Twitter Interview With Leo Salazar

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

Tagged as: #ckinterview, business development company, cindy king, cindyking, cross-cultural, Cross-Cultural Communication, cross-cultural communication skills, cross-cultural interview, cultural, cultural anthropology, cultural skills, cultural studies, cultural training, culture, geert hofstede, human communication, International Business, international business skills, international skills, interview, interviewing, leo, leo salazar, living abroad, real-time web, salazar, srleosalazar, twitter, twitter interview, world wide web