What do expatriates want?

Take the survey Are you currently an expatriate on a foreign work assignment? Have you lived and worked abroad in the past? Are you considering taking a position overseas? Then this survey is for you! Please take a minute to answer these short questions for expats. This brief questionnaire is designed to help us better understand how people who live …

Culture is not shocking – unless you want it to be

Are new encounters really shocking – or simply unfamiliar? When preparing people for life and work abroad cultural trainers often address the issue of culture shock. Sometimes this may sound like there will be a wave of negative experiences and emotions crashing on the shores of expat existence. Let’s set the record straight on this: The idea of a shock isn’t …

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Meet your global growth goals with BANK

Global Excellence – Affordable Results – Trusted Methodology – Harmonious Connection Does your organization consistently meet its global growth goals? Are you finding that selling and marketing to clients and prospects from outside your country is more challenging than in your home market? With the BANK personality training system this challenge will soon be a thing of the past. We are …

Why cultural competence is one of seven success factors for ‘glocal’ business

Recently on this blog you found our Table of Elements for Global Business Readiness. It has become quite popular among our clients. And it’s exciting to see that EDGE Business Magazine published a modified version in its January 2017 issue. In their Skill Sets column Christian Höferle explains the importance of cultural competence for sustainable growth for ‘glocal’ businesses. Cultural Competence a KeyGrowth Factor …

What executives, doctors, lawyers, students, teachers, baristas, and goat farmers have in common [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Getting outside of your comfort zone is easier with the tips in Andy Molinsky’s new book, Reach Exactly a year after he first appeared as a guest on The Culture Guy Podcast, Andy Molinsky is back. In this first episode of 2017 Andy talks about his latest book, Reach: A New Strategy to help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone. Often, …

How lawyers can cross cultures with ease [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Why international attorneys need to learn about intercultural communication Jeri Weber is an attorney-at-law and an intercultural consultant for legal professionals. She was born and raised in the U.S. Midwest, spent time in Asia as an exchange student and has lived and worked in China, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. On this episode Jeri highlights the fact that most …

Why this NRI thinks “I will” beats IQ [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Why Mitch Patel thinks skills can be taught and not attitude Mitul “Mitch” Patel is the founder and CEO of Vision Hospitality Group, Inc., which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. Mitch is the son of immigrants from India – his father came to California from a village in Gujarat with $8 in his pocket. Today Mitch leads an …

Crack the Cultural Codes of 10 Countries

Many of the readers of this blog and users of our website work across cultures or with teams across borders and cultures on a regular basis – whether you spend your time in the office or out on the road. When you do work with people who are different than you, it is critical to have a rough sense of …

How to Build Trust in Global Negotiations

Negotiations are part of almost every communication. We talk to come to an agreement with our counterpart. This could be simply to decide on a time for a meeting, to approve a business strategy, or to make a deal. In global business more often than not these negotiations are done using the English language. Whether you are a native speaker …

How to build cross-cultural rapport by leaving your food comfort zone [The Culture Guy Podcast]

When he moved within the United States, from Maryland to Arkansas, Michael Spencer realized that some of the stories about the U.S. South are sometimes more than just stereotypes. Or, as he found out, Southerners like their tea sweet. Which meant that rapport building in the Ozarks is different than at the Chesapeake Bay. Then his company offered him an …

Gender Roles and Sexism as Obstacles for Global Success

At the time of writing this article, gender (in)equality in the world has been front and center of the global news cycle: The 2016 general election in the United States saw the topic of gender equality become one of the main narratives in comparing the candidates for President. Reports about terrorist attacks inevitably take a turn to remind us how …

When the expat dream turns into a career challenge [The Culture Guy Podcast]

In the past few weeks we have been posting several useful articles on our Facebook Page about life abroad, the challenges of expatriation, raising children overseas with two languages, and repatriating back home after having lived abroad for years. So it is time we let someone who has been through all of these stages share her story. Meet Germany-native Tina …

The Table of Elements for Global Business Readiness

What do expat families need away from home? Which components make a community a desirable destination global business and foreign assignees? Our clients trust us and rely on us that we will lead their teams to more success across cultural borders. We are the aspirin to your expat headache. So we researched the most important success factors and compiled them …

Balancing different leadership approaches as an expat boss [The Culture Guy Podcast]

As the daughter of first generation immigrants to Australia, Stephanie Barros learned from childhood on how to balance the cultures of her birth country and those cultures represented in her family who, hailing from the Philippines, combines roots from England, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Today, living in Singapore with her family and working as an executive for a U.S.-based, multinational …

Follow your passion to deal with the challenges of living abroad [The Culture Guy Podcast]

Living abroad as an expatriate family comes with privileges and challenges. Belén Galindo Lizaldre and her husband Roberto Goñi Ruiz uprooted their family of four from Pamplona (Spain) to move to Chattanooga, TN in the United States. Three years in the Tennessee Valley have left a lasting impression on this expat family and on this episode Belén & Roberto share …

What do expat families need away from home? Join the conversation!

You may have heard the phrase: Companies don’t go global, people do. And the people who go global to take their companies with them want to be as successful abroad as possible. Who is responsible for their success? There are many factors: The expatriates themselves have to do what’s in their power to get the skills, tools, and support they …

Surprise Yourself by Taking That Leap

One of the greatest barriers to stepping outside our comfort zones is fear. We have no sense of what will be on the other end of taking a leap and that uncertainty is simply intolerable. But what I’ve learned – from my own experiences and from helping with others’ – is that the reality of taking that leap is often …

How learning to say “I’m sorry” helps you recover from cultural faux pas [The Culture Guy Podcast]

In this episode Christian talks to Mamie Lamley, founder of Mandala Mystics and Coach at Empowerment on Fire. Ms. Mamie is a native of WaiÊ»anae, a small city on the island of O’ahu, which is part of Hawai’i, the 50th State of the USA. During the interview she explains how to properly pronounce these place names, and you’ll learn what …

Why hiring for “cultural fit” is usually a bad idea

Hiring for “cultural fit” has been a buzz word for the human resource and talent development field in recent years. Search for the term on Google and you’ll get more than 22 million results. If you follow this topic you’ll see that the concept appears to be widely accepted across many industries. The idea that sorting for compatibility with an …

Why the smell of lions can be misleading [The Culture Guy Podcast]

In this episode Christian talks to Joe Lurie, author of the book Perception and Deception – A mind-opening journey across cultures. The book is is an engaging and insightful introduction to cross-cultural communication in a globalized world. It contains dozens of intriguing intercultural experiences, gathered from Joe’s research and his decades living abroad and managing UC Berkeley’s International House, a …