William Cruz, president of TCB Consulting, tells NAVAIR employees, “The majority of communication is nonverbal. Different cultures have distinct ways of communicating nonverbally.” Cruz was the keynote speaker at NAVAIR’s Hispanic Heritage Month event Oct. 14, where he addressed the differences in management and communication styles across cultures and how to deal with these differences effectively. (U.S. Navy photo)
Patuxent River, MD — Because so much of language is nonverbal, employees need to develop intercultural communication skills to succeed in a diverse workplace, said the keynote speaker at a Hispanic Heritage Month event here Oct. 14.
“The economy demands it. We’re doing business globally,” said William Cruz, president of TCB Consulting and an intercultural lecturer. “Companies that don’t do anything to address cultural diversity will lose ground.”
Cruz’s talk, part of a national NAVAIR celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, entitled “Hispanics: a Legacy of History, a Present of Action and a Future of Success,” taught employees across all NAVAIR sites how to explore differences in communication styles and values and how to deal with the differences.
Such differences can include space, eye contact, touch, expressions, vocal pitch, etc. For example, European-Americans prefer 18-30 inches between a conversational partner, while Latinos prefer 8-18 inches. Cruz explained Latinos may perceive a wider distance to mean European-Americans are aloof, cold or uninterested, while European-Americans may see Latinos as pushy.
European-Americans value individual accomplishment, espousing the phrase, “Toot your own horn.” For Latinos, however, humility is a virtue, Cruz said. Because talking about accomplishments is perceived as bragging, Latinos may omit information about their achievements in a performance review and therefore find it difficult to obtain promotions.
To deal with these differences, Cruz recommended employees acknowledge their cultural illiteracy, become conscious of their own culture and other cultures’ nonverbal communication styles and values, and borrow attributes from other cultures while proudly maintaining their own cultural identity.
“You already switch your communication style based on context,” he said. “Add to that the ability to switch based on that person’s cultural background. It’s an indispensable skill to have in a leadership role in a multicultural setting.”
The wrong way to deal with differences, he said, is to repress your native culture by assimilation or pretend the issue doesn’t exist.
Jerry Short, NAVAIR comptroller, agreed.
“You have to embrace everyone’s differences,” he said. “Much of what we do is about relationships. As you move up in your career, you have to recognize that. The only way we accomplish our mission is by embracing our diversity and working together.”
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated every Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. As of July 2011, Hispanics constituted more than 16 percent of the nation’s population, according to U.S. Census data. At NAVAIR, Hispanics comprise 5.98 percent of the workforce.
The event, sponsored by NAVAIR’s Hispanic Engagement Action Team and Equal Employment Opportunity/Diversity Office, also included the reading of a message from Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and acceptance of the St. Mary’s County Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation.