The key essentials for successful intercultural teams –
Reflecting on my experience in intercultural leadership competence and comparing and expanding it with recent findings from highly interesting literature (including Anna Fuchs, Robert Gibson and Furkan Karayel). This is how I described one of my highlights in the sabbatical year 2022.
Intercultural leadership is indeed a need for now and the future in industry, but seems still heavily underrated regarding importance and steering.
The focus on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) has shed some light on the cultural side of diversity and thus drawn attention to the topic of intercultural competencies. However, the management and performance measurement of foreign delegations in companies are still often neglected. And even more so the preparation of managers when they take over a globally composed team.
“The world is small today” and “the number of multicultural teams increases every day. Consequently, cultural wisdom has a huge impact on increasing team performance”, as Furkan Karayel is stating in her outstanding book Inclusive Intelligence.
I believe in it. And beside
▶ cultural wisdom ◀, I am adding
▶ ambiguity tolerance ◀ and, as simple as it sounds,
▶ sensitivity in language use ◀
as key essentials to ensure that global and intercultural teams, which often work together virtually, can be successful and harmoniously efficient.
Please feel free to accompany me in my attempt to describe improvement recommendations towards intercultural leadership excellence in the commentary of the recent Journal of Business Chemistry and let me know, what you think.
Here is the link to the Journal article: https://www.businesschemistry.org/article/intercultural-leadership-a-need-for-now-and-the-future-in-chemical-industry-a-personal-observation-based-on-experience/
➡ What else is needed to make intercultural teams successful?
If you are interested, follow #Prepare4Landing or visit my blog. I’m Bernd Scharbert and my task as a mentor and facilitator for leaders is to ensure that virtual intercultural teams will be successful.
