Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The real secret to success

1. After reading these two books for class (Drive and Leading with Cultural Intelligence), I got to understand the idea and the concept of both readings. The book, Drive, it really focused more on motivational approach and how you can conduct yourself in different settings. The other book, Leading with Cultural Intelligence, it is more of a self-investigation looking at how you interact with other people, culturally. The most interesting ideas about the book Drive is that, I feel the book is somewhat light on researched…and heavy in anecdotes. After reading more on the book (Drive and Leading with Cultural Intelligence), this subject and the concept was a great reminder for me. Also, learning how effective the concept of the book…and to use it in running a business.

This book does really challenges you in so many ways, per se in intercultural communication. One of the most important abilities for people to utilize…is to “know your audience” and “choice of words.” These nuances of understating will lead to a fruitful outcome. One example is that, In America, people shake hands, and even hug each other. But in India you just join hands to say namaskar. This will allow workers from different cultures to work together as a group. In the first sentence in chapter one, it states that, “Leadership today is a multicultural challenge.” It is so true, “Cultural intelligence is not “emotional intelligence” (EQ), the ability to interact with others and understand their inner drives. Instead, CQ helps you operate well with people from different backgrounds and understand their viewpoints, actions, manners and expectations.”

- Cross cultural communication
- International communication
- Multicultural communication
- Intercultural communication

2. At Southern Utah University (Cedar City, Utah) there is an individual that teaches human communication/mass media communication by the name, Rev. Professor Jonathan Holiman. Outside of teaching, Professor Holiman is also a local associate pastor at the True Life Center (Four Square Church) in Cedar City, Utah. Professor Holiman is known for taking students every summer to Study Abroad in the South Pacific (Fiji, Tonga, and American Samoa), teaching Non-verbal Communication and Intercultural Communication courses. Like the book, Professor Holiman want to give his students the opportunity to learn about “Cultural System” and earn academic credit while having fun as well (swimming with hump-back whales). Professor Holiman wants his students to understand the various cultural needs. Please note the following (Livermore, 2015).

- Economic
- Familial
- Pedagogic
- Governmental
- Spiritual
- Aesthetic

Professor Holiman utilizes the concept of CQ in teaching Intercultural Communication. Drive (Motivation): Having the Interest, Confidence, and Drive to Adapt Cross-Culturally (Livermore, 2015)

3. As student, I am still learning how to lead and build a relationship in a intercultural dialogue. I must prepare myself first. The important of knowing of my leadership task is to understand what it means to be both a leader and a servant (future job).

Now and in the future, I think it is important to understand the concept/idea of the “four-step cycle of cultural intelligence.” One that I can use is CQ. This is “Knowledge” that includes two sub-dimensions that can be further assessed and learned: cultural-general understanding and context-specific understanding. 

4 Cultural general refers to a macro understanding of cultural systems and the cultural norms and values associated with different societies (Livermore, 2015).

As for me, being a Tongans here in United States are mix of two cultures. Tongan immigrant (they the first generation) and the Tongan American (they the 2nd generation) But we do have one major relationship in common it is what we identify our self, our culture as the people that belongs to God disregarding of our different faiths.

In the book, Dr. Livermore do not teach the customs and habits of varies cultures…he provides the CONCEPT that we can understand and use (current or future endeavors) from the four-step framework for navigating cultural context.

Livermore, D., Ang, S., & Dyne, L. (2015). Leading with cultural intelligence : The real secret to success (2nd ed.).