Cross-cultural Leadership

Communicating across cultures is the great challenge of todayʹs economy. As businesses continue to expand overseas and workforces become more multicultural, cross-cultural leadership skills are critically important. Global trade is growing fast, leaders have to run operations in markets around the world and work with teams of different cultures located in multiple countries. Whether you work in a home office or abroad, business success in our virtual and globalized world requires the skills to navigate through cultural differences.

But how do you find your way in various cultural contexts, respectively how do you position yourself in order to find your way and to lead effectively?

Cross-cultural leadership develops on three dimensions: Affective (e.g. empathy), Cognitive (e.g. self-awareness) and Conative (e.g. communication skills). Successful leadership across cultures requires sharpening your own profile, your own personality. And thus the examination of one’s own impact, one’s own communication.

In the MIA Morning course workshop at the University of St. Gallen, Nathaly Bachmann, an expert in communication and leadership, gave students an insight into the world of cross-cultural leadership. The students received a toolkit on how they can develop into an intercultural personality – as a starting point of a long-term process. Intercultural leadership develops over the years and grows with each new experience ‘in the field’.

• Consolidate strengths and develop presentation skills
• Authentic leadership and effective communication
• Engaging diverse stakeholders to achieve a common goal