Twitter Interviews – #CKinterview

Today’s Cross-Cultural Interview is with Leo Salazar. Leo is the person behind the Twitter handle @srleosalazar . Leo is a consultant and trainer helping people who work in international environments. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and has lived and worked in Europe for over 20 years.

He tells more about himself in below and he’ll share some cross-cultural and international business tips during a live Twitter interview in a few hours. The transcript of this live Twitter interview will be published below.

This is a 2 part interview:

• Part 1 – The Blog Interview
• Part 2 – The Twitter Interview for 10 Cross-Cultural & International Questions today at 4pm GMT

Leo Salazar – Part 1

Hi Leo, for those who don’t know you, can you please tell us something about yourself?

Leo Salazar : Hello Cindy. First of all, thank you very much for inviting me to be a guest for this interview. I’m honored, and humbled, to be included in the company of the experts I’ve seen on your site. I hope I can fulfill your expectations.

I was born and raised in Southern California in the US, in 1957. In fact, I was born 4 days after the Russians launched Sputnik – a true child of the Space Age. Near my birthplace in San Bernardino was Norton Air Force Base, which was one of the Strategic Air Command bases of the US Air Force. So if you consider that I was literally born in the shadow of the Cold War, with hot nuclear warhead loaded B-52 Stratofortress bombers circling above our heads day and night, I was aware from a very early age of the influence of other cultures on our daily existence.

In addition, as I grew older I came to learn the history of our family and the Hispanic influence that played a very large role. I say often that our father gave us our Spanish blood and lineage, but our mother gave us the culture. Even though born and raised in a white, middle-class environment, she studied at the University of Mexico City after her father up and moved the entire family to live in Cuernavaca, Mexcio, when she was a teenager. She is fluent in Spanish, and has a clear affinity for Latino cultures. After a career as a bilingual teacher in Riverside, California, for grade school children, she continues today at age 73 to play a strong bridging role between Latino and Anglo cultures in California.

More recently, however, I married into a culturally adventurous life. My first wife was a helicopter pilot in the US Army, and we moved frequently between Europe and various locations in the US. I lived and worked for American Express Community Bank in Mannheim Germany starting in 1984, and came to the Netherlands in 1992. I first studied, then worked as a member of staff for TSM Business School at the University of Twente, and most recently for De Baak, which is the premier management training institute of the Netherlands. My wife is Dutch and we live in a medium-sized town in the east of the country, but I work primarily in Amsterdam. My three children all live in California, literally down the street from my mother and brothers.

How did you pick up your cross-cultural skills?

Leo Salazar : My cross-cultural skills were developed primarily through experience, later by study. First as a child, hearing Spanish around me on a frequent basis. Later through my experiences in living in Germany and the Netherlands. Additionally, living in different parts of the US is about as cross-cultural as one can get. I remember visiting my children who were living with their mother in Hawaii at the time. My daughter said to me, sotto voce “Dad!!! Slow down! Take it easy. You’re scaring the locals.” I realized that for all my “cross-cultural expertise,” I still had a lot to learn about the application of the skills I was teaching.

I worked for a time at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, which was established by the Dutch in 1910 as the “Colonial Institute.” It was set up to establish a repository for cultural artifacts from the colonies (primarily Indonesia) as well as to build knowledge of cultures. I worked there as a trainer in helping outgoing expats to prepare for their new assignment countries. This experience acquainted me with the standard, off-the-shelf “cultural dimension” approach of cultural training.

Concurrently, I was running my own business development company in which I was helping American businesses to gain a foothold in European markets. It was very instructive in helping US businessmen who had, in most cases, never even been out of the US before to navigate the business landscape in Europe.

These various experiences (living situation, outgoing cultural skills, incoming commercial skills) gave me a unique and well-rounded perspective on how to apply cultural learning techniques to business.

How do you use your cross-cultural skills in your job?

Leo Salazar : For me the value of giving attention to “cross-cultural” attributes is in the interface between people. It’s about recognizing and respecting value, giving credence to a different perspective, and working together to create new and unique value. My motto is, “Learning & Development in an Intercultural context. Learning from each other, doing better business.”

