With recent world events such as the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, the wars in Gaza, the Ukraine, and Syria, or tensions between Washington and Moscow, I’m reminded of the important need to have intercultural skills. Alas, it may be unrealistic to hope that fostering intercultural understanding can solve the world’s problems. Nonetheless, engaging others and listening intently to their perspectives can be one effective means to avoid miscommunication, misinterpretation, and mistrust and find common ground and solutions.
Have you noticed lately what happens when you take the time to really listen to another person? Active listening is a simple and valuable tool that can help you prosper in the global workplace. Too frequently, clients complain about having to “deal with” their culturally-diverse colleagues. I am always heartened, however, when I hear of people who embrace their cross-cultural interactions, despite the additional challenges that language, accents and virtual communication may present. For example, during a recent workshop, a participant recounted how his cross-cultural team (based in three countries) has thrived while his colleagues in the training looked on incredulously. I asked him what his key to success was and he simply said, “I listened to them.”
Such an uncomplicated concept that is often under-utilized in the fast-paced, high-pressured, multi-tasking environments in which we frequently work. The Chinese word for listening, TING, offers a useful framework for effective listening across cultures. Its written character illustrates four main components of listening with the ears, the mind, the eyes and the heart.
- Ears encourage us to be hear the spoken word, the tone and other paralanguage fillers
- Mind allows us to synthesize the information we hear, analyze it and determine how we interpret the message
- Eyes provide the means to observe non-verbal messages
- Heart helps us connect on an emotional level to foster empathy
