From the course: Leading Global Organizations

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Avoiding communication mistakes within culturally diverse teams

Avoiding communication mistakes within culturally diverse teams

From the course: Leading Global Organizations

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Avoiding communication mistakes within culturally diverse teams

- When we lead global teams, we quickly notice cultural differences in how people communicate. Understanding these differences can prevent misunderstandings and improve the quality of our communication. As we begin to communicate, we realize that we need to find the right pace and vocabulary to be effective, and we start to attune to different accents. But even when we speak a common language, there are cultural differences in the way we express ourselves. One example is different levels of directness. In some cultures, we prefer to come straight to the point, say exactly what we think, and we value being clear and direct. In others, we prefer to be more indirect, to go around the houses, and to help people work out what we really mean for themselves. In both cases, we think we're being effective and polite. Direct cultures find indirectness frustrating. They say yes when they mean no. Indirect cultures prefer to…

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