Even though I deal with issues on a daily basis that could be described with any number of labels (diversity, inclusiveness, multicultural skills), I try to avoid these labels for a simple reason: they lead to pre-conceptions and stereotypes. I want my clients to focus on the value that is created in the interface, to view the interface from their own perspective, and to strive towards building on that interaction to create new value.

Can you tell us about your blog?

Leo Salazar : I first started “blogging” in 1978, when I first moved away from home. I was living in Virginia, on the east coast of the US in the “South,” and sitting behind a student typewriter I wrote a weekly missive home to my family on the west coast, whom I missed terribly. I would include interesting anecdotes, local newspaper clippings, and other pieces of curiosa that would hopefully shed light on my life there in the “foreign culture” of that part of the country. These letters gave way to weekly emails and printed letters from my first PC, purchased in 1989 – basically the same medium, but modestly facilitated by IT. The first step towards a real blog, as it is known today, was in 2000, through Xanga. I went through a pretty much predictable pattern after that, always following the most popular social medium: Xanga, My Space, Facebook, Blogger, WordPress – all with the same goal in mind: to stay in touch with my children and family.

It wasn’t until just a few months ago that I finally discovered a new use for these social media: to learn and brand myself in my profession. The real stimulus for this change was re-discovering Twitter. I first picked up on Twitter about a year and a half ago, but I was very much in the “turkey sandwich” mode (as in “OMG – I’m eating a turkey sandwich!!!!” – for a funny perspective on this and other Twitter uses, check out Oatmeal’s contribution “How Addicted to Twitter Are You?”). But more recently I had an epiphany through the discovery of #lrnchat, which is a community of learning professionals that meets on Twitter every Thursday to discuss learning topics. This led to my current routine, which is to plant the seed of the idea through Twitter, and cultivate the growth of that idea through my blog. I try to focus on topics that are relevant to my specialty, effectiveness in doing intercultural business. I realize that each tweet, and each blog entry, is a value proposition for current and potential future clients. I feel I have an obligation to reward their attention with something of value: a new insight, a unique perspective, a learning point.

Since re-discovering Twitter and being active on my blog, I’ve been amazed at the world that’s opened up for me. Even though I’ve been long active in online communities (first discovering them through my Compuserve account in 1991), I hadn’t really taken a proactive stance. Most of my online presence was as a lurker. This new use of a familiar tool has led to learning insights that I hadn’t experienced in quite awhile.

I have a couple of lists I’m building here on this blog, and wonder if you have anything you would like to share.

Have you come across any cultural stereotypes that bother you, or you find inappropriate?

Leo Salazar : Every culture is open to misunderstanding from those outside it. Of course there are many stereotypes and practices, even in my own culture, that I find anathematic. See an early blog post of mine (on a blog now dormant, in which I was far more critical of cultural practices than I am now).

But I also realize that the only way to change is from the inside, by members of the culture itself. And if change occurs, it does so slowly, usually by using positive reinforcement and motivators that are defined by those who are inside the change process. The best we can do, as outsiders, is to facilitate this process, if so allowed.

For example, when I first moved to the Netherlands, I was shocked at what I interpreted at the time as being blatantly racist attitudes. I was judging the Dutch people from an entirely American perspective. But since living in this culture for nearly 20 years now and being open to learning why the people think the way they do, I have come to understand their attitudes. Note that I don’t say I accept them, but it’s not for me to openly criticize or to demand change. The best I can do is to focus on similarities, build on the positive aspects of the society, and hope that others are able to have their own similar learning and growing experience by being open to new perspectives. 

Do you have a favorite movie that could help people understand cultural issues?

