March 28, 2023 • 53 mins
Whether it's leading staff living around the world, navigating different cultural and personal workstyles, or working on teams across borders — leading globally keeps becoming more complex. Global leaders must guide their teams through local and regional instabilities, drastic industry changes, political upheaval, protests and strikes, and many other turbulent surprises.
In this episode, Marco and Shelley walk through the things global leaders need to succeed in today's world. They explore the one thing that holds back global leaders that want to be culturally agile as well as practical tips for how you can start becoming a culturally agile leader.
You can spot culturally agile leaders in three ways:
1. They navigate complexity with agility.
2. They build cultures of high trust, inclusivity, and belonging.
3. They keep their employees by creating a team culture of collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
Start a conversation about becoming a culturally agile leader.
In this episode, you will learn:
-- How to make your intercultural team come alive.
-- The difference between global leadership and actually being culturally agile
-- The pitfalls leaders fall into when leading in a global context and how to avoid them.
| Learn More about:
-- Whole Systems Thinking (http://kwx.fyi/multiplier-effect)
-- High Performing Intercultural Teaming (http://kwx.fyi/team-development)
-- Three Colors of Worldview (http://kwx.fyi/3-colors-worldviews)
-- 12 Dimensions of Culture (http://kwx.fyi/12-dimensions)
-- Looking for a book to take your cultural agility to the next step, check out the Ultimate Intercultural Question Book brought to you by KnowledgeWorkx.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marco Blankenburgh (00:00):
But ultimately, we have to decide
who we want to be. And what Ilove about this approach is that
once you understand your ownbehavior, your colleagues
behavior, other people you workwith across the network of your
organization, you can use thatsame language to now say, who do
we want to be? So, so frompersonal culture, you don't go
(00:22):
to team or organizationalculture and it's very organic.
It's the same, the same grid.
It's the same language that youstart using to then craft
culture as a leader. And that'sso incredibly important in
today's world.
(00:45):
Welcome to the cultural agilitypodcast, where we explore the
stories of some of the mostadvanced intercultural
practitioners from around theworld, to help you become
culturally agile, and succeed intoday's culturally complex
world. I'm your host, MarcoBlankenburg, international
director of knowledge works,where every day we help
(01:06):
individuals and companiesachieve relational success in
that same complex world.
Shelley Reinhart (01:14):
Hello, everyone, welcome to our podcast
today, we have a great topic.
I'm so excited for you to hearwhat Marco has to say today
about global leadership and whatit takes in today's world. I am
your host, Shelley Reinhardt,and I am the global network
liaison for knowledge works. Iconnect practitioners,
(01:35):
culturally agile practitionersall over the world. And I'm
excited to have you here, Marcostake on leadership today. I
think we'll all learn a lot.
He's ready to share. He's haslots of experience in this
topic. He's done it all of hislife. So Marco. Hello.
Marco Blankenburgh (01:55):
Thank you, Shelly. It's so good to be back
on this podcast again. And Ilove this topic, because it's so
incredibly important in theworld of today.
Shelley Reinhart (02:05):
It is it is there's so much going on in the
world. And I'm excited to hearyou talk about global
leadership. But first, can Ijust ask you a quick question?
How would you define globalleadership? A culturally agile
leader, leader? What is it?
Marco Blankenburgh (02:20):
Well, that is already incredibly difficult
question. So first of all, youmentioned both global leadership
and culturally agile leadership.
And those are indeed twodifferent things. Yes, you're
right. So so somebody could say,oh, I'm a global leader, because
I manage I manage multiplecountries, I have staff from all
(02:42):
over the world, we have clientsfrom many different backgrounds
and countries, we have astakeholder network that is very
global, therefore, I'm a globalleader. And that's partially
true. But it doesn't really makeyou a global leader. It's a
little bit the same. I've seenthat with international schools,
(03:03):
for instance, and you couldrelate to that Celie. You know,
international schools, wherekids from 50 nationalities go to
school, and teachers and stafffrom 25 Five nationalities work,
and educate and then they say,we are an international school,
or an intercultural school. Andjust just by putting a whole
bunch of nationalities togetherin in one organization doesn't
(03:26):
magically turn on thisculturally agile thing. And the
same day, same is true forglobal leaders. So some global
leaders are culturally agile,and others are not. And that's
one of the biggest distinctionson top of that, when you start
looking at how humanity hastried to make sense of what it
(03:49):
takes to be a global or what wethen call a culturally agile
leader. We haven't done a lot ofresearch on this topic. So the
closest I can come is toresearch that has been going on
for more than 20 years as theglow project. And the globe
project has indeed been doneacross more than 60 countries.
(04:10):
And they asked the question,well, what does a good leader
do? What how do they behave?
What does a bad leader do andhow do they behave? And that is
probably one of the few projectsthat tried to wrap their head
around culturally agile, globalleadership. What do we all agree
(04:31):
on as humanity? And theinteresting thing is after 20
years of digging into thisquestion, they've come up with
with four endorsed leadershipbehaviors that the world seems
to say yeah, that's what a goodleader does. So being
charismatic and value based inyour leadership being team
(04:51):
oriented, being participative inthe way you lead, being humane
oriented, for for the most So ifthe world says, yeah, those,
that's what a good leader does.
And there are two others wherethey disagree sort of where they
say, if you're self protectivein some cultures, that's seen as
good leadership in some culturesas bad leadership, if you're
(05:12):
autonomous, in some cultures,it's seen as bad leadership in
other cultures it's uploaded.
But that's as far as we got ashumanity to figure this out. And
then on top of that, you alsohave more than 160, documented
(05:32):
global leadership competencies.
Now there's a whole bunch offrameworks out there, one of our
practitioners, Microsoft hasdone extensive Leadership
Research for his PhD, he hasfound over 160 documented or
advocated global leadershipcompetencies. So on the one
hand, very little research done,on the other hand, a whole bunch
(05:54):
of people who have opinionsabout what a global global
leader should be doing and whatcompetencies and skills they
should have.
Shelley Reinhart (06:03):
Wow, yes, the four that you said charismatic
value based, you mean? The Yeah,they all sit, there are some
wonderful and I could see howthey would translate into
different cultures. But whenyou're talking about
intercultural leadership, howdoes that complexity like adding
(06:23):
in the complexity of all thecultures present? How does that
affect leadership in general?
You're adding the complexity ofculture, what does that do to a
leader? Can you just sort ofwalk us through that, as
compared to someone who doesn'thave that?
Marco Blankenburgh (06:38):
Right?
Right? What typically happens iswhen I meet leaders who step
into the global space, whatoften seems to be the case is
that they think that they cankeep doing what they've always
done. Because they typicallyknow they get selected because
they're really good in in whatthey do. And then they get
offered more international ormore global roles. And then they
(07:02):
step into that environment. Andthen they discover that
everything is all of a sudden, awhole lot more complicated. You
know, I was, I was speaking to aleader this week about his role,
which crosses three continents,and just talking through some
(07:23):
examples of the complexity ofmanaging staff from all over the
world, who might not even livein the countries that they are
responsible for, especiallyafter COVID. So you might be
this particular leader, I'mthinking of he, he has more than
50 countries under hisjurisdiction. And then on top of
(07:46):
that, some of his staff don'teven live in those 50 countries,
they live somewhere else, andthey serve the organization from
the outside in. And then, andthen you have all kinds of
interesting stuff happening,then all of a sudden, there is
an election that throwseverything upside down in one
country. And then there isstrikes in another country, and
(08:07):
then there is volatile situationthat might lead to life
threatening situations for yourstaff. And then an industry goes
upside down. And, and, and and.
And when you listen to leaderslike that, you realize they have
a really complex bunch of thingsthat they need to juggle. And
(08:30):
it's much more complicated thanbefore, for instance, being a
leader in one country, where alot of the staff might actually
live in that country, and servethe countries and the clients
are in that same country. Yeah.
Shelley Reinhart (08:44):
Wow. That's, yeah, that's levels of
complexity. Upon levels ofcomplexity. You
Marco Blankenburgh (08:49):
think when you think about how leaders like
that are different? I think Iwould summarize it as follows. I
think they first of all, theyhave real intercultural street
smarts, they are not just theglobe, the global leader,
because they happen to have ajurisdiction that, you know,
(09:11):
goes across geographies, or evencontinents. But for me, I always
look for pretty much one thing.
And that is, is can this leadercreate culture, in that
complicated web of off peakcontributors and recipients of
their services or products andthe politics and the economics
(09:31):
and social demographic issuesthat they might be dealing with?
Can they create culture and whenI think about creating culture,
that is in a one on one meetingthat isn't meeting a government
official, that is meeting peoplein their sphere of society. So
if they're in mining, you know,in the mining alliances and
(09:53):
collaboration platformseverywhere They go, can they
connect with people in aculturally agile way? And can
they create culture? And ofcourse, the most important place
for them to do that is on theirown team inside their
organization, and
Shelley Reinhart (10:13):
can execute question about that. Does
someone have to be welltraveled? Just you said, you
know, they've got a streetsmartsense about them. What? How do
you develop that? Just? How doyou, you know, what if I've
never traveled to the placewhere people are working? How do
I know that? Can you just expandon that a little?
Marco Blankenburgh (10:33):
That's a very interesting question. When
you look at the research, interms of how likely is somebody
going to succeed? Even if theyhaven't traveled before? How
likely is they are they're goingto succeed in a new context?
That's called interculturally.
Complex? Yeah. And actually, youreally don't know. So there's a
number of tools out there, Icall them expandability tools,
(10:57):
to tools that are trying topredict how likely you're going
to succeed. And 30 years intoworking internationally, I've
come to the conclusion that it'sincredibly difficult to predict.
