Cultural Intelligence is a framework that improves our ability to understand and deal with different culture by adopting and incorporating new behaviors (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). The four areas of cultural intelligence are Cognition, Metacognition, Motivation, and Behavior. Their application in any situation, bridges the gap between cultural settings and unfamiliar culture, leading to a leader’s better understanding of the workings of the culture in other to adjust and adapt his behaviors.
Acquire which refers to cognition, pay attention to the cultural systems by identifying the cultural elements and understanding their relations, such as; channels of communication and their impact on behaviors and attitudes (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
Build our strategic thinking, which correlates to metacognition, analyses the data collected on the culture to detect patterns or causes to understand behaviors and attitude (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
By contemplating our teamwork skills, which correlates to motivation, we become familiar with surroundings by detecting any unfamiliar event and pay attention to the pictures on a broader perspective (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
By doing, we imply adapting and performance; with particular reference to behavior, which transforms into adopting new behaviors for better interactions with an unfamiliar culture (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
Because of globalization, having a work environment with a multicultural team appears to be a norm nowadays. It doesn’t matter, where a leader is from; the “North, East or Western,” cultural framework will definitely influence his interactions with his subordinates. The differences in culture can sometimes be a stumbling block, which makes it very important that leaders must have a good grasp of how to deal with such situations (Rook, 2013) to be able to create the enabling environment to get the best out of their employees.
The principle of multiculturalism has become paramount for leaders to be able to reframe their thinking in the areas of power, decision making, authority, leadership when dealing with unfamiliar culture. By regularly applying the Cultural Intelligence Model, a leader can modify his behavior to interact adequately with the different cultures. Doing this could inspire the movement from mindlessness to mindfulness (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). By this, I mean, moving from the state of doing things automatically without thinking to the state of being able to analyze and understand an experience that will have good impacts on our lives. With mindfulness, a leader can describe his perspective and highlight the differences with others (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
However, a leader must pay attention to his values and ethics to establish an authentic relationship by deploying a morally grounded cultural adaptation (Vogelgesang & Clapp-Smith, 2009). According to Rook (2013), “even though the behaviors are global, as a leader you should approach the individuals that you’re dealing with in an individual manner and pay some attention to their cultures. Deal with your expectations of yourself, but also what their expectations are of you.”
It is important that a leader develop skills and utilize adaptive work to be able to adjust his/her thinking to enables him to respond quickly and appropriately to both threats and opportunities within the organization (Duggan, n.d.). This enables a leader to recognize and understand when to apply each style or framework correctly to maximize their chances of achieving sustainable organizational goals. This, in turn, enables the transitional growth and development of his employees and the organization in general (Duggan, n.d.). Most importantly, this can also be achieved by developing your leadership skills through training, “mentoring and experience you need to manage your team” (Duggan, n.d.). Such a leader must adopt a leadership style that is participatory because it is most effective and devoid of conflict within an organization and promotes consensus decisions making the process.
According to Guillaume-Koene (2016), the following are some of the numerous methods that a leader can use to utilize adaptive work:
1) Identifying the type of challenge by seeing the big picture and not only the details.
2) Regulate distress by creating a safe working environment that enables adjustments and learning.
3) People-centered approach & involvement: By giving responsibilities to the people so that they take the lead and innovate. A leader is supportive and not only control.
4) Give voices to people so that they can express their values and beliefs.
Because the world is going too global in almost everything, making it impossible to “fix today’s sophisticated car with a single tool, we cannot solve today’s complex organizational problems with a single blue-chip leader” (Palus, 2009). Mind you, there is nothing wrong in having a leader who knows it all, going by the numerous successes recorded by certain individuals in the business world on their own. But the way businesses have expanded across borders and the continued complexity of multiculturalism and diversity, it has become impossible lately to have a single leader manage all the departments and affairs of his organization.
Because the world is going too global in almost everything, making it impossible to “fix today’s sophisticated car with a single tool, we cannot solve today’s complex organizational problems with a single blue-chip leader” (Palus, 2009). Mind you, there is nothing wrong in having a leader who knows it all, going by the numerous successes recorded by certain individuals in the business world on their own. But the way businesses have expanded across borders and the continued complexity of multiculturalism and diversity, it has become impossible lately to have a single leader manage all the departments and affairs of his organization.
According to Palus (2009), a leader can demonstrate interdependence when dealing with diverse cultures by:
1) Leverage social processes to enable him to take explore the large amount of knowledge and experiences that “collaborative networks” provide.
2) Promote a work environment to create a mutual understanding, inquiry, and learning and
3) Motivate and support employees to work and develop their skills across the length and breadth of the organizational boundaries.
A leader must understand his motives and reasons for his work with unfamiliar cultures to reach the desired cultural understanding and awareness within the firm (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). By doing so, a leader understands the importance of intercultural interactions and will create a culturally inclusive environment. Promoting cultural consciousness among employees is one of the responsibilities of an organization's leader to develop an efficient organization. A good interdependence can be highlighted by the efficiency of the team, its agility, its innovative actions, the inclusion of all the team members regardless of their cultures, etc.
Being culturally conscious in a nutshell could be said to means “seeing – thinking - acting and mobilizing in a way that is culturally mindful” (Rosen & Digh, 2001). Cultural consciousness is a belief, skill attitude and knowledge that have become paramount in today’s business sphere. It also allows a leader to identify and understand his weaknesses such as thoughts and behaviors that will impair him from reaching his full potential. A culturally conscious leader will understand the advantages of different cultures and take benefits from them. “To be successful, leaders must be aware of important cultural dimensions and understand how these dimensions can influence their working relationship” (Rosen & Digh, 2001).
References
Cultural Intelligence for Leaders. (2012). Saylor Academy. Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0. Retrieved from: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_leading-with-culturalintelligence/index.html
Duggan, T. (n.d.). Why Should a Leader Adapt Their Own Leadership Style? Retrieve from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/should-leader-adapt-own-leadership-style-10583.html
Guillaume-Koene, E. (2016). Six principles for leading adaptive work. Retrieved from: https://network.crcna.org/classis/six-principles-leading-adaptive-work
Palus, C. J. (2009). Interdependent Leadership Cultures–What leaders do together. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268207429_Interdependent_leadership_cultures_What_leaders_do_together
Rook, C. (November 21, 2013). Leading a global team, however, is about embracing differences and pulling the right levers at the right times to get the best out of a team. Retrieved from https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/how-different-cultures-perceive-effective-leadership-2996#DzO4QkVq0UxgP0mY.99
Rosen, R. & Digh, P. (2001). Developing Globally Literate Leaders. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-74830039/developing-globally-literate-leaders
Vogelgesang, G. & Clapp-Smith, R. P. (2009). The Role of Authentic Leadership and Cultural Intelligence in Cross-Cultural Contexts: An Objectivist Perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 5(2), 102-117. Retrieved from: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol5iss2/IJLS_vol5_iss2_vogelgesang_authentic_leadership.pdf
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