Nancy Mueller specializes in international communication. Working with people from varying backgrounds, she helps them build the needed skills to create relationships over cross-cultural divides. From Fortune 500 executives to individuals, Nancy draws upon her love of travel and her globe-trotting experiences to help people break down barriers and better understand their counterparts in both professional and personal circumstances.
Nancy Mueller
Nancy is the author of Work Worldwide: International Career Strategies for the Adventurous Job Seeker. She’s also a Seattle resident and I was able to catch up with her recently for a Q&A.
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Beth: You call yourself a cultural communication expert. Exactly what does that involve?
Nancy: I define “culture” as the habits and behaviors shared by a group of people that make up a way of life and that impact their interactions with others. As a cultural communication expert, I look at the attitudes, habits and behaviors of communication styles and skills that either help us or prevent us from getting the results we want when we interact with others at home or abroad.
Beth: While your work is geared towards the business world, how do you draw upon your travel experiences to implement your methods?
Nancy: One thing I know for sure is that travel expands your life. Traveling opens your mind and your heart to experiencing the world from a new and different perspective. My passion is helping people learn how to get along and understand each other across cultural and global boundaries. All of us have had occasions when our communications break down. I’ve faced those situations when I couldn’t speak the other person’s language but somehow had to find a way to connect in order to make it on time to a business appointment in Milan or to find a bathroom in Paris. I draw on those same skills when I’m working with professionals in corporate America or elsewhere in the world who are trying to express themselves effectively or reach mutual understanding in a challenging situation.
Beth: Tell us about your travel experiences. Where have you traveled and name a couple of highlights.
Nancy: My first international trip was to Cairo, Egypt when I was hired to teach English as a second language at a school in the city. It was a heady experience, and I loved feeling the heat of the desert air on my face as I disembarked the aircraft, and later hearing the calls to prayers over the loudspeakers, catching fragments of French and Arabic among locals. . . But I had completely underestimated the impact of culture shock to which I thought I was immune because of my many years teaching ESL in the U.S. Riding that roller coaster of emotions, from total excitement at being in Cairo to anger when people cut in line ahead of me, was a powerful learning experience.
Of course, my most heart-felt international experience was when my husband and I went to China to adopt our daughter. When my friend asked what the experience had been like upon our return home, I couldn’t respond because the experience was too deep, too rich, too life-altering to put into words. But then I am a speaker, so eventually I was able to convey at least in part what that trip had been like for all of us!
Beth: What personal experiences in your travels made you realize that there was a need for the type of cross-cultural relationship consulting that you do.
Nancy: For the most part, my travel experiences confirm that people are the same wherever we live. We may speak a different language and practice different lifestyles, but we share the same physical and psychological needs of shelter, safety and love, for example. I think that people-to-people, we want to connect and communicate with each other, but our lack of cross-cultural communication skills gets in our way of understanding. With the increasing diversity in our American workplace and the world at our door, our need for opening gateways to international understanding has never been greater.
Beth: Is most of your work corporate or do you also work with individuals, perhaps managers, who want to better their cultural communications skills?
Nancy: I’m a coach as well as corporate training consultant in communication and social skills. Whether I work with individuals outside of work, managers or organizations, my goal is the same: to help professionals get the results they need through effective verbal communication strategies.
Beth: You wrote a book called Work Worldwide. What was the reason for writing such a book and how did you draw upon your own experiences for it?
Nancy: I was teaching a class in international careers, and the impetus for writing my book came when I couldn’t find a resource that explained the process of finding international employment for my students. I found several directories that listed contact names and addresses of international organizations, but nothing that actually described how to go about landing a job abroad. Toni Morrison once said that if you don’t find the book you’re looking for, you need to write that book. So I did! I drew upon my own travel and work experiences abroad, and also conducted in-depth interviews with many professionals working internationally. I also drew upon my consulting work in Europe, teaching communication skills workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada, and traveling to Brazil, Hong Kong and China.
Happy Travels!
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