So even the most well traveledpeople, they might have already
had multiple placements indifferent countries, they might
(11:17):
still get into a verychallenging situation with, for
instance, deep culture shock ontheir next move. And then for
instance, right now, I'm workingwith a European leader who is
busy relocating him and hisfamily to another part of the
world. And I met him for thefirst time and the one thing I
(11:38):
always look for, is, are you acultural learner? Are you are
you in inquisitive? As opposedto a cultural critic, when there
is one way of doing things. Soinstead of being inquisitive,
somebody like that would bedefinitive, this is how things
(11:59):
are supposed to get done. Andhere is, I'm relocating. And I'm
going to lead the team in thisin this way, or I'm going to
lead the business in this inthis way. So either being
inquisitive versus definitive,being humble is typically also
part of being a culturallearner. So if I meet a leader
like that, and they, they areshowing the the signs of a
(12:25):
cultural learner, there is thatsense of humility, that desire
to understand and learn and asklots of questions and not push
their weight around too soon,into the new assignment, for
instance, that person is likelygoing to succeed. And despite
the fact that they've never, youknow, this particular gentleman,
(12:45):
he's never had a placementoutside of his home country, for
instance. Wow.
Shelley Reinhart (12:51):
But you can sense that about him. And you
sense he's, he's curious. He'snot closed. Oh, that's, that's
really beautiful. And I am,thank you for clarifying that.
Because I think that's such akey piece. So it doesn't mean
you have to, you have to havetraveled all over the world and
exposed yourself to, you know,so many cultures, it's, it's
been a cultural learner, andhaving the heart and the
(13:14):
attitude and the posture ofthat, that can make you
initially successful, or atleast opened the door to success
as a global leader. Is thatright? That's what you started
salutely.
Marco Blankenburgh (13:25):
Yeah. And I like the way you say that it
opened the door to success.
Because, yes, I might not haveif I was in that position, I
might not have the knowledge. Imight have to study hard. But
the local context, which isstill really important, the
history, the history of thecontext, the way things are
done. But if I have the heart ofa cultural learner, if I'm if
(13:45):
I'm humble, if I recognize, Idon't know what I don't know,
then that person is going tolearn super fast. And they're
going to they're going to knowvery soon how things are done,
and how good they can alignthemselves. And how can they can
be culturally agile in doingthat,
Shelley Reinhart (14:06):
and build relationships, I'm sure at the
same time, because they must beasking questions if they're, if
they need to learn. Oh, that'sfantastic.
Marco Blankenburgh (14:16):
Can I just ask add one more thing? Yes. As
I'm learning more and more aboutthis, I'm still learning. Talk
about a cultural learner. 2030years into living
internationally and working withpeople who either are aspiring
to do that starting it or who'vedone it for many years. I
(14:37):
realized more and more this thisone thing that really holds you
back as a as a global leader whowants to be culturally agile,
tell us what is it and if I sortof summarize it, there's a
there's a way of thinking theycall it whole systems thinking
and in whole systems thinkingyou there are six different
(14:58):
things you learn should do well,it when you engage with the
context of the people in thatcontext with the issues of that
context. And maybe we can sharea link as well with people to
learn a little bit more aboutsystems or whole systems
thinking, but somebody who is acultural learner who's
culturally agile, everybody Imeet who's like that. They're
(15:21):
actually a systems thinker,although they might not know
about systems thinking they areinherently operating that way.
So, so the few things that aresix main things that they always
look for the whole picture. Sothey don't, they don't see just,
you know, a sliver of it. Theyalso are, yes, they might be
linear in their thinking, butthey always look back, they
(15:44):
always say, Okay, we've talkedabout this now for a while. And,
but I want to go back and wantto see now that we understand
the situation a bit better. Canwe look at it from a different
angle. So they're more circular,they are more thinking in in
loops, almost, you know, theykeep coming back to things and
revisiting every time they gaina little bit more insight. They
(16:07):
try and revisit things that theythought were true, or they
thought they had figured out butthey always want to check again.
So it's not from A to B to C,and we're done. Also, they they
see things in relationship, notin isolation. So the the
relationship is both people, butalso systems, you know, there's
(16:28):
a relationship between systemsand how those systems either are
conflicting each other or howthose systems are either helping
people or holding people back.
They also hate silos. It's veryinteresting. So culturally agile
leaders, they don't like silos.
So they always are looking forways to create synergy. And
(16:52):
emerge new things from theconnection between people and
systems and business units arealways looking for that. The
fifth one is that they know thateverything is interconnected,
and they they look for it, theyjust naturally say, oh, wait a
minute, you guys should betalking to these other people
over there. And they, thatconversation might lead to
(17:16):
something beautiful. And thatleads to the last thing, they're
always looking for synthesis. Soif things can come together, it
gets stronger, it gets better,it gets more valuable. And no
matter where I go, I I wasintroduced to systems thinking,
later on, I was already deepinto the intercultural space.
(17:38):
And when I saw those twotogether, I said, Absolutely
every good, culturally agileleader, I mean, they operate
that way. So
Shelley Reinhart (17:46):
that's so interesting. Wow. Yeah, I see
that it's almost like you're,you're defining a cultural
leader with all of those things,but adding culture. And also, if
they're doing those things, theyare creating culture, they're
creating a third cultural space,in a sense,
Marco Blankenburgh (18:05):
absolutely.
And they create space fordifferent opinions, different
ways of thinking, different wayof approaching problems, etc.
And it's yeah, it just makessense. So if you're not familiar
with whole system's thinking,look it up. Because it's a nice
little way to say, Okay, I wantto be a cultural learner, as a
leader, I want to be culturallyagile, then I have to also maybe
(18:26):
shift the way I engage withmyself with the people around me
with the systems of theorganization with the context.
And whole systems thinking wasjust a nice induction. In Dutch
we call them coathangers, youknow, something that you can
hang hang a big concept on. Andit just makes sense.
Shelley Reinhart (18:48):
And so you can learn how to be a systems
thinker, and you can learn howto be a cultural learner. Is
that correct? It's not somethingyou're just kind of naturally
absorbed with?
Marco Blankenburgh (18:59):
Absolutely.
And it's very often like as acultural learner. For instance,
learning to, to ask a lot ofquestions. We are currently
publishing a book with theultimate intercultural question
book. And we've gathered over1000 questions that you can ask
to understand the context toknow how you can engage with
(19:23):
that context more effectively.
And that part is incrediblyscalable, scalable, as well. So
learning to ask those questions,you actually fall in love with
it, you start to discover, wow,this is amazing. I start to
learn so much faster, I get somuch more perspective and
insight. And using that, thatwhole systems approach to always
(19:47):
step back and always look forconnections between both
policies, procedures, systems,as well as people and learning
to create beauty out of thoseconnections both from from By
synthesis point of view, as wellas from an emergence point of
view.
Shelley Reinhart (20:05):
I love that. I love that. And one of the
questions I was going to ask youwas, what are the what are some
pitfalls and phallus leadersneed to consider when they've
been offered this global jobwhen they're like moving into
global leadership? And this isso you're saying one of the
(20:26):
fallacies one of the pitfallscan be not asking questions not
being a systems thinker notbeing a cultural learner? Would
you say that?
Marco Blankenburgh (20:34):
Yeah, those those are typically some of the
first ones that would diediscuss when we do like global
leadership coaching, or developculturally agile leaders, be
willing to put everything in thebin that you used to do at home?
And just assume that you startwith a blank sheet? And that
(20:55):
you? That's challenging? Yeah,yeah. And some of the things you
used to do back home will end upback on the sheet, right. But
yeah, for the time being, bewilling to just just learn, just
observe and get to know yourpeople get to know the market,
get to know your clients, yoursuppliers, your stakeholders,
and really be a culturallearner. So that's crucial. But
(21:19):
there are a number of other onesthat I can think of. So people
still think that by moving intoa new context, new geography, or
by expanding your yourresponsibilities into new new
geography, people still havethis idea that all I need to do
is just learn a few tips andtricks, do's and don'ts. And
(21:42):
I'll be fine. And that's wherepeople make typically big
mistakes. That's where biasesstart to come in. And where
biases have a negative impact,where where people just draw
conclusions too quickly. Andthey don't listen anymore. They
don't ask any more questions. Sowhat we find, and this is one
(22:05):
thing that that I'm passionateabout is that he has a country
or a certain geography mighthave some general things that
might be true about that place.
So for instance, you know, acertain part of the world
relationships might be reallyimportant, other parts of the
world, process and system anddocuments might be really
(22:25):
important. There might be thosegeneral things that are true.
But with a globalized workforce,as we experienced today, I think
it's so important to not dwelltoo much or, or depend too much
on those broad generalizations.
And I find that good culturallyagile leaders, they actually put
(22:51):
those generalizations more tothe background. So they, they
start to treat the people thatthey work with more as unique
cultural human beings. Yes, andthat is a dramatic shift for
some, but it's just, you know,not depending on the outside
(23:12):
rapper too much. And I've seen,especially in the world that we
live in today with so manyhundreds of millions of cross
cross cultural kids that haveentered into the workforce now,
with more than 300 millionpeople not living in the country
of their passport, especially ifyou're in a global business and
geo academic institution. A lotof the people that work there
(23:36):
are more global citizenstypically. So don't, don't
define the people you work with,by the outside rapper of
nationality, ethnicity, and raceand learn to discover the the
cultural person in front of you.
So that shift is really, reallyhelpful, because you connect at
(24:00):
a deeper level with each other,but you also learn what is this
colleague of mine bringing intoour team? What is their cultural
preference? And how does thatimpact the shaping of the team
and how I need to lead that teamas a leader? So yeah, I think
that's a really important pointas well.
Shelley Reinhart (24:22):
And so if that's true, and I need to
consider everyone on my team asa unique cultural human being,
and I need to not rely onbiases, and I need to not make
assumptions, then I would needto set aside time to get to know
each of my team members, not inthe usual way, like in a
(24:43):
meeting, but actually learnwhere they're from, where
they've been, where they'vetraveled, what influences have
been a part of their lives. Isthat what you're saying? Like it
needs to be built in to my roleas as a global leader.
