BUILDING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
Working and managing change in international settings presents leaders with serious challenges, in particular building trust and communicating effectively. Becoming “culturally agile” by recognising cultural differences, understanding more of one’s personal preferences, learning how to effectively operate in a multicultural setting, adjusting one’s behaviour according to the team’s and organisation’s culture is of utmost importance for any global leader.
If you wish to develop your intercultural competence here are the tools we can use:
International Preferences Indicator (Group Profiling)
- In a supportive peer working setting, this tool identifies different international working styles and enables participants to evaluate which will be more effective for a particular international role and context. Participants can then easily pinpoint the areas that need adjustment.
The International Profiler (Individual Profiling)
- A tool to facilitate international business relationships, to build effective international interactions, taking into account one’s particular role and context. The emphasis is on personal development and raising cultural awareness; it enables an individual to plan and implement a practical development plan to become more effective at working with people from different cultural backgrounds.
International Team Trust Indicator (Team Profiling)
- A tool for building trust in teams generally, and also in international and virtual teams.
Culture is like the colour of your eyes: you cannot change it or hide it, and although you yourself cannot see it, it is always visible to others when you interact with them
- Gert Hofstede -