Free Online Assessment: Cultural Intelligence

Some have said Cultural Intelligence or CQ, is the single greatest difference between leaders who thrive in today’s world and those who become obsolete. You’ve heard about IQ and EQ, but what’s your CQ? Cultural intelligence is a fresh, new approach to leading in our multicultural, globalized world. It’s defined as the capability to function effectively across national, ethnic, and organizational cultures. For a limited time, David Livermore (author of the AMACOM title Leading with Cultural Intelligence) and his colleagues from the Cultural Intelligence Center are offering a free online CQ assessment at http://www.aom2009.cq-portal.com/.

Rich Gallagher on the Incivility Epidemic

The following is a guest post by Rich Gallagher, author of How to Tell Anyone Anything and What to Say to a Porcupine.

Congressman Joe Wilson shouting “You lie!” during a Presidential speech to Congress. Tennis star Serena Williams unleashing a string of F-bombs when a call went against her. Rapper Kanye West coming onstage and grabbing the microphone from first-time MTV award winner Taylor Swift. And cable talk hosts calling people names and stirring the pot on a daily basis.

What do these people all have in common? They are actually ruining your career.

Think about it. When you and your co-workers gather around the water cooler, do you find yourselves seeing everyone’s side or putting down your bosses, customers, or other departments? When you disagree with someone, is it a rational or an emotional discussion? Perhaps most important, are you getting what you want at work, especially when other people are involved?

We live today in an epidemic of incivility. It has social roots that got kicked into high gear when the media discovered the link between loud voices and high ratings, and a tough economy helped it infect many of our workplaces. The end result is a world where calling on people has been replaced by calling them out. It is career poison, but like cigarettes, many of us are hooked.

But here is the good news. You actually have more control over toxic bosses, annoying co-workers, and difficult customers than you think. And getting this power doesn’t involve your attitude, but rather your linguistics. Here are three positive ways to talk to anyone at work about anything, and do it civilly:

1) Start in a safe place. Here is your new mantra: you can never successfully criticize anyone, ever. When you start the conversation in a way that is on-topic, but doesn’t put anyone on the defensive, you end up in productive dialogue.

Suppose one of your co-workers is a backstabber who doesn’t like the fact that you got promoted. Here, your first statement might be, “Larry, do you feel you get enough credit for your work around here?” Or take a hostile, controlling boss: try asking her, “What kinds of performance expectations do you have?” Your goal here is to learn from them, so they are talking with you instead of fighting you. Done well, you will probably get an earful, which leads you to the second step:

2) Acknowledge everything. The reason most people argue with you is because they are trying to convince you to see their view of the world – and when you make it clear that you do understand them, which is not the same thing as agreeing with them, they have nothing to argue with you about. Use statements like “I can tell this is really important to you” or “No one likes to see people slack off” to share that you are hearing and processing the other person.

3) Just the facts. Now we get to the fun part – bringing up the issue you want addressed. Don’t hold back: you can be extraordinarily frank with people as long as you do a good job of acknowledging them and then stick to the facts.

Let’s use a sports analogy. What do you say when your favorite team loses? Probably that they “choked” or “stunk.” But these terms are not only scary, they are meaningless – there is no such thing as an anti-choking drill or a non-stink procedure. What really happened is that they dropped a critical pop fly or faced a stronger pitcher, and those are the things you can actually do something about.

Moving from sports to your negaholic boss, consider saying things like, “I want to give you everything you’ve talked about. And I find that I don’t work well when I am criticized. Where can we go from here?” Boil things down into facts and you are much more likely to have a painless discussion, from start to finish.

I didn’t just make these techniques up. They all spring from recent principles of psychotherapy (I am, in fact, a practicing therapist), and all of them are a powerful antidote to an epidemic of incivility. They may not make you a hit on cable TV, but they will help you get a lot more of what you want at work. More important, they will give you interpersonal and leadership skills that stick with you for the rest of your life.

Rich Gallagher is the author of How to Tell Anyone Anything and What to Say to a Porcupine. Dubbed “one of the founding fathers of modern customer support” by one of its leading professional societies, Rich is former customer service executive, public speaker, and practicing therapist who has taught over 10,000 people what to say in their most difficult workplace situations. He heads the Point of Contact Group in Ithaca, NY and is a veteran of numerous media appearances.

Spotlight On… Stand By Her

One of our new books has had a nice response from some of our book publishing trade magazines, so we thought we’d put our spotlight on Stand By Her: A Breast Cancer Guide for Men by John W. Anderson.

Harold Cordry, from ForeWord Reviews, had this to say in his review:

Such candor as one finds here, along with page after page of sound practical advice and empathic counsel for every stage of this fearsome disease, make Anderson’s book an undisputable choice for a place on the shortlist of guides for caregivers.

Sarah J. Robbins of Publishers Weekly spoke with the author in her roundup of Breast Cancer Awareness titles:

While there are many books, Web sites and support groups to guide women through the complicated process of diagnosis, treatment and recovery, John W. Anderson found little to help him as he watched his mother die of the disease and his sister and wife battle it and survive. “Every time I went through it, it was like starting from scratch,” Anderson says. When his wife reached her five-year cancer-free milestone, he decided to write a comprehensive breast cancer guide for men.