Marco Blankenburgh (24:56):
Yeah, spending time with people and
it's fascinating. Working withleaders in multiple, at the
moment, I'm working with leaderson four continents and, and just
that how much people appreciatethat time where we talk about
how to create relationalstrengths on a team. And I've
(25:18):
often seen teams where theleader facilitates a time where
they're just just exploring eachother, just getting to know each
other's backstory, and learningmore about, you know, what,
what, what do you bring intothis team as a human being. And
it's always fascinating how muchpeople appreciate that, it seems
(25:39):
there's even more appreciationfor it now, than before COVID.
People want that relationalConnect. But as a leader, it
really helps you to say, I getto know the whole human being.
And that is what I use to nowcraft the culture of the team.
And that that makes me thinkabout another fallacy is that,
(26:01):
as a culturally agile leader,you can't just say, I'm the
boss, we're going to do it myway from now on. And that might
work short term, but it never issustainable. Because you got
you, you either are going tohave you know, silent compliance
or assimilation, we talk aboutassimilation, or people just do
(26:22):
things, because you want themdone in a certain way. And it
doesn't get the best out of yourpeople. So, so creating, getting
to know your people learning whothey are as cultural human
beings, using that to then craftthe culture of your organization
of your team, together with thekey players. I think that that
(26:45):
is something that if leaders dothat, well, the team will talk
about that a little bit later,but the team just comes alive,
and it has a whole bunch ofreally powerful side effects
that that are worth considering.
The other thing, the other thingI'm thinking about is, if you
don't study the deeper fabric ofsociety, if you don't become a
(27:09):
student of history, you'reactually making a big mistake.
And every place had is what itis today, because of the way
society is organized, and whothe key movers and shakers are,
and the history that that causedthem to be where they are today.
(27:30):
So I always say, please be astudent of those things get to
know understand, it will helpyou make better business
decisions. It will assist you toknow who to connect with and who
not. And it will also allow youto know how to develop your
talent pool, for instance, inyour clientele, and what it
(27:50):
takes to create a goodreputation in that context.
Shelley Reinhart (27:57):
So that applies, even if you're, if
you're creating, I want to saycookie cutter like, this is our
business, this is the way it'sdone. This is non negotiable.
It's done this way all over theworld, we're just replicating it
in different parts of the world,even in a business like that.
These are still crucial. Yes,ideas.
Marco Blankenburgh (28:17):
Absolutely.
And you know, when you thinkabout, you know, a cookie
cutter, like a franchise,especially in food and beverage
type of industry, then still youare there to, to serve the local
context. And in that localcontext, there are key movers
and shakers and voices that areimportant for the local context.
(28:37):
So you still need to learn howthings are done. And how to
connect with that even thoughyour business model might not
change that much the way youposition yourself in the market
and the way you engage with themarket. That is where cultural
agility can be a make or breakreally.
Shelley Reinhart (28:57):
Yes, my see that that's good. That's good.
Can you give us some examples ofleaders that you've seen, who
have not had good globalleadership skills? Or we're not
culturally agile on sort of thefallout? Do you have some
examples? Yeah,
Marco Blankenburgh (29:18):
I mean, that that can be very big Fallout or
small fallout. So this week, Iwas having a conversation and
just talking about how to engagewith a team that is super
intercultural. And as we werediscussing it, the leader
realized that the way he had putthe performance measures and
(29:43):
indicators together, everythingthat he done was based on
individual accountability, soholding each person accountable
for their own performance. Andhe realized through the
conversation we were having thatmost of his team members were
actually from communityaccountability cultures, so
cultures where, as a group,you're held accountable for your
(30:06):
successes and failures. And herealized that not only had he
not given them a performanceframework that they could
resonate with, on top of thathe, as a result, had created a
situation where colleagues werepitched against each other in
their performance. And that had,he realized that that was having
(30:32):
a very negative side effect. Andwe talked about that, you
realize, while I'm actuallypitching these colleagues, who
actually many of them are evenfriends, and pitching them
against each other, just becauseI misunderstood how performance
measure management is done inthis cultural context.
Shelley Reinhart (30:50):
So that was new to him, he had never led a
team where individualaccountability wasn't, you know,
wasn't the primary way to,
Marco Blankenburgh (30:59):
yeah, he just brought it he just brought
well how he used to do it. Andhe was incredibly successful at
doing that. He brought it in.
And then only he realized lateron how that was, was not
effective on that team.
Shelley Reinhart (31:16):
So he was paying attention, and he was
listening. And he was, he wasseeing that this isn't
effective. Yeah, he noticed.
Marco Blankenburgh (31:23):
Yeah, yeah.
Wow. Thinking of anotherexample, which is more at the
global level, where some keyleaders have have taken the
organization on a journey. Butthose leaders have all come from
a certain cultural background.
(31:45):
And I won't mention a part ofthe world, but it's a specific
part of the world. And theyprobably with good intentions,
set a course for the culture ofthe organization. The dilemma
is, they are leading anorganization that has people in
over 100 countries. And, andthey set the culture, it was a
(32:09):
very much open communication,upward feedback, where people
had to find their own way toeither suggest, complain or
endorse certain behaviors, andwhere people had to plot their
own path, in terms of theircareer advancements, and had to
(32:32):
be quite competitive in terms ofhow they positioned themselves
and how they made sure thattheir voices would be heard by
everybody else, so that theywould be noticed, and given
opportunities for training andfor career advancement, etc. So
there were a whole bunch ofthings that they set in motion,
but they were in our threecolors, a worldview framework,
(32:53):
very much innocence, guiltoriented, very much individual
accountability oriented. And ittook them literally four years
to finally start listening tothe organization. And to
realize, wait a minute, this isnot how the rest of the world
functions. And they had to goback to the drawing board and
say, we realize that onlycertain people actually want to
(33:19):
work for us. Because we areculturally not inclusive enough.
We, we don't we don't create aculture of belonging, except for
people who are willing to becompliant to the way things are
done in the organization. But ifbut it's an uncomfortable
compliance, and that was just,it's painful to discover those
(33:40):
things. But once they did, theysaid, Okay, now we need to
become culturally inclusive, weneed to create a better third
cultural space. That is thatreally creates room for
different ways of doing things.
Shelley Reinhart (33:53):
So, so culture affects even the way we hold
each other accountable.
Marco Blankenburgh (33:58):
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and how
we build trust, even how we, howwe built trust, how we think
about career advancement, how webuild relationships with our
customers, all of that isdirectly influenced by culture.
Shelley Reinhart (34:14):
And to be culturally agile, you you have
to look a global leader wouldlook at all of those things and
make sure that they'reculturally appropriate.
Marco Blankenburgh (34:23):
Yeah. And that takes time. And of course,
there are certain things thatyou just don't have the luxury
to forever. Discuss thesethings. The opportunities you
give to people to contribute andto be part of it. Can can really
draw people in, createcommitment, create a sense of
(34:45):
belonging, being included in aculturally appropriate way is
super important. And that, youknow, makes me think of another
example where how do you get aconversation going? That is
culturally inclusive. Yeah, veryoften, you know, for instance,
classic challenge that leadershave is opinion surveys. So or
(35:11):
employee satisfaction surveys,how do you listen, listen to
your staff, how do you listen toyour organization, a lot of
those mechanisms are actuallydesigned in the West
predominantly so so it's madesee that it makes the assumption
that that leader that a personwants to give their own opinion
(35:31):
that they, they are not, theydon't have a problem with with
criticizing the organization, orpotentially giving negative
feedback about their leader. Andwhat we see time and again, that
leaders who are culturally agiledid they start to notice that if
you use a one size fits all tolisten to your organization,
(35:53):
then only certain people speakand other people don't speak at
all. To give you an example, Iwas working with a leadership
team for a Africa wideorganization. And they were
doing an employee survey. Andthey had just been introduced to
our three colors, a worldviewtool. And this is a big
organization. So a few 1000People had completed the survey,
(36:16):
it was an employee satisfactionor feedback survey. And the head
of HR said, so what do youthink? Shall we close the
survey? And I said, Well, wouldyou mind if we just do a quick
scan of the people that havecompleted the survey and see if
there is a cultural bias in thepeople that completed it first?
(36:36):
And what did we discover thepeople who completed the survey
first, were predominantly whatwe call innocence, guilt
oriented in their culturalorientation. So more right,
wrong oriented, typically raisedin a situation where speaking
your mind sharing your voice, isencouraged as an individual. And
(36:58):
looking through that initiallist, we discovered that the
other two worldview drivers,more focused on honor, more
focused on hierarchy andposition and power. They were
actually very few in amongst theones that had completed. So they
realized, oops, we're using amechanism that people don't feel
(37:20):
comfortable with. And we wereabout to close the survey and
then make strategic leadershipdecisions based on what we
learned. Wow. And that wouldhave taken the whole
organization in the wrongdirection.
Shelley Reinhart (37:33):
Wow, that is a great example. Yeah, leaving out
the that that entire populationof, of your of your company, you
haven't heard from them? Wow,those are great examples. Marco,
just any, any last one of justsomething that's that
significant. And those aresignificant examples of big
(37:54):
impact.
Marco Blankenburgh (37:55):
Yeah, I think, personally, what I love
to do a, you know, what I reallyfind rewarding is to work on a
program, we call it our highperforming intercultural team
work. And having if I look atthe leaders, I've had the
privilege of working with thatinvite us to do a high
(38:17):
performing intercultural teaminginitiative. They are typically
cultural learners, and they lovereally being crafters of
culture, I would say, andworking with those leaders, yes,
it takes time. But when I lookat the teams that we've worked
with, some teams are alreadymore than five years, six years
(38:40):
on that journey. And howsustainable that is, and how
strong those teams are, and howretention is, is strong. People
want to work on those teams, theteams typically have a good
reputation in the rest of theorganization. I've, I've heard
people say, Oh, I wish I couldwork for that team. Because they
(39:02):
have the following, you know,cultural traits that really are
appealing to me. And it's justso beautiful to see leaders who
get it Yeah, say, you know,culture eats strategy for
breakfast. And if I don't takeculture serious, first of all,
my people won't stay. Andsecondly, I might not be able to
(39:25):
pursue strategy in the best waypossible.
