KCC Coaching & Consulting

05/26/2021

Staying connected with friends and family can help one navigate the ups and downs of culture shock. However, those close ties can also keep one in culture shock longer. Here are a couple of reasons why.

1. Frequent calls home keeps one, mentally, in the home culture rather than focusing on the host culture. If a person is always thinking of home, they never develop an interest in learning the rules of the other culture.

2. Similarly, connecting often can perpetuate homesickness. This has to do with relationships. This keeps one focused on who they are missing and then one fails to engage people in the new culture. It is important to begin to form new relationships right away.

What about you? What ways have helped you move beyond thinking about your home culture to embracing the host culture?

05/06/2021

"A culturally intelligent leader possesses a large repertoire of how cultures are similar and different and they know how culture shapes behavior." - David Livermore, author of Leading with Cultural Intelligence

It is an exciting part of my job to see leaders develop cultural intelligence through the empowerment of cross-cultural training.

04/26/2021

Account managers, contract specialists, HR professionals, and educators often interact with colleagues and students from other countries. People in these positions have found cross cultural training streamlined their intercultural communications and improved their ability to come to decisions. Consider a cross-cultural training session to improve your cross-cultural relationships. Call or email for more information: +1.937.622.2298, [email protected]

02/25/2021

I had a friend who had a short term stint (5 weeks) and thought she was an expert on the culture. But after discussing it with her it became apparent she had a lot of head knowledge but lacked the ability to decipher the deeper meanings behind customs and behaviors. A person with the deeper understanding is a person who has gained the skill set of cultural competence. Having lived on 3 continents and in a dozen countries has given me the ability to adapt to any country within a short amount of time. Having trained diplomats, ambassadors, and business people from around the world, I have now designed workshops to help anyone gain the same soft skills needed for quick business success. To find out how you can develop cultural competence and improve your ROI, contact me for a free quote: +1.937.622.2298.

Many people are talking about cultural competence these days. What is it and do you have it?

08/17/2019

This short video shows the importance of learning basic cultural values before traveling to a foreign country. Having lived in Japan, I wouldn't say that Japanese don't like foreigners. Rather, I would have titled it "Why Japanese Experience Anxiety About Foreigners"

10 Reasons Why Japanese Don't Like Foreigners. Thanks to Squarespace, get 10% Off: https://www.squarespace.com/paolofromtokyo Japan tourists or foreigners co...

05/27/2018

As a car passenger in Mexico City, and a young teen, was the first I learned the concept of “Filling space.” Vehicles did not stay in neat lanes, but rather utilized every bit of space on the road. If several vehicles approached a traffic light, instead of leaving a “sure and clear distance” each car would come as close to the rear of the other cars as possible. [ 506 more words ]

As a car passenger in Mexico City, and a young teen, was the first I learned the concept of “Filling space.” Vehicles did not stay in neat lanes, but rather utilized every bit of space on the road.…

05/16/2017

How far would you go for success? Here about the woman who worked undiscovered as a man for ten years.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39705424

Pili Hussein wanted to make her fortune mining for gemstones in Tanzania, and wasn't put off by the fact that women weren't allowed in the mines

05/11/2017

"Those who own much have much to fear." - Rabindranath Tagore quotes from BrainyQuote.com

05/10/2017

Today's Global Cultural Factoid: Rabindranath Tagore...
..was a poet and philosopher in India from 1861-1941. He wrote 15 books of philosophy, 50 plays, 40 works of fiction, and several ballets. He was born in Calcutta, educated in London and founded Visvabharati University in Shantinidetar. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

- The Dictionary of Global Culture. Appiah, K. & Gates, Jr., Henry, Alfred A. Knopf New York, NY. 1997

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark." - Rabindranath Tagore quotes from BrainyQuote.com

01/16/2017

Those who grew up having to define their own cultural identity because of their parents' careers within multiple cutlures, are what we interculturalists refer to as "Third Culture Kids".

Some famous people have grown up Third Culture Kid. Maybe as you read through this article, you may recognize some characteristics of this in you!

" In his searching 1995 book “Dreams From My Father,” Mr. Obama recalls how reading was a crucial tool in sorting out what he believed, dating back to his teenage years, when he immersed himself in works by Baldwin, Ellison, Hughes, Wright, DuBois and Malcolm X in an effort “to raise myself to be a black man in America.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/books/obamas-secret-to-surviving-the-white-house-years-books.html

In an interview seven days before leaving office, Mr. Obama talked about the role books have played during his presidency and throughout his life.