Leo Salazar : There are a few films that spring to mind when you say “cultural issues.” One is “Babel, from which I felt a wrenching tension as the values by colliding cultures, each from their own perspective, were brought into conflict. Another is “American History X,” with an outstanding and moving performance by Edward Norton. But I’m loath to recommend these as movies for people to watch to better understand culture and its implications. Why not? Because everyone interprets artistic stimulus in different ways, based on their own experience, norms, values, etc. Certainly I experienced both of these films from my own frame of reference as films with dramatic cultural implications. And my interpretation of the films reflects this. But I’m not sure that anyone else would do the same, and both of these are outstanding creations even ignoring cultural issues. I would much rather that I recommend these as outstanding films and allow people to draw their own interpretations and conclusions.

Do you have a book you could recommend to help others improve their cultural insights?

Leo Salazar : Ach! It’s been so long since I’ve read and enjoyed fiction, I wouldn’t know where to begin. And the vast majority of non-fiction business books with “culture” as their topic I find utter hogwash.

What I do enjoy, however, very much are popular works that explore the historical development of a society. Books that give historical insight into why things are the way they are. Russel Shorto’s “The Island at the Center of the World,” for example, which explores the original Dutch founding of the island of Manhattan. Dr. Jared Diamond’s books as well, “Guns, Germs & Steel,” for example, or “Collapse,” which look at the reasons why societies rise and fall. And looking more specifically at Dutch society, I find Simon Schama’s The Embarrassment of Riches an outstanding read. In fact, it was this last book that I credit with my evolved understanding of my Dutch colleagues at work and family at home.

And finally…

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Leo Salazar : It’s been a pleasure using this forum to reflect on my own development. Thank you for the opportunity.

Leo, thank you for sharing so much with us in this portion of the interview already. I’m looking forward to hearing your answers to the 10 Cross-Cultural Questions on Twitter with you later today.

Leo Salazar – Part 2 – The Twitter Interview

More Twitter Interviews

This is an interview series of the people I recommend you follow on Twitter for the cross-cultural and international business insights in their tweets.

• Cate Brubaker – @CateBrubaker
• David Comp – @DavidComp
• Sean Oliver – @SeanJamesOliver
• Martin Lindeskog – @lyceum
• Rajeev Edmonds – @mintblogger
• Rossitza Ohridska-Olson – @culturalrealms
• Charmayne Paul – @psitutor
• Lucy Chatburn – @pocketcultures
• Doreen Iannuzzi – @DoreenatDMS
• Donna Jackson – @wisequeen
• Chris Cotter – @CotterHUE
• Jack Yan – @jackyan
• Silvia Cambié – @XCulture
• Bill Ward – @DR4WARD
• Thierry De Baillon – @t_de_baillon
• Seshu – @PicSeshu
• Neil Urquhart – @culturematters
• Klaus & Flavia Westerwelle – @transdomo
• Donagh Kiernan – @dkiernan
• Christian Hoeferle – @hoeferleconsult
• Caroline – @ohh_la_la
• Deborah Swallow – @DeborahSwallow
• Steve Roesler – @steveroesler
• Matthew Bennett – @matthewbennett

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Twitter Interview With Leo Salazar

Twitter Interviews – #CKinterview

Today’s Cross-Cultural Interview is with Cate Brubaker . Cate is the person behind the Twitter handle @CateBrubaker.

Cate Brubaker specializes in intercultural education. By day, Cate is a Cross-cultural Program Development Manager for an international education organization. By night, she’s a blogger, author, and consultant. Cate is also co-founder and President of SIETAR-NC and Marketing Co-chair for the 2010 SIETAR-USA conference. She is based in the U.S. but has lived in Germany and traveled throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

This is a 2 part interview:

• Part 1 – The Blog Interview
• Part 2 – The Twitter Interview for 10 Cross-Cultural & International Questions

Cate Brubaker – Part 1

Hi Cate, for those who don’t know you, can you please tell us something about yourself?

Cate Brubaker : Hi everyone! I grew up among the evergreen trees of Oregon and now live in the land of barbecue and sweet tea, otherwise known as North Carolina. I’ve also lived in Germany and the Midwestern U.S. – places where winter lasts entirely too long.

I’m married, and although my husband and I would like to live abroad again, we’re enjoying getting to know the “the South.”

My career path so far: candy store, catering, English teacher, German teacher, grad student, study abroad, intercultural trainer…

I’m trying to figure out how to be a professional round-the-world backpacker.

How did you pick up your cross-cultural skills?

Cate Brubaker : Experience. Study. Mistakes. Lots and lots of each.

As a kid I was drawn to anyone who wasn’t from “around here.” I remember being really, really curious about the rest of the world. I wanted to explore and understand other countries on their terms and turf.

At 16, I got my chance, thanks to the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program. The year I spent living in Germany – my first time traveling outside the U.S. – was difficult, exhilarating, and the reason I’ve worked cross-culturally ever since.

I studied German in college and grad school, spent a couple more years in Germany, and traveled whenever I could. I spent a lot of time trying to understand my (sometimes negative) reactions and interpretations…but I often felt stuck, and sometimes I just couldn’t understand or even explain the cultural rifts I encountered.

When I was teaching, and especially when I worked for a study abroad program in Germany, I noticed that many of my students had similar difficulties. I wanted to learn how to guide my students (and myself) into deeper cross-cultural learning. One thing led to another, and I discovered the field of intercultural communication. I felt like a whole new world had opened up to me. I dove into studying everything I could get my hands on.

Nowadays I strive to maintain a balance of keeping up with theory and putting myself in cross-cultural situations that stretch me. Developing cross-cultural skills is a life-long endeavor.

How do you use your cross-cultural skills in your job?

Cate Brubaker : My job requires me to walk my cross-cultural talk every day. Some days I’m more successful than others!

In my day job, I not only have colleagues from around the world, I also facilitate workshops for intercultural audiences. My job sometimes takes me outside the U.S. (I’ve worked with educators in Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America).

One thing I’ve learned in my current job is that my cross-cultural skills aren’t only applicable in situations where I’m working with people from other countries – they’re also useful when working with my U.S. colleagues who sometimes have very different communication styles, backgrounds, and perspectives than I do.

One example: early on in my current job I was moved into a department I really didn’t want to work in. One I didn’t think I belonged in. I remember feeling like I’d moved to another country because everything seemed so foreign. Then it hit me: I could put my cross-cultural skills to work, even though everyone on my team was the same nationality as me.

During the year I spent in that department I strove to understand my new department’s perspectives, communication styles, and values. Was it a difficult year? Yes. But I’m so grateful for the experience because I gained a deeper understanding – and respect – for the work my colleagues do.

Can you tell us about your blog?

Cate Brubaker:

Isn’t it interesting that we all grow up learning a culture? And even more interesting, that school is one of the places where we learn it?

We at CulturallyTeaching are fascinated by this connection between education and culture. A favorite elementary school teacher, a student’s interaction with her host mother, even a photo of a school lunch – these stories communicate culture.

Our mission is simple: document stories about education across cultures.

CulturallyTeaching is run by a team of 3: me – from the U.S., Anamaria, who is originally from Romania but lives in the U.S., and Pamela, a teacher who just returned home to Argentina after 3 years in the U.S.

Here are a couple CulturallyTeaching posts your readers might enjoy:

43 cross-cultural quotes for the classroom
Sleeping in school – a cultural thing?
I’ve ‘turned on my Romanian’

Our goal is to create a community of educulturalists – people interested in the intersection between education and culture. We’re always looking for people to share their experiences with CulturallyTeaching, so if any of your readers are interested, please contact us. Don’t be shy, we’ll make it as easy as possible for you to share your story. We believe everyone has a story to tell.

I have a couple of lists I’m building here on this blog, and wonder if you have anything you would like to share.

Do you have a favorite movie that could help people understand cultural issues?

Cate Brubaker: A few of my favorites: L’auberge Espagnole (captures some universal elements of studying abroad), Good Bye Lennon (humorous take on the fall of the Berlin wall), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (drama set in 1980′s Romania)

Do you have a book you could recommend to help others improve their cultural insights?

Cate Brubaker: Lost in Translation: Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman – a powerful book that’s also a delight to read.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Cate Brubaker: What I love about blogging and being on Twitter and Facebook is connecting with people all over the world. Even though I’d love to spend a year traveling the world and documenting people’s stories about education and culture in person, I really enjoy engaging with and learning from people online.

I’d especially love to connect with people from parts of the world I don’t have as much experience with as I’d like – Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania.
Thanks for interviewing me, Cindy. I’ve enjoyed reading the other interviews you’ve done, and I’m thrilled to be part of the series.

Cate, thank you for sharing so much with us in this portion of the interview already. I’m looking forward to hearing your answers to the 10 Cross-Cultural Questions on Twitter with you later today.

Cate Brubaker – Part 2 – The Twitter Interview

This is an interview series of the people I recommend you follow on Twitter for the cross-cultural and international business insights in their tweets.

More Twitter Interviews

• Martin Lindeskog – @lyceum
• Rajeev Edmonds – @mintblogger
• Rossitza Ohridska-Olson – @culturalrealms
• Charmayne Paul – @psitutor
• Lucy Chatburn – @pocketcultures
• Doreen Iannuzzi – @DoreenatDMS
• Donna Jackson – @wisequeen
• Chris Cotter – @CotterHUE
• Jack Yan – @jackyan
• Silvia Cambié – @XCulture
• Bill Ward – @DR4WARD
• Thierry De Baillon – @t_de_baillon
• Seshu – @PicSeshu
• Neil Urquhart – @culturematters
• Klaus & Flavia Westerwelle – @transdomo
• Donagh Kiernan – @dkiernan
• Christian Hoeferle – @hoeferleconsult
• Caroline – @ohh_la_la
• Deborah Swallow – @DeborahSwallow
• Steve Roesler – @steveroesler
• Matthew Bennett – @matthewbennett

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Twitter Interview With Cate Brubaker

How To Develop Your Cross-Cultural Skills

E arlier this week I tried to help someone on a forum, but I ran into some communication hurdles. Now, there is only so much you can do in writing and there is only so much time I can spend on a forum. So, when after a few attempts I realized that this person had some “baggage” creating barriers to our conversation, I decided to drop it. This was not the time and place to go any further. We really needed a face to face discussion to have a meaningful conversation.

This incident reminded me of the importance of getting acquainted with your own cultural baggage.

The Interference Of Baggage

In the case above, this person lived with a painful disease and she had created ways of dealing with this pain that impacted her communication in general. In addition, her baggage came in the way of others wanting to interact with her.

You know what I’m talking about right? If you pay attention, you will occasionally notice people with “baggage”.  You may know of people who have gone through a lot and who have not yet finished the healing process.  And there might not be challenging life experiences behind this baggage. Some people carry baggage that impacts their communication because they consider themselves too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat. It can be anything really.  But the point is that communication is not easy because this person has baggage that gets in the way.

Now that you have an idea of what I’m referring to with regards to “baggage”, let’s move on and look closer at cultural baggage.

What Is Cultural Baggage?

Of course we all have cultural baggage that comes with our own culture.  Although this can lead to some interesting observations, let’s look at cultural baggage as it impacts cross-cultural communication. Along the lines of what I outlined above.

The main problem with our culture baggage is that we tend to make wrong assumptions. We have assumptions about ourselves, our family, friends and the world around us.  These assumptions are based on our own experience. And we tend to think this is the only way of doing things. We rarely question our assumptions because they seem so natural to us.  These assumptions relate to what we find polite, kind, respectful, friendly… you get the picture.  And they also relate to our own life experiences, as I mentioned above.

Because these assumptions are based on our cultural background, heritage and environment, they can quickly become unnecessary baggage and get in the way of cross-cultural communication.

You have two options to deal with these assumptions.

1. First Develop Awareness For Your Own Cultural Baggage

The first step is to realize and acknowledge the cultural baggage you carry around with you and to identify the specific pieces of baggage you hang onto that impact your cross-cultural communication.

The cultural baggage you carry with you impacts:

• How others perceive you
• The quality of your communication
• The success of your international business relationships

So you need to be aware of how you come across to others. And this means developing a keen awareness of the the cultural baggage you carry with you. This will help you to see when others have cultural baggage that interferes with your communication.  This knowledge will help you to understand other cultures and also to find the suitable path for effective communication.