Shelley Reinhart (39:28):
Yes. Well, this is powerful. So what do we
say to people who are listeningright now that this possibly
seems so overwhelming to them?
Maybe they've looked back andthey see they've made mistakes?
Maybe culture hasn't even beenpart of the conversation. What
can they what can they do? Howcan how would you say? What are
(39:50):
some simple steps that you cantake to become a culturally
agile leader?
Marco Blankenburgh (40:00):
Yeah, I think there are, I always think
about the whole processes as awhole bunch of hundreds of micro
improvements. And the the ideaof micro improvements comes from
the world of sports, you know,an athlete who already runs, you
know, a really, really good timeon 100 meters, how do you
(40:20):
incrementally improve that time.
And it's a process of microimprovements. And I like to
treat the idea of becoming aculturally agile leader, the
same way. So one of the firstthings we typically start with
is, being a better observer.
(40:40):
See, seeing more, hearing more,gathering more information that
allows you to understandyourself better understand the
other person better therelationship that is trying to
happen, understanding thecontext better the systems that
is are being used in thatcontext, and how they impact the
(41:02):
way people function. So theability to observe and we bucket
that together, we call itperception, management,
perceiving better, and I loveusing, you know, the example of
being in the outdoors. Iremember I was in, in North
America for for a program thatwe were running. And we had, we
(41:25):
had asked a ranger, to take thewhole group into the forest. And
that forest was totallyunfamiliar to me. And the more
he spoke, the more I realized, Ireally don't know how to see in
this forest, I don't know how tohear, I don't know what to look
for. I don't, I don't know whatit's worth noticing. And through
(41:48):
the eyes of this Ranger, Irealized, this guy knows how to
see he knows how to hear heknows what to look for, he knows
who knows what's important, whatmight be marks of danger, or, or
opportunities for food or etc.
And with with developingcultural agility, it's very much
the same. I use it as ametaphor. So how can I enhance
(42:08):
my perception management, wehave a number of tools that you
can use to enhance that. Andwhat what is part of that is
understanding yourself as ahuman being now, we happen to
have a number of tools that arereally helpful. In the world of
global leadership development,very often people start with
(42:29):
doing competency assessments. Solet's, let's measure how, how
good you are in this space. Sosome competency frameworks use,
you know, a grid, and theremight be 12, nine, sometimes
even 18 different competencies.
We believe that's important. Butwhere we typically start is, do
(42:53):
you understand how you are wiredas a cultural human being, and
how does that influence how youbehave as a cultural human
being. So we've developed toolsfor that I already alluded to
the three colors a worldviewthat gives you insights in, in
your preference on some keycultural drivers. And then we've
(43:15):
got another tool that is calledthe cultural mapping inventory,
that gives you insights in inhow your day to day thinking,
speaking and acting as acultural human being. And we
have 12 different dimensions,they're both those tools are
designed to give you a richlanguage and insight in how you
are operating and wired as acultural human being. And that
(43:38):
is, that's a really importantplace to start. Because once you
understand your own behavior,and you have a neutral language
to talk about that you can startusing that same approach with
people around you.
Shelley Reinhart (43:51):
So you're saying I start with myself, I
understand what are my culturaldrivers? What are my cultural
preferences? Once I understandthose, then I can see better I
can observe others better?
Because I have the language toknow what to look for.
Marco Blankenburgh (44:07):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah. And the beauty with
the tools we have developedthere, there's no value judgment
in the tool. So the language isneutral. The preference points,
we don't say, Oh, that's a badpreference point or a good
reference point. It is what itis. And learning to that level
of neutrality, also then createsa much more open conversation
(44:30):
around culture. And that thenallows me to say, Okay, you
think differently, for instance,about how we make exceptions to
the rules. So one of ourdimensions talks about that. So
how are decisions made? Is itexclusively based on the rules
or is it more on therelationship side and let's see
(44:51):
what we can do for each other.
And let me talk to somebody andit's not about bending rules but
accommodating the relationshipas well as a PA Holding the
roles at the same time. So youhave that neutral language to
talk about, typically issuesthat are a frustration, like,
Yeah, somebody wants toexclusively follow the rules,
and somebody says, Come on, man,you know, this could be a really
(45:14):
important client relationship.
Let's see what we can do forthis, this new client. And then
the other colleague says, No,we're not going to budge. Just
sell them, you know. And, andlearning that both sides are
important. And both sides haveprobably present in an
intercultural organization, it'slearning to have that dialogue,
(45:36):
and then deciding what is ourcollective cultural space? And
how do we deal with thosesituations in a more
constructive and culturallyagile manner.
Shelley Reinhart (45:46):
So that I can eliminate and identify the bias
that I have. Because if I leanone way, in a in a in a
dimension of, you know, culturalpreference, then I might have a
bias towards someone who does itcompletely differently. So just
being aware of those thingsyou're saying is so helpful? And
I can see that Yeah, yeah, well,that's great.
Marco Blankenburgh (46:07):
And that awareness, then, you know, you
can't forever dance on, youknow, on the cultural landscape,
you have to eventually,especially as a leader, you will
have to decide, we have, we seeall these different ways of
doing things and how we makedecisions and how we reward
people in how we talk to eachother. A huge one is direct
(46:30):
versus indirect communication.
But ultimately, we have todecide who we want to be. And
what I love about this approachis that once you understand your
own behavior, your colleaguesbehavior, other people you work
with across the network of yourorganization, you can use that
same language to now say, who wewant to be. So, so from personal
(46:51):
culture, you then go to team ororganizational culture, and it's
very organic, it's the same, thesame grid, it's the same
language that you start using tothen craft culture as a leader.
And that's so incrediblyimportant in today's world.
Shelley Reinhart (47:09):
Yes, I can see that. So that is, I was going to
ask what are the keycontributions that are
culturally agile leader canbring, but you just described
it. I think this wholeeverything you've said is this
is what a culturally agileleader looks like. And brings,
Marco Blankenburgh (47:27):
yeah, and what would the impact did I see
time and time again, I mentionedour high performing
intercultural teaming journey.
Leaders who take that series,they really know how to build
high trust, which is a hugefocus area right now. But they
also create a culture or spacethat is inclusive, that creates
a strong, deep sense ofbelonging. They also typically
(47:49):
navigate complexity much better.
They they hold ways of doingthings loosely, of course,
within the fabric of theorganization with it, the the
ethical practice model that theymight be endorsing. They are
really good at navigatingcomplexity. And and the last
(48:11):
thing I would say is that bydoing that, by creating culture
that we typically retention goesup. What we see is diversity
done well, that leads to bettercollaboration, better
communication. Also, we seeteams who really create that
third cultural space, they'remuch better at coming up with
(48:33):
ideas and innovative solutions.
So there's a compelling case toreally take this serious. And
yes, the last thing I would liketo say is that as a coach, I
have seen culturally agileleaders, who also are more coach
like in the way they lead. Theyeven take it to the next level.
(48:55):
Because as a coach is mentionedare two of the three quarters of
worldview. We have somethingcalled the litmus test and
leaders who lead like coaches,they actually apply that litmus
test, the way they engage withtheir people is trying to do
right by their people. They'retrying to honor their people.
And they're trying to beempowering to their people are
(49:17):
people want to be on the team,they get energized by being on
the team. So being more coach,like using those three colors as
a guide, do the right thing foryour people, honor your people,
and be empowering and engagewith your people in such a way
that they they want to get outof bed in the morning and be on
(49:38):
your team.
Shelley Reinhart (49:41):
Oh, that's beautiful. That sounds like the
kind of leader I want to be.
Yeah, I love it. I want to Yeah,be an expert at creating that
space. This has been so helpful,Marco. Boy. There's a lot you've
introduced us to a lot of thingsto really reflect on.
Marco Blankenburgh (50:02):
And don't forget, you know that idea of
micro improvements, start withsmall things. And don't think
that you will be the expertovernight. There are many people
on this journey. And there arealso many people that are
willing to help. We even havespecial specially trained
coaches who specialize in AScertified into cultural coaches
(50:24):
to help global leaders todevelop their cultural agility.
And working with somebody likethat is incredibly powerful. So
don't try and do it alone,either find colleagues,
colleagues who are on the samejourney, and work together and
learn from each other, or, youknow, bring a coach in for a
while to help you accelerate thejourney.
Shelley Reinhart (50:47):
That's a great idea. If someone is listening
right now, and they want to findout more about the high
performance, the team buildingthat you talked about, how could
they do that? What if they said,Yeah, I want to put my team
through that? What do they do?
Marco Blankenburgh (51:00):
We'll put a link in the notes with the
podcast so that we have a way ofbeing in contact with one
another. But also, we have somepretty good write ups on what
that looks like, on our website.
So you'll find more details onin the notes that accompany the
podcast.
Shelley Reinhart (51:18):
Excellent, great. It's good to make all of
those available. Thank you somuch, Marco. This has been
wonderful. I've learned a lot.
I've taken lots of notes. Asusual. Thank you.
Marco Blankenburgh (51:31):
Thank you, Shelly. This is such an
important topic. So great tocreate the opportunity to talk
about it.
Shelley Reinhart (51:37):
Excellent.
We'll see you next time. Thankyou.
Marco Blankenburgh (51:40):
Thank you.
