The document describes a situation where an Indian businessman's image and networking prospects were undermined due to a cultural clash. At a business event in Dubai, the man interrupted a conversation between an Emirati man, German, and Brit to introduce himself and hand out his business card. However, in Arab culture it is considered rude to interrupt or engage in direct sales pitches with strangers. The Emirati man subtly discarded the man's business card behind his back while maintaining a fake smile. The cultural faux pas damaged the Indian man's image without him realizing. The closing paragraphs discuss how being aware of cultural differences is important for successful international business.

1. A Cultural Clash
Can Make Your
Image Crash

2. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
Seán Brickell, Award-winning entrepreneur,
author and confidence &
communication expert, gives his personal
insight into the importance of cultural
awareness.
No one could have seen it coming.
It was the subtlest yet strongest gesture…
that was about to undermine a perfectly nice man’s…
image and business prospects.

3. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
The other three men seemed friendly.
They appeared to be getting on well with each other,
although it was obvious it was the first time they’d met.

4. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
The one Emirati man was wearing a dishdasha, the
German a grey suit, white shirt and blue tie and the Brit
was attired in a smart dark brown jacket and
nondescript trousers and an open neck white shirt.
I was standing nearby at a business event I was about
to speak at in Dubai…funnily enough on networking.

5. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
The perfectly nice man, an Indian with a mid-brown
jumper, a blue jumper and grey slacks, walked straight
up to the three other men and…
smiled, broadly and warmly, and then…
he made the first of his two…
Big Mistakes.

6. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
He didn’t wait until the person who was talking had
finished. He just went straight up to them. ?
And then…
He handed out his business card like a croupier at a
?
gambling table while announcing himself and what
?
his business did.
The three other men were politely taken aback by this
Woollen Topped Whirlwind of an interruption.
?

7. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
While the three of them glanced at his business card
with politely concealed disdain, the man in the
?
?
dishdasha smiled.
It was a crocodile smile.
He then put his hands together behind his back, while
?
still holding the business card belonging to the Woollen
Topped Whirlwind who, by the way, had not stopped
talking at them…
?

8. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
And then…
He quietly dropped the card on the floor behind him.
Still smiling.
The Indian man never knew.
He misread the false smile of the man who had subtly yet
significantly discarded his card.

9. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
And he misjudged the polite silence of the other two
men, the Brit and the German, as being engrossed in
what he had to say about his business and himself.
He didn’t realize that they had tuned out from him.
They didn’t care what he did – even if he did it well –
and didn’t want to bother finding out, either.
It was a cultural clash that let to a
perfectly nice man’s image crash.

10. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
He forgot the basic courtesy when approaching a group,
certainly of strangers, of waiting until the person talking
has either finished orating or has beckoned you, visually or
verbally, to join them.
But, in this case, with so many different cultures present,
he ignored the sometimes subtle yet significant cultural
differences that can make your networking either work for
you or against you.

11. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
We were in an Arab country with a lot of people from
the Middle East.
And when doing business they like to get to know
you and build a relationship.
Doing any hard sell or even soft sell, especially when you
meet someone or a group for the first time, is a No No.

12. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
Too many people in business – and certainly the myriad of
diverse networking scenarios – transmit and don’t ask and
listen.
Not only does this make you come across as too self-
focused and even insecure…

13. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
but it also…
doesn’t allow you to allow someone else…
to buy into you.
That’s why you not only need to ask questions of the
people you meet, but also ask questions of yourself
beforehand about the different types of people you might
meet and what cultural differences need to be
tuned into to have the impact you need.

14. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
An impact that can open new opportunities.
© Seán Brickell 2013
www.SeanBrickell.com
The international situational confidence expert

15. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
Steven Parkinson
Chief Operating Officer of TMA World, offers his opinion:
“ I see these challenges on an almost daily basis, as capable
business people with a great record of success in their home
markets make the most basic cultural mistakes when they step
into the international arena.
Different expectations on communication styles, timing and
punctuality, leadership and hierarchy, teamwork, project and risk
management, the list of potential clash points goes on! And as in
your example you may not even realize you’ve made a blunder.

16. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
Steven Parkinson
Chief Operating Officer of TMA World, offers his opinion:
Most people recognize they’ll come across cultural differences
working internationally but do little to prepare for them. It is
important to think ahead and proactively manage these differences
and to develop the ability to view a situation objectively rather
than through our individual ‘cultural lens’.
It’s a shrinking world out there, let’s open our minds and build
”
our cultural intelligence!

17. A Cultural Clash Can Make Your Image Crash
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