Situation 3 How to work across culture

My name is Mariya and I’m a HR specialist in an international company. And today, I’m here to provide all newcomers of our company with some tips called «How to work across culture». So, here you are and remember – working in an international team is very challenging, but rather exciting.

Tip 1: Study the variety of cultures. Become aware of cross-cultural etiquette standards.

It is very important to be aware of all existing cultures not only because it can broaden your horizons, but the more you know about other cultures, the easier it is to understand how your team members think, behave and communicate. It is also a comparison of the alien and your culture and it will help you to explore and understand your own one.

Tip 2: Take individuals into account

Remember that everyone has different expectations and characteristics, cultures aside.If you want to facilitate building rapport with your international collegues, should not attribute stereotypical characteristics of a country to each of its representatives. It is so because the behavior, the manner of communication and even the way of doing things depend not only on the cultural element, but also on background and personality type.

Tip 3: Take your time for everything

It is not only about doing your homework before starting a meeting, it is also about the speed of communication, decision-making process and processing the information. If you want get on with your international colleagues, appreciate the need for more time for them and you. They will appreciate it too.

Tip 5: Practice your communication skills

That's the most relevant rule, if you want to achieve good results, because it's in the doing that we actually get better at cross-cultural communication. Practice makes perfect.