Thank you so much for joining usfor this episode of the cultural
agility podcast. If you enjoyedtoday's episode, share it with
someone. Best way to help us outis by leaving a review on your
favorite podcast, app or channelor forward and recommend this
podcast people around you. Asalways, if any of the topics we
(52:02):
discussed today intrigue you,you will find links to articles
discussing them in greater depthin the podcast notes. If you
would like to learn more aboutintercultural intelligence and
how you can become moreculturally agile, you can find
more information and hundreds ofarticles at knowledge works.com
Special thanks to Jason Carterfor composing the music on this
(52:26):
podcast and to the wholeknowledge works team for making
this podcast a success. Thankyou Anita Rodriquez, Ara as is
back Ian Raji Suraj. And thanksto VIP and George for audio
production, Roslyn Raj forscheduling, and Caleb Strauss
for marketing and helpingproduce this podcast
But ultimately, we have to decide
who we want to be. And what Ilove about this approach is that
once you understand your ownbehavior, your colleagues
behavior, other people you workwith across the network of your
organization, you can use thatsame language to now say, who do
we want to be? So, so frompersonal culture, you don't go
(00:22):
to team or organizationalculture and it's very organic.
It's the same, the same grid.
It's the same language that youstart using to then craft
culture as a leader. And that'sso incredibly important in
today's world.
(00:45):
Welcome to the cultural agilitypodcast, where we explore the
stories of some of the mostadvanced intercultural
practitioners from around theworld, to help you become
culturally agile, and succeed intoday's culturally complex
world. I'm your host, MarcoBlankenburg, international
director of knowledge works,where every day we help
(01:06):
individuals and companiesachieve relational success in
that same complex world.
Shelley Reinhart (01:14):
Hello, everyone, welcome to our podcast
today, we have a great topic.
I'm so excited for you to hearwhat Marco has to say today
about global leadership and whatit takes in today's world. I am
your host, Shelley Reinhardt,and I am the global network
liaison for knowledge works. Iconnect practitioners,
(01:35):
culturally agile practitionersall over the world. And I'm
excited to have you here, Marcostake on leadership today. I
think we'll all learn a lot.
He's ready to share. He's haslots of experience in this
topic. He's done it all of hislife. So Marco. Hello.
Marco Blankenburgh (01:55):
Thank you, Shelly. It's so good to be back
on this podcast again. And Ilove this topic, because it's so
incredibly important in theworld of today.
Shelley Reinhart (02:05):
It is it is there's so much going on in the
world. And I'm excited to hearyou talk about global
leadership. But first, can Ijust ask you a quick question?
How would you define globalleadership? A culturally agile
leader, leader? What is it?
Marco Blankenburgh (02:20):
Well, that is already incredibly difficult
question. So first of all, youmentioned both global leadership
and culturally agile leadership.
And those are indeed twodifferent things. Yes, you're
right. So so somebody could say,oh, I'm a global leader, because
I manage I manage multiplecountries, I have staff from all
(02:42):
over the world, we have clientsfrom many different backgrounds
and countries, we have astakeholder network that is very
global, therefore, I'm a globalleader. And that's partially
true. But it doesn't really makeyou a global leader. It's a
little bit the same. I've seenthat with international schools,
(03:03):
for instance, and you couldrelate to that Celie. You know,
international schools, wherekids from 50 nationalities go to
school, and teachers and stafffrom 25 Five nationalities work,
and educate and then they say,we are an international school,
or an intercultural school. Andjust just by putting a whole
bunch of nationalities togetherin in one organization doesn't
(03:26):
magically turn on thisculturally agile thing. And the
same day, same is true forglobal leaders. So some global
leaders are culturally agile,and others are not. And that's
one of the biggest distinctionson top of that, when you start
looking at how humanity hastried to make sense of what it
(03:49):
takes to be a global or what wethen call a culturally agile
leader. We haven't done a lot ofresearch on this topic. So the
closest I can come is toresearch that has been going on
for more than 20 years as theglow project. And the globe
project has indeed been doneacross more than 60 countries.
(04:10):
And they asked the question,well, what does a good leader
do? What how do they behave?
What does a bad leader do andhow do they behave? And that is
probably one of the few projectsthat tried to wrap their head
around culturally agile, globalleadership. What do we all agree
(04:31):
on as humanity? And theinteresting thing is after 20
years of digging into thisquestion, they've come up with
with four endorsed leadershipbehaviors that the world seems
to say yeah, that's what a goodleader does. So being
charismatic and value based inyour leadership being team
(04:51):
oriented, being participative inthe way you lead, being humane
oriented, for for the most So ifthe world says, yeah, those,
that's what a good leader does.
And there are two others wherethey disagree sort of where they
say, if you're self protectivein some cultures, that's seen as
good leadership in some culturesas bad leadership, if you're
(05:12):
autonomous, in some cultures,it's seen as bad leadership in
other cultures it's uploaded.
But that's as far as we got ashumanity to figure this out. And
then on top of that, you alsohave more than 160, documented
(05:32):
global leadership competencies.
Now there's a whole bunch offrameworks out there, one of our
practitioners, Microsoft hasdone extensive Leadership
Research for his PhD, he hasfound over 160 documented or
advocated global leadershipcompetencies. So on the one
hand, very little research done,on the other hand, a whole bunch
(05:54):
of people who have opinionsabout what a global global
leader should be doing and whatcompetencies and skills they
should have.
Shelley Reinhart (06:03):
Wow, yes, the four that you said charismatic
value based, you mean? The Yeah,they all sit, there are some
wonderful and I could see howthey would translate into
different cultures. But whenyou're talking about
intercultural leadership, howdoes that complexity like adding
(06:23):
in the complexity of all thecultures present? How does that
affect leadership in general?
You're adding the complexity ofculture, what does that do to a
leader? Can you just sort ofwalk us through that, as
compared to someone who doesn'thave that?
Marco Blankenburgh (06:38):
Right?
Right? What typically happens iswhen I meet leaders who step
into the global space, whatoften seems to be the case is
that they think that they cankeep doing what they've always
done. Because they typicallyknow they get selected because
they're really good in in whatthey do. And then they get
offered more international ormore global roles. And then they
(07:02):
step into that environment. Andthen they discover that
everything is all of a sudden, awhole lot more complicated. You
know, I was, I was speaking to aleader this week about his role,
which crosses three continents,and just talking through some
(07:23):
examples of the complexity ofmanaging staff from all over the
world, who might not even livein the countries that they are
responsible for, especiallyafter COVID. So you might be
this particular leader, I'mthinking of he, he has more than
50 countries under hisjurisdiction. And then on top of
(07:46):
that, some of his staff don'teven live in those 50 countries,
they live somewhere else, andthey serve the organization from
the outside in. And then, andthen you have all kinds of
interesting stuff happening,then all of a sudden, there is
an election that throwseverything upside down in one
country. And then there isstrikes in another country, and
(08:07):
then there is volatile situationthat might lead to life
threatening situations for yourstaff. And then an industry goes
upside down. And, and, and and.
And when you listen to leaderslike that, you realize they have
a really complex bunch of thingsthat they need to juggle. And
(08:30):
it's much more complicated thanbefore, for instance, being a
leader in one country, where alot of the staff might actually
live in that country, and servethe countries and the clients
are in that same country. Yeah.
Shelley Reinhart (08:44):
Wow. That's, yeah, that's levels of
complexity. Upon levels ofcomplexity. You
Marco Blankenburgh (08:49):
think when you think about how leaders like
that are different? I think Iwould summarize it as follows. I
think they first of all, theyhave real intercultural street
smarts, they are not just theglobe, the global leader,
because they happen to have ajurisdiction that, you know,
(09:11):
goes across geographies, or evencontinents. But for me, I always
look for pretty much one thing.
And that is, is can this leadercreate culture, in that
complicated web of off peakcontributors and recipients of
their services or products andthe politics and the economics
(09:31):
and social demographic issuesthat they might be dealing with?
Can they create culture and whenI think about creating culture,
that is in a one on one meetingthat isn't meeting a government
official, that is meeting peoplein their sphere of society. So
if they're in mining, you know,in the mining alliances and
(09:53):
collaboration platformseverywhere They go, can they
connect with people in aculturally agile way? And can
they create culture? And ofcourse, the most important place
for them to do that is on theirown team inside their
organization, and
Shelley Reinhart (10:13):
can execute question about that. Does
someone have to be welltraveled? Just you said, you
know, they've got a streetsmartsense about them. What? How do
you develop that? Just? How doyou, you know, what if I've
never traveled to the placewhere people are working? How do
I know that? Can you just expandon that a little?
Marco Blankenburgh (10:33):
That's a very interesting question. When
you look at the research, interms of how likely is somebody
going to succeed? Even if theyhaven't traveled before? How
likely is they are they're goingto succeed in a new context?
That's called interculturally.
Complex? Yeah. And actually, youreally don't know. So there's a
number of tools out there, Icall them expandability tools,
(10:57):
to tools that are trying topredict how likely you're going
to succeed. And 30 years intoworking internationally, I've
come to the conclusion that it'sincredibly difficult to predict.
So even the most well traveledpeople, they might have already
had multiple placements indifferent countries, they might
(11:17):
still get into a verychallenging situation with, for
instance, deep culture shock ontheir next move. And then for
instance, right now, I'm workingwith a European leader who is
busy relocating him and hisfamily to another part of the
world. And I met him for thefirst time and the one thing I
(11:38):
always look for, is, are you acultural learner? Are you are
you in inquisitive? As opposedto a cultural critic, when there
is one way of doing things. Soinstead of being inquisitive,
somebody like that would bedefinitive, this is how things
(11:59):
are supposed to get done. Andhere is, I'm relocating. And I'm
going to lead the team in thisin this way, or I'm going to
lead the business in this inthis way. So either being
inquisitive versus definitive,being humble is typically also
part of being a culturallearner. So if I meet a leader
like that, and they, they areshowing the the signs of a
(12:25):
cultural learner, there is thatsense of humility, that desire
to understand and learn and asklots of questions and not push
their weight around too soon,into the new assignment, for
instance, that person is likelygoing to succeed. And despite
the fact that they've never, youknow, this particular gentleman,
(12:45):
he's never had a placementoutside of his home country, for
instance. Wow.
