What Is Cultural Intelligence?

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is the ability to understand, respect, and effectively interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. It’s about being able to adapt your behavior and communication to think and act in cross-cultural situations. 

Essentially, it’s the skills to go into new cultural environments and navigate with confidence and make informed judgements based on observations.

At PBA, we offer our B.A. Intercultural Studies program to help develop the skills for future leaders, world collaborators, and those who want to make a difference.

Cultural intelligence is a valuable skill to have wherever diversity exists – which in reality is everywhere. 

There are loads of benefits to learning how to incorporate cultural intelligence. It can prevent small cultural differences from leading to misunderstandings, help strengthen relationships and trust, improve leadership skills, and so much more. 

Oftentimes diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones, but only when members can navigate their differences effectively – this is where CQ comes in. With high CQ, innovation and problem solving can improve by bringing new ideas from different backgrounds, while also reducing biases and promoting inclusion. 

While emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence have similarities, there are a few key differences:

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognise, understand and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others – this applies across all human interaction, regardless of culture. It additionally applies to interpersonal skills within a familiar cultural framework. Someone with high emotional intelligence in their own culture may struggle cross-culturally. 

Emotional intelligence applies to:

• Conflict resolution
• Team dynamics
• Leadership
• Relationship management

Cultural intelligence is the ability to function and communicate effectively in culturally diverse situations, beyond just emotions. You must have high emotional intelligence in order to have a high cultural intelligence. This includes interpersonal skills alongside cultural adaptability. 

Overall cultural intelligence applies to:

• Global business interactions
• Multicultural teamwork
• International travel and assignments
• Working with diverse customers, students, or communities.

Overall EQ helps you understand people, while CQ helps you understand people within their cultural context.

Typically, cultural intelligence is measured through an assessment using the Cultural intelligence scale which measures the four components of cultural intelligence

1. CQ Drive: Motivation and confidence in working with cultural differences
2. CQ Knowledge: Your understanding of cultural norms, values, and communication patterns. 
3. CQ Strategy: How well you plan, monitor, and adjust during culturally diverse interactions
4. CQ Action: Your ability to adapt behavior to different cultural settings.
   
   

Understanding The Four Components of Cultural Intelligence

Cultural intelligence is made up of four capabilities. Together, they describe how someone may notice cultural differences, make sense of them, and respond effectively.

1. Drive:
   This describes interest, curiosity, and confidence in working with people from different cultures.
   Essentially, the drive says that you must genuinely enjoy learning about other perspectives, and stay engaged even when communication gets awkward.
   Without drive, people avoid cross-cultural situations or interpret differences as ‘problems’ instead of learning opportunities.
2. Knowledge:
   Your understanding of what culture is and how cultures differ in values norms, communication styles, power dynamics, etc.
   This may come into practice through understanding the differences between direct and subtle communication, understanding how different groups view time, relationships, teamwork, etc and any other direct understandings of a specific culture.
   This is important as it helps you interpret behaviour correctly rather than through your own cultural lens.
3. Strategy:
   This is your ability to plan, observe, and check how culture is influencing a situation.
   This skill is helpful during any social interactions. For example, beforehand you may consider how someone might interpret your communication style. During a conversation, you may notice tone changes, silence or body language, while after an interaction you can reflect on how things went and what you might do next time.
   This helps you to avoid assumptions and adjust thoughtfully throughout an interaction while avoiding reacting on autopilot.
4. Action:
   Your ability to adapt your verbal and non verbal behaviour so that your message is understood.
   This could be, adjusting your tone or speed of speech, eye contact, gestures, and knowing when to speak more directly.
   Without action, everything else is just theory. You need to change your behaviour and adapt in order to carry out CQ.

How to Improve Your Cultural intelligence

You can use the four components of CQ to improve your cultural intelligence. This is a great framework to keep in mind while completing an Intercultural Studies program.

Drive:

• Develop a curiosity of other culture
• Challenge your basic assumptions or stereotypes
• Reflect on positive cross-cultural experiences
• Set goals

Knowledge:

• Learn about different cultural values
• Study etiquette, norms, and non-verbal communication across cultures
• Read books, watch documentaries, and listen to podcasts on different cultures

Strategy:

• Practice pausing before interpreting behaviour
• Anticipate possible cultural differences in upcoming interactions
• Reflect after interactions: What worked? What didn’t?
• Develop a habit of questioning assumptions rather than reacting. 

Action:

• Adjust your communication style based on context
• Be aware of your body language and adjust to match cultural expectations
• Practice active listening 
• Observe and mirror culturally appropriate social behaviours 

Common Misconceptions about Cultural Intelligence

It’s important to understand the

• Cultural intelligence is about knowing facts about other cultures

CQ isn’t about knowing etiquette or do’s and dont’s of a culture. Instead it’s about adapting and responding appropriately while noticing differences in culture. Rather than knowing everything about a culture, it’s more about understanding the people in the moment.
It’s also not about being “nice”. High CQ requires awareness and behaviour adjustments rather than just kindness. 

• You need to travel often to have high CQ

While traveling helps, it’s not a requirement. You can develop CQ through being in diverse work environments, involving yourself in diverse communities, reading books on other cultures, and intentionally reflecting on yourself.

• CQ is about treating everyone the same

Some people and cultures have different types of communication expectations. Just because you treat everyone equally, doesn’t mean that you’re treating them with equity. Find ways of communication that works for them, not just you. 

• You must accept all cultural practices and act like people from other cultures to have high CQ

You can understand a cultural practice without endorsing it. CQ is more about navigating differently respectfully, while not mimicking or over-adapting. The goal is to align where you can.