Most talent programs largely focus on technical skills, and even if they look at ‘soft skills,’ they often overlook Cultural Intelligence (CQ).
CQ not only enhances interpersonal interactions but is also a critical factor in driving organizational performance, improving leadership, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture. This blog explores how integrating CQ into your talent development strategy can be the game-changer your organization needs to thrive in the future.
The War on Talent
We hear regularly that there is a war for talent. That people with the right skills and experience are hard to find and retain. That the workforce is just not ready for the increasing pace of growth/change/tech. And what about AI…?
Few people doubt that ensuring that an organization has an ambitious and skilled talent pool ready to step and solve the challenges of the future is the key to success. But how can we ensure that we recruit (and retain and grow) the right people with the right skills?
It’s not just about AI
Because technology and AI will change our priorities and perspective on desired skills. And successful organizations are the ones who get the balance right between artificial and human intelligence. There is no point speculating on what AI will be capable of next year or even next month. We can’t predict how technology will shape our lives or even how it will be regulated.
But we do know what humans are good at – and what we can improve to ensure that we know what traits we want to encourage in our talent programs. The World Economic Forum has a reputation for predicting the skills business needs. Their current list of in-demand skills is as follows:
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- Digital literacy
- Data literacy
- Emotional intelligence
- Collaboration and Negotiation
- Leadership/Executive attitude
- Time management
- Flexibility and resilience
- Curiosity
The human in the digital
These can be summarized as relating – how we interact with others; regulating – how we manage and organize our work; and reasoning – how we solve the tactical and strategic tasks and challenges we face. These three areas cover everything we do in our work, and they are three tasks that the human element is a critical factor.
They are also three areas where ignoring cultural difference can be disastrous. And that means that cultural intelligence and talent development are the perfect match: if you’re ignoring cultural intelligence in your talent program, you’re not making the most of your people.
Cultural Intelligence – the missing link
Cultural intelligence (CQ) helps you understand those around you in order to improve work performance. And isn’t that what talent is about – improving organizational performance? Raising performance solves so many challenges facing organization. Morale, engagement, retention, attractiveness to new talent, productivity, growth, profitability, customer satisfaction – all have a direct correlation with increased performance.
And the skeptical readers will be asking themselves – how can CQ claim to be the panacea and why, if it is what it claims to be, have we not heard of it before?
CQ - misunderstood
Let’s take the questions in reverse order. CQ is the ‘hidden skill’ because it’s been mis-defined and pigeon-holed as something only relevant when you are in a foreign country or working with foreign colleagues or partners. Not only does this put in the realm of ‘luxury’ but it plays to our biases and can reinforce a perception that ‘foreigners’ are hard work and should comply with our (better) ways of doing things.
To deconstruct this misperception, let’s go back to the start.
Culture is best defined as the way a group learns to do things, think about things and communicates internally and externally. It is the unwritten ‘team charter’ that defines right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate, assumptions and perceptions.
Cultural intelligence gives us the tools to manage when two sets of cultures come together. It helps ease the unspoken negotiation.
And because we are all different – we are all unique, with our unique set of assumptions, influences and opinions – every interaction we have is a clash of (at least) two cultural perspectives.
All communication is cross-cultural
In other words, cultural intelligence is always relevant, always an advantage. Because every interaction is intercultural. It’s more obvious when you’re an Italian negotiating with a Brazilian, or a Senegalese giving feedback to a Sri Lankan. But seeing it as a country to country skill is underestimating the importance of CQ. Cross-cultural communication isn’t just about cross-border communication. It’s all communication, because each one of us is unique.
Does CQ overpromise?
Having looked at why we sometimes underrate CQ, we need to examine whether the claims we make about its importance hold any weight.
Matthew Syed, in his book Rebel Ideas conclusively argues that, with a few caveats, a diverse team outperforms a less diverse team.
A team that has had the same education, same experience and same exposure to life can only come up with the same ideas when approaching a problem. They only have a small view of the ‘universe of knowledge.’ Syed proposes that a team which contains people with different worldviews, education and experiences has a greater and wider perspective and therefore has a bigger pool of resources to draw on.
Diversity by itself leads to confusion
But we can see clearly that this isn’t immediately true.
And that’s because, for the most part, highly educated people believe they are right and that alternative views are wrong. The cliché is that if you listen to two professors discussing a topic, you have three opinions!
And that can lead to destructive chaos.
The ingredient that takes varied perspectives, opposing views and different ways of doing things and melds them into added value is cultural intelligence. Remember what we said earlier – CQ ‘helps you understand those around you in order to improve work performance.’ That understanding helps you to look for the value in being challenged by difference; it pushes you to consider other perspectives; it leads you to see that alternate ways of thinking complement you rather than detract from you.
Cultural intelligence makes connections, builds relationships and solves problems. It gives your talent the confidence to be authentically themselves but powered up with a range of strategies to leverage difference.
CQ in the practice of talent
A global luxury retail brand incorporates CQ into their induction programs, a car company builds it into their senior leadership development, an investment bank insists on every wealth manager developing it. For these organizations, CQ is fundamental because it underpins every human-to-human relationship – and without relationships, business is not possible.
For them, it’s not a nice-to-have, but a core element of their talent retention strategy.
According to Forbes (2022), the top five reasons people leave their jobs are:
- Toxic company culture (62%)
- Low salary (59%)
- Poor management (56%)
- Lack of healthy work-life boundaries (49%)
- Not allowing remote work (43%)
Four of these five reasons can be addressed by managers with cultural intelligence – and even a low salary may become less important if you have a manager who truly understands you as an individual, because they find tailored ways to reward you.
A culturally intelligent organization
When your organization strives for cultural intelligence, the company culture can only become one of value, respect and engagement. Leaders are invested in managing their people possible and provide an environment where the work/life balance and flexible working are part of the fabric of the organization.
Cultural intelligence brings better leadership, higher employee retention and a more inclusive culture. If it’s missing from your talent retention strategy and from your recruitment, you’re not making the most of your people. You don’t leave a carpenter without a wood saw, or a software developer without a computer. Cultural intelligence is a primary tool for any worker, whatever their level, seniority, experience or function.
CQ links in to, and upgrades, every other interpersonal skill – communicating, decision-making, critical thinking, problem-solving, negotiating, showing empathy, relationship building – everything we do, think and say.
Cultural intelligence isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s not a luxury. But it is the key to upgrading your talent to the best they can be.
With more than 30 years of experience supporting over one million people globally, we are committed to driving meaningful change. Fill in our form below, and we'll be in touch.
Alternatively, book some time below to talk to one of our team:
Comments