Shelley Reinhart (12:51):
But you can sense that about him. And you
sense he's, he's curious. He'snot closed. Oh, that's, that's
really beautiful. And I am,thank you for clarifying that.
Because I think that's such akey piece. So it doesn't mean
you have to, you have to havetraveled all over the world and
exposed yourself to, you know,so many cultures, it's, it's
been a cultural learner, andhaving the heart and the
(13:14):
attitude and the posture ofthat, that can make you
initially successful, or atleast opened the door to success
as a global leader. Is thatright? That's what you started
salutely.
Marco Blankenburgh (13:25):
Yeah. And I like the way you say that it
opened the door to success.
Because, yes, I might not haveif I was in that position, I
might not have the knowledge. Imight have to study hard. But
the local context, which isstill really important, the
history, the history of thecontext, the way things are
done. But if I have the heart ofa cultural learner, if I'm if
(13:45):
I'm humble, if I recognize, Idon't know what I don't know,
then that person is going tolearn super fast. And they're
going to they're going to knowvery soon how things are done,
and how good they can alignthemselves. And how can they can
be culturally agile in doingthat,
Shelley Reinhart (14:06):
and build relationships, I'm sure at the
same time, because they must beasking questions if they're, if
they need to learn. Oh, that'sfantastic.
Marco Blankenburgh (14:16):
Can I just ask add one more thing? Yes. As
I'm learning more and more aboutthis, I'm still learning. Talk
about a cultural learner. 2030years into living
internationally and working withpeople who either are aspiring
to do that starting it or who'vedone it for many years. I
(14:37):
realized more and more this thisone thing that really holds you
back as a as a global leader whowants to be culturally agile,
tell us what is it and if I sortof summarize it, there's a
there's a way of thinking theycall it whole systems thinking
and in whole systems thinkingyou there are six different
(14:58):
things you learn should do well,it when you engage with the
context of the people in thatcontext with the issues of that
context. And maybe we can sharea link as well with people to
learn a little bit more aboutsystems or whole systems
thinking, but somebody who is acultural learner who's
culturally agile, everybody Imeet who's like that. They're
(15:21):
actually a systems thinker,although they might not know
about systems thinking they areinherently operating that way.
So, so the few things that aresix main things that they always
look for the whole picture. Sothey don't, they don't see just,
you know, a sliver of it. Theyalso are, yes, they might be
linear in their thinking, butthey always look back, they
(15:44):
always say, Okay, we've talkedabout this now for a while. And,
but I want to go back and wantto see now that we understand
the situation a bit better. Canwe look at it from a different
angle. So they're more circular,they are more thinking in in
loops, almost, you know, theykeep coming back to things and
revisiting every time they gaina little bit more insight. They
(16:07):
try and revisit things that theythought were true, or they
thought they had figured out butthey always want to check again.
So it's not from A to B to C,and we're done. Also, they they
see things in relationship, notin isolation. So the the
relationship is both people, butalso systems, you know, there's
(16:28):
a relationship between systemsand how those systems either are
conflicting each other or howthose systems are either helping
people or holding people back.
They also hate silos. It's veryinteresting. So culturally agile
leaders, they don't like silos.
So they always are looking forways to create synergy. And
(16:52):
emerge new things from theconnection between people and
systems and business units arealways looking for that. The
fifth one is that they know thateverything is interconnected,
and they they look for it, theyjust naturally say, oh, wait a
minute, you guys should betalking to these other people
over there. And they, thatconversation might lead to
(17:16):
something beautiful. And thatleads to the last thing, they're
always looking for synthesis. Soif things can come together, it
gets stronger, it gets better,it gets more valuable. And no
matter where I go, I I wasintroduced to systems thinking,
later on, I was already deepinto the intercultural space.
(17:38):
And when I saw those twotogether, I said, Absolutely
every good, culturally agileleader, I mean, they operate
that way. So
Shelley Reinhart (17:46):
that's so interesting. Wow. Yeah, I see
that it's almost like you're,you're defining a cultural
leader with all of those things,but adding culture. And also, if
they're doing those things, theyare creating culture, they're
creating a third cultural space,in a sense,
Marco Blankenburgh (18:05):
absolutely.
And they create space fordifferent opinions, different
ways of thinking, different wayof approaching problems, etc.
And it's yeah, it just makessense. So if you're not familiar
with whole system's thinking,look it up. Because it's a nice
little way to say, Okay, I wantto be a cultural learner, as a
leader, I want to be culturallyagile, then I have to also maybe
(18:26):
shift the way I engage withmyself with the people around me
with the systems of theorganization with the context.
And whole systems thinking wasjust a nice induction. In Dutch
we call them coathangers, youknow, something that you can
hang hang a big concept on. Andit just makes sense.
Shelley Reinhart (18:48):
And so you can learn how to be a systems
thinker, and you can learn howto be a cultural learner. Is
that correct? It's not somethingyou're just kind of naturally
absorbed with?
Marco Blankenburgh (18:59):
Absolutely.
And it's very often like as acultural learner. For instance,
learning to, to ask a lot ofquestions. We are currently
publishing a book with theultimate intercultural question
book. And we've gathered over1000 questions that you can ask
to understand the context toknow how you can engage with
(19:23):
that context more effectively.
And that part is incrediblyscalable, scalable, as well. So
learning to ask those questions,you actually fall in love with
it, you start to discover, wow,this is amazing. I start to
learn so much faster, I get somuch more perspective and
insight. And using that, thatwhole systems approach to always
(19:47):
step back and always look forconnections between both
policies, procedures, systems,as well as people and learning
to create beauty out of thoseconnections both from from By
synthesis point of view, as wellas from an emergence point of
view.
Shelley Reinhart (20:05):
I love that. I love that. And one of the
questions I was going to ask youwas, what are the what are some
pitfalls and phallus leadersneed to consider when they've
been offered this global jobwhen they're like moving into
global leadership? And this isso you're saying one of the
(20:26):
fallacies one of the pitfallscan be not asking questions not
being a systems thinker notbeing a cultural learner? Would
you say that?
Marco Blankenburgh (20:34):
Yeah, those those are typically some of the
first ones that would diediscuss when we do like global
leadership coaching, or developculturally agile leaders, be
willing to put everything in thebin that you used to do at home?
And just assume that you startwith a blank sheet? And that
(20:55):
you? That's challenging? Yeah,yeah. And some of the things you
used to do back home will end upback on the sheet, right. But
yeah, for the time being, bewilling to just just learn, just
observe and get to know yourpeople get to know the market,
get to know your clients, yoursuppliers, your stakeholders,
and really be a culturallearner. So that's crucial. But
(21:19):
there are a number of other onesthat I can think of. So people
still think that by moving intoa new context, new geography, or
by expanding your yourresponsibilities into new new
geography, people still havethis idea that all I need to do
is just learn a few tips andtricks, do's and don'ts. And
(21:42):
I'll be fine. And that's wherepeople make typically big
mistakes. That's where biasesstart to come in. And where
biases have a negative impact,where where people just draw
conclusions too quickly. Andthey don't listen anymore. They
don't ask any more questions. Sowhat we find, and this is one
(22:05):
thing that that I'm passionateabout is that he has a country
or a certain geography mighthave some general things that
might be true about that place.
So for instance, you know, acertain part of the world
relationships might be reallyimportant, other parts of the
world, process and system anddocuments might be really
(22:25):
important. There might be thosegeneral things that are true.
But with a globalized workforce,as we experienced today, I think
it's so important to not dwelltoo much or, or depend too much
on those broad generalizations.
And I find that good culturallyagile leaders, they actually put
(22:51):
those generalizations more tothe background. So they, they
start to treat the people thatthey work with more as unique
cultural human beings. Yes, andthat is a dramatic shift for
some, but it's just, you know,not depending on the outside
(23:12):
rapper too much. And I've seen,especially in the world that we
live in today with so manyhundreds of millions of cross
cross cultural kids that haveentered into the workforce now,
with more than 300 millionpeople not living in the country
of their passport, especially ifyou're in a global business and
geo academic institution. A lotof the people that work there
(23:36):
are more global citizenstypically. So don't, don't
define the people you work with,by the outside rapper of
nationality, ethnicity, and raceand learn to discover the the
cultural person in front of you.
So that shift is really, reallyhelpful, because you connect at
(24:00):
a deeper level with each other,but you also learn what is this
colleague of mine bringing intoour team? What is their cultural
preference? And how does thatimpact the shaping of the team
and how I need to lead that teamas a leader? So yeah, I think
that's a really important pointas well.
Shelley Reinhart (24:22):
And so if that's true, and I need to
consider everyone on my team asa unique cultural human being,
and I need to not rely onbiases, and I need to not make
assumptions, then I would needto set aside time to get to know
each of my team members, not inthe usual way, like in a
(24:43):
meeting, but actually learnwhere they're from, where
they've been, where they'vetraveled, what influences have
been a part of their lives. Isthat what you're saying? Like it
needs to be built in to my roleas as a global leader.
Marco Blankenburgh (24:56):
Yeah, spending time with people and
it's fascinating. Working withleaders in multiple, at the
moment, I'm working with leaderson four continents and, and just
that how much people appreciatethat time where we talk about
how to create relationalstrengths on a team. And I've
(25:18):
often seen teams where theleader facilitates a time where
they're just just exploring eachother, just getting to know each
other's backstory, and learningmore about, you know, what,
what, what do you bring intothis team as a human being. And
it's always fascinating how muchpeople appreciate that, it seems
(25:39):
there's even more appreciationfor it now, than before COVID.
