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Much of the advice given to improving human interactions revolves around making an emotional connection. Books, speaking and communication courses emphasize it. The whole point of emotional and social intelligence is to make an emotional connection. In many situations, bedside manner is considered more important than solving the real problem.

Sometimes it may seem that your co-workers don’t want to make an emotional connection. When they are in a rush, when the monetary value involved is low, and if the service is taken for granted. For example, if your boss wants to know the status of a project, he or she may not want to get into a long conversation or explanation. “Just tell me the bottom line, thank you very much.”

The emotional connection can be brief, almost fleeting. And you can ruin it all by a thoughtless act or gesture. The point is, however brief the encounter, use your body language and words to make the connection. Yes, your co-workers will notice. Especially if you fail to make the connection.

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Unless you are living in a really “pure” community, you are interacting with co-workers who are from multiple cultures. I’ll stick my neck out and state that if you are solving big and important problems, it is almost certain you are in a culturally diverse work environment.

Richard Lewis’ book, When Cultures Collide, 3rd Edition: Leading Across Cultures, has an interesting framework to prepare for cross-cultural communication. A few words of caution:

• There is no silver bullet when it comes to cross cultural communication.
• Beware of stereotypes. Every culture has exceptions to the norm.
• Keep an open mind and observe the communication patterns of your audience. Then base your proposals on what you observe.
• Following the etiquette dictated by a culture to show your respect and not compromising on your goals and values are two different things. You can, and should do both. Every culture has norms on how to respectfully disagree.