2. Learn When To Unload Your Cultural Baggage

It’s natural to assume that you must get rid of all of the excess cultural baggage interfering with your cross-cultural communication.  But this is not the solution.

You don’t need to give up who you are in order to be good at cross-cultural communication.

Knowing your personal boundaries. With practice you will learn to identify your personal boundaries for what feels comfortable to you.  There are no rules except good cross-cultural communicators know their boundaries well and learn how to avoid getting so close to these boundaries to stir up negative feelings.  This might be feelings of aggression, dislike and not accepting to be associated with someone.

Placing your cultural baggage aside. Curiosity is often a good way to forget your own cultural baggage.  As you focus on the other person it is often easy to keep your own cultural baggage within.  But in some cases you may need to temporarily set a cumbersome piece of baggage down for a moment or two.  All you need is a few minutes.  Enough time to find the right path of mutual understanding and direct your communication into easier areas.

Sometimes your cultural baggage can be helpful to you. This is usually the case when you have let the communication go beyond the boundaries you are comfortable with. Although you can find comfort in holding onto your cultural baggage in these circumstances, this does not help you to improve your cultural skills.

To improve your cross-cultural skills you need to make the effort of learning more about your boundaries and how to put aside the most cumbersome pieces of baggage for just a moment.

And you can also progressively learn to carry less baggage with you.

Lighten The Load

Cross-cultural communication is not always easy in business.  You have little choice in who you have to deal with.  For some people the path towards developing the right mindset to build strong international relationships is a long one.  And it can be tiring in a profession where you have to constantly adapt to different cultures.

The good news is that the more international experience you have, the more you’ll understand different cultures. And this understanding helps you to learn more about yourself and your own cultural baggage.

If you encounter the same or similar communication problems, spend some quiet time thinking about the baggage you bring to the encounter and how this impacts your cross-cultural communication.  As you progressively acquire more self-knowledge you can lighten the baggage you carry with you little by little.

Once you learn to recognize cultural baggage you’ll also notice how the people with strong cultural skills master their own cultural baggage very well so that it does not impact their cross-cultural encounters.

What do you think?

• Have you ever had a conversation turn sour because the other person had too much baggage?
• How familiar are you with your own cultural baggage?
• Do you know if your cultural baggage is raising unnecessary hurdles in your cross-cultural communication?

More On How To Develop Your Cross-Cultural Skills:

• Getting Beyond Visible Cultural Differences
• International Exposure To Develop Cross-Cultural Skills
• How An Open Mindset Increases Confidence
• International Exposure To Develop Cross-Cultural Skills
• Morphing Into A Foreign Culture
• Prejudice – A Cross-Cultural Business Barrier

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

• Connect With Your International Markets
• Culture Customized Content
• Cultural Web Tools

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Getting Acquainted With Your Cultural Baggage

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge – Personal Development

This is Day 3 of the 30-day challenge to focus on your personal development in cross-cultural communication. Each day there is one short topic to reflect on and try to improve.

Day 3 – Empathy for Cross-Cultural Competence

Empathy is the cornerstone of all cross-cultural skills.  Before you can connect with people from different cultures who do things differently and think differently, you must be able to understand them.  In practice we  are not always lucky to fully understand everyone.  But empathy leads us along this path that brings us to understand different cultures.

Business is done between people. You need to connect to people. In international business, the cross-cultural differences can make it difficult to make that connection. Empathy is what we need on a personal level to make this happen.

The Foundation Of Cross-Cultural Communication

Empathy is always part of the foundation of effective cross-cultural communication.  It is a core interpersonal skill. Yesterday we saw how curiosity can help us to move towards empathy.

