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Management & Leadership vocabulary · Leadership Styles and Skills

Cultural intelligence

Meaning in management & leadership, with examples

nounCommon term

In management & leadership, cultural intelligence means: The capability to understand and function effectively in situations involving different cultural backgrounds.

In Turkish: kültürel zekâ

How it is used

Often shortened to CQ; use for learning and adapting across cultures rather than memorising national stereotypes.

Example sentences

  1. Cultural intelligence helped the manager ask how disagreement was expressed in the new team.

    The manager investigates local practice instead of assuming familiar signals have identical meanings.

  2. The assignment developed her cultural intelligence through reflection on unfamiliar working expectations.

    Experience becomes useful when it is examined and applied to future interactions.

Common collocations

  • develop cultural intelligence
  • cultural intelligence training
  • emotional intelligenceThe ability to notice, understand and manage your own emotions, and to recognise and respond well to the emotions of other people.
  • leadershipThe ability to guide a group of people towards a shared goal, and the act of doing so, through example, influence and clear direction rather than authority alone.

More terms: Leadership Styles and Skills

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