People want that relationalConnect. But as a leader, it
really helps you to say, I getto know the whole human being.
And that is what I use to nowcraft the culture of the team.
And that that makes me thinkabout another fallacy is that,
(26:01):
as a culturally agile leader,you can't just say, I'm the
boss, we're going to do it myway from now on. And that might
work short term, but it never issustainable. Because you got
you, you either are going tohave you know, silent compliance
or assimilation, we talk aboutassimilation, or people just do
(26:22):
things, because you want themdone in a certain way. And it
doesn't get the best out of yourpeople. So, so creating, getting
to know your people learning whothey are as cultural human
beings, using that to then craftthe culture of your organization
of your team, together with thekey players. I think that that
(26:45):
is something that if leaders dothat, well, the team will talk
about that a little bit later,but the team just comes alive,
and it has a whole bunch ofreally powerful side effects
that that are worth considering.
The other thing, the other thingI'm thinking about is, if you
don't study the deeper fabric ofsociety, if you don't become a
(27:09):
student of history, you'reactually making a big mistake.
And every place had is what itis today, because of the way
society is organized, and whothe key movers and shakers are,
and the history that that causedthem to be where they are today.
(27:30):
So I always say, please be astudent of those things get to
know understand, it will helpyou make better business
decisions. It will assist you toknow who to connect with and who
not. And it will also allow youto know how to develop your
talent pool, for instance, inyour clientele, and what it
(27:50):
takes to create a goodreputation in that context.
Shelley Reinhart (27:57):
So that applies, even if you're, if
you're creating, I want to saycookie cutter like, this is our
business, this is the way it'sdone. This is non negotiable.
It's done this way all over theworld, we're just replicating it
in different parts of the world,even in a business like that.
These are still crucial. Yes,ideas.
Marco Blankenburgh (28:17):
Absolutely.
And you know, when you thinkabout, you know, a cookie
cutter, like a franchise,especially in food and beverage
type of industry, then still youare there to, to serve the local
context. And in that localcontext, there are key movers
and shakers and voices that areimportant for the local context.
(28:37):
So you still need to learn howthings are done. And how to
connect with that even thoughyour business model might not
change that much the way youposition yourself in the market
and the way you engage with themarket. That is where cultural
agility can be a make or breakreally.
Shelley Reinhart (28:57):
Yes, my see that that's good. That's good.
Can you give us some examples ofleaders that you've seen, who
have not had good globalleadership skills? Or we're not
culturally agile on sort of thefallout? Do you have some
examples? Yeah,
Marco Blankenburgh (29:18):
I mean, that that can be very big Fallout or
small fallout. So this week, Iwas having a conversation and
just talking about how to engagewith a team that is super
intercultural. And as we werediscussing it, the leader
realized that the way he had putthe performance measures and
(29:43):
indicators together, everythingthat he done was based on
individual accountability, soholding each person accountable
for their own performance. Andhe realized through the
conversation we were having thatmost of his team members were
actually from communityaccountability cultures, so
cultures where, as a group,you're held accountable for your
(30:06):
successes and failures. And herealized that not only had he
not given them a performanceframework that they could
resonate with, on top of thathe, as a result, had created a
situation where colleagues werepitched against each other in
their performance. And that had,he realized that that was having
(30:32):
a very negative side effect. Andwe talked about that, you
realize, while I'm actuallypitching these colleagues, who
actually many of them are evenfriends, and pitching them
against each other, just becauseI misunderstood how performance
measure management is done inthis cultural context.
Shelley Reinhart (30:50):
So that was new to him, he had never led a
team where individualaccountability wasn't, you know,
wasn't the primary way to,
Marco Blankenburgh (30:59):
yeah, he just brought it he just brought
well how he used to do it. Andhe was incredibly successful at
doing that. He brought it in.
And then only he realized lateron how that was, was not
effective on that team.
Shelley Reinhart (31:16):
So he was paying attention, and he was
listening. And he was, he wasseeing that this isn't
effective. Yeah, he noticed.
Marco Blankenburgh (31:23):
Yeah, yeah.
Wow. Thinking of anotherexample, which is more at the
global level, where some keyleaders have have taken the
organization on a journey. Butthose leaders have all come from
a certain cultural background.
(31:45):
And I won't mention a part ofthe world, but it's a specific
part of the world. And theyprobably with good intentions,
set a course for the culture ofthe organization. The dilemma
is, they are leading anorganization that has people in
over 100 countries. And, andthey set the culture, it was a
(32:09):
very much open communication,upward feedback, where people
had to find their own way toeither suggest, complain or
endorse certain behaviors, andwhere people had to plot their
own path, in terms of theircareer advancements, and had to
(32:32):
be quite competitive in terms ofhow they positioned themselves
and how they made sure thattheir voices would be heard by
everybody else, so that theywould be noticed, and given
opportunities for training andfor career advancement, etc. So
there were a whole bunch ofthings that they set in motion,
but they were in our threecolors, a worldview framework,
(32:53):
very much innocence, guiltoriented, very much individual
accountability oriented. And ittook them literally four years
to finally start listening tothe organization. And to
realize, wait a minute, this isnot how the rest of the world
functions. And they had to goback to the drawing board and
say, we realize that onlycertain people actually want to
(33:19):
work for us. Because we areculturally not inclusive enough.
We, we don't we don't create aculture of belonging, except for
people who are willing to becompliant to the way things are
done in the organization. But ifbut it's an uncomfortable
compliance, and that was just,it's painful to discover those
(33:40):
things. But once they did, theysaid, Okay, now we need to
become culturally inclusive, weneed to create a better third
cultural space. That is thatreally creates room for
different ways of doing things.
Shelley Reinhart (33:53):
So, so culture affects even the way we hold
each other accountable.
Marco Blankenburgh (33:58):
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and how
we build trust, even how we, howwe built trust, how we think
about career advancement, how webuild relationships with our
customers, all of that isdirectly influenced by culture.
Shelley Reinhart (34:14):
And to be culturally agile, you you have
to look a global leader wouldlook at all of those things and
make sure that they'reculturally appropriate.
Marco Blankenburgh (34:23):
Yeah. And that takes time. And of course,
there are certain things thatyou just don't have the luxury
to forever. Discuss thesethings. The opportunities you
give to people to contribute andto be part of it. Can can really
draw people in, createcommitment, create a sense of
(34:45):
belonging, being included in aculturally appropriate way is
super important. And that, youknow, makes me think of another
example where how do you get aconversation going? That is
culturally inclusive. Yeah, veryoften, you know, for instance,
classic challenge that leadershave is opinion surveys. So or
(35:11):
employee satisfaction surveys,how do you listen, listen to
your staff, how do you listen toyour organization, a lot of
those mechanisms are actuallydesigned in the West
predominantly so so it's madesee that it makes the assumption
that that leader that a personwants to give their own opinion
(35:31):
that they, they are not, theydon't have a problem with with
criticizing the organization, orpotentially giving negative
feedback about their leader. Andwhat we see time and again, that
leaders who are culturally agiledid they start to notice that if
you use a one size fits all tolisten to your organization,
(35:53):
then only certain people speakand other people don't speak at
all. To give you an example, Iwas working with a leadership
team for a Africa wideorganization. And they were
doing an employee survey. Andthey had just been introduced to
our three colors, a worldviewtool. And this is a big
organization. So a few 1000People had completed the survey,
(36:16):
it was an employee satisfactionor feedback survey. And the head
of HR said, so what do youthink? Shall we close the
survey? And I said, Well, wouldyou mind if we just do a quick
scan of the people that havecompleted the survey and see if
there is a cultural bias in thepeople that completed it first?
(36:36):
And what did we discover thepeople who completed the survey
first, were predominantly whatwe call innocence, guilt
oriented in their culturalorientation. So more right,
wrong oriented, typically raisedin a situation where speaking
your mind sharing your voice, isencouraged as an individual. And
(36:58):
looking through that initiallist, we discovered that the
other two worldview drivers,more focused on honor, more
focused on hierarchy andposition and power. They were
actually very few in amongst theones that had completed. So they
realized, oops, we're using amechanism that people don't feel
(37:20):
comfortable with. And we wereabout to close the survey and
then make strategic leadershipdecisions based on what we
learned. Wow. And that wouldhave taken the whole
organization in the wrongdirection.
Shelley Reinhart (37:33):
Wow, that is a great example. Yeah, leaving out
the that that entire populationof, of your of your company, you
haven't heard from them? Wow,those are great examples. Marco,
just any, any last one of justsomething that's that
significant. And those aresignificant examples of big
(37:54):
impact.
Marco Blankenburgh (37:55):
Yeah, I think, personally, what I love
to do a, you know, what I reallyfind rewarding is to work on a
program, we call it our highperforming intercultural team
work. And having if I look atthe leaders, I've had the
privilege of working with thatinvite us to do a high
(38:17):
performing intercultural teaminginitiative. They are typically
cultural learners, and they lovereally being crafters of
culture, I would say, andworking with those leaders, yes,
it takes time. But when I lookat the teams that we've worked
with, some teams are alreadymore than five years, six years
(38:40):
on that journey. And howsustainable that is, and how
strong those teams are, and howretention is, is strong. People
want to work on those teams, theteams typically have a good
reputation in the rest of theorganization. I've, I've heard
people say, Oh, I wish I couldwork for that team. Because they
(39:02):
have the following, you know,cultural traits that really are
appealing to me. And it's justso beautiful to see leaders who
get it Yeah, say, you know,culture eats strategy for
breakfast. And if I don't takeculture serious, first of all,
my people won't stay. Andsecondly, I might not be able to
(39:25):
pursue strategy in the best waypossible.
Shelley Reinhart (39:28):
Yes. Well, this is powerful. So what do we
say to people who are listeningright now that this possibly
seems so overwhelming to them?
Maybe they've looked back andthey see they've made mistakes?
