Connecting Through Culture

To you, it may not feel like anything special, but the places that you’ve lived in the world – and the cultures that have become a part (even a small part) of who you are – are a fantastic element of what makes you wildly unique.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that as you travel and live abroad you learn about the world, and embrace new experiences. These experiences ultimately help you to engage better with others and to understand different viewpoints. But the second is where it gets interesting because research shows that international experiences actually transform your sense of self.

Learn About the World

Let’s talk about the first prong. Living in other cultures, and moving around the world, is a unique experience to you. No one will have had the same combination of experiences that you do.

These experiences help you to uncover your strengths, such as your ability to build relationships, experience inclusion and loneliness, breach language barriers, rely on your resilience and face other challenges to your beliefs, values and resourcefulness. It also gives you a path for reaching out and communicating with others as you gain incredible stories about your experiences and learnings by being confronted with things you’ve never done before and people you’ve never met, seen or spoken to before. In essence, you're connecting through culture.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘Culture opens the sense of beauty'. And I don’t think he means just physical beauty. I believe he’s referring to that opening of our understanding of the nuances of other cultures that lead us to see the beauty there – regardless of where or what it is. And being able to see this makes you unique.

Example: Jessica Schubert

Leadership and Future of Work Expert, Jessica Schubert is a great example. She works with global multinationals to help them to build their leadership capability in their organisations, to be ready for the future of work. Jessica is a great example of the benefits of international exposure because she has lived in six countries, including Japan, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore. And those experiences have created a unique perspective that allows her to perform exceptionally well within global multinational organisations.

Part of that success is certainly because she's often been to and worked with people from the countries before so she understands the diverse cultural impacts and how to best communicate and connect. She also knows how to adapt her programs and the questions that she needs to be asking and thinking. She knows how about connecting through culture.

Her unique perspective makes her more saleable and ‘easy to buy’. In the first place, people understand how to ‘buy’ a leadership expert. It’s a category that people are already familiar with. But leadership experts are a dime a dozen. And what sets Jessica apart, and makes her wildly unique, is her global expertise. After all, she's not only delivered programs in those countries, but she's actually lived in them.

International Experiences Transform Your Sense of Self

The other way that international experiences contribute to your connecting through culture, is their ability to transform your sense of self. Studies have shown that ‘international experiences can enhance creativity, reduce intergroup bias, and promote career success’, all things that Jessica’s lived experience demonstrates for us. But it also leads to greater ‘self-concept clarity’.

What does this mean? Well, in essence, people with greater self-concept clarity understand themselves better. They know their own values and beliefs and can see them as separate from the culture around them.

How does this happen? When people live in their home country, they live their lives surrounded by others who mostly behave in similar ways, have similar beliefs and similar values. People in this environment are not forced to question their own core values or behaviours because they are just the way the world is. On the other hand, the research found that when people live in other cultures, they become exposed to ‘novel cultural values and norms’ which prompts them ‘to repeatedly engage with their own values and beliefs’ and either strengthen them or discard them.

Gaining clarity around your own values, beliefs and desired behaviours separate from your culture allows you to inhabit a place where no one else is because they are uniquely you. In fact, they are widely, uniquely you. You can think of it like a third-dimension to your personality, that allows you to see things in a brand new way. And once you can do that, you can build your brand around that and share it with the world. And that is the essence of connecting through culture.

Connecting Through Culture Questions:

1. Where have you traveled or lived?
2. What experiences have you had?
3. What is your favourite place in the world to visit?
4. What place is on your bucket list?
5. What languages do you speak?
6. What has been your most memorable travel experience?
7. Who do you like to travel with?
8. What type of travel do you enjoy? Summer, beachy type travel. Winter wonderland and adventure etc?
9. How does this set you apart from everyone else?

I’d love to hear your thoughts…