Leading With Cultural Intelligence Quotes

“There are also three key experiences that consistently reveal a positive relationship with CQ: cross-cultural experience, educational level, and working in multicultural teams. These experiences informed several of the best practices suggested throughout the book for enhancing cultural intelligence. Cross-cultural”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“The desire to treat other people with honor and respect doesn't automatically mean our behavior comes across as dignifying and kind. There are various adaptations necessary in order to ensure people experience respect and honor from us.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Life is about things that transcend us.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Individuals who have a strong ability to empathize and relate to people in their own cultures might find the same empathetic and social skills get them nowhere when interacting with someone from a different cultural background.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Education and international experience play a strong role in developing our level of cultural intelligence, but they don't guarantee success.1 I've met business leaders and government officials who have lived for decades overseas yet they demonstrate very little ability to see beyond their cultural blinders. And I've met other leaders living abroad, sometimes with minimal international experience, who are extremely adept at moving in and out of various cultural contexts and situations while still remaining true to who they are.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Cross-cultural experience by itself does not ensure cultural intelligence, but when wed with the other capabilities of cultural intelligence, it plays a significant role. In particular, individuals with multiple experiences in a variety of places experience more of the benefits of cross-cultural interactions and travel than those who have been in only one or two places, even if for a long time. At the same time, the more countries where you've lived for more than a year, the more positive connection there is between your cross-cultural experience and cultural intelligence.17”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Here are several strategies for enhancing communication when addressing an audience of second-language English speakers: Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Use clear, slow speech. Enunciate carefully. Avoid colloquial expressions. Repeat important points using different words to explain the same thing. Avoid long, compound sentences. Use visual representations (pictures, tables, graphs,”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Leaders have to learn the level of comfort individuals and cultures have with direct versus indirect orders and requests and adjust accordingly. There's further variance in how this communication practice relates to a culture's value of power distance. The same culture that values indirect communication may also be a place where senior leaders give explicit and direct commands to subordinates if there's a high level of power distance. But a subordinate would be expected to use extremely indirect communication to make a request of a superior. Peers are expected to use indirect communication with one another lest it seem one is taking on an authoritative role over the other. You need to learn where you're perceived in the hierarchical structure to gage the appropriate level of directness to employ. Suzanne,”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“instead of translating what they're saying, she says to the Mandarin-speaking audience, “Our presenter is telling a joke right now. The polite thing to do will be to laugh when he's done.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“The final step toward cultural intelligence, CQ action, is where the rubber meets the road. Do we know what someone is talking about? Are we able to communicate effectively? Can we lead people respectfully and adjust our behavior as needed while still remaining true to who we are? CQ action is the extent to which we appropriately change our verbal and nonverbal actions when we interact cross-culturally. The goal is to be yourself while figuring out which behaviors need to change in order to accomplish your objectives.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“As we gain an understanding of what's going on internally, we need to apply that same kind of awareness and understanding to others and to the environment around us. I've done ongoing research on the experiences of North Americans who volunteer overseas for one or two weeks. Most of these volunteers travel to developing countries where they help with disaster relief, build medical clinics, teach English, or engage in religious mission work. Of all the comments made by these North American travelers, the most common statement made upon their return is something like, “Even though those people have so little, they're so happy!” There's something endearing about hearing a group of relatively wealthy North Americans talk about their amazement that people with so little could be so happy. My question is, are the people they observed really happy? I've asked several hundred of these volunteers, “What makes you think they're happy?” They most often respond, “Because they were always smiling and laughing. And they were so generous to us. They fed us better than they eat themselves.” Part of becoming more aware of others requires we slow down to ask what familiar behaviors might mean in a different culture. The observation made by these American travelers is usually accurate—the locals they're meeting are in fact smiling and generous. But the question is whether the North Americans are accurately interpreting what those behaviors mean. First, if you don't speak the language and you're just meeting someone for the first time, what do you do? After some feeble attempts at saying things like “Hola!” “Gross Got!” or “Nee how!” there's often some nervous laughter that ensues. It's really awkward. So the locals might be expressing happiness or their smiles might just be a nervous response. Then add that in places like Thailand, where there are twenty-three different smiles, each smile communicates something different. And in one small, extremely polite community in New Zealand, smiling reactions are a way of expressing that they feel deeply offended.4 As I've consistently said, the point isn't to learn every nuanced meaning. But with heightened awareness of others, an individual will realize that while smiles might reflect genuine happiness, they just as well might be a nervous cross-cultural response that indicates little about one's level of contentment.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Most national cultures across Europe and North America are categorized as low-context cultures. Many of our connections with particular people and places are of a shorter duration; therefore less is assumed. Instructions about where to park, how to flush the toilet, and where to order your food are often displayed. Low-context cultures can be easier to enter than high-context cultures, because even if you're an outsider, much of the information needed to participate is explicit. Extra attention is given to providing information about how to act. Note the summary in Table 5-3. Individualism”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“For individuals from low-context cultures, beware of ridiculing a place that just “doesn't bother” to label its roads or provide explicit instructions. For individuals from high-context cultures, be sensitive when hosting low-context individuals by providing more explicit instructions than what would ordinarily be needed with a colleague from your own culture. Find a way to get the understanding and communication needed. Develop a strategy for finding your way. The”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“The majority of the world is collectivist, but the majority of business and leadership literature is written by and for