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Johannesburg - Leaders with a higher Cultural Intelligence Quotient (CQ) are deemed as more approachable and experience more cooperation from fellow colleagues and less resistance, according to Ryan Quan-Chai, chief compliance officer at Marsh Africa.
Globalisation, cyber-business and the proliferation of cross border trade has opened up the floodgates for businesses in Africa to take their goods and services global.
With Africa on the map, businesses need to shift their approach to accommodate cultural differences. If not, they stand to lose business to people who can relate to their customers and talk their language.
The CQ, introduced in 2003 by Earley and Ang, is defined as a measure of cross cultural competence. CQ follows on from Alfred Binet’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) introduced in 1905 and Mayer and Salos framework for Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) introduced 85 years later.
“In today’s global economy, your CQ level can mean the difference between the success and failure of your business, and it’s emerging as a key leadership tool to obtaining results in Africa,” says Quan-Chai.
He says that integrating CQ into your business model to create authentic engagement with different cultural groups is particularly relevant in Africa, with burgeoning trade routes and vastly different cultural preferences.
Multicultural groups think differently, and often the subtleties of cultural difference may even result in misunderstandings and may influence levels of cooperation.
Quan-Chai says "the ability to apply your understanding of nuances defines how successful your CQ strategy is, and knowing what behaviour is appropriate to achieve your desired outcome is a well-practiced balance, struck between an effortless ability to glide through a cultural minefield, knowing when to push forward, and when to pull back".
“When understanding the subtleties of cultural difference across sub-Saharan Africa, you will learn that there are multiple perspectives on any given subject, so we should not be shocked when we realise that the actions, gestures, accents or attitudes we display across the region, could be subject to a wide range of interpretation and are likely to result in misunderstandings and may influence the level of cooperation we receive,” he says.
