Leadership Conversations - Strengths, Trust Building & Cross Cultural Cooperation

"This leadership program held in Lebanon was conducted for a group of 15 global leaders working in an NGO. The session focuses on strengths discovery, deepening trust, and difficult conversations. The results were greater self-awareness, and stronger conversational skills through deliberate practices. Interested in a similar program for your team?” Connect with Victor

🫸 Pushing the Limits ⚠️

What I learnt from my Lebanon 🇱🇧 trip.

Some context:

▶ It was a 5 days leadership retreat for an NGO and I was invited to facilitate 3/5 days, focusing on cross cultural cooperation and trust building.

▶ I had only 2 weeks to prepare amidst many other ongoing commitments. So I knew this work was going to really stretch me. 

▶ I had participants from many different countries - Syria, Lebanon, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, USA, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, South Korea and Germany.

▶ It was my first time listening, conversing and learning from those from the Middle East, Russia and South America. 

What I did:

▶ I needed an anchor to bridge the cultural differences. So I started with strengths as a language and a lens to build the container of safety.

▶ We explored how trust might look like in cross cultural work - what it looks like when it is strong and when it is broken.

▶ I taught a couple of leadership conversational skills and facilitated the practice - how leaders can generate context of trust and safety. 

▶ I had 1 on 1 coaching with each person to process the emotions and learnings. 

What I took away👇🏼

📍Listening for our bias and assumptions is crucial. It starts by being aware that we bring our bias into the conversations. On day 1, I felt I had so much to learn as I hear different stories in a very diverse context. I felt I was the odd one out as a Singaporean, living in my “safe” bubble. 

📍Listening in a cross cultural context brings out more of the emotional and body context because of language challenges. For many, English is not the first language. The other aspects are heightened as a result. As I listened to the stories shared in English, I often experienced the intensity of the stories through the emotions and the body of the storyteller. 

📍The Strengths Language truly deepens appreciation and respect for diversity. Once I facilitated the strengths conversations, the cross cultural differences was reduced and the strengths language facilitated conversations of trust building. 

It was truly an eye-opening week of being, doing and learning. My strengths felt satisfied. I’m now more confident in navigating high tension and conflict work. #Command #SelfAssurance #Communication #Connectedness

#teamcoaching #ontologicalcoaching #deeplistening