According to Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012): Reframing allows leaders to move from mindlessness to mindfulness by helping them shift their perspective; it thereby enables them to identify old thought patterns that lead to destructive and negative behaviors, which, in turn, impact and influence their leadership in cross cultural settings (p. 188); Adaptive work, through the assessment of reality and clarification of values, enables leaders to change their values, beliefs, or behavior in accordance with the circumstances that they encounter and move through conflicting values held by different groups (p. 190); Interdependency in cultural intelligence provides leaders with the skill set to see the connections and relationships between, among, and within systems - cultural, political, legal, social, economic, familial, and so on - and the ability to live effectively with one another by analyzing the systemic patterns and understanding the forces that drive the system (p. 191); and Consciousness, through the cognition process, enables leaders to be aware of their self, including their thoughts, feelings, and situation and that of others (larger groups) by realizing what it takes to be a leader in an intercultural world; it gives them a more holistic and paradoxical picture of leadership - one that engages people’s whole self, including their emotional, physical, mental, social, and spiritual domains (p. 192).
According to Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012) reframing is “a communication technique in which an individual shifts or reinterprets old thought patterns to revise an outdated or limiting belief, idea, or perspective” and “Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is a tool that helps move leaders from a place of single perspective to one that has multiple filters for sorting through and navigating the cultural intelligence labyrinth” (p. 188). Meyer asserts that “leaders need to develop the flexibility to manage up and down the cultural scale; this means learning to lead in different ways in order to motivate and mobilize groups who follow in different ways from the folks back home” (Meyer, 2014). Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012, pp. 188 & 189) provides how leaders must reframe their thinking when interacting with employees of different cultures:
· Leaders must use CQ to change their thinking about and practices concerning relationships and embrace inclusion rather than representation thereby developing long-lasting and meaningful intercultural relationships;
· Leaders must create a shift in cultivating authentic relationships with different cultural groups or individuals by shifting the questions they ask from “how can this relationship help me to reach my organizational (personal) goals” to “what can I (we) learn from this relationship, and how can the learning move us toward our vision?”;
· Leaders must start to see culture and diversity as a process rather than an outcome by being keen to learning to be more authentic, understanding how relationships are created, and taping into the power that relationships have in building trust and unity; and
· Leaders must think about culture as it relates to power, decision making, authority, and leadership by gaining clarity about where their responsibility within their societies exists.
Leaders need the flexibility to adapt their style to fit within the cultural context (Meyer, 2014). Adaptive leadership entails four set of skills: emotional intelligence, organizational justice, character, and development of self and others (Gupta & Van, 2016, p. 20). CQ provides this set of skills for leaders to utilize adaptive work and adjust their thinking because CQ is “built upon a unifying psychological model of cultural adaptation rather than the piecemeal and country-specific approaches” (Earley & Peterson, 2004, p. 101). To do this, CQ addresses not only a person’s cognitive abilities but also covers the metacognition, motivational, and behavioral aspects that are rudiments in intercultural interactions. CQ provides the theoretical background for understanding how one would need to adjust, adapt, or reinvent oneself based on the culture and the situation by enabling him/her to somehow tease out of a person’s or group’s behavior those features that would be true of all people and all groups, those peculiar to this person or this group, and those that are neither universal nor idiosyncratic (Earley & Mosakowski, 2004). Some methods as provided in Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012, p. 190) include:
· Leaders must constantly review, revise, and reflect upon their personal value systems (including their beliefs, and their character) and how these systems impact their cultural interactions;
· Leaders must understand and articulate what values drive their behaviors and attitudes by questioning, challenging, and exploring the deeper stories that give life to their belief systems; and
· Leaders must be courageous enough to give themselves a “reality check” for any dissonance surfacing between their beliefs and actions.
In addition, Leaders must test themselves in different cultural settings. For example, “highly collective and uncertainty avoiding cultural settings are likely to strengthen the motivation for adaptation to personal, follower, and societal cultural values, in order to adhere to the collective norms and/or to avoid stress and ambiguity” (Gupta & Van, 2016, p. 21). Leaders are also required to develop and expand their behavioral repertoires. CQ reflects a person’s capability of developing entirely novel behavior (e.g., speech sounds, gestures, etc.) as required (Earley & Peterson, 2004, p. 105).
Interdependence requires leaders to set clear standards or values when dealing with diverse cultures. Values are opinions and norms, which define what the organization presumes is important and are the basis for assessing what is right and wrong (Laegaard & Bendslev, 2006, p. 85). CQ provides different methods for leaders to demonstrate interdependence. Some methods as provided in Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012, p. 191) include:
· Leaders must be clear about their purpose in working with cultural groups, people, and processes by understanding and exploring their motivations, their passion, and their personal journey to serve them as a foundation for reaching their desired vision to create cultural understanding and awareness;
· Leaders must explore and identify what it would mean to their organization, and most importantly to its people, if diversity and culture of thoughts, ideas, people, and systems did not exist;
· Leaders must understand the systemic nature of culture by asking themselves and others “if we did not do this work, what would be lost” thereby creating a deep and authentic dialogue about the responsibility that each person brings to the process, no matter what level of cultural consciousness they have;
· Leaders must understand that culture and diversity are not something to control or “manage,” rather it is a human element that needed to be nurtured and cared for by everyone; and
· Leaders must develop the passion for intercultural interactions, and give enthusiastic support for creating a culturally inclusive environment.
Being culturally conscious is important to the success of leaders because it helps them to recognize that the opposites they see are not in conflict; rather, they complement each other creating harmony; it enables leaders to look at their individual and group strengths and their weaknesses in its totality helping them in their self-development and, thus, the development of others to discover where they have been out of balance and giving them the opportunity to let go of their limiting thoughts and behaviors (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012, p. 192). Cultural value dimensions in CQ provide ways for leaders to be effective in their cross-cultural interactions by promoting critical awareness of culture. Awareness in CQ helps to eliminate the stereotypes that are derived from cultural misunderstandings which limit the positive ways in which culture is viewed (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012, p. 65). Therefore, leaders who have a good awareness of particular national cultures & perform behaviors that conform to the values of a particular national culture are likely to be more effective (Gupta & Van, 2016, p. 21).
References
Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012). Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0. Retrieved September 06, 2018, from: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/cultural-intelligence-for-leaders.pdf
Earley, P. & Peterson, R (2004). The Elusive Cultural Chameleon: Cultural Intelligence as a New Approach to Intercultural Training for the Global Manager. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3(1), 100-115. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from: https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/325635/mod_book/chapter/166065/BUS5211Unit02RA.pdf
Earley, P.C. & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural Intelligence. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved September 21, 2018 from: https://hbr.org/2004/10/cultural-intelligence
Gupta, V. & Van Wart, M. (2016). Leadership Across the Globe. New York: Routledge. Retrieved October 20, 2018, from: https://books.google.com/books?id=PfcsCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA20&ots=n6dsIEp8Mi&dq=culturally%20adaptive%20leadership%20styles&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q=culturally%20adaptive%20leadership%20styles&f=false
Laegaard, J., & Bendslev, M. (2006). Organizational Theory. Retrieved July 16, 2017, from: http://bookboon.com/en/organizational-theory-ebook
Meyer, E. (2014, May 7). Leading Across Cultures: Learn to Adapt Your Style. INSEAD Blog. Retrieved October 20, 2018, from: http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/leading-across-cultures-learn-to-adapt-your-style-3342
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