Introvert Working in an Extrovert Ideal Culture

Think and act like locals are crucial when living in a foreign country. Different culture, mindset, communication style and different ways of seeing things make us different than each other. Have you ever noticed that you think in a specific way without realizing what triggers this way of thinking or you say things in specific styles without forcing your brain to shape your words in specific orders? Our past experiences, environments and even people around us influence our way of thinking, speaking, and seeing. Working with foreigners is challenging and interesting. Yes!! I find it interesting because you will not just learn about other people but yourself and your culture.

Here are some things I learned about my culture and Western culture when working with Americans:

The first thing is communication style. People need to learn to be straight forward with their coworkers and their boss if they are from High-context culture (Asian culture). Since, I grew up in Mongolia, majority of the communication has an in-direct style. If you work in a company, you need to figure out how to please your boss. Your boss is actually a BOSS. They expect employees to be quiet and do what they are given to do. You cannot be heard enough to your managers when you want to change something within the organization, nor give negative feedbacks to your company and upper level bodies unless you want to lose your job. In western culture, senior people expect their employees to bring something to the table. In-fact, my boss at my previous work told me that I’m quiet when I asked him for feedback. That taught me that if you are obedient and good worker in an American company, it’s not enough. Thus, you should bring new ideas or solutions to your team if you want to be a good employee. Indeed, managers tend to like their employees when they are confident and think different than others. During the meeting, one of the managers told us not to be afraid of making a mistake. Indeed, when someone fails, that doesn’t mean he is loser, but means he is doing something new that he hasn’t done in the past or that no one has tried before in the organization. You need to know how not to make a same mistake again.

Next thing is you should learn to be extrovert when working in an American culture. I’m sorry introverts, but you need to learn how to be talkative and outgoing person. As an introvert, it was a big challenge to me. But, it is one of the keys to success in the workplace communication. For extroverts, you have an advantage of being extrovert but it is crucial to remember being extrovert doesn’t mean you have a high EQ (Emotional Intelligence) nor being introvert means you have a low EQ.

Even if we are different than each other, we all have something unique that no one has. At the end of the day, what makes us happy is the time when we were most authentic with others.