And Betty-Lee Fox of Library Journal had this to say in her starred review among the many books in their “Breast Cancer Sanity & Style” roundup:

Writer and TV producer Anderson saw his wife, his mother, his sister, and his mother’s best friend diagnosed with breast cancer. With wit and openness, he writes about women’s feelings and how men should respond. Most important, he says, men must be honest and sincere about their own feelings. An excellent title for the males, but women will gain perspective as well.

Also be sure to watch out for John in future! He is set to appear on The Today Show with his wife, Sharon Rapoport, on Thursday, October 8th, to talk about his book. Hope you can tune in.

JOHN W. ANDERSON is an Emmy-nominated director for Lifetime Television’s “Stop Breast Cancer for Life” campaign and an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Nation, and many other publications. He has helped his mother, wife, sister, and a close friend in their battles against breast cancer.

Introducing AMACOM… Will

Next in our “Introducing AMACOM” series is editorial assistant William Helms, who started at AMACOM in April 2007 working under Ellen Kadin and at the time Christina Parisi. He performs administrative tasks such as preparing contracts and the like but has been increasingly doing editorial work, such as developing manuscripts.

What were you doing before you joined AMACOM?

I was an Editorial Assistant at Hippocrene Books, a midtown Manhattan and Jamaica, Queens-based, family owned, independent publisher of bilingual dictionaries, language guides, travel books and international cookbooks. I also was doing some freelance writing for a couple of publications namely Shecky’s and their now defunct Bar, Lounge and Club Guide, an Astoria, Queens-based publication Dish du Jour and music journalism and criticism for Long Island City, Queens-based Ins&Outs Magazine. I also started doing some occasional music writing for Glide Magazine, a great music magazine online.

What are the big challenges you face in your job?

In mind there are two big challenges that come up with the editorial function of my job. I usually have to quickly familiarize myself with concepts and subjects that I may not have much of an idea about. And I have to switch gears on a wide amount of subjects. For example, not too long ago, I edited a book on writing more efficiently at work, then a book on experience marketing, then a book on commercial real estate, followed by a book on digital marketing, and then on sales. It’s an intellectual challenge, that’s for sure!

What AMACOM book are you really excited about right now?

The On-Demand Brand by Rick Mathieson. It’s an extremely well-written and entertaining book which discusses how companies can use new technology – mobile phone applications, social networking and more – to market their products and services to a population that wants what they want, when they want it, for lack of a better phrase. I’ve come across some of the technology Mathieson discusses in my daily life, such as while going shopping but I’ve also met folks who have worked in the marketing and advertising fields who have been working on similar things. I think it’s pretty interesting to see how it works.

What book are you reading at the moment?

I just started I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon) by Richard Polsky. It’s a pithy look at the art world and how it actually works. And just before that I read Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life by Michael Greenberg. In that one Greenberg discusses his life as a frustrated and somewhat failed writer. They’re both thematically different but both authors’ humor is on the same level – they both laugh at the utterly ridiculous and pretentious. If I’m not mistaken they’re both published by The Other Press.

I’m a big science buff, especially when it comes to things like astronomy and theoretical physics and I got through Simon Singh’s Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe which is a fantastic read if you’re into that sort of thing. Singh starts with the development of scientific thought and how each period of history explained the formation of the universe, and the developments that influenced and created the Big Bang theory.

What book do you want everyone to discover?

One book I think I’d want everyone to discover is Dan Coughlin’s The Management 500. The racing metaphor makes the concepts easily accessible even to those who don’t know much about racing – after all, the fastest wins. But most importantly, the concepts throughout the book can be applied in daily life regardless of if you’re a business manager or not.

What would you be doing if you weren’t here at AMACOM?

Well, I’d probably be doing music journalism and freelance photography, and I’d probably be working on the novel I had started in college. I had dreams of writing the next Great American Novel. It’s clichéd perhaps but true.

Final words?

“I get loco from Acapulco to Japan.”

Thanks Will. Find everyone in our our “Introduing AMACOM” series HERE.

Podcast: John Baldoni on How to Lead Your Boss

In a new American Management Association podcast, our own John Baldoni, author of Lead Your Boss and Lead By Example, gives managers new as well as tried and true methods for influencing both their bosses and their peers, and giving senior leaders reasons to follow their lead.

Click HERE to listen to the podcast.

For more information on Baldoni’s upcoming title Lead Your Boss, click HERE.

JOHN BALDONI is an internationally recognized leadership consultant, speaker, and author of many books, including Lead by Example and Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders. He was named one of the world’s “Top 25 Leadership Experts” for 2009 by TopLeadershipGurus.com. His leadership writings have appeared in BusinessWeek.com and FastCompany.com, and he has been featured or quoted in publications including the New York Times, USA Today, and Investor’s Business Daily.