Leading Across Cultures in Global Business
Cultural awareness is more essential than ever. As organisations grow and diversify, the ability to navigate cultural differences becomes a core leadership skill. This was a central theme of Day 3 at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat (GER), where Erin Meyer, INSEAD professor and author of The Culture Map, shared valuable insights on how leaders can effectively manage and lead across cultures.
Consider Sabine’s story: recently relocated from France to the U.S., Sabine’s U.S.-based manager provided feedback with an intention to guide her towards improvement. Yet, Sabine interpreted this feedback as validation, unaware of the subtle nuances in how feedback is communicated across cultures. This misalignment in expectations is common in global business settings and can lead to misunderstandings and frustration on both sides. This session was a powerful reminder of how critical it is for leaders to understand and respect cultural differences, particularly when it comes to giving and receiving feedback.
Cultural Dimensions in the Workplace
Meyer’s research reveals that cultural differences impact organisations in diverse ways across eight key dimensions: communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing, and scheduling. Understanding these dimensions helps leaders navigate their teams' complex cultural dynamics, allowing for smoother collaboration and more effective decision-making.
One area where these differences stand out is in how cultures approach feedback. Meyer categorises feedback styles along a spectrum from “direct negative feedback” to “indirect negative feedback.” Cultures like the Netherlands, Germany, and France fall on the direct end, using strong language that emphasises the critique, whereas cultures such as the U.S., UK, and New Zealand prefer a softer approach, often using words like “sort of” or “pretty much” to cushion the message. For leaders accustomed to direct feedback, Meyer offers actionable strategies, such as focusing on the positive and giving time for reflection rather than immediate critique, ensuring the feedback is better received.
Practical Implications for Global Leaders
The insights shared by Meyer and the open discussions among participants highlighted several challenges and strategies relevant to global organisations:
Interpreting Hybrid Work Preferences:
Teams from different cultural backgrounds may express their preferences differently, leading to misunderstandings. For example, employees in high-context cultures (where communication is implicit and layered) may struggle to express their needs in a low-context setting (where communication is explicit and direct), potentially leading to misalignment on expectations.
Managing Expat Assignments
The subtle cultural differences between even similar cultures, such as the U.S. and the UK, can result in expat assignment failures when these differences are not adequately addressed.
Implementing Agile in High-Context Cultures
When leaders from low-context cultures introduce Agile methodologies, their approach may come across as condescending to those from high-context backgrounds. This highlights the need for thoughtful communication strategies when implementing new processes across diverse teams.
Embracing True Diversity and AI’s Role
Meyer’s session underscored that cultural diversity goes beyond metrics like gender or race; it encompasses a deeper understanding of how people from different backgrounds think, communicate, and work. Building such awareness is critical as teams become more multicultural and remote.
The topic of AI was a recurring theme at this year’s retreat, and Meyer’s session was no exception. As organisations increasingly rely on large language models and AI-driven tools, the question arose: can these technologies capture cultural nuances? Currently, AI struggles to recognise and adapt to cultural distinctions, such as direct versus indirect feedback or high-context versus low-context communication.
Meyer, however, is hopeful that advancements will come in the near future, making AI a more culturally aware tool. Until then, leaders and people analytics practitioners will continue to rely on traditional methods to understand and assess intercultural differences.
In an age where global collaboration is standard, the insights from Meyer’s session remind us that cultural understanding is more than a soft skill—it’s a strategic asset. To build resilient, cohesive teams, leaders must embrace these cultural nuances, fostering environments where all voices are understood and valued.
As Meyer’s work and the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat reveal, developing cultural competence is an ongoing journey, but one with the potential to transform how we work and lead in a diverse world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Madhura joined Insight222 in 2024. She has held various practitioner and consulting roles throughout her career and prior to joining Insight222, she was the Global Head of People Insights and Analytics at Syngenta based in Basel, Switzerland. Other previous companies include Deloitte, Dell Technologies, and Ford Motor Company. Madhura is an active member of the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and is an accomplished public speaker. Her work has been published in Journal of Business and Psychology, and Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work. Madhura has degrees from University of Delhi, India and Wayne State University, Michigan, USA, where she received her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Madhura is a trained Indian classical musician and likes to hike with her family outside work.
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