Tag: Cultural Intelligence
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A Summer Reading Detour: Cartels, Countries, and Consequences
Know someone who’d enjoy The Good to Excelente Newsletter? Forward this to them so they can subscribe here—and never miss a Wednesday edition packed with cultural intelligence insights and practical advice. As you’re planning your upcoming summer vacation, it’s time to consider which books you’ll be bringing along. I’ve got two suggestions for you. No, you won’t…
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What AI Doesn’t Understand About Communication
Know someone who’d enjoy The Good to Excelente Newsletter? Forward this to them so they can subscribe here—and never miss a Wednesday edition packed with cultural intelligence insights and practical advice. Question:Derek from Arizona writes: “With AI translation tools getting better every year, are language barriers on the jobsite basically becoming a thing of the past? Or…
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It’s Not a Language Problem
The CEO’s question was a non sequitur. We’d been talking about the absurdity of competitive girls softball in Texas. Then he took a sip of his gin and tonic, scanned the steakhouse, and said: “If qualified Hispanic labor is our biggest constraint to growth right now, what do I need to know about becoming the…
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Crab Mentality: Why Workers Sometimes Pull Each Other Down
Question:Brian from North Carolina writes: “I’ve heard you talk about competition and machismo affecting behavior on Hispanic crews. Sometimes it feels like workers compete with each other instead of helping each other. Is that cultural—and how should a super handle it on the jobsite?” Answer: Brian, great question. Let me start with a conversation that caught…
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Why Your Hispanic Crew Isn’t Speaking Up (And What to Do Instead)
From a Project Executive in the Southeast: Question: One of our primary initiatives is implementing more principles of lean construction on-site. We have been struggling to gather feedback from our Hispanic craftworkers. Any suggestions on how to improve engagement? Answer: Great question. Feedback from the frontline is the fuel that powers lean transformations and the minimization of…
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Power Distance, Caudillos, and the Standards We Set
It was Monday, August 14, 2000. First day on the job, first meeting as a construction professional. The vice president of construction stood at the front of the room, scanning the incoming class of new managers like a man already questioning the job offers he made. “I’ll leave you newbies with two pieces of advice,”…
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From Confusion to Clarity—With a Little Help from Garth Brooks
Over New Year’s, my family and I went on a cruise.On this particular day, the port was Cozumel. The sun was out.The water was clear.The beach was largely empty. Life was good. Then my phone rang. It was my mother-in-law.She was spiraling. “Are you guys okay?” she asked, out of breath. She had just seen…
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The Plaza System—and What Happens When It Breaks
You may have read something interesting recently as The Wall Street Journal reported on an event that doesn’t happen very often. This year, 55 cartel leaders were quietly moved out of Mexican prisons and transferred to the United States. These weren’t low-level thugs. These were the heavy weights, the real jefes at the top of Mexico’s largest criminal organizations.…
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In the War for Talent, Leaders Cannot Make This Unforced Error
Brett Favre may be the simplest example. The NFL had Junior Seau. The NBA has Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama. MLB has Shohei Ohtani and Xander Bogaerts. Even my low hockey IQ recalls Mark Messier and Jonathan Toews. And it’s not just men—Nadia Comăneci and Martina Navratilova qualify too. All share something: phonetically challenging names.…
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Where Are You on Your Journey from Good to Excelente?
Leadership comes down to two things: what you do and what you say. Your cultural awareness shapes your actions. Your awareness of language shapes your words. Together, they form the foundation of trust—the core of leadership, teamwork, and retention. When trust is strong, everything else follows. Productivity improves. Safety improves. So does profitability. But trust doesn’t happen by accident.…
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