“GEIC" – global emotional intelligence quotient?
This term was coined by Stephen Rhinesmith, founding partner of CDR International.
Finding on Emotion Recognition within and Across Cultures
"Emotions were universally recognized at better-than-chance levels. Accuracy was higher when emotions were both expressed and recognized by members of the same national, ethnic, or regional group, suggesting an in-group advantage. This advantage was smaller for cultural groups with greater exposure to one another, measured in terms of living in the same nation, physical proximity, and telephone communication. Majority group members were poorer at judging minority group members than the reverse."
We can learn to recognize one another's emotions with exposure, practice and interest, which surely you have in your work with other cultures. You'll do better, if you understand the other person's culture, and to do that, first you have to understand how you're a product of your own culture.
Rhinesmith defines 4 steps at getting good at this:
Cultural self-awareness-The extent to which you're aware of your own cultural biases and behaviors, especially those that may potentially cause problems for you when you operate across borders.
Cultural adjustment-The ability to self- regulate when you move from one culture to another, thereby avoiding extreme culture shock or to inadvertently offending others whose biases and behaviors differ from yours.
Cross-cultural understanding- The ability to understand how people from other cultures see the world and interpret their relationships with other people; empathy on a global scale.
Cross-cultural effectiveness- Responding to people in a culturally appropriate way.
We can assume that global EQ can be developed, just as personal EQ can. And remember, the cornerstone of EQ is self-awareness. You'll increase your cultural self-awareness as you deal with people from other countries through experience – by getting it wrong and processing what goes on.
"Opening Doors" and it's a good place to start. I hope this will be helpful.
