How many of you will be attending this year’s annual SIETAR USA conference? Let us invite you to join us in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from November 9-12, where the leading professionals in the intercultural arena will gather to learn from each other. For the team at The Culture Mastery this will be a first, as Christian Höferle will be leading through …
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 …
Why Openness is an Excellent Indicator for a Healthy Culture
One of my mentors is a big fan of Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller and while I haven’t studied Fuller’s work yet, there are a few quotes that stuck with me. Perhaps one of the most powerful Fuller quotations is this: “True leadership comes from the willingness to admit publicly to your mistakes.” Now, it would be thoughtless of me to not …
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 …
24 entrepreneurs share global business tips
Recently I was featured in the video series Entrepreneurs Conquering the World, together with 23 other international business leaders. Each of us shared in a 30-minute interview some of the keys to our success – how we discovered and mastered the art of doing business internationally. If you missed any of the interviews or the free gifts that each speaker …
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 …
How do you deal with otherness?
Humanity is infested with a lethal disease. Fear of the foreign. Uneasiness with otherness. One could argue that during the last decade there has been a growing global trend of Xenophobia. Dealing with otherness appears to be really difficult for many. Years ago some people argued that globalization will alleviate the fear of what people perceive as foreign. Right now we are …
Solving a translation challenge with the help of sex workers [The Culture Guy Podcast]
In this episode Christian talks once more to Kyle Hegarty, who is the Managing Director of Leadership Nomad, part of the TSL Group, where he focuses on helping companies expand across the globe. This is the second time Kyle is a guest on the podcast. You can also hear him talk about the challenges of dealing with time zones in global business. Kyle …
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 …
Overcoming the “Asia challenge” for a Western business [The Culture Guy Podcast]
In this episode Christian talks with Andreas Kambach, a native of Germany who works as a management consultant for Liebich & Partner, predominantly in Southeast Asian markets. Andreas has spent most of his professional career working for German tool manufacturers and helped build sales and distribution arms in India, China, Thailand, and Singapore. Today he utilizes his experience of developing …
Why People Around the World Define Happiness and Well-Being Differently
What does it mean to be happy? How do you know that you are doing well? Turns out there is no universal definition for this pleasant emotion. Research shows that different cultures around the world have unique concepts of well-being and happiness. It is probably safe to assume that every human in any society has a desire to be happy. …
How a TCK uses his difference to make a difference [The Culture Guy Podcast]
In this episode Christian talks with Tayo Rockson, whom some might label as a poster-child third-culture kid (TCK). Tayo was born in Nigeria and grew up in several different countries, among them Sweden, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, and the United States. He is the author of “The Ultimate Guide to TCK Living: Understanding The World Around You” and host of the …
Busting 5 Myths about Cross-Cultural Coaching
Once in a while we invite guests on The Culture Reflections Blog and ask them to share their experience of crossing cultures. We also follow this idea on Christian’s podcast series, The Culture Guy. The goal is to showcase which concepts other experts in the cross-cultural field use to serve their clients and how they approach their work. This first …
Eliminate the Similarity Illusion for Transatlantic Business Success
We tend to assume similarity. When people look similar, dress similar, have similar cultural origins, and share similar values it is easy to conclude that they are similar in many aspects of life. This misconception can be quite prevalent among business people from North America and Western Europe. Ever since the launch of The Culture Mastery we have had many opportunities …
From behind the Iron Curtain with a big heart [The Culture Guy Podcast]
In this episode Christian talks to Mykola Latansky, founder of the True Success Movement and President of the Academy of True Success. Mykola is Ukrainian and grew up in the Soviet Union. Shortly after the collapse of the USSR he hopped through the now rotting Iron Curtain to explore Western Europe. Not always did he follow all the laws during …
Talking about cross-cultural business with The Worldly Marketer
Doing business across cultures comes with many challenges, one of them being able to communicate in foreign languages. As more and more people prefer to consume product and service information in their native tongue, it is becoming increasingly relevant to build and retain an audience in their preferred language. Helping businesses communicate more effectively and internationally with their target audience …
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 …
Master the Art of Crossing Cultures with this Superpower
In this interview he recently gave Joel D. Roberts, Christian Höferle talks about how you can cross cultures efficiently – with more ease and less stress by applying a certain “superpower.” If you are interested in learning more about cultural competence, we invite you to sign up for our newsletter, The Culture Reflections. As a …