Japanese person’s business card take it in both hands with a bow, say “Arigatou gozaimasu” (or just Thank you very much) and study the person’s name and position in their company. Be sure never to put it away into a back pocket (although I supposed that’s common sense). Put it away carefully in a front shirt pocket, business card holder, or wallet, or carefully place it in front of you on the meeting table.

    Drinking & Business: I am curious if drinking and dining (heavy drinking) with clients after hours to network and seal the deal on contracts is as common in China as Japan. (I’m sure you are familiar with the drunken salaryman stereotype) How about European countries?

  • http://cindyking.biz Cindy

    Hi Morgan,

    Thank you for your insights on business card practices.

    With regards to drinking in Europe,…

    I don’t drink: I got a form of hepatitus when I was 18 and it took about 15 years to not be negatively effected by the smell of alcohol. I have never had a problem not drinking in Europe. Although it is often much easier to take a glass, and not drink it, than to ask for something non-alcoholic.

    Here are a few cultural differences I have noticed:
    - In the UK you often have to go to the pub with your colleagues at lunch time or after work, otherwise you will never be accepted in the group. And you must be accepted in the group to get anywhere professionally. In the UK people will notice whether you drink or not, and how much you drink.
    - In France, many business deals are sealed over a meal… there will always be wine at the meal and many French men can drink as much as a bottle by themselves… at lunch. But it is more a question of showing good taste or “culture” than the quantity you drink.

    Outside of business, it appears “acceptable”, dare I say “expected” for young Americans to get into wild drinking in Las Vagas excursions for example. This reminds me of how common it is to see drunk people vomitting on the streets once the UK pubs close. If this were to happen in other cultures, it would not be as “acceptable”, or people would wonder what the problem was or what event had triggered this.

    That’s all for now. Would love to hear what others have to say.

  • http://cindyking.biz/cross-culture-tweets-week-33-of-2009/ Cross-Culture Tweets – Week 33 of 2009

    [...] Do you have any culture tips for business to share? – Please RT [...]

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