What is intercultural leadership? (East-West Leadership Q&A)

Intercultural leadership skills are not about 'doing business with Germans' or 'managing Chinese teams'. In today's interconnected global environment, managers who leave their cultural comfort zone must deal with multiple nationalities, ethnic and professional groups, not to mention age, gender and more. In this short video, intercultural leadership consultant Gabor Holch presents the three secrets to successful intercultural leadership: reliable references to compare cultures, matching individual talents with cultures and assigning tasks accordingly.

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[chinamyth]

I wish your statement were true, "People with extensive international experience EVENTUALLY realize one interesting thing that their own culture is but one of the possible ways to behave..."

From my experience, almost every non-Chinese person I've encountered with experience doing business in China believes "Chinese people have a way of doing business that needs to be elevated to a more global standard of ethics and morality."

The suggestion is that while they do realize there are different ways to behave, they are unaware that they should not judge the ways they disagree with, consciously or subconsciously.

From my experience, in order to work more collaboratively across cultural differences, it requires that both sides are able to listen in the proper cultural context and then empathize with the emotions of those coming from a completely different set of values and experiences.

And from this starting point in a relationship, it would be easier to reach harmony.