How to Influence Cross-Culturally

Monday's Episode

286: How to Influence Cross-Culturally: Erin Meyer appeared on this episode to teach us how to influence cross-culturally. Erin is a professor at INSEAD and the author of the bestselling book The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business*.

Key Points

• It’s more helpful to know how cultures compare to one another on specific issues than it is to just describe a specific culture.
• Different cultures have signals that mean different things.
• Historically homogenous cultures tend to be less explicit in their communication styles, with much more communication implied.
• Americans tend to be very direct except when giving negative feedback, and many people from other cultures find this confusing.
• Remember to: be curious, be humble, listen before you speak, and learn before you teach.

Resources Mentioned

To access the behavioral culture map showing how 55 countries map to the 8 behaviors, complete the below:

1. Visit http://coachingforleaders.com/culturemap
2. Select the ‘7 day Premium Access” option
3. Enter this coupon code when requested: CFL7DAYSFREE

To complete the free culture map personal assessment and find out how you as an individual fall on the 8 behavioral culture map dimensions, simply visit this link:

http://erinmeyer.com/tools/self-assessment-questionnaire/

Related Episodes

• CFL13: How Culture Affects Coaching
• CFL144: How We Do Things Around Here To Get Results
• CFL166: How to Work in Different Cultures

Quick Reads

How To Give And Receive Feedback Across Cultures: More from this week’s guest Erin Meyer on something that tends to look different across lots of cultures: giving feedback.

How To Succeed In A Cross-Cultural Workplace: Past guest Dorie Clark details even more lessons from Erin Meyer on navigating cross-cultural differences.

Mark Cuban Says This Will Soon Be the Most Sought-After Job Skill: Like being creative? Know how to think critically? Mark Cuban says you’ve got a leg up in the long-run over the technical folks.

Audio

Teach People How To Help You: I was recently interviewed by Jamie Newman on the Your Best Manager podcast. Jamie did a great job chatting with me about my best manager, why you need to teach people how to help you, and lots more I don’t often get to say on Coaching for Leaders.

Video

How Sure Are You?: Rather than asking people, “Are you sure?” this one-minute video from past guest David Marquet challenges us to use better language. Here’s how to give others the opportunity to share what they know.

People Come Before Money: Every time I hear Simon Sinek speak, I’m more inspired by his vision for how we all could work better. This seven minutes perfectly captures why.

Books

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever*: Michael Bungay Stanier was on the show just a few weeks ago. He just announced that the Kindle version of his fantastic coaching book is on sale through Friday for 99 cents. That’s a steal. Every leader should own this book*.