Hospitality and guest satisfaction is a people business. Above all, it’s about people serving people, which equates to guest satisfaction. Therefore, if guest search reviews and ratings for your establishment are less than positive, you could see a decline in registrations and a decrease in your bottom line before you can say, “TripAdvisor”. Most hotel…
Effective Communication: The “It” Factor for Diverse Teams
One of the biggest challenges in any organization is effective communication. It is a skill that has to be learned by each member of the organization for communication to be effective. A lot goes into whether communication is effective or not, including knowing your audience, using the right medium, understanding and respecting differing communication styles,…
Employee Engagement in a Diverse Workforce
On a good day in HR, employee engagement is tricky. Working with different individuals who have different passions, come from different backgrounds, and view work differently presents many challenges in keeping a workforce engaged. This becomes even more of a challenge when we throw in a diverse workforce. For me, the bottom line in employee…
Gender Roles Across Cultures
If you live in the world today, you’ve inevitably seen how interactions and expectations can differ depending on the culture and gender with whom you’re working. Leaving aside the issues that may come up with language, there are many other unspoken factors that come into play when trying to communicate across cultures and genders. Knowing…
What is Cultural Competence?
Cultural competency has long been cited as one of the essential business leadership skills of this century– but some are still asking the question, “What exactly is cultural competence? What does it look like?” Cultural competence is simply the ability to communicate- both effectively and appropriately- with those of various cultural backgrounds. This ability, often…
A Personal Approach: The Case for Individualized Language Training
Everyone who has ever taken a foreign language course throughout their education can attest to the fact that learning a language is a difficult endeavor. Many people spend years in their secondary education taking courses in French, or Spanish, or German…. Only to be able to recite rudimentary greetings in a rigidly formal style. The…
Crashing into the Cultural Iceberg
Culture. We all have it. When most people think of culture, they think of the usual suspects: language, art, cinema, etc. But this only scratches the surface and might not say much about how you carry your culture with you in your most basic interactions. It truly is just the tip of the iceberg. The…
Government Language Needs: Shaped by a Changing World
“When art has changed, it’s because the world was changing.” –Corita Kent, creator of the “Love” stamp and activist Who knew that government procurement shared this quality with art? As the world changes, the government’s need for languages services also evolves. This means that LTC continually adapts its service offerings to keep up with the…
Bridging Gaps in Workplace Communication
With the increase of globalization in the workplace, clear and effective communication has never been more necessary. We cross several language and cultural boundaries when we step into our offices every day. Because of this, an understanding of language and culture can be vital in many areas of the business world, and Human Resources is…
The Benefit of Cross Cultural Training
One of the many exciting things about working at LTC is getting the opportunity to provide cross cultural trainings. These blocks of trainings cover cultural intelligence or CQ, provide an overview of understanding of human interaction and behavior, and are tailored to each organization’s needs. Some trainings are as short as two hours and others…