In a virtual workspace and an increasingly multi-cultural workforce, the importance of cultural intelligence is become much more acute. There is already ample research that shows a workplace that is respectful and diverse is the most productive. You can help to create a respectful and productive workspace as you raise your cultural intelligence.
In my previous posts you can learn about culture, cultural intelligence, and the benefits of a high CQ workplace. Cultural Intelligence Cultural Intelligence w/ Free Assessment.
Given that there are quite a few books on the topic of cultural intelligence, and multi-cultural teams, there is no way a few blog posts about the topic will give you a deep understanding of CQ. I do hope to give you enough information so you can move forward and make real steps of progress growing your own CQ and building a high CQ workplace.
There are three main areas you can address to grow your cultural intelligence: cultural knowledge, cross-cultural skills, cultural mindfulness.
Cultural Knowledge: not surprisingly, is knowledge you have about another culture. Some examples include how a culture handles interpersonal conflict, how power disparity is observed and navigated, attitudes and behaviors about time and schedules, and so on.
Growth tips: I can imagine that this area will be a fun one to work on. How do you like to gather information? Do that!
Find movies, books, articles, talks, videos, documentaries, radio program, art exhibits about a particular culture. Talk to people from that culture, or friends who have been exposed to that culture and learn about their values, customs, and habits. To really capitalize on this, be aware of your emotional and physical responses to the things you learn and encounter. This can help you gauge where you may struggle or excel with different perspectives and practices. Furthermore, think about situations where you can use the things you are learning.
Cross-Cultural Skills: skills that enhance inter-cultural effectiveness: relational skills, tolerance of uncertainty/ambiguity, adaptability, empathy, and perceptual acuity.
Growth tips: not unlike swimming lessons, the best way to grow these skills is to just get in the pool and put them to practice. It goes to follow that the more knowledge you have about a culture, the more likely you are to meet with success and the less likely you are to stumble into trouble. The idea here is to embrace experiential learning, give yourself the grace to “get it wrong,” make appropriate changes when appropriate.
Hopefully you can see that having these skills will make growing your cultural intelligence more successful. If you enjoy meeting and interacting with people, you have a high tolerance for ambiguity, know how to roll with the punches and change directions on the fly, can feel and even understand the feeling of others, then growing your cultural intelligence will be a snap. If not, don’t despair. Find your path of growth and get people around you who can support you in your efforts. By all means, don’t give up!
Cultural Mindfulness: your knowledge of and ability to control your efforts in the area of cultural experiences and strategies. To be culturally mindful is to be ware of the cultural context, consciously analyze cross-cultural situations, and make a plan for different cultural situations.
Growth tip: Build your mental muscle. Work on building your ability to observe behaviors, analyze situations, and reflect on your own behavior.
- Pay attention to the way others act and react to you in a number of situations. This serves as the foundation for evaluating whether your behavior has achieved your desired goal. Based on your analysis, you can then decide what action to take next.
- Reflect on successful as well as unsuccessful intercultural interactions. Write down the knowledge and skills you have used during those interactions. Were there clues you missed or misread? Any word or behavior you did not know how to interpret? What would you do differently next time?
Again, this learning experience will be optimized if you already have some cultural knowledge and cross-cultural skills. For instance, your ability to relate to your counterpart and put yourself in their shoes will make it easier for you to interpret their behavior and plan for your next move.
Developing your CQ in these ways will go a long way to ensure that you and your organization are able to navigate across cultural boundaries and therefore capitalize on the benefits of a diverse, global workplace.
As with emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence is built on empathy and placing the interests, feelings, and cultures of other people into context. Not surprisingly, it follows that your ability to embrace the idea that different is not wrong will go a long way to making you a person with high cultural intelligence.
Do it to boost creativity, profitability, production, morale, innovation, respect, inclusiveness, leadership skills. Do it because you are leading human beings, not human things.
