Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Re Secret to Success review

Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Re Secret to Success review

Livermore and Soon’s book titled Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Re Secret to Success is effective in holding the authors’strong reputation about leading at the global stage through the understanding of cultural intelligence. The writing style and language used by the authors are also easy to read, while the provision of various examples and stories also makes the book an intriguing reading piece. Additionally, Livermore and Soon employ first and second-person accounts to attract the reader’s attention. Although the title of the book suggests leaders as the primary target audience, almost everyone can learn significant insights through the available practical tools interactions in national, international, and organizational cultures. In the contemporary global economy, people come across diverse groups that range from customers to co-workers and competitors to the management.

Furthermore, the book is designed to come with an excellent mix of the use of genuine examples and theory from recent research. As mentioned in the book’s foreword, the content is useful for global leaders, development and training managers, organizational researchers, and psychologists, and students in management. However, various themes in the book can apply to almost everyone’s current ministry context or future ministry work.

The first theme of the book that I value as useful in my current and future ministry work is the explanation of cultural intelligence as having the capacity to interact with others effectively in national, international, and organizational cultures. In Christian ministries, I have always come across people from diverse backgrounds. To have a successful work in such situations, it is imperative to know about cultural intelligence. In essence, being culturally intelligent does not mean abandoning one’s convictions or values by trying to fit into other people’s cultures. At the same time, doing so does not mean trying to fake “becoming” a member of a different culture. Instead, Livermore and Soon argue that doing means it is about showing respect for other people’s values and beliefs as well as identifying how differences among diverse individuals can be part of global cultural differences. In my current ministry context, I would use cultural intelligence to understand to cause of these differences and how to work through such variations to attain ministry objectives. In many circumstances, high cultural intelligence can result in positive outcomes, not only in ministry work but also in organizational settings.

Another important theme of the book is the need for self-efficacy. Self-efficacy implies a person’s perception of their abilities to meet particular goals. This trait forms a foundation for cultural intelligence. For example, individuals that exhibit low levels of self-efficacy are likely to experience challenges in intercultural processes. The rationale for this argument is that such people do not believe in their ability to solve a cultural problem. In my current mission context, there is a need for high levels of self-efficacy since people are expected to set high commitments to the achievement of set objectives while also focusing on success by removing any obstacle. Furthermore, as a missionary working with people from unfamiliar cultures, my self-efficacy would allow me to think and behave in a manner that respects the beliefs, norms, and values of others. Additionally, Livermore and Soon maintain that high self-efficacy means one can take on cultural challenges without fear.

In chapter 6, Livermore and Soon present the theme of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. As mentioned earlier, high self-efficacy can be useful in attaining success in unfamiliar cultural environments. The potential to develop high self-efficacy brings about the understanding of emotional intelligence, which addresses how people can know and manage their emotions, how to adapt to changes that come with emotions, and how to recognize other people’s emotions. With the ability to achieve this skill, it becomes easier for me to handle relationships with people from diverse backgrounds in my current ministry context. Additionally, learning to develop a perspective that takes on an optimistic approach would be useful in enhancing one’s possibility of realizing high self-efficacy as well as being resilient to cultural challenges. The same approach would also help in facilitating mindfulness, where one has the power to understand and manage the experience of the self, which means the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Mindfulness and self-efficacy combine to facilitate one’s ability to be open to different perspectives on a culturally diverse environment.

Chapter 7 of the book explains the theme of adapting and performing in relation to cultural intelligence. According to the authors, it is imperative for individuals working in culturally unfamiliar environments to engage in adaptive behaviors and have the necessary motivation to adapt effectively. This element of cultural intelligence implies people’s capability to go beyond thinking and act by way of ensuring that they adapt to change. In this sense, knowing the information about how one perceives others is not enough to be culturally intelligent. Instead, one has to develop appropriate response behaviors and adapt to new cultural situations. In my current ministry context, I find it necessary to learn new practices while also taking caution to understand when and how to use the same newly acquired behaviors. In doing so, I would be useful in developing positive relationships with people. Considering this necessity, it is worth noting that even though bahaviors have their foundations on beliefs and values, they become difficult to learn yet essential when eventually acquired and used appropriately. Therefore, this theme of adaption and application in cultural intelligence is highly applicable in my current ministry context.

Finally, I find the theme of behavior and communication, as explained by Livermore and Soon, is quite essential in enhancing success in my current ministry context. According to the authors, people’s behaviors are communicated verbally and nonverbally. As such, individuals that have mastered the concepts of cultural intelligence can pay attention to both cues. Over time, I have learned that meeting people from different cultures means paying attention to their outward appearances as well as their overt behaviors. The rationale for this reasoning is that these behaviors provide the most obvious features about them instead of hidden feelings or unspoken thoughts. Additionally, different cultures also take silence for communication, while prolonged silence may be considered disrespectful. Therefore, having knowledge of these themes of behavior and communication would allow me to understand how to relate to cultural situations in my current ministry context.