Cross Cultural Coaching

This class was held on Thursday, May 03, 2007. What is culture? We briefly defined culture as norms, beliefs or values distinct to a society, how we communicate within that. Someone said that “we create our culture by our communication”.

Some challenges that can come while coaching cross-culturally are: Different ways of viewing things based on where we are from, we need to learn from the client what their culture says about something. Misunderstanding or breakdown in communication can occur because culturally we aren’t on the same page.

Some of the positive aspects to coaching cross-culturally could be: Challenges us to broaden our perspective. It could benefit the client in the same way. As we are respectful of their culture they will then be more open to hearing another perspective from another culture.

There are many types of cultures. We often think automatically about another country or race: Gender, family, sexual orientation, age, business/company, religious groups and language.

Language differences can be more than just the language but the meaning or interpretation of those words could be very different. In the beginning of the coaching relationship it would be a good idea to talk about what things may be different or expectations they may have. We can’t assume – we need to ask.

The biggest ‘take away’ today is to be aware of our own assumptions and stereo-types and instead create an open communicative partnership with the client so that culture doesn’t become a roadblock.