I once had a client from Poland with whom I struggled to build a rapport. I am an American socialized to smile profusely to convey trustworthiness, but to my dismay, she never once returned a smile or warm expression. She even seemed slightly suspicious of my very American attempts to convey friendliness. I noticed that over time, she became comfortable the less effusive I was with compliments and the more I met her honesty with my own. Rather than assume that my client was simply unfriendly, I observed her demeanor and subtly adjusted my own in order to better establish trust. As the introduction to our Global Mindset course says, “A Global Mindset is more than just appreciating other cultures.” It means knowing how and when to be flexible.
A global mindset is the ability to integrate an awareness of cultural norms to instinctively adjust your working style, without compromising your values and goals. It is when you understand how to deliver feedback in a different, culturally appropriate way, because you know your words will be more impactful as a result of that quick shift. It is the ability to accurately interpret a colleague’s silence when you ask a sensitive question, knowing their value for indirect communication.
A global mindset is the ability to translate your behaviors and intentions for other cultures.
We can achieve a mindset that is global by considering these three things:
- Self-Awareness
We must be aware of the tendency to inaccurately judge a person’s behavior by evaluating it through our own cultural value system. We must understand that concepts of respect and trust-building are not universal: our backgrounds and experience heavily impact our default responses to one another. This requires reflection of our own biases and awareness of the things that have shaped us.
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Cultural Intelligence
When you have meaningful interactions with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, you are increasing your tolerance for differences, and developing an awareness of the role culture has in our behaviors. In other words, a global mindset leads to cultural intelligence.
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The Platinum Rule
The Platinum Rule is: “Treat others the way they would like to be treated.” When we are in a mindset of global awareness, we are more open to using methods of communication, negotiation, and trust-building that we hadn’t previously considered. By combining your self-awareness of your own interpretations of respect, with the cultural intelligence to know what respect looks like in other cultures, you may be able to apply the Platinum Rule.
Learn more specific ways to approach a global mindset with our Global Mindset Course. It takes practice to execute a global mindset authentically, but like a muscle that has gained strength, your cultural flexibility will expand your opportunities.
Talk to our consultants and watch the course in action here.
