Whether we were raised in multiple countries, have friends from a mix of backgrounds, or are partners with someone of another nationality, today, we’re all citizens of the world. In turn, our cultural identities—made up of social factors like nationality, ethnicity, religion and more—are becoming increasingly complex. These shape our own unique set of values and belief systems. Promoting mutual understanding requires greater sophistication. Let’s explore how essential intercultural teams are in the workplace.
How Do Intercultural Teams Affect Workplaces?
Interculturality doesn’t just affect our personal lives. Workplaces, too, are seeing an increase in people from different cultures coming together. A survey covering 90 countries found that 89% of employees “at least occasionally” complete projects with teams dispersed around the world. To make these relationships successful, we need to work on understanding each other better and be mindful of our pre-disposed judgments too. This can help us reap the benefit of our diverse and unique talent, driving greater financial performance.
To untap these myriads of benefits, employees must develop their cultural competence or cultural intelligence (CQ)—the knowledge and understanding around how to effectively interact with people from different backgrounds who may hold different expectations and beliefs to ours.
We’re excited to be launching a series of new resources – from blog posts to quizzes and research – to help organizational leaders and employees like you bolster these essential skills. Keep an eye on our site!
Why Are Cultural Skills Important In The Workplace?
Cultural skills are essential in today’s globalized workplace because they enhance communication, collaboration, and overall effectiveness in diverse teams. Here is an overview of important communication skills to thrive in diverse teams and why:
Cultural Awareness: Understanding different cultural norms helps prevent misunderstandings and enhances the ability to work effectively with diverse teams. For example, employees working in multicultural settings, collaborating with international counterparts, or relocating for short or long-term assignments would greatly benefit from cultural awareness courses tailored to their specific needs. This approach improves collaboration and performance.
Language Proficiency: A strong grasp of language skills supports clear communication, essential when working with global clients and colleagues, ensuring that messages are accurately conveyed and understood.
Emotional Intelligence: Cultural differences influence emotional expression and perception. High emotional intelligence enables better teamwork by helping professionals navigate these differences and create stronger connections.
What Are Cultural Challenges That Businesses Face?
Businesses often encounter significant challenges due to reduced cultural competency. Misunderstandings in communication, conflicting values, and differing work styles can create friction within teams and hinder collaboration, more so in virtual settings. These challenges can lead to lower employee engagement, missed opportunities in diverse markets, and even costly business mistakes. Without a strong foundation in cultural awareness, companies risk alienating employees and clients alike, ultimately impacting performance and growth.
Are Cultural Competency Skills Valued Or Misinterpreted?
In our global intercultural research, we surveyed over 900 employees in seven countries, most respondents (77%) considered themselves culturally competent—with higher-than-average rates in India (91%) and Spain (88%). But interpretations of its meaning were mixed. Almost 60% of those surveyed believed Cultural Competence entails ‘disregarding differences’. This underlines a potential misconception.
Though finding common ground is important, interpreting, responding, and adapting to our differences with sensitivity is key too, by learning how to effectively undertake cross-cultural communication while recognizing and respecting differences.
Here’s more on how global employees like yours feel about intercultural workplace dynamics.
How Can Additional Culture Training Help Businesses?
On the flip side, organizational leaders can tackle misconceptions and nurture cultural competence in the workplace. One of our stellar intercultural trainers, Cathy Wellings, recently helped us put together a piece with some intercultural takeaways to tackle this matter. Stay tuned to find out more.
At Learnlight, our intercultural business courses, led by world-leading trainers like Cathy, provide knowledge alongside practical strategies to address global workplace challenges. Courses cover a wide range of topics —from how to navigate misunderstandings in global workplaces, to seamlessly relocating as an employee in a new country.
With cultural complexity only growing, benchmarking an employee’s pre-existing beliefs against those of their peers is a helpful starting point. Currently covering 96 countries, Learnlight offers an Intercultural Assessment that allows employees to do just that.
Empowering Multicultural Teams to Thrive
Bolstering intercultural communication skills has long been a core tenet of our mission at Learnlight, but given its growing importance in today’s global society, we continue doubling down on it. The world, our lives, and our workplaces are becoming more diverse and interconnected, and as this happens, these skills are only becoming more essential.
Over the next few months, we’ll be making even more resources available to enable leaders like you to empower employees to thrive in multicultural teams.
From expert insights penned by special guest authors to new data and unique interviews, we’re putting the spotlight on intercultural communication—showcasing the value that cultural competence can drive for you, your team, and your organization.
Ready to unlock your organization’s potential with intercultural skills training?
Our expert team is here to help you get the right courses for your business.
Contact us or book a demo directly and let’s talk about how we can help!
