On July 11-12 and July 12-13, 2019, at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute, Aspen Institute Romania brought for the first time to the Romanian participants the leadership training course “Leading across cultures”, offered in two 1 day and a half sessions for two different groups of leaders from the public sector, diplomacy, foreign affairs, communication, business.

The trainer was Prof. Guido Gianasso, PhD, Professor of Global Leadership, Associate Dean at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

The global economy and megatrends present many opportunities and challenges for leaders in the public and corporate sectors. Romanian leaders – whether working in the public or private sectors – need to develop a repertoire of strategic leadership capabilities to remain effective. One of the most important capabilities needed is cultural intelligence (CQ) – the ability to function effectively across a variety of cultural contexts.

The “Leading across cultures” