The Missing Skill in Global Careers: Cultural Curiosity in Action

If you’ve spent years studying, gaining experience in your profession, and now have the opportunity to work in a global position or take an expatriate assignment, it may seem like culture is not very significant. You’re in a global company with a consistent culture; you are experienced in your field and its universal best practices; and your colleagues are used to working with international colleagues. Cultural information is nice to have, but not a necessity. As long as you respect everyone and keep applying the same habits and strategies that got you to this point, everything will be fine.

The problem is, “respect” and “common sense” don’t always translate. During a recent workshop, I asked a team of senior managers how they would encourage a new employee to give constructive criticism to someone more senior than themselves. Almost all of them gave the same two-step approach: 

1- Be respectful

2- Phrase the feedback as a question

The only exception? An expatriate who joined the team within the past six months.

Let’s say a colleague presents a new product idea during a team meeting and asks for input. If your colleague is from the Netherlands, she may prefer a direct approach: “Your idea doesn’t understand the customer.” This clear criticism feels respectful to her because it helps her quickly understand your thinking and move on to a better idea. But if that colleague is from India, that same sentence may feel offensive and threatening. In fact it communicates disrespect. It would be much more beneficial to say something like, “I wonder how well we understand the needs of the customer?” While a Dutch person might feel this is a weak statement and move on without understanding the implied message, to an Indian the point comes across loud and clear without causing offense. Which approach is respectful? It depends.

I watch professionals dive headlong into their new locations, jobs, and relationships—continuing to communicate, work, and relate in the ways that are natural to them—and then be completely blindsided by how they are left out of information-sharing circles and find that anything they try to do gets sidelined. They are frustrated that they can’t get anything done, or by how hard it is. Often this is an unwitting consequence of offense and frustration caused to local colleagues and stakeholders by the foreigner’s lack of cultural awareness and adaptation. Don’t make the same mistake.

Apply cultural curiosity by taking the time to ask, “How might I need to adapt my approach in this context in order to come across the way I intend?” How is respect communicated in this culture? What does common sense look like? What kind of feedback approach works best in this context? Being effective in routine activities like giving constructive feedback, addressing missed deadlines, and negotiating business deals are no small matter. They make or break your success at work. These interactions take place in a particular cultural context, with written and unwritten rules about what the appropriate way to accomplish them is. Navigating them with cultural intelligence is critical, and cultural curiosity is the starting point.