Is leadership across cultures “just leadership”? I would love for that to be true but I believe there is more to it! In this article, you will learn: A story of an American manager taking over management of a Polish team – and it not going so well… Key skills that leaders working internationally need […]
So often in the annual performance reviews or even just day-to-day conversations people receive feedback that they should work on improving their communication skills. But what does that really mean? And does it mean the same thing around the world? We all have our own personal preferences of how we speak, what channels of communication […]
We are often faced with many questions when going somewhere new for the first time. What’s it going to be like? What are the people there like? How should I behave so that they accept me and trust me? What should I do to be successful in this new environment?
Learning a foreign language as an adult is not impossible. But, honestly, were you never jealous of those bilingual three year olds juggling two (or maybe more!) languages when speaking to different people? Oh how I’d love to be able to do that without the pain of going through the grammar books and vocabulary lessons!
Have you ever really thought about the ways in which you describe yourself and your work? Have you ever thought about how you can adapt your presentation to get better results?
Right. You have nailed this new assignment, a job abroad or a place in an international team. You will be working with so many people from different cultures now! Oh gosh, that means you have to learn about all the cultures in the world now! Or, does it really?
Much can be said about the ‘soft skills trainings’, both good and bad. I’ve heard various things being said about cross-cultural skills training too. The research however shows clearly that increased cultural intelligence and intercultural skills have a whole range of benefits to the individual as well the organisations they work with.
As an employer, manager, HR professional or even a thoughtful team colleague, you need to look after the employees’ well-being and optimal stress levels. When you also have international assignees in the mix this gets even more important!
It is not uncommon to hear people questioning the idea of workforce diversity – whether that relates to ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. When I talk to people, read articles in the internet or watch news or YouTube videos, I stumble across multiple comments, which question the whole movement around the topic of diverse and […]
The reality these days is that a lot of us work within teams whose members are not based in the same locations. You might like it or hate it, but you can’t really change it. What you can change is how you approach the challenges related to such set up of work.