So you've seen that the cultures have re-embedded and can have a very strong impact on our behavior, our cognition, or on our emotions. And when we're dealing with cultures, our own or others', it can be a very tangled web, even within just one country or one organization. All these different subcultures or co-cultures all influencing each other. It's all changing and evolving. It can really make your head explode. At the very least, be mindful of all this cultural complexity and dynamism. It will occupy a lot of your head space. So it seems like you need a special kind of intelligence for this. And it's not the logical, mathematical kind of intelligence, the one that we're measuring as IQ, or the one that basically the entire European and U.S. American education system is based on and what we emphasize traditionally in business and management education. There's this idea that there's different kinds of intelligences that have been used to solve different kinds of problems. That's an old one right? So Howard Gardner had proposed that originally in the 1980s and he had proposed initially eight distinct sets of intelligences and I'll get that people have different mixes, different blends of these intelligences. And two those dimensions that he identified, they are the intrapersonal and the interpersonal. Those were the basis for Daniel Goldman's concept of emotional intelligence, which has become very, very popular in leadership circles. So that's what we call the EQ, not the IQ. Now emotional intelligence is good, right? I'm not gonna argue with that. But what international leadership scholars have argued is that emotional intelligence, per se, is not enough if you are international leader, if you operate in a multi-cultural, cross-cultural setting. Because you might be very emotionally competent, but if our emotions are also embedded in the culture that we are a part of. Right, if our understanding of our own emotions and others, if those understandings are culturally contingent, then you might understand emotions in your own cultural context but not necessarily emotional dynamics in another cultural context. And that might lead you to actually misinterpret emotional cues. And boy, that can really go wrong if that happens. So ultimately, what you need then, it's not just emotional intelligence, but you need, you guessed it, cultural intelligence. So it's the cultural intelligence, right, that allows you to be effective when you're dealing with emotions and with relational issues. In an intercultural, cross-cultural context. Now, Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski gave a really nice, simple framework for thinking about cultural intelligence. And they are one of those scholars that are actually interested in bringing together the cultural perspective and the psychological perspective that really focus on the individual. And they're the basic conceders that we have a, what they call a cultural self-knowledge. So this is our understanding of our own cultural identity, both our ethnic national kind of belonging, but also, the roles that we have in organizations, in our community, in our family, so on and so forth. And this self-knowledge acts as a filter through which we basically process our cultural experiences and that forms how we react to them. So if my self-knowledge, my cultural self-knowledge is that, I'm German, my parents are German, I was educated in Germany, I have German business partners, and that mindset, right, that orientation, that self-knowledge, that will be the filter through which I will process all my new cultural experiences doing business in Saudi Arabia, or China, or Brazil. If my self-knowledge, my cultural self-knowledge is that I am a cosmopolitan, right, that I have lived and worked in many different countries and I have friends in different countries, business partners in many different countries, then that understanding, that will inform how I process new cultural experiences and how I respond to them as well. So it's my cultural self knowledge that influences my condition of other cultures, my attitude towards and my motivation to engage with other cultures and also my ability to actually interact in another culture. And those are the three elements of Christopher and Elaine's framework and I think it's really nice, really catchy, very easy to remember. Their argument is that cultural intelligence basically resides in the head, in the heart, and in the body. So the head is all about thinking. So this is the basic cognitive tools and processes that you employ to make sense of culture and this feeds from your.understanding of general differences of commonalities across culture, but also your specific knowledge of particular artifacts and concepts from the particular culture that you are interacting with. So you could, for example, if you look at this symbol right here if recognize that from an American context, or if you're understanding concepts like [FOREIGN] in an Indian context and how that matters to leadership, especially transformation leadership. That knowledge helps you to relate to others and to be more effective as a leader as you deal with those cultures. But it's still fairly basic head work, right? So this is still about you cramming facts about culture in your head, ultimately. So, a more advanced stage, would actually be to develop, what you would call meta cognitive skills. So this is a generalized learning ability, for example, that you could learn quickly about culture, any culture really. And that you are aware of the limits of your own cultural understanding and limits of cultural models, for example. So those things are more advanced cognitive skills, cognitive tools, if you will. And that would mean kind of, in the model, a bigger, stronger head. So this is the head and then we have the heart. The heart is energizing your body. This is about energizing your actions ultimately and this describes your confidence and your motivation to actually engage with other cultures. And it's also to a certain degree about resilience. As you encounter new culture there is going to be some degree of misunderstanding and frustration. Many of you have seen these culture clash curves, right? We have this initial high of euphoria and then a deep valley of frustration and despair and homesickness, you're longing for your own culture. A strong heart, that is what gets you through that low, right, that's why keeps you trying, keeps you engages with the other culture. For me it's really a matter of attitude right. So do you approach another culture with an openness, with a flexibility, willingness to adapt where you see the necessity. Carlos Ghosn had this great statement in one of the interviews that he gave, where he said that when he encounters a