Cultural Intelligence

You probably are familiar with IQ, which is an indicator of general cognitive or mental ability. You also may be familiar with emotional intelligence, which is discussed in Chapter 19 of your course text. Leaders with high emotional intelligence are better able to understand others, meet their needs, and influence their actions. The assigned articles, "Cultural Intelligence in the Global Economy" and "Cultural Intelligence: The Key to Global Leadership," introduce a third type of intelligence that is critical to effective leadership in diverse settings. Cultural intelligence (CQ) takes emotional intelligence a step further and indicates a person's effectiveness in interacting and working in culturally diverse environments. The good news is that cultural intelligence can be learned and improved over time.

To prepare for this assignment:

• Review Chapter 12 in your course text, The Art of Leadership. Pay particular attention to the information on emotional intelligence.

• Review the article, "Cultural Intelligence and the Global Economy." Make note of the three parts of cultural intelligence and concentrate on the action plan information.

• Review the article, "Cultural Intelligence: The Key to Global Leadership." Focus on the three steps to help leaders increase their cultural intelligence.

• Complete the Cultural Intelligence Center's "Self Assessment of Your CQ." After obtaining your cultural intelligence results, consider the reflection questions at the end of the assessment. You may also want to further examine the "Enhancing CQ" tab on the left of the website for additional information.

• Think about how your cultural intelligence might influence your ability to lead in a diverse setting. Also think about how you might go about increasing it.

The assignment: (1-2 pages)

• Summarize the results of your self-assessment of cultural intelligence.

• Explain how and why your cultural intelligence might influence your ability to lead in a setting that is highly diverse. Be specific and use examples to illustrate.

• Explain what you learned about yourself as a result of the self-assessment. Also identify any areas in which you would like to increase your cultural intelligence and what you might do to increase it.

Some websites to look at:

Tan, J.-S. (2004). Cultural intelligence and the global economy.Leadership in Action,24(5), 19-21. Retrieved from http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/publications/lia/v24n5question.pdf

Campigotto, N. (2009). Cultural intelligence: The key to global leadership. Retrieved from http://www.wabccoaches.com/bcw/2008_v4_i3/a-global-workplace.html

Global Dynamics, Inc.: Test your Cultural Intelligence
http://blog.global-dynamics.com/test-your-cultural-intelligence-0/