Navigating truth and trust across cultures

In the West, trust often begins with capability: “Show me what you can do, and I’ll believe in you.” But in Japan, it starts with character: “Let me understand who you are, then I’ll trust what you do.” At monoya, we’ve felt this difference deeply. When we first started engaging with Japanese partners, we expected our portfolio and success stories to do the talking. They didn’t. Meetings were polite but reserved. Decisions moved slowly. Then we shifted gears—less pitching, more listening. We invested in relationships. We showed up consistently. We respected silence and patience. Over time, trust started to build—not because we talked about our work, but because we shared our values. One moment that stands out: a partner told us, “What mattered wasn’t your proposal—it was how you carried yourself.” That stuck with us. In Japan, trust isn’t built in the boardroom—it’s built in the in-between moments: over dinner, during shared silences, through consistent follow-ups. It’s relational, not transactional. For global teams entering Japan, remember: trust here is earned slowly, but it’s rock-solid once it’s there. Have you experienced this cultural shift in trust-building? I’d love to hear your thoughts. #Trust #JapanBusiness #CulturalInsights #monoya #CrossCulturalLeadership

I’ve dealt with clients and partners from 6 continents. From China to the US, Australia to the Middle East, and everywhere in between. Communicating across cultures is always a challenge. Especially when those cultures have completely different ways to transfer information. What you say and how you say it can be perceived completely differently as a result. You can unknowingly offend or come across as rude or incompetent. You can break trust. So how do you navigate this? → Enter the Culture Map by Erin Meyer. I read it when it first came out and revisit it periodically. The Culture Map is a framework based on 8 scales, each representing a key cultural dimension that can impact interactions and business outcomes. The 8 cultural dimensions are: 1. Communicating: Differentiates between low-context (explicit communication) and high-context (implicit communication) cultures. 2. Evaluating: Compares direct negative feedback with indirect feedback. 3. Persuading: Contrasts principles-first reasoning with applications-first reasoning. 4. Leading: Compares egalitarian leadership with hierarchical leadership. 5. Deciding: Differentiates between consensual decision-making and top-down decision-making. 6. Trusting: Compares task-based trust with relationship-based trust. 7. Disagreeing: Contrasts confrontational cultures with those that avoid confrontation. 8. Scheduling: Differentiates between linear-time and flexible-time orientations Countries are positioned on each scale based on their cultural characteristics. What truly matters is the relative position of one culture relative to the next. For example, France is considered a higher context culture than the US on the communication scale, but much lower context compared to Saudi or China. I highly recommend studying this to anyone doing business in cross-cultural environments. And it doesn’t have to be exotic - neighbouring European countries can be miles apart from each other on these scales, which explains a lot 😅 So when you find yourself stuck when engaging with people from a different culture to yours, remember that it can all be down to these differences. P.S. have you struggled with cross cultural communication?

Bridging markets is easy. Bridging cultures, that’s where leadership gets tested. When I moved from Barcelona to the U.S., I thought I understood the differences. After all, I’d worked with global teams, placed leaders in both regions, advised clients on cross-border expansion. But living it, leading across it, was something else entirely. In Europe, relationships are built slowly. You earn trust through consistency, credibility, and time. In the U.S., you can land a coffee with a CEO next week but that doesn't mean you have their trust. You have to deliver fast, speak directly, and signal value immediately. I’ve seen countless European leaders underestimate this. They land in New York or Chicago with a strong track record, but their cadence is off. They wait too long to assert vision. They communicate with more context than clarity. They lead politely, not urgently and that gap shows up fast. On the flip side, U.S. leaders entering Europe often expect speed and access they haven’t earned yet. They try to move the system before understanding the nuance. They assume energy equals influence. Neither is better. But both require adjustment and humility. As someone who has lived and built a business on both sides, I’ve learned that leading across the Atlantic isn’t about being fluent in geography. It’s about being fluent in expectation. Knowing when to slow down, when to push, and when to listen twice as hard. So if you’re building cross-border teams, especially in FMCG, it’s not enough to translate strategy. You need leaders who can translate trust. I’d love to hear from others working across U.S.–Europe lines: What’s the cultural mismatch that surprised you most? #FMCGLeadership #ExecutiveSearch #CrossCulturalLeadership #USvsEurope #LaurenStiebing #ConsumerGoods #GlobalTeams #TalentInsights

𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲. Western leaders misdiagnose what many Asian leaders actually experience. A senior executive I coached in Hong Kong had built a remarkable career across continents. British and American elite education. A global leadership role in a top firm. Respected. Accomplished. Admired. Yet privately, he felt inauthentic, as if he didn’t fully belong in either culture. His story reveals a deeper truth: In Hong Kong, feelings of “not enough” don’t always stem from self-doubt… They often come from clashing values. 1️⃣𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝘀. 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘆 His global HQ celebrated individual stars. His local team and family honoured collective success. 🛠 His shift: → Framed achievements as team outcomes → Credited predecessors before claiming innovation ✅ Result: Engagement soared. His team felt seen. 2️⃣𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝘀. 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 His Western training prized speed. His Hong Kong roots valued trust before action. 🛠 His shift: → Built strong relationships before key decisions → Created safe spaces for unspoken concerns ✅ Result: Faster implementation, less resistance His breakthrough wasn’t in choosing one style over the other. It came when he stopped seeing the tension as a problem and started treating it as a leadership asset. Western leaders in Hong Kong often feel their instincts don’t land. Hong Kong leaders in global firms feel fake when forced to self-promote. The solution isn’t assimilation. It’s 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: the capacity to hold both truths at once. 👉 Could your quiet discomfort be a sign of deeper cross-cultural fluency? ------------------------------------- This post is part of an ongoing effort to bring more culturally complex leadership stories into the spotlight, especially those that challenge dominant narratives. ♻️ Share this with a leader navigating global complexity. 👉 I'm Josianne Robb (ICF PCC), coaching APAC leaders navigating complexity, culture, and change.

ON TRUST, TIME, AND BUILDING ACROSS BORDERS Jane Goodall’s passing feels like a quiet bell. Her breakthroughs didn’t come from noise—they came from patience. She sat still long enough to be trusted. No megaphone. A notebook, humility, and time. She let chimpanzees set the pace, learned their rhythms, and only then drew conclusions. From that trust came new truths about tools, grief, family, and intelligence. The same rule shaped me in the Peace Corps. Any “plan” that arrives before trust withers fast. The work that lasted started small: a shared meal, a walk through a field, a conversation about what “better” really meant to the people who would live with the outcome. Communities open when they know you’ll stay long enough to help, learn, and eventually leave something that stands without you. We don’t talk about this enough in business—especially in global software. We celebrate frameworks and tools, then wonder why distributed teams push back on changes they don’t yet trust. At Accelerance, we see the law in action: code moves at the speed of relationships. When engineers in San José, Buenos Aires, Kraków, or Ho Chi Minh trust each other, handoffs tighten, assumptions surface sooner, and quality rises without drama. When trust is thin, even brilliant people ship brittle software. Across animal cultures, human cultures, and geopolitical divides, trust follows the same path: show up, listen first, earn the right to be heard. In globally distributed teams that looks like: • Be predictable. Light, regular cadences that respect time zones. Reliability is the first language of trust. • Share context, not just tickets. People commit better when they understand the “why.” • Tell the hard thing kindly. Radical candor with dignity prevents quiet drift. • Give real ownership. Decisions that matter—and shared credit—grow trust. • Invest in time together. Visit, break bread, celebrate local wins. These are not soft ideas; they’re performance levers. Trust lowers hidden costs: confusion, rework, blame cycles, and the anxiety that slows judgment. In a moment that profits from division, the counterpractice is collaboration that works—across borders and difference. Jane’s method was scientific, methodological, and moral: attention as love in action. The Peace Corps etched the same truth for me. Global software confirms it weekly: sustained cross-cultural trust isn’t optional; it’s the operating condition for reliable, scalable, predictable outcomes. If you want breakthroughs—in science, in community, or in code—start where Jane started. Offer time. Earn trust. Let understanding grow before you move. The forest responds. So do partners, teams, and customers.

