the job description, the company is light-years away from recognizing the importance of International. Competence.) A qu
Intercultural Competency Phillip Lee
Wedged between “International Business” and “International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)” in my LinkedIn keywords section is the most valuable of all my listed skills: Intercultural Competence. Despite it being the only soft skill in the list, it’s the competency that gives utility to all the hard skills I’ve accumulated over the years. So it’s no surprise that Intercultural Competence is the capacity that came at greatest effort. in·ter·cul·tur·al com·pe·tence: the mental processes and skills necessary to communicate and work effectively in different cultural contexts. I learned that without Intercultural competency, my hard skills had no traction abroad in helping me negotiate a budget, close a deal, build an international team or most importantly, create confidence and trust with a foreign director and his team. The lack of this skill causes many competent executives to crash, expensive international strategies to fall short and expanding businesses to fail. But surprisingly, I have never seen International Competence as a requirement in any job description for an international executive role. (Hint: if a non-native foreign language isn’t included as a requirement in the job description, the company is light-years away from recognizing the importance of International Competence.) A quick LinkedIn search for the term will also show that apart from educators and consultants trying to spread the word, rare are the executives who include this competence in their profile. And frankly, it’s not easy for a busy executive coming up in her career to add Intercultural Competence to her tool bag. You don’t gain this skill with stays in 5 star international hotels, drinks in a tourist bar or dinners in Michelin starred restaurants; Intercultural Competence comes from dining in the home of a Polish friend, partying in the street with Brazilians and staying in a German herberge. This critical competency isn’t learned flying in for a meeting or flying in for anything, for that matter. It is earned in the same way true fluency in a foreign language is learned: slowly and in country away from everything that makes you comfortable. Here are some ideas on how to add Intercultural Competence to your skills set: Self Awareness. The goal is to be able to understand yourself from someone else’s perspective; however, to do that you have to first look very closely at your own biases and cultural limitations. Research how your culture and national identity is viewed by other nationalities. Study your culture and how it differs from others’ cultures. Read the foreign press’s reporting on events in your nation.
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Intercultural Competency Phillip Lee Mental Flexibility. We’re born mentally flexible, but to make sense of our world we quickly classify everything we learn. That classification calcifies our mental processes, and we categorize new information on a different culture in old boxes. When it doesn’t fit, we sort it into the wrong category or we throw it out. View your new foreign colleague with new classifications. Don’t learn a new language and critique its structure. Accept it. Be curious about everything you see abroad and ask questions. Tolerance for Ambiguity. A great executive shouldn’t expect to understand everything immediately. Don’t be afraid to not know or understand. Otherwise, anxiety causes the brain to lock down, and the flow of new information stops. Expect and accept uncertainty. Let the new information accumulate and make sense out of it later.
Only with well developed Intercultural Competence will you be able to earn the respect and trust you need to be effective in other cultures. Practicing this skill will put you at ease and allow you to apply your other skills into local cultures and norms. The greatest payoff of Intercultural Competence isn’t that it will make you successful in your international career, which it will. The greatest reward is the riches it will bring to your personal life, your relationships and your new friendships.
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