Steps Towards Empathy

Here are a few more tips to help you develop a stronger capacity towards empathy: 

• Personal commitment to develop cross-cultural skills
• Understanding yourself
• Developing the ability to temporarily put aside certain personal preferences that interfere with communicating well with others
• Feeling enough self confidence to accept people who are different
• Making the personal effort to understand others

Empathy Opens Your World

Here are a few reasons why you should spend time developing your skills towards more empathy.  Empathy

• Helps you understand different people
• Improves your international skills
• Changes you as a human being, makes you wiser
• Brings you more friends as you open up more towards others
• Improves your cross-cultural communication

Personal Barriers

Once again, this is a reminder that our own personal barriers are the roadblocks to most cross-cultural development.

One Step At A Time

Like most of the tasks in this month’s perosnal development challenge, you cannot expect miraculous results.  Some people will need more time to work on each of these tasks than others.  Many will need to come back and reflect on these steps again after different cross-cultural experiences.  Here are a few tips:

• Your cross-cultural experience counts
• Travel if you can it will help you see things differently
• Meet people in different contexts and find the easiest place for you to connect with them

Your Actions Today

• Acknowledge who you are and accept this
• Accept that others are different
• Look for similarities in others
• Find ways to connect with people

Where To Get Your CCCC Tips Every Day:

• Here on this blog: Four Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges In 2009
• Follow me on Twitter in March, June, September and December

Need Cross-Cultural Business Coaching?

Do you need help in navigating the cross-cultural minefields of international business? Sign up for confidential one-on-one coaching sessions.  Email me and ask to set up a call.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Personal Development In Cross-Cultural Communication – Day 3

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge – Personal Development

This is Day 1 of the 30-day challenge to focus on your personal development in cross-cultural communication. Each day there is one short topic to reflect on.

Day 1 – The Right Mindset for Cross-Cultural Competence

The very first place you need to start when developing your cross-cultural competence is by having a look at your own mindset.

It is so easy to blame others for being different. There differences can create cross-cultural communication barriers. But our own starting point effects everthing. This is why we must be aware of our own mindset.

The Right Mindset For International Business Success

In international business this usually means that we must be aware of how our own personal baggage interferes with how we carry out our business tasks and the decisions we make.

The trouble is that it can be difficult to acknowledge that we have cultural baggage that can handicap our international business success. So it is important to look internally and identify the cultural differences we carry around with ourselves.

As we get to know ourselves better it becomes easier to turn towards others and engage with them.

Steps Towards Developing The Right Mindset

Here are a few things to think about. The right mindset:

• Is open to different ways of doing things
• Begins with curiosity
• Strives for empathy
• Chases away assumptions
• Seeks to understand the other person

Dangers Of Wrong Mindset

You must learn more about your own cultural baggage and how this impacts your own mindset. Because if you don’t and you begin with the wrong mindset you will simply not be able to connect with people from different cultures in any meaningful way. This leads to several possible outcomes:

• You could come away with the wrong conclusions
• You could make decisions based on erroneous information
• You could lose an international business opportunity

Beware Of Personal Baggage

It is not always easy to see our own personal baggage because of our own cultural filters. When you try to learn more about yourself it is not always easy to do because you are in a familiar environment where people have similiar cultural filters.

Even if you have good intentions, you will not get very far in developing your cross-cultural communication skills with a wrong mindset.

Keys To Opening Your Mindset

This is why developing the right mindset is something that often requires personal development over time. Most people need to work at it in small doses as they have cross-cultural encounters.

Finding the right mindset is simple enough. It just takes a little effort and some time.

Your Actions Today

Once you acknowledge how your personal baggage can impact your cross-cultural communication, it becomes easier to:

• Start by giving clear and simple explanations of why you do things as you do
• Show respect
• Restrain from showing your negative reactions. Instead assume you have made a wrong assumption
• Ask why others do things differently

Where To Get Your CCCC Tips Every Day:

• Here on this blog: Four Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges In 2009
• Follow me on Twitter in March, June, September and December

Need Cross-Cultural Business Coaching?

Do you need help in navigating the cross-cultural minefields of international business? Sign up for confidential one-on-one coaching sessions.  Email me and ask to set up a call.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Personal Development In Cross-Cultural Communication – Day 1

Culture In International Business

Cross-cultural differences impact all interactions. Today we are going to look at how they impact the organization within a business.

