• BraveNewTalent in Business, Leadership, Management, Advice

    METACOGNITION, a skill we should all possess, especially nowadays. "To navigate a working relationship with someone from another culture, you should be aware of your working assumptions about the other person. Checking for signs during the interaction that these assumptions apply is crucial to avoiding wrong turns or collisions in the relationship".
    • Metacognition: The Skill Every Global Leader Needs
      Metacognition: The Skill Every Global Leader Needs

      The increasingly international nature of business means leaders need new skills to get the full potential of teams and networks of people from a variety of cultural backgrounds. At the NeuroLeadership Summit being held in New York this week, top executives from Citibank, the American Management Association, and American University joined me on a panel to explore these new skills - skills including handling complexity, communicating virtually, and working across cultures.

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    • Chris Martin
      Chris Martin
      Yes! Yes! Yes! With the increasing amount of multi-cultural teams, business relationships and International deals that happen, I believe these skills are critical for success in all of us, and in particular for Leaders. I don't think they can be learned in a classroom, but are best experienced first hand to really appreciate the difference in core values and thinking across cultures. I was fortunate to work alongside Norwegian and Swedish team members; and then work with a French team; work in and with a Danish team and also be part of an American Corporate early-on in my career. I went on to managing an asian off-shore team. I found that each experience required a different mindset to appeal and respect the core values to be able to gain the trust of the team, and to be able to honestly motivate and drive teams to deliver great things. All teams shared the same buzz of achievement from successful project deliveries, and/but each culture had to be handled "differently". Some significantly more than others, and some with more care than others. Overall, I found/find each cultural experience very rewarding to learn about the differences and similarities, and to respect them to get the best out of people.
    • Ramon Pedrollo Bez
      Ramon Pedrollo Bez
      That's the thing about leadership, isn't it? It's all about having as much diverse experience as possible. Everything else comes after that.
    • Serena Rizzo
      Serena Rizzo
      In total agreement with you here Chris.
      This is also empirical.The most successful leaders I ever met all came from an international experience. The more you experience, the more you broaden your horizon, which helps you think out of the box and consider as many factors as possible when making a decision.
    • Melissa Langeman
      Melissa Langeman
      This was a nice piece - hard to get that international experience, but even living or working in one of the world's major mega-cities can help to a degree. Not quite the same in my experience, but all conversations can really enrich our perspectives.