“They are just very blunt.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
“They are being evasive.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
“They don’t seem to have an opinion.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
I hear these complaints every week from leaders managing international teams. They assume the problem is English fluenc<\/strong>y. They think if their team just had a better vocabulary, the friction would disappear.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n It\u2019s a trap. You aren’t experiencing a language gap; you are experiencing a Communication Style gap<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In my twenty years coaching international management, I\u2019ve seen this play out in two distinct ways:<\/p>\r\n\r\n My job isn’t to teach more adjectives. It\u2019s to show the whole team how to calibrate<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Fluency without Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is dangerous. If you don’t understand the “unspoken rules” of the person across from you, your perfect English is just a loud way of being wrong.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Stop blaming the language. Start decoding the culture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The most successful global leaders aren’t the ones with the biggest vocabulary; they are the ones who can translate intent<\/strong>, not just words.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n “They are just very blunt.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “They are being evasive.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “They don’t seem to have an opinion.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\r\n