Intercultural Competence: Recognizing the Cultural Self . . .

Understanding your cultural self is the first step toward intercultural competence.  Knowing one’s own perspective for interpreting behavior—having a strong sense of self—contributes to comfortable connection with culturally different others and is the foundation of intercultural competence. After all, how can we know others if we don't know ourselves?  Peter Senge in his 2004 book titled Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society defines this shift as “a shift in awareness of self ... getting rid of the habitual view of the self.” This shift allows one to identify the internal strength he or she possesses as well as the areas of the self that need to be developed.  Senge adds, “Looking at our ‘failings’ is always hard, but it is easier when done against the backdrop of our strengths.”

Three dimensions of this awareness—self-reflection, self-development and experience—repeatedly and continuously build upon each other as one moves toward intercultural competence and sensitivity.  Self-reflection inspires one to reassess cultural strengths and weaknesses, re-evaluate successes and failures, gain new knowledge, and develop interactive skills.  Self-reflection also challenges complacency and enhances one’s sensitivity to subtle shifts in context that require the flexibility to react to situations that are uncertain and sometimes uncomfortable.  The result is self-development, which transforms self-reflection into awareness—a refining of the cultural self, based on what is learned in the reflective process—and allows one to adopt a mindset that promotes thinking in terms of a reality check, trying things out, working through, making the effort, and looking at the possibilities. Both reflection and development are practiced and honed through experience.  The three dimensions of this theme—self-reflection, self-development, and experience—build upon each other in a sort of constant recycling as one moves toward intercultural competence and sensitivity. Examining informed experiences will, in turn, lead to further reflection, resulting in a continuous cycle of self-reflection and personal growth.

An important aspect of self-reflection and development is the motivation to recognize and adapt to changing patterns. Dana Comstock in her 2005 book, Diversity and Development: Critical Contexts That Shape Our Lives and Relationships, asserts, “The better we know ourselves, the more capable we are of bringing forth our authentic experiences into all of our relationships—knowing ourselves needs to include the ability to identify and dismantle our blocks to understand a wide range of human experiences.” The cycle of self-reflection, self-development, and experience leads to the mindset of “seeing freshly … stopping our habitual ways of thinking and perceiving” as described by Senge. In other words, knowing one’s cultural self allows one to develop enough self-confidence to evaluate and adapt to the varying and challenging cultural patterns that arise in each new context.

Recognizing the three dimensions of the cultural self results in awareness—a mindset—that enables development of the competencies needed for building and maintaining successful relationships across cultures.

Published on LinkedIn . . . Friday, July 17 

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Intercultural Competence in the Workplace: Recognizing the Cultural Self . . .

"What competencies are needed to successfully lead a multinational company, as opposed to leading a company that does business in a single country and has multiple cultures working together?"