 |
Further
Reading ...
|
|
What’s Love Got To Do With It? - Diane Hughes
Ask successful online business owners, and they’ll quickly tell you there are certain things that are imperative in order to reach your business goals. Some of the common responses to the question "How do you thrive online?" are: dedication,...
Let The Market Choose Your Price? - Stuart Reid
Setting the correct price is hard for any on-line business, and there are plenty courses and manuals dedicated to this delicate subject. You want to have a price that will make you a profit, obviously. But you also want to have happy customers who...
A Business which Requires No Selling? - Copyright 2003 John Calder
"I want to find a business opportunity which requires no selling." How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said that? I hope you answered the second question with "Never." Let me be truthful with you here. There are only five...
Your Thinking To Breed Success - Dave Jones
There is a place in the Northern Hemisphere where the night time dark remains most of the year and the sky is showcased by a flickering light show. You would all know this well as the Northern Lights. This is the Artic at its very best and worst...
|
|
|
A Uniting Culture for the New Multicultural Workplace
|
 |
Written By:
Susan Dunn, MA Psychology, Emotional Intelligence Coach
|
|
|
Never has it been more important in your organization to have a common language, and never has it been more elusive.
Today’s office typically contains individuals from many different cultures, not just within the US, but from all over the world. People with different customs, beliefs, ways of thinking and different first-languages come together to work together, and the result can be confusion and misunderstanding.
“We need a common language,” a manager from a state education agency told me the other day on the phone. She was inquiring about an Emotional Intelligence program, correctly thinking it might be the “new common language” for their agency. The old one, she said, something about “Steps” had worn itself out.
It is not easy understanding people from different cultures. It’s not easy understand even on person! In the case of different cultures, we bring with us assumptions, stereotypes and generalizations which can get in the way of commonality.
Most of the time the technical vocabulary is understood, but other parts of communication are missed. Up to 90% of any communication is nonverbal, and gestures, postures, and expressions vary widely from one culture to another, as does intonation and phrasing.
It’s easy to misunderstand another cultures expression of respect or warmth. When you meet someone new, the other person may be expecting a slight nod of the head, a quick handshake, a bow or a hug with a kiss on both cheeks. How are you to know?
I was working with a manager the other day who had a problem within the ranks. One of the employees was harassing some women, not all of them, or so the women were reporting, and it wasn’t clear what was going on. When the manager called the employee in and got to the root of the problem, it turned out he assumed that women in marketing would not “mind,” while the women in the other fields would. Where he got that idea wasn’t - continued below ...
|
|
|
continued ...
clear, but people have their ideas.
We could substitute –
·Men don’t mind
·Asian Americans don’t mind
·Short people don’t mind
·Presbyterians don’t mind
·People who haven’t finished college don’t mind
·Southerners don’t mind
·Rich people don’t mind
·Irish people don’t mind
·Hearing-impaired people don’t mind
Generalities like this simply don’t work.
In “Beyond Race and Gender,” author R. Roosevelt Thomas defines managing diversity as “a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environment that works for all employees.”
And “all” employees are individuals, so there you have it.
There remains the need for a common language, and given the extreme diversity these days, Emotional Intelligence is an excellent tool. I have trained coaches from all over the world in EQ, and the concepts are understood by all. In fact there’s interest in EQ all over the world.
Emotional Intelligence competencies include flexibility, intuition (good for reading nonverbal communication), resilience, interpersonal skills, communication and empathy. They are based on understanding one’s own emotions and those of others, and managing your own and those of others for the best outcome. People from all cultures have the same emotions and want to be treated with respect. Emotional Intelligence can bring the common language and culture that is missing.
About the Author
©Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . I coach individuals in emotional intelligence, and offer EQ programs and cultures for businesses. Internet courses and ebooks available ( http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html ) for a total program of personal and professional development. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE ezine.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| _Additional Resources ... |
|
Home Based Business Success -Separating Ourselves From the Competition - Nick A James
It's really not hard to be successful. (Although it does require having some guts and not being lazy.) Simply be willing to do what most people aren't. You've seen the ads "Make big money- No selling, no telephone calling, no work, etc". The point...
Debt Consolidation with Free Government Grants? One Scam to Avoid - Charles Essmeier
Have you ever seen a commercial or an ad promising “free government grant money?” According to these ads, the government and other organizations give away nearly one half a trillion dollars each year, and all you need to do is apply! The ads go...
In Praise of Personal Pronouns - Robert F Abbott
Rudolph Flesch, a pioneering advocate of readability, put great stock in the liveliness of the written word. One way of getting that liveliness into our writing, he said, is to use the personal pronouns: you, me, I, we, us, he, she, him, her, and...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
