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Deepak Gupta my SUCCESS! my CHOICE
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real challenge, however, is not ignorance of the concepts, but of practicing them; inconsistent practice

is what makes it difficult and challenging. I do agree about need for education and training though,

around ‘Think’, ‘Feel’, ‘Nonverbals’ and ‘Ask’.”

Ron paused, allowing Dan to assimilate this very crucial message, and then added, “Now that you

understand the concepts, I am sure that you can practice them. Remember, it all begins with ‘Feel’ and

‘Think’!”

“Thanks Ron. I am now much better equipped and committed to practice them consistently.”

“Before we end today, I want to go back to something you said a while ago which is rather

important.” Ron said.

Dan seemed lost; he could not recall what he had said that could be so important. His expressions

said it all. Looking at him, Ron smiled and added, “If I recall correctly you said something, and I

paraphrase -- language fluency is considered the yardstick of good or bad communication.” Seeing

Dan nod, Ron continued, “you have unknowingly raised an important point, though about a slightly

different angle of communication; about challenges of cross-cultural communication that adds a new

dimension to what we have discussed so far. Few examples will help you understand this better.”

“In China, we were finding it difficult to assess communication skills of the candidates because the

interviews were conducted in English. We were unable to determine whether poor communication

was because of English proficiency or communication problems. We thought of a solution and started

requesting local Chinese co-panelists to ask one question in Mandarin. The purpose was to assess how

well they communicated in their mother tongue. It was not surprising that communication

effectiveness of many candidates improved dramatically as soon as foreign language barrier was