CHAPTER 15
Working Across Cultures
by Andy Molinsky
One of the greatest assets we have as natives of a culture is our ability to quickly “read” another person’s emotions. Over time, we learn how to understand whether our colleagues are truly interested in a project or just giving it lip service by noticing the expression on their faces. We can tell when someone really likes something we’ve proposed by the way they react. And we can often detect motivation as well—whether someone is truly willing to put in the extra time and effort to make something happen—just by seeing the fire in their eyes or the passion in their voice.
The problem, of course, comes when we cross cultures and venture into a completely different world of emotional expression. ...
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