Each year I attend The Global Leadership Summit from the satellite location at my home church in Lafayette, IN. This year, I’ve been invited to be a part of the social media/live-blogging team to share my notes from this year’s Summit. So, tune in for the next 2 days and catch the notes from each of the speakers.
It’s my hope that these notes will not only add value to you as a leader, but also give you some practical ideas to share the notes with your team. Also, I’ll have some extras for you, so you’ll want to check back often and see what’s happening! Lastly, head over to my Facebook page to join in on the conversation and let’s share our favorite quotes and take-aways there!
The Global Leadership Summit is a two-day event telecast LIVE in HD from Willow’s campus near Chicago every August to hundreds of locations in North America. You are invited to join an expected 305,000 people committed to getting better as leaders in 2016. Throughout the fall, Summit events take place at an additional 675+ sites in 125 countries and 59 languages.
Erin Meyer
Professor at INSEAD; Author and Consultant
Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD in France, one of the world’s leading business schools. Her recently released book, The Culture Map , focuses on how the world’s most successful global leaders navigate the complexities of cultural differences in a multicultural environment. In 2015, Meyer won the Thinkers50 “On the Radar” award, given to the best of the new generation of thinkers most likely to shape the future of business and business thinking.
- First dimension – low vs. high context communication.
- In a low context culture we feel like we don’t have the same relationship or information. We believe that explicit, simple, and clear communication is best.
- In a high context culture – we assume that we have a much larger body of shared context. We believe that implicit, layered, and nuanced communication is best.
- Japanese culture is the highest context culture in the world.
- US is the lowest context culture in the world.
- In low context cultures, we tend to nail things down in writing where high context cultures tend to do that verbally.
- High context cultures think that low context cultures are either unintelligent or they think that people in a high context culture are unintelligent.
- Global teams need low context processes.
- With low context people be as explicit as possible. Put it in writing. Repeat key points.
- With high context people ask clarifying questions, repeat yourself less, and work on increasing their ability to “read the air.”
- Second dimension – direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback.
- Giving constructive feedback differs from one country to another.
- Americans have been taught to give 3 positives with every negative and to catch others doing good work.
- Third dimension – high comfort with silence vs. low comfort with silence.
- Is silence negative or positive?
- In some cultures, talking simultaneously means that you’re passionate.
- Some cultures do not like overlap when talking nor silence.
- Other cultures have pauses between comments that people make while talking.
- Go to erinmeyer.com/tools for more information on this topic.
What did you take away from this session? Do you work with internationals? Leave a comment on Facebook and let me know!