I like to ask this question at the beginning of a lecture or workshop on the topic of “Guiding Principles for Intercultural Leadership”.
I ask this question to get a feeling for the cultural viability of my audience. After all, language is the most important means of facilitating access to a culture.
For me, the answer is somewhere between 2 and 3. German is my mother tongue and I speak English fluently. My 3 years of school French no longer count.
But I did acquire an A2 education in Dutch during my five-year expat period in Amsterdam. The nice thing about it is that it allows me to understand and speak Flemish also. This even helped me to deliver a townhall meeting in Lanaken in Flemish. There, as the global manufacturing leader of a chemical company, I had a production plant on the site map of my responsibilities.
I will never forget the compliment of the local HR business partner: “Bernd, I am thrilled that you held the townhall in our language. You actually already have the language competence level, that is that of a first-grader.”
Back to the question from above.
When it comes to answers, I almost regularly have 5 to 6 spoken languages at the peak. Impressive. And I know that I can expect a culturally educated audience.
I have a few more questions ready as an indicator of cultural viability, for example:
✳️ Who of you has ever lived abroad?
✳️ Who of you has ever taken on professional responsibility abroad?
✳️ Which country that is furthest away from home have you already visited, on vacation, for example?
➡️ Now, of course, I’m interested in what questions you would ask an audience to get a feel for the cultural viability?
I am Bernd Scharbert and as a mentor for leaders and executives, I accompany them in such a way that globally composed and intercultural teams have the opportunity to develop further in their performance and mindset for growth. If you are interested, feel free to follow me at LinkedIn, #Prepare4Landing or contact me directly.