Maybe culture hasn't even beenpart of the conversation. What
can they what can they do? Howcan how would you say? What are
(39:50):
some simple steps that you cantake to become a culturally
agile leader?
Marco Blankenburgh (40:00):
Yeah, I think there are, I always think
about the whole processes as awhole bunch of hundreds of micro
improvements. And the the ideaof micro improvements comes from
the world of sports, you know,an athlete who already runs, you
know, a really, really good timeon 100 meters, how do you
(40:20):
incrementally improve that time.
And it's a process of microimprovements. And I like to
treat the idea of becoming aculturally agile leader, the
same way. So one of the firstthings we typically start with
is, being a better observer.
(40:40):
See, seeing more, hearing more,gathering more information that
allows you to understandyourself better understand the
other person better therelationship that is trying to
happen, understanding thecontext better the systems that
is are being used in thatcontext, and how they impact the
(41:02):
way people function. So theability to observe and we bucket
that together, we call itperception, management,
perceiving better, and I loveusing, you know, the example of
being in the outdoors. Iremember I was in, in North
America for for a program thatwe were running. And we had, we
(41:25):
had asked a ranger, to take thewhole group into the forest. And
that forest was totallyunfamiliar to me. And the more
he spoke, the more I realized, Ireally don't know how to see in
this forest, I don't know how tohear, I don't know what to look
for. I don't, I don't know whatit's worth noticing. And through
(41:48):
the eyes of this Ranger, Irealized, this guy knows how to
see he knows how to hear heknows what to look for, he knows
who knows what's important, whatmight be marks of danger, or, or
opportunities for food or etc.
And with with developingcultural agility, it's very much
the same. I use it as ametaphor. So how can I enhance
(42:08):
my perception management, wehave a number of tools that you
can use to enhance that. Andwhat what is part of that is
understanding yourself as ahuman being now, we happen to
have a number of tools that arereally helpful. In the world of
global leadership development,very often people start with
(42:29):
doing competency assessments. Solet's, let's measure how, how
good you are in this space. Sosome competency frameworks use,
you know, a grid, and theremight be 12, nine, sometimes
even 18 different competencies.
We believe that's important. Butwhere we typically start is, do
(42:53):
you understand how you are wiredas a cultural human being, and
how does that influence how youbehave as a cultural human
being. So we've developed toolsfor that I already alluded to
the three colors a worldviewthat gives you insights in, in
your preference on some keycultural drivers. And then we've
(43:15):
got another tool that is calledthe cultural mapping inventory,
that gives you insights in inhow your day to day thinking,
speaking and acting as acultural human being. And we
have 12 different dimensions,they're both those tools are
designed to give you a richlanguage and insight in how you
are operating and wired as acultural human being. And that
(43:38):
is, that's a really importantplace to start. Because once you
understand your own behavior,and you have a neutral language
to talk about that you can startusing that same approach with
people around you.
Shelley Reinhart (43:51):
So you're saying I start with myself, I
understand what are my culturaldrivers? What are my cultural
preferences? Once I understandthose, then I can see better I
can observe others better?
Because I have the language toknow what to look for.
Marco Blankenburgh (44:07):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah. And the beauty with
the tools we have developedthere, there's no value judgment
in the tool. So the language isneutral. The preference points,
we don't say, Oh, that's a badpreference point or a good
reference point. It is what itis. And learning to that level
of neutrality, also then createsa much more open conversation
(44:30):
around culture. And that thenallows me to say, Okay, you
think differently, for instance,about how we make exceptions to
the rules. So one of ourdimensions talks about that. So
how are decisions made? Is itexclusively based on the rules
or is it more on therelationship side and let's see
(44:51):
what we can do for each other.
And let me talk to somebody andit's not about bending rules but
accommodating the relationshipas well as a PA Holding the
roles at the same time. So youhave that neutral language to
talk about, typically issuesthat are a frustration, like,
Yeah, somebody wants toexclusively follow the rules,
and somebody says, Come on, man,you know, this could be a really
(45:14):
important client relationship.
Let's see what we can do forthis, this new client. And then
the other colleague says, No,we're not going to budge. Just
sell them, you know. And, andlearning that both sides are
important. And both sides haveprobably present in an
intercultural organization, it'slearning to have that dialogue,
(45:36):
and then deciding what is ourcollective cultural space? And
how do we deal with thosesituations in a more
constructive and culturallyagile manner.
Shelley Reinhart (45:46):
So that I can eliminate and identify the bias
that I have. Because if I leanone way, in a in a in a
dimension of, you know, culturalpreference, then I might have a
bias towards someone who does itcompletely differently. So just
being aware of those thingsyou're saying is so helpful? And
I can see that Yeah, yeah, well,that's great.
Marco Blankenburgh (46:07):
And that awareness, then, you know, you
can't forever dance on, youknow, on the cultural landscape,
you have to eventually,especially as a leader, you will
have to decide, we have, we seeall these different ways of
doing things and how we makedecisions and how we reward
people in how we talk to eachother. A huge one is direct
(46:30):
versus indirect communication.
But ultimately, we have todecide who we want to be. And
what I love about this approachis that once you understand your
own behavior, your colleaguesbehavior, other people you work
with across the network of yourorganization, you can use that
same language to now say, who wewant to be. So, so from personal
(46:51):
culture, you then go to team ororganizational culture, and it's
very organic, it's the same, thesame grid, it's the same
language that you start using tothen craft culture as a leader.
And that's so incrediblyimportant in today's world.
Shelley Reinhart (47:09):
Yes, I can see that. So that is, I was going to
ask what are the keycontributions that are
culturally agile leader canbring, but you just described
it. I think this wholeeverything you've said is this
is what a culturally agileleader looks like. And brings,
Marco Blankenburgh (47:27):
yeah, and what would the impact did I see
time and time again, I mentionedour high performing
intercultural teaming journey.
Leaders who take that series,they really know how to build
high trust, which is a hugefocus area right now. But they
also create a culture or spacethat is inclusive, that creates
a strong, deep sense ofbelonging. They also typically
(47:49):
navigate complexity much better.
They they hold ways of doingthings loosely, of course,
within the fabric of theorganization with it, the the
ethical practice model that theymight be endorsing. They are
really good at navigatingcomplexity. And and the last
(48:11):
thing I would say is that bydoing that, by creating culture
that we typically retention goesup. What we see is diversity
done well, that leads to bettercollaboration, better
communication. Also, we seeteams who really create that
third cultural space, they'remuch better at coming up with
(48:33):
ideas and innovative solutions.
So there's a compelling case toreally take this serious. And
yes, the last thing I would liketo say is that as a coach, I
have seen culturally agileleaders, who also are more coach
like in the way they lead. Theyeven take it to the next level.
(48:55):
Because as a coach is mentionedare two of the three quarters of
worldview. We have somethingcalled the litmus test and
leaders who lead like coaches,they actually apply that litmus
test, the way they engage withtheir people is trying to do
right by their people. They'retrying to honor their people.
And they're trying to beempowering to their people are
(49:17):
people want to be on the team,they get energized by being on
the team. So being more coach,like using those three colors as
a guide, do the right thing foryour people, honor your people,
and be empowering and engagewith your people in such a way
that they they want to get outof bed in the morning and be on
(49:38):
your team.
Shelley Reinhart (49:41):
Oh, that's beautiful. That sounds like the
kind of leader I want to be.
Yeah, I love it. I want to Yeah,be an expert at creating that
space. This has been so helpful,Marco. Boy. There's a lot you've
introduced us to a lot of thingsto really reflect on.
Marco Blankenburgh (50:02):
And don't forget, you know that idea of
micro improvements, start withsmall things. And don't think
that you will be the expertovernight. There are many people
on this journey. And there arealso many people that are
willing to help. We even havespecial specially trained
coaches who specialize in AScertified into cultural coaches
(50:24):
to help global leaders todevelop their cultural agility.
And working with somebody likethat is incredibly powerful. So
don't try and do it alone,either find colleagues,
colleagues who are on the samejourney, and work together and
learn from each other, or, youknow, bring a coach in for a
while to help you accelerate thejourney.
Shelley Reinhart (50:47):
That's a great idea. If someone is listening
right now, and they want to findout more about the high
performance, the team buildingthat you talked about, how could
they do that? What if they said,Yeah, I want to put my team
through that? What do they do?
Marco Blankenburgh (51:00):
We'll put a link in the notes with the
podcast so that we have a way ofbeing in contact with one
another. But also, we have somepretty good write ups on what
that looks like, on our website.
So you'll find more details onin the notes that accompany the
podcast.
Shelley Reinhart (51:18):
Excellent, great. It's good to make all of
those available. Thank you somuch, Marco. This has been
wonderful. I've learned a lot.
I've taken lots of notes. Asusual. Thank you.
Marco Blankenburgh (51:31):
Thank you, Shelly. This is such an
important topic. So great tocreate the opportunity to talk
about it.
Shelley Reinhart (51:37):
Excellent.
We'll see you next time. Thankyou.
Marco Blankenburgh (51:40):
Thank you.
Thank you so much for joining usfor this episode of the cultural
agility podcast. If you enjoyedtoday's episode, share it with
someone. Best way to help us outis by leaving a review on your
favorite podcast, app or channelor forward and recommend this
podcast people around you. Asalways, if any of the topics we
(52:02):
discussed today intrigue you,you will find links to articles
discussing them in greater depthin the podcast notes. If you
would like to learn more aboutintercultural intelligence and
how you can become moreculturally agile, you can find
more information and hundreds ofarticles at knowledge works.com
Special thanks to Jason Carterfor composing the music on this
(52:26):
podcast and to the wholeknowledge works team for making
this podcast a success. Thankyou Anita Rodriquez, Ara as is
back Ian Raji Suraj. And thanksto VIP and George for audio
production, Roslyn Raj forscheduling, and Caleb Strauss
for marketing and helpingproduce this podcast
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