individualists. So it's easy to presume that individualist perspectives are more normative. But the reverse is true. Understanding the implications of this cultural value is essential for growing our CQ knowledge. Note the summary in Table 5-4. Low”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“A low-context culture is a place where little is left to assumption so things are spelled out explicitly. In contrast, high-context cultures are places where people have significant history together and so a great deal of understanding can be assumed. Things operate in high-context cultures as if everyone there is an insider and knows how to behave. Written instructions and explicit directions are minimal because most people know what to do and how to think. Our families are probably the most tangible examples we have of high-context environments. After years of being together, we know what the unspoken rules are of what to eat, how to celebrate holidays, and how to communicate with each other. Many of our workplaces are the same. We know when to submit check requests, how to publicize an event, and how to dress on “casual” Fridays. New employees joining these kinds of organizations can really feel lost without adequate orientation. And many religious services are also very high context. People routinely stand, bow, or recite creeds that appear very foreign and confusing to someone just joining a religious community for the first time. Discerning whether a culture provides direct and explicit communication versus one that assumes a high degree of shared understanding is a strategic point of knowledge. And leaders need to bear in mind the areas of their own organizational and national culture that are high context and how that affects outsiders when they enter. Table”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Finally, every society develops a system of aesthetic standards that get manifested in everything from decorative art, music, and dance to the architecture and planning of buildings and communities. There are many different ways we could examine artistic systems. One way of thinking about it is to observe the degree to which a society's aesthetics reflect clear lines and solid boundaries versus fluid ones. Many Western cultures favor clean, tight boundaries whereas many Eastern cultures prefer more fluid, indiscriminate lines. In most Western homes, kitchen drawers are organized so that forks are with forks and knives are with knives. The walls of a room are usually uniform in color, and when a creative shift in color does occur, it usually happens at a corner or along a straight line midway down the wall. Pictures are framed with straight edges, molding covers up seams in the wall, and lawns are edged to form a clear line between the sidewalk and the lawn. Why? Because we view life in terms of classifications, categories, and taxonomies. And cleanliness itself is largely defined by the degree of order that exists. It has little to do with sanitation and far more to do with whether things appear to be in their proper place. Maintaining boundaries is essential in the Western world; otherwise categories begin to disintegrate and chaos sets in.13 Most Americans want dandelion-free lawns and roads with clear lanes prescribing where to drive and where not to drive. Men wear ties to cover the adjoining fabric on the shirts that they put on before going to the symphony, where they listen to classical music based on a scale with seven notes and five half steps. Each note has a fixed pitch, defined in terms of the lengths of the sound waves it produces.14 A good performance occurs when the musicians hit the notes precisely. In contrast, many Eastern cultures have little concern in everyday life for sharp boundaries and uniform categories. Different colors of paint may be used at various places on the same wall. And the paint may well “spill” over onto the window glass and ceiling. Meals are a fascinating array of ingredients where food is best enjoyed when mixed together on your plate. Roads and driving patterns are flexible. The lanes ebb and flow as needed depending on the volume of traffic. In a place like Cambodia or Nigeria, the road space is available for whichever direction a vehicle needs it most, whatever the time of day. And people often meander along the road in their vehicles the same way they walk along a path. There are many other ways aesthetics between one place and another could be contrasted. But the important point is some basic understanding of how cultures differ within the realm of aesthetics. Soak in the local art of a place and chalk it up to informing your strategy for international business.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Most of us tend to underestimate the degree to which we ourselves are a product of culture. It's much easier to see it in others. Emily's question made explicit a guiding assumption for many of us: My experience is what's normal and best.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“International leaders in business, government, and nonprofit organizations whisper behind closed doors about the way visiting Americans live in their own bubbles without having much genuine interaction with their overseas counterparts, much less the locals. One senior foreign policy advisor told Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, “When we meet with American officials, they talk and we listen—we rarely disagree or speak frankly because they simply can't take it in.”13 Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore's former foreign secretary and ambassador to the United Nations, put it this way: “There are two sets of conversations, one with Americans in the room and one without.”14”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“In most cultures, eating together has far more symbolic value than simply “grabbing a bite to eat.” Sharing a meal together can often be viewed as a sacred event.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“For the most part, food plays a very functional role in American culture. We eat to work. If Aini was visiting in my home, I'd tell her, “Don't eat anything you don't like. We don't care.” And we really wouldn't for the most part. But in many parts of the world, food is deeply rooted in the life of people. Sometimes I've had Indian hosts prepare meals for me that used spices grown on their homestead for hundreds of years. The best Indian meals take days to prepare. So to pass on eating dishes prepared for you in that context could be far more insulting than passing on a dish you just don't care for. It can be seen as an all-out rejection. And as for eating with utensils versus eating with our hands, one of my Indian friends puts it this way: “Eating with utensils is like making love through an interpreter!” That says it all when it comes to the affection most Indians have for their cuisine. To reject the food of an Indian colleague can be extremely disrespectful and can erode any possibility of a business partnership. Who would have thought food could play such a strong role in successful global performance? Edwin,”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“research finds that being an extrovert is correlated to some of the dimensions of cultural intelligence. There's also a positive relationship between being naturally conscientious and having higher CQ strategy; and the personality trait referred to as “openness,” a general curiosity toward circumstances and the world, is positively related to all four dimensions of cultural intelligence.14”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Cultural intelligence is the “capability to function effectively across national, ethnic, and organizational cultures.”1”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“70 percent of international ventures continue to fail because of cultural differences.2 Simplistic approaches that teach cultural practices and taboos aren't sufficient.”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success

“Life is about things that transcend us.16”
― David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success