Berlot Group FZE

I have seen organisations invest heavily in building multicultural teams.
They recruit exceptional talent from around the world and expect diversity to translate into strong collaboration.

Sometimes it does. Sometimes though, it creates frustration, misunderstanding and ultimately impacts performance. This is because nobody has invested in teaching the team how to work with the differences between them.

We often assume those skills will develop naturally over time. My experience has been very different.

Leading a multicultural team requires intention. The quality of the conversations, the willingness to hear and understand one another and the way differences are navigated all shape what that team eventually becomes.

The opportunity for this is always there.

The question is whether the team has been given the conditions to realise it.

What do you think prevents multicultural teams from reaching their full potential?

Our individual culture is not our nationality. In this day and age, it is far more complex than that.

For each of us, our individual culture will include our nationality, upbringing, religion, education, and every life experience that shaped us along the way. This influences how we see and experience the world.

In multicultural teams, nationality alone tells us very little about the worldview each team member brings into the room.

What has shaped your worldview the most?

Young or old, share your wisdom below.
What has time taught you??

Respect is one of those words we rarely question.

We assume everyone understands it in the same way. We believe that if I treat you the way I would like to be treated, then we will be ok. Trust and respect will grow.

My experience has taught me otherwise.

How we show and experience respect is deeply influenced by cultural beliefs. Enthusiasm, eye contact, silence, emotion, and the volume of our voice can carry completely different meanings depending on who is interpreting them.

The challenge for multicultural teams is not deciding whose definition of respect is correct. It is becoming curious enough to understand that there may be more than one way to look at topics such as trust, respect, honesty, and accountability.

The shift from believing that my cultural viewpoint is correct to becoming curious about what other viewpoints influence a conversation, is key to team members to become culturally agile and creating team cultures that are accepting, tolerant and kind. This changes the way team members listen, respond, and work together.

Understanding creates possibilities that assumptions never will.

What is one behavior that is considered respectful in your culture and could easily be misunderstood somewhere else?

The longer I work with teams, the stronger my convictions become.

Here are a few things you will not see me do as a team coach.

I do not look for one person to blame. I am much more curious about how the challenge between team members is serving the relationship dynamics, rather than making one person the issue.

I do not rush to solve the conflict. The fastest solution is not always the one that creates lasting change. I do not step over emotions that are being expressed and take time to explore them.

I do not mistake silence for agreement. Especially in multicultural teams, where silence signals many different things, I slow down, get curious and invite different voices into the conversation.

I do not ask the team to avoid difficult conversations for the sake of harmony. Avoidance of an issue will not make it go away, it will resurface again and continue to impact the team.

I will not assume I know what is really happening in the dynamics between team members. So I get curious, and this has taught me far more than being certain ever has.

These principles have been shaped by more than twenty years of working with teams across different cultures, organisations and industries.

Which of these do you agree with?
Comment below.

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Do you know if you are a cultural critic?

When you travel to a new land and are faced with diversity, are you curious, eager to learn and understand?

Or do you get exhausted, make assumptions, criticise, or judge “their way,” believing that your way is correct?

How often do we encounter a behaviour from another culture and immediately label it rude, strange, inappropriate, or simply wrong?

Our own culture can feel so normal to us that we forget we are looking at someone else's through our own cultural lens, a lens that is biased towards what is familiar to us.

So, be honest. Are you a cultural critic?

Every team has conflicts that feel easier not to address.

"We will deal with it later."
"I do not want to offend/hurt or embarrass."
"I do not want to make it worse."

These are just some of the things you may hear in multicultural teams that avoid having the challenging conversations that are necessary to move the business forward. But these attitudes seldom work.

The impact of ignoring conflict that lies beneath the surface is the slow erosion of trust and safety.

I have learnt that what leaders don’t address does not go away. Behind the scenes, it shapes relationships, breaks down trust, and impacts the way team members begin to work with one another.

Leading a multicultural team is not about having all the answers. It is about creating the conditions where difficult conversations can be had with respect, curiosity, and a genuine willingness to understand.

As difficult as these conversations are, they do not break a team down. Avoiding them does.

Have you noticed that when an issue was not addressed, it slowly changed the dynamic of a team?

In a multicultural team, you will find that some of your teammates are curious and happy to learn about the diversity in the team, and others are not. They make assumptions, judge what is different as wrong, and are critical.

As a leader, it is important to develop a culture of curiosity in your team and to w**d out behaviours that will erode trust, safety, and positivity.

Trust, accountability, and communication are all experienced through our own cultural lens.
Those differences become important when they begin creating tension within the team and remain unspoken.

Creating team charters, or behavioural contracts outlining what behaviours will encourage curiosity, kindness, grace, tolerance and therefore foster safety, trust, and belonging, is important.

Where do you see cultural differences creating the most tension in teams?