new culture, he's not anxious about it, he's just curious. And I think that's really a great, great attitude. That's a great heart. Okay, so we had the head, the heart, and then we have the body, and the body is all about your ability to act and interact effectively in another culture. And clearly you might have a great head, you think right about the culture, you have a big heart, but if you're body is weak you can't really execute as a leader in another culture. You can't be effective. So here we are essentially talking about skills, communication skills, motivation skills, being able to build relationships and resolving conflict. So yeah, it's not a coincidence that we're talking a exactly about those skill sets later on in the course. Now all three as we've seen depend on each other, right? If you have great communication skills but you don't have cultural knowledge or the motivation to actually direct those skills, to be adaptive to the needs of the other culture in which you're operating. You're not gonna be very effective, right? So you really wanna think systemically how you can develop the head, the heart, and the body, right? To really boost your cultural intelligence and this is ultimately what allows you to transition from a moral cultural orientation where you're basically denying or avoiding cultural differences. To a really multicultural orientation and beyond that a trends cultural orientation but you are embracing, you're adapting to cultural differences and then trans cultural. You're transcending those differences. That's how I think the framework helps. Now when I talk to Bocconi alumni, I want to get a sense of how they develop their own cultural intelligence, their CQ. What they told me shows me that everybody really has a slightly different path to that. Everybody finds their own way of developing their cultural intelligence. >> I'm gonna crack a joke here, but I was born prepared. [LAUGH] I'll be a bit more specific. When I was 10, my father was expatriated to France, and that was, unfortunately 40 years ago. So I had my first impact with a different culture when I was ten. At 14, my father was expatriated to the United States. And so and in France I went to the Italian Lissez in Paris. In the states I went to normal American public school. I didn't speak a word of English. The impact with the American culture which I had four years ago was very different. An hours in Italy. Now they're getting closer obviously, hour of media. So I have my impact on cultural differences relatively young age. And to some extent that prepared me for my adventures later in life. Look I don't know. >> Honestly, how you prepare in theory, in a sense that I had, all my life, I've been extremely curious. In sense of curiosity, it means you see things, whatever, it can be in your professional field, it can be in any other fields. A classic example, if I decided to go to bed but I switch on the Discovery Channel going out, that's a bad thing because I'm gonna be stuck in front of the television for next couple of hours. So I think there is a level of curiosity which depends on each of us, and I always had this desire, very strong desire of knowing different places and different people. When I finished University I had no idea what I was gonna do in terms of business function. I didn't have any theory or idea honestly but what I did want to is to have an experience around the world and get exposed and get lost if you wish in many situations. So I think to have the courage of simply not knowing It's what puts you in the condition to better understand. I believe leadership is all about being yourself, being honest, open about your weaknesses. If you cannot open your weakness to the people around you it's gonna be very difficult for people to trust you. It's just a matter of authenticity. I wouldn't stick around somebody that I don't feel is authentic. That works with all culture overall. I would say that difference is there how, I mean, I was in China many years. I was in Latin America many years. And you may argue that people are completely different or you may argue people are amazingly similar. The package is different. I would say the how and the when is different. That you know initial cultural conflict is not something that you know is specifically appreciated and if you actually get upset it's seen as a sign of weakness in certain cultures where control is so important. So to me it's very important that first of all you, when you look around and you have to operate in a position, first of all you have to listen. Which is not something that this Italian works that well with me, but I'm still learning. But normally when we hear a question, it's all about us answering. And actually the big effort should be to understand the why the question is asked. That's the big difference because in some situations when you have cultural differences the why is very important. So that you relate to the person and you can give. The person an answer while you're learning in the mean time. >> Look the biggest challenge when you move from place to place but you remain in a relatively homogeneous cultural context which you were based. Which my perspective now having now been an agent having seen the real difference it's really to, that's the biggest challenge when you move at any level is to know what you don't know. It's so easy to make assumptions as to similarities. It's a lot more difficult to know what you don't know, which are the differences. Differences in systems and models and cultures, to some extent. Again. Difference in consumers and as you deal with customers, depending on which business you enter. And to know what you don't know is really the trick. And to be very inquisitive, never to give anything for granted or for similar. Because we do it one way in a particular country or geography, it doesn't necessarily mean that even if the country next door does it exactly the same. Again I found out that what I thought were big differences between Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France, and Portugal were actually not that big when I came in Asia which is of course very, very different from Europe. But also, within itself, very very diverse. My responsibility ranged from Pakistan, to China, to Japan, to Australia. And I'd be hard pressed to find similarities between Pakistanis and Japanese, from a cultural, religious tradition point of view. So that's when you appreciate how different the world is and you appreciate how little you know about it and that's where your exercising and questioning comes in handy. Cuz then you really have to you really have to understand to get to know what you don't know and you have to encourage people to let you know, and this is very important full part that