He couldn’t say no. So he asked me to say it instead. 🫢 The client was a Chinese tech brand. They wanted to launch an international campaign - to counter some negative foreign press. But they had: ❌ No proof points in-market. ❌ No physical presence. ❌ No clear messaging. ❌ No strategy. TL;DR: It wasn't going to work. Getting traction would be like drawing water from stone. So my colleague - also Chinese, and the client's trusted comms advisor - reached out to me privately. “You need to tell them we can’t take this on. They’ll hear it coming from you. But I can’t say no.” Translation: "Play the cultural interpreter card. You can say things I can't. Saying no could cost the relationship." Sure enough, I shared my recommendation: Stay the course. Don't launch yet. They listened. Nodded. Agreed ✅  No tension. ✅  No drama. ✅  Project shelved. ✅  Relationship intact. Later, I reflected. We often talk about cultural differences as barriers to overcome. But sometimes - culture is a card you can play. It's not that my colleague lacked insight. Or that he hid behind me. But in his context, a direct “no” could've cost him the client's trust. Because power, trust, and truth move differently across cultures. In multicultural teams, one of the most underused skills is this: 👉 Strategic delegation of voice. Knowing who should say what, to whom, and how - to get the message across without breaking the bond. It’s part emotional intelligence. Part cultural fluency. And part respect for what’s unspoken. 🧭 So if you work across cultures, ask yourself: Who can say this without backlash? Who holds perceived neutrality here? How can we share truth - without forcing someone to break their cultural code? Have you ever been the one asked to speak up when others couldn't? Let’s hear your story below. #CulturalIntelligence #ExecutivePresence #CrossCulturalLeadership #StrategicCommunication #LeadershipDevelopment

🌍 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: 𝐀 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 In global teams, success depends on more than strategy or execution, it depends on understanding how people operate differently across cultures. 🙋🏼 𝐀 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞: When I moved from 🇨🇦 Canada to 🇫🇷 France, I brought a topic to a global HR meeting without running it by my boss. Oupsy 🙈. 🇨🇦 In Canada, that’s a sign of ownership. 🇫🇷 In France, it clashed with an expectation: hierarchical alignment first. 🎯 Same intention, very different signal. Erin Meyer’s work on cross-cultural management offers a clear framework, so grateful for her research and practical tools 🙏 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 4 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 👇 💬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐬 Cultures differ in how explicitly ideas are expressed. What sounds direct in one context may be perceived as abrupt elsewhere. 🎯 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 In some environments, open debate is part of decision-making. In others, it's approached with more discretion and diplomacy. 👥 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 Some cultures build trust through performance. Others through time, shared context, and relationships. 🧭 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 Autonomy, authority, feedback are all shaped by cultural norms. Adapting your leadership style creates clarity and alignment. If you're working in a global environment, investing in cultural awareness is a key to influence, collaboration, and better results. 🧐 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞? 📎 Take the Culture Map self-assessment https://lnkd.in/eaBjNK9E 🎥 Watch: How Cultures Across the World Approach Leadership https://lnkd.in/eFFvGWh 🎥 Watch: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐩: 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 https://lnkd.in/eaVTKkmT 📎 Navigating the Cultural Minefield https://lnkd.in/eQU555eq 👉 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫? 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐝𝐨𝐭𝐞 — 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗿𝘂𝗱𝗲… 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹. One of our Filipino team members once asked an Australian client: “𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 — 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗼?” The room went quiet. What felt like a lighthearted question on one side was unexpected on the other. But here’s the beauty of it: 𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨, this kind of question is often a warm, celebratory gesture — a way of marking a milestone and strengthening bonds. 𝙄𝙣 𝘼𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙖, where work and reward are usually kept separate, it might sound a little forward. 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘀. That’s the richness of working across cultures. And these moments — when we pause to understand — are where real growth happens. A resource I often come back to is 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒑 by Erin Meyer. It offers frameworks that help us lead with empathy and navigate differences like: 🗺️ High-context vs. Low-context communication 🏛️ Hierarchical vs. Egalitarian cultures 💬 Indirect vs. Direct feedback Because as leaders, we’re not just managing processes — 𝗪𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. Here’s what we encouraged in the moment: 🔴 Instead of directly asking about perks… 🟢 Focus on doing great work, building trust, and letting recognition come naturally. 💡 When appreciation is earned through impact, it feels even more meaningful. Have you ever had a moment where cultural norms led to confusion — or insight? 💬 I’d love to hear your story in the comments. #CulturalIntelligence #GlobalTeams #TheCultureMap #Leadership