ABSTRACT
Coaches and mentors often work abroad, for multinational companies or in their home country with people from different backgrounds. Coaches and coachees from different cultural backgrounds have a great learning opportunity. But it is all too easy to waste the opportunity by failing to recognise, accept and value those differences. Maintaining a dialogue about difference is an important part of relationship management. We recommend that coaches actively explore these issues, using the dimensions of culture below. This section provides some helpful questions to begin a conversation around each of the cultural dimensions. Talking these through will quickly give rise to other questions, which should help both coach and coachee build understanding of where their perceptions and expectations coincide and differ. The skilled coach will also aim to stimulate stories and examples from daily life that will bring the cultural differences to life and show how they are relevant to the learning process.