your about to make. You have to up front if you're going to make them because of the cultural traditions and so forth systems and consumer customers I think they very often very different. You have to acknowledge that you'll make some missteps but you have to do is encourage the people around you to be open and tell you stop, boss that's the wrong direction because and then you learn stuff. That's part of the necessary open mindedness that one has to have, I believe. That's my personal opinion. >> I mean I just to give you an idea. I moved from Latin America to China. >> Yeah. >> Now that's kind of a little bit extreme. I was used to a management committee in Latin America where if you had a discussion, you had to come and stop people because it was. I don't wanna say it was a fist fight. But I mean it was that people didn't need encouragement to express their own opinion. >> I can see that. >> So I was used to people really getting back into my face. Telling me simply, look, I think that's good, or that's bad, you know, those are the reasons. And the beginning was over, and that's it. Now, in China, when I arrived. And I was asking questions. The answer was never a yes or no. Was always we'll see type of thing you know because nobody really knew and nobody wanted to lose face at the end. Chinese is very important concept about not losing face saying someday that maybe I would have decided that we were not going to do it. So the way I managed things was really have a number of face-to-face meetings to clear up things. And the meeting let's say when it was all people, was at the beginning more together alignment more than discussing it. >> Uh-huh. >> Now eventually you want to create a culture where disagreeing is fine. By next time. And we eventually actually got there. But, I mean, is the level of the feedback. I had, when I was in China, I was a very interesting thing. Cuz we had a joint venture at that point in time when I was [INAUDIBLE] Johnson. There was a part of the company that was owned by the state owned enterprise. And the representative was a member of the Communist party that I had in the management committee. And was a very wise person by the way and one day the guy looked at me and we were discussing a topic, and he told me, you know Luca, you shouldn't look at what is written. You should look what is not written. And I think again, as Westerners, we tend to [SOUND] you know? Okay, one, two, three, let's go and that doesn't work in all culture. So, I think, those are examples where I had to kinda do a reset of my Italian temperament and slow down a little bit. >> [LAUGH] >> With everyone, every market that I visited for the first time of course I made my little introduction of myself or yesterday who I was. And I immediately apologize for any cultural mistake I was going to make or anything that I might have said that will be offensive to the culture and I promised that I would take in some advice from everybody to avoid that. I made myself very available. In the need of that is that I found important in a number of ways. Given that the Asian culture is very, in some markets more than others, it's very hierarchical. If you don't make yourself really open and really available and you should leave examples and actions, you're not gonna get a lot of feedback, especially not initially. So the missteps and the mistakes, again, you're trying to know what you don't know, remember, and making yourself available to that actually gets people to open to you and really help you, professionally and also, personally. I've learned a great deal, personally. I'm not the same man I was 12 years ago, other than being 12 years older, of course. I think I've acquired not just professional experience, but a lot of personal enrichment, in knowing people. I have friends of many nationalities and I call them friends and not just professional friends from Pakistan to Canada to Great Britain to Korea to Australia, Thailand, Indonesia. It's really very enriching personally. Through their help you grow in you avoid those mistakes. You try to understand the conflicts. Preparing for conflicts is also extremely important. For you as a leader to run the business properly but also to be a good leader for all the countries that I happen to manage. Now whether I'm a good leader or not that's for them to say but I try really hard. >> My point of view, if I have to say, across culture, you have a lot of similarity. Everybody wants to feel respected, everybody wants to be successful, everybody wants to stick around people they like to work with. So that's I think a lot of commonality and I found a lot of commonality between the Italian and the Chinese for example, or the connection with people. They call it. It's the connection part, the relationship part, it's pretty much through for Latinos, for Italians, for Chinese, it's the same thing. How is different? So that our situation, where you have to go for the one to one type of relationship, you have to be more careful in a public situation or where you have different signals around the table. So, I would say the situational understanding is very critical. >> You have to be true to yourself and true to somewhat the culture of the company that you live in. So you have to find that light balance between accepting the culture where you're going to operate, and at the same time, in some cases, push gently to impose yourself, impose what you wanna do, impose your company values and culture, has an enriching layer on top of the local culture. I'm not sure I've mastered that art, but having survived 12 years. You operate in their country, you operate in their culture. At the same time, you have to show how, by overlaying and not substituting a company culture. A company culture is not, it's about business. It's not about what you do at home, which religion you follow. It's about getting better professionally. And you have to make sure that while respecting the culture at the local level. The deep rooted culture. The overlay on it, the culture of the company, and your personality. At the end of the day, a leader has to do that. You have to show the way you have to lead, and therefore you have to, sometimes, impose directions. That's your goal, not sometimes, every time. And you are deciding that direction you are leading the way, you are providing for resources, you are doing what a leader should be doing. Lot of ink has been spent on leadership. You have to do it in a way that it's clear to people that it's creating better people. It's creating better professionally, but it's on as a substrate over their belief. Their deeper rooted culture. That part is much more important to them than your. It's just a set of behaviors and values that we share when we come into the office.
