Decreasing business risk with Cultural Intelligence

Cultural Intelligence is an individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally

diverse settings—
So when we say Cultural intelligence, it is about the collection of knowledge, skills, and abilities that
enable an individual to detect, assimilate, reason, and act on cultural cues appropriately. Of course an
individual that is equipped with knowledge skills and abilities can overcome whatever hindrances they
may face. Especially in business, one must be quick-witted in assessing different situations.

Individuals with high Cultural Intelligence display four main competencies:

CQ Drive is the willingness to work with others from diverse backgrounds. It includes an ability
to overcome explicit or unconscious bias and the capacity to persist in challenging intercultural
settings—even when the individual feels confused, frustrated, or burnt out.
When we say unconscious bias, which is also known as implicit bias, it is an unconscious association,
belief, or attitude toward any social group. An example of this is stereotyping. Example of an implicit
bias is if a Latino student is complimented by a teacher for speaking perfect English, but he is actually a
native English speaker. Here, the teacher assumed that simply because he is Latino that English would
not be his first language. While explicit biases are intentional and controllable.

You will encounter differences, diversity, and cross-cultural situations. To strengthen your
CQ Drive, do everything you can to explore your new situation. For example: Get to know people
in different communities and social groups. Learn a foreign language – and improve your cross-
cultural communication skills in general.

CQ Knowledge is an understanding of culture and cultural differences. That involves more than
awareness of variations in language, customs, and appearance. Core cultural differences like
values, assumptions, and beliefs are often invisible but cause the most problems—and are
frequently overlooked. So to strengthen your CQ Knowledge, you have to be knowledgeable about
different cultures. You can observe and listen to your foreign customers, clients or colleagues so that
you’ll be able to understand their culture further.

CQ Strategy is the ability to flex mentally. With high CQ Strategy, individuals are not confined to
a single worldview. They are open to new or integrative ideas. CQ strategy is the extent you to which
you are aware of what is going on in a multicultural or diverse situation, verify, and plan accordingly.

CQ Action is the ability to flex verbal and non-verbal behaviour. CQ Action decreases the risk of
miscommunication and helps an individual respond to diverse others in a manner that conveys
respect and builds trust and rapport. Cultural differences in verbal behaviour involve language,
paralanguage, and speech acts. These include pace, volume, inflexion, accent, tone, and silence.
Cultural differences in non-verbal behaviour include variations in gestures, body language, and greetings,
as well as in facial and emotional expression. Variations occur in touch, eye contact, and personal space
and also in dress and other aspects of physical appearance.

As a tool for managing any form of cultural diversity, whether national, gender, generational,
ethnic, health status, sexual orientation or other subculture, Cultural Intelligence helps turn a
business risk into a strategic strength.Companies with leaders and workers who have high Cultural
Intelligence are more agile. (they are able to move quickly and easily.) These organisations can quickly
adapt processes, products, and services to capture new opportunities
and respond to change across diverse markets.
Cultural Intelligence also promotes successful intercultural relations, both inside and outside the
organisation. This improves business performance through enhanced innovation, increased
workforce engagement, and more effective partnering.