Introduction
This paper discusses about the self-analysis reports of cultural intelligence and global mindset of the author. Also, this paper describes the authors experiences with different cultures and how did the author react to it. When I heard the word culture one thing that used to strike my mind was the local tradition of a country and their ethnic beliefs. Whereas, culture is much more than that it can be found between 2 people, a group of households, at workplace, in an organization or in a town etc. Different people and situations give rise to different cultures. Moving to a new culture or working with a new culture both requires the person to react in a certain way to adapt those cultures and become a part of it to be accepted by the society. The author of this paper concludes the results of the cultural intelligence assessment from Earley & Mosakowski’s (2004) HBR article, Cultural Intelligence and a result from the global mindset chart. After concluding the results, the qualities of the authors are discussed then the weaknesses are spotted and a working plan to turn the author’s weakness into strength is discussed. The results, and discussion on the same is done all together. After every point in the assessment test , how to improve that quality or how does the author possess those qualities are discussed . One of the major changes in author’s life was when he decided to shift to Canada for further studies. Coming from a different continent to the west having a completely different cultural background and entering the western culture was quite a different journey for the writer of this paper. The experiences of the author are discussed using the acculturation curve.
Discussion
The assessment of cultural intelligence from Earley and Mosakowski’s (2004) discloses your personal ability to deal with cultural changes. After taking the assessment the results showed me that I have completely different strength then what I thought I had. The assessment results showed me that I have a lower Cognitive CQ as my Cognitive CQ came out to be 3.5 , my Physical CQ is comparatively good as it came out to be 4 and my emotional/motivational CQ is my strength as it resulted to be 4.25. Since childhood I have been experiencing different cultures as a tourist. I have experienced quite a few completely different cultures in different countries due to my parent’s hobby of travelling to new places with family. I have been to many European countries, Gulf countries, Asian countries, Japan and North America. Not only as a tourist but I have also been to many countries for business with my father being a part of his esteemed business organization I have been a part of many international deals. Having done all this I generally do not face any problems to relate and adapt a culture and follow people around me. Also, I feel that following a culture around you is sometimes unconscious, you just tend to follow what happens around you, the way people perform tasks and react. Cognitive IQ means the understanding of the new culture and gaining knowledge about the same. After the assessment I figured out that this was an area for improvement for me as it made me think that whether before talking to people from new culture do I focus on understanding their culture first or gain any information from them by interacting which showed that I do not focus on these points and therefore tend to understand less about the new culture by talking to people. I rather observe what other people do and how they do it. Therefore, I need to work on my cognitive CQ by planning my meets with people from different culture and thinking about how I could relate to them.
Also, I need to think about what I can achieve from the persons from different culture by talking to them. On another hand reading about other cultures before meeting people from that culture could help me relate to them better. My physical CQ is quite good as the score came out to be 4. Physical CQ refers to the body language, style of speech and expressions while communicating to people from another culture. I mimic people body language and style of speech quite well which makes it easy to connect with them. People from different culture when see someone having similar body language or style of speech, they find it easy to connect and communicate. I find it a little difficult in countries with languages I do not know at all such as China. Whereas in English speaking countries it gets extremely easy to mimic the other persons gestures and body language. My emotional / motivational CQ is a result of my father’s training given to me when travelling around for business with him in different countries. He would ask me to communicate to different people and ask questions which were not directly beneficial to the business. Now, I understand he used those expressions to connect with them. Having these kinds of experiences with several different cultures have now made me confident enough about dealing or communicating with people from different cultures.
The global mindset table is an amazing chart to review your qualities or weaknesses. It possesses all the qualities a person needs to be perfect in an international business environment. After going through the table thoroughly I figured out that I possess less global intellectual capital as I am only good at cognitive complexity and I lack back in the other two areas of the global intellectual capital. Which suggests that I should be working to get better in being a global business savy and having a cosmopolitan outlook. It can be achieved by staying updated about the changes and news in the global business, political, economic and cultural environment. On the other hand, I feel that I have a strong hand in the Global psychological capital as I could score myself good and above average in all the characteristics of te global psychological characteristics. My quest for adventure is never ending as I am always looking for new experiences and adventures. Also, I tend be to calm in difficult situations and think my way out through them. Though when I reviewed the global social capital I was in a dilemma that whether I am good at it or bad and after careful evaluation I figured out that I have a decent no. of qualities to say that I have good global social capital with a little room for improvement for me in the area of building diplomatic connections and maintaining them. Rest ability to understand people, connect with them, talking to strangers and ability to negotiate are strong points.
The biggest cultural change I experienced in my life was when I came to Canada a year ago for my Master’s in business administration straight after my graduation and part time working with my father internationally. I studied the acculturation curve to study my experience of the cultural change after coming to Canada. When I came to Canada, I was very excited to come here, I stayed with one of my relative for 10 days and I had to only focus on the formalities from my college and nothing else. The struggle started just after the 10th day when I started looking for a house for myself to live and rent. My Euphoria phase went away in just 10 days and I entered the cultural shock phase when I had to walk in rain whole day scheduling appointments to look for a place to rent and after 5-6 days of searching 24 by 7 when I finally found one the formalities to rent a place and then to buy all the furniture , putting it in place, buying connections were all new things to me .I was doing it for the first time. It was not a very good experience as I was running the whole time to get my life back on track. After a month after my home was set, and everything was in place. My experience started getting better as time flew , I was loving the environment , people and my university.
I started making friends and was coming out of the cultural shock towards acculturation. the acculturation period lasted for around 2 months. Since then I am incredibly positive about Canada and my decision to come to Canada. I am in love with this place more than I am in love with my home country. It was a period of roughly 3 months that I entered into Euphoria, jumped into cultural shock and slowly went through acculturation and came to a stable state. It was a great experience getting to know the Canadian culture and adapting it. Adapting the Canadian culture did not take me much time I would call myself a mimic after going through the presentations of crossing cultures as I observe my surroundings and act accordingly. From the style of crossing the street to punctuality everything was quite different from the culture I came from, but I adapted the Canadian culture quite quickly. After going through this critical evaluation of myself I have decided to work on my weaknesses to become a better entrepreneur in near future. The most important thing I need to focus upon is to stay updated about the international news, events and changes in political, economic, social or cultural environments. Also, I will focus more upon trying to understand different cultures by talking to people from different cultures and try to understand their cultures from them and learn from their experiences in their countries.
