How do you motivate the next generation of workers?

In case you missed it last night, CBS 60 Minutes had this segment about the new generation of “millennials”, born between 1980 and 1995, exploring their entry and impact in the workplace. Briefly featured was the Motivation Show and the incentives industry, tied to the fact that these employees expect to be praised, thanked, and [...]

Presenting to an International Audience

MattMacL shares some great tips on his Working Abroad blog on how to present to audiences whose first language is not English. These include adapting your language to the audience and cutting out idioms. He also highlights the pitfalls that may exist:
The tendency is to think that one can go into a presentation without having [...]

Tipping Around the World

It is a subject we have explored in the past: in which countries does one tip and how much. On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I asked how much a tour guide would earn in tips if leading a group on a full-day tour. When told the amount I naturally asked if that figure [...]

How to Impress Your Guests

Michael Chaffin of *Star In The Margin shares an example of how a United Airlines pilot engages with his passengers and delivers something completely unexpected …

Training Key to Hospitality Beyond Borders

It is interesting from both a training and cross-cultural perspective that hospitality professionals from Brazil are being sought to ease staffing shortages in Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. According to this article from ArabianBusiness.com, a big draw for many Brazilian workers who have moved there has been the reputation of the in-house training [...]

We Care Health Care

A few weeks ago my mother had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. I am not particularly fond of hospitals, but have to admit that the facility in Fort Lauderdale at which she stayed was quite accommodating for patients and their families. Although there was an abundance of parking spaces relatively close to the [...]

Cultural Sensitivity When Traveling Overseas

The cross-cultural faux pas on the part of Cameron Diaz on her recent trip to Peru has made headlines internationally. According to USA Today, the actress apologized yesterday for carrying a bag with the famous political slogan of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. The article notes:
The bags are marketed as fashion accessories in some world [...]

Would you give your boss the finger?

Joe Fawcett shares an anecdote on his blog about how a colleague of his experienced a true example of cross cultural differences when he transferred from the US office to their London office. I have written before about how gestures sometimes have different meanings across cultures, and this is yet another example of how those [...]