Monthly Archives: September 2013

#262 Grateful

Leave a reply
Send to Kindle

I love books, as I am sure many of you do. Books are a source of comfort, joy, and solutions to problems. From time to time I would wonder what it would be like to be a published author. That milestone came and went. Then I would wonder what it would be like to get a five star review on my book. That milestone has come as well.

Leadership in Strategy Execution

Leadership in Strategy Execution

The word to best describe my feelings is “grateful” (thanks Paula!). In the days to come, more people will provide public reviews on Amazon.com, and not all reviews will be five stars. If the readers gain just one or two things from reading the book, I will have succeeded in my mission, their less than five stars does not matter as much. If the reviews are less than five stars, I pray they provide comments I can use to improve the next edition.

A lot of people have contributed to the book, I am a mere messenger of their suggestions and experiences. This is one reason why my name does not appear on the front or back cover, I provide my profile almost as an afterthought, towards the end of the book. Just for the sake of completeness. “They” tell me anonymity is not good for book sales. To all who have contributed, I will always remain, grateful.

Share

#261 Culture and communication

Leave a reply
Send to Kindle

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.
Share