Why What Worked Back Home Doesn't Work Here
Aug 12, 2026
I still catch myself doing it. Sixteen-plus years after leaving Belgium, I'll walk into a room in Australia and start laying out the background, the data, the reasoning — building carefully toward my point. And I'll watch the eyes glaze over, because half the room just wants me to get to it.
Belgium raised me principles-first: understand before you act. Australia, the country I now call home, is applications-first: have a go, see what happens, adjust as you go. Neither is wrong. But if you don't know which room you're standing in, you'll present beautifully and still lose the room.
This is the trap most leaders fall into with cross-cultural teams, boards, and stakeholders. Something worked brilliantly in one country, with one team, in one negotiation — and then it mysteriously stops working somewhere else. It's not mysterious at all. It's predictable. And it's preventable, once you know what to look for.
I use three lenses to prepare for anything that matters — a pitch, a negotiation, a tricky team dynamic.
Lens one: principles-first vs applications-first
Some cultures (Germany, France, Belgium, much of continental Europe) want the "why" before the "what" — the data, the logic, the plan. Others (the US, the UK, Australia) want the conclusion first and will ask why later, if at all. Erin Meyer's book "The Culture Map" is the best field guide I've found for where different countries sit on this. Get the order backwards in a board presentation and you'll lose your principles-first peers to skepticism, or your applications-first peers to boredom, before you've made your case.
Lens two: egalitarian vs hierarchical
This one's about how people were taught to earn the right to speak up. In hierarchical cultures, the junior person takes notes while the senior person talks — and that's not disengagement, that's respect. In egalitarian cultures (think Nordic countries), the newest person on the team is expected to challenge an idea in front of the CEO, and everyone's more comfortable for it. Mix these two on one team without naming the difference, and you'll get quiet resentment on one side and quiet withdrawal on the other — neither of which anyone will tell you about directly.
Lens three: DISC
Once you've accounted for culture, you've still got the individual in front of you — how they naturally like to receive information and make decisions. Are they fast and bottom-line-first? Relationship-driven and story-led? Steady and detail-averse to being rushed? Precise and allergic to vague reassurance? Get this right and your message lands. Get it wrong and even a good idea sounds like the wrong one.
Here's what I tell every leader I work with: none of this is about being right or wrong, or about one culture or style being "better." It's about whether you've thought it through before you walk into the room. A pitch that falls over internally slows down your implementation. A negotiation that misreads the other side costs you the deal. A team that never quite gels because nobody named the cultural mismatch will keep underperforming quietly, indefinitely.
The two Ps I keep coming back to: predictable, and preventable. You don't need to get lucky with your next cross-cultural pitch, negotiation or team offsite. You need to prepare for it, the same way an athlete prepares for the moment that decides the medal.
If this is landing for you and you want to build this kind of communication fluency into how your leadership team operates — with your people, your peers, and your customers and suppliers around the world — let's talk. Book a free discovery call here and we'll map out exactly where these lenses could be costing you deals or slowing your team down right now.
