Good Job: Culturally Intelligent Compliments

This week's blog is written by David Livermore, author of Leading with Cultural Intelligence and other books on CQ.  I met David last year when I gained accreditation in the use of the CQ Assessment Scale. His blogs are always good value but I especially liked this one as it highlights one of those areas of communication that can be tricky across cultures.  In his words below...

The giving and receiving of “compliments” is another example where leadership mantras fall short when mindlessly applied to all cultures

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Multiculturalism is not dead

It was a sobering weekend in Sydney and in many other countries around the world as Muslim extremists took their offence to the movie “Innocence of Muslims’ to the streets.  Violence between protesters, police and bystanders escalated when property was damaged and both police and protesters were injured.

Many Sydney residents were worried about a tipping point - a point at which Anglo Australian society would turn, not just against the extreme trouble-making element, but also, against anyone of Islamic culture.

And so it began.  Radio shock-jocks, social media commentators and elements of the news media blamed multiculturalism

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Do expat partners need high cultural intelligence?

In all the work I do I am consistently espousing the importance of high cultural intelligence for successful expat performance.  Another thing I have a tendency to rave on about is the critical role of the partner (spouse) in a successful transition; in ensuring the assignment is completed and in ensuring the expat employee is working effectively.   In research terms, partner satisfaction mediates the outcomes for all of these variables.   

So it was really interesting to me to meet a researcher who was looking at expat spouses in China and the impact of CQ levels on their satisfaction.   (Regula and I met during a Cultural Intelligence Facilitator Certification course with David Livermore in Hong Kong and enjoyed a number of nerdy discussions about CQ and what her research is showing)    So what were the results?  I’ll let her tell you below…

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On queuing, deodorant and cultural intelligence

In January, just as I was preparing to leave on my camping / kayaking holiday, the Federal Parliament representative for Brisbane, Julie Gambera made some statements about migrant assistance and in particular that migrants need to better adapt to Australia. Her initial recommendations were that employers who sponsor migrants into Australia on temporary visas (such as the 457) should be required to provide mandatory cultural awareness training.    

She gave examples of what the cultural awareness training could include and specified teaching migrants to “wear deodorant and wait patiently in queues”.  To be fair it appears

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Journaling to increase cultural intelligence

At this time of year many of us are writing.  In journals and notebooks and blogs people are recording their hopes, dreams and plans for the New Year. 

There’s a significant amount of research which points to the power of writing with benefits ranging from increases in well-being, decreases in ill health, greater goal achievement and self efficacy. 

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