Many readers may not quite be here yet. But I thought this would be interesting to look at.

Are There Differences?

• What makes an international business different?
• Does an international business function differently from one that is not international?
• Are there international growing pains?

Apart from the legalities of operating an international company, it is hard to identify any tangible differences.

In my personal experience, the differences are nuanced.  They center around collective “soft” skills.  This obviously stems from the nature of “international skills” and “cross-cultural skills”.

Cultural Influences

There are some obvious ways culture influences an international business:

• The way how we present ourselves
• How we express opinions
• Assumptions based on the environment and context
• Perceptions of voice, and other personal physical details

When you work inside an international company, you learn to adapt to these cultural differences.  They stop interfering with communication.

Cultural Conflict Within A Company

Some people may think that conflict within an international company is a result of the confrontation between cultures.

Although cultural personality issues and misunderstandings do happen, it is difficult to identify how culture influences teamwork within a company.

Most people learn to adapt to the different cultures and this enhances personal growth, interpersonal relations and intercultural interactions.

And this is where there may be differences in an international company and a company that is not international.

Most of the employees in an international company will be at a comparable level of personal growth. They will have similar interpersonal and intercultural skills.

And in a company that is not international, there could be wider differences in these areas.

Better Practices

Beyond soft skills…

What I have noticed from working with international companies, is that they seem to strive harder to implement standard and industry best practices.

Best practices seem to lessen the clash of cultures within a company.  These best practices are more widely accepted.  They can also help to create a collective identity.

Best practices can also lessen the clash of cultures outside the company when dealing with international clients.  It does not matter where your clients are from, they also appreciate dealing with people that follow standard best practices.

In the end it all comes down to working with good communication and within good business practices.

More on Culture In International Business:

• How Culture Impacts An International Business
• What Is Culture? A Mind Map For More Sales
• Where Do You Want To Work?

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

• Discover Your International Business
• Plan Your International Sales Road Map
• International Market Research
• International Web Visibility
• Connect With Your International Markets

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How Culture Impacts An International Business

International Business Development Strategy

To be successful in international business you need to spend a lot of time opening yourself up to different cultures. This is an ongoing exercise. You learn to put your own cultural prejudices aside in order to be able to create authentic cross-cultural communication.

Prejudice

Yep. I just said prejudice. We all have them. Even when we think we don’t. We acquire cultural prejudices through our up-bringing, the environment we live in and our own experiences.

Prejudice is a form of discrimination.

Although we try to put aside our own personal prejudices during our cross-cultural encounters, there is one side of international business where discrimination is crucial for success.

Discrimination

You need to learn to make discriminating choices in business. And probably even more so for international business development. To grow your business abroad you will learn through failure. It might not be outright failure all the time. But you can count on surprises. Surprises happen often when you are new to developing your business abroad. Success comes to those who stick with it. You need to adapt your business to your foreign clients.

Learning Through Your Decisions

International business development takes work. Discrimination in your decisions, based on what you learn through practice will help you develop your business abroad. You need to keep at it. And learn to adapt by taking the right decisions. Discriminating decisions are part of the process.

More On International Business Development Strategy:

• 5 Actions To Start Developing Your International Markets
• Action Strategy For International Business Development
• Aligning Your Questions To Build Your International Business
• Are People In Small Countries Better International Business Developers?
• Are You Outsourcing Too Much?
• Define International Business
• Global Or International Business?
• Is The Expense Of Foreign Travel Stopping You From Getting International Clients?
• Market Research For International Business Development
• New International Business Development Phase Today With The Right Marketing Mix
• Online Success? Study Traditional Paths To International Business Development For More
• Plans With Adaptability, Flexibility And Agility
• Small Businesses Need To Take Action To Uncover International Business Opportunities
• When Discrimination Is Useful In International Business

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

• Discover Your International Business
• Plan Your International Sales Road Map
• International Market Research
• International Web Visibility
• Connect With Your International Markets

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

When Discrimination Is Useful In International Business