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Why leadership should have more cultural intelligence?


Cultural intelligence is an important skill for every leader as it helps leaders understand the intricacies of multicultural interactions. It can be referred to as the act of evaluating and adapting to cultural situations. It encourages diversity, inclusion, and development. Cultural intelligence is built on certain frameworks and they are knowledge, strategic thinking, motivation, and behaviors. These frameworks can be referred to as the ABCs of cultural intelligence which is Acquire, Build, Contemplate, and Do (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).



Acquire knowledge:  Knowledge is an important factor for everyone when becoming culturally intelligent, this is because the information is key and creates awareness.  Acquiring knowledge is basically being able to gather the necessary information to enhance interaction and communication within multicultural settings. It involves training, learning, building and deciphering knowledge appropriately in other to recognize multicultural issues and mitigate them efficiently. Retrieving this knowledge when needed is the cognitive element of cultural intelligence (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).

 Build Strategic Thinking:  In building strategic thinking all the knowledge acquired is used and implemented tactically. This is the metacognition element of cultural intelligence which is essential in intercultural settings. It involves researching the best methods to execute information retrieved. This is necessary because it is the only way to bring the knowledge gained to live (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). Also, it involves the conscious effort of observation, evaluation, and reflection, which is crucial in resolving intercultural differences (IESE Business School, 2015).

Contemplate Your Motivation and Ability to Work with Others: This is another important framework that is a concern with taking cognizant of one’s environment and being very careful about one’s reaction when faced with alien cultures. It involves being able to make adjustments in multicultural settings by reaching inwards to find one’s drive or motivation. Leaders are required to be attentive and have an open mind void of presumptions in other to successfully become culturally intelligent (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).

Adapt and Perform: This component proposes that people should live purposefully because their actions and inactions affect people around them.  They should be deliberate about how they react to issues and decipher the information, also, leaders ought to change every time they encounter new cultural situations in other to fit in and solve such cultural issues successfully (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).



Emotional Intelligence can be defined as being able to recognize, manage and control one’s emotions and that of others which promotes good relationships and leads to high productivity (mindtools.com,n.d). Here, an emotionally intelligent person to an extent is conversant with the cultural environment he/she is found. While Social Intelligence is being able to align one’s “inner state, feelings, and thoughts” to the social setting of the person in other to effectively accomplish social goals (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).

 Cultural intelligence is unique for several reasons, firstly, it is not restricted to cognitive abilities, which means people do not have to only store up information but also able to retrieve and apply them. Secondly, culturally intelligent people have the advantage of successfully adapting and interacting in multicultural settings which is paramount in this global world. Lastly, cultural intelligence uses a more comprehensive method in teaching about “knowledge and learning, motivation and behavior” with an emphasis on promoting and encouraging cultural change (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).

A different school of thought has argued that being able to adapt to the different cultural environment is the most pertinent characteristics of being culturally intelligent which cannot be found in emotional and social intelligence. One difference between cultural intelligence and emotional and social intelligence is that cultural intelligence theory inculcates how people are affected by cultural elements especially as it affects multicultural communications (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).

Secondly, Cultural Intelligence is fast developing and its constantly being researched and experimented compare to emotional and social intelligence. Thirdly, Cultural Intelligence deals with the totality of cultural effects, its study is all-encompassing as it addresses different cultural offshoots (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). Fourthly, Cultural Intelligence is flexible and progressive which enables personal and business development. People who are culturally intelligent are more open-minded and receptive which makes intercultural relations possible (Menzies F. 2018). Lastly, Cultural Intelligence is a wide field that sharpens skills, provides information and creates the awareness necessary for intercultural settings.





 The world is said to be a global village where people now interact and transact businesses like never before without necessarily coming in contact. Hence it is very important to be culturally intelligent in other to succeed.  A leader is someone who is able to lead in such a way that the people he/she leads are motivated and inspired to achieve set goals which result in performance (Ward S, 2018).

One of the core responsibility of an efficient leader is to strategically align organizational culture with that of employees to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Hence cultural Intelligence is a valuable tool to improve leadership competency in this 21st century. Also, leaders are expected to promote diversity, excellent communication, accountability, and cultural interdependence. Cultural Intelligence helps leaders to successfully achieve them (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).





REFERENCES

Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012). Saylor Academy. Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0. Retrieved from: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_leading-with-cultural-intelligence/index.html



IESE Business School (2015). Why You Need Cultural Intelligence (And How to Develop It). Forbes.com. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/iese/2015/03/24/why-you-need-cultural-intelligence-and-how-to-develop-it/#400eb8d217d6



Menzies Felicity (2018). Cultural Intelligence: A New Competency for The Global Workplace. Culture Plus Consulting. Retrieved from: https://cultureplusconsulting.com/2015/06/20/cultural-intelligence-a-new-competency-for-the-global-workplace/

Mindtools.com (n.d). Emotional Intelligence: Developing Strong "People Skills". [Online].

Retrieved from: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_59.htm

Ward Susan (2018, August 22). Leadership Definition: What Is Leadership? And Can You Learn to Be a Good Leader? The balance small business. Retrieved from: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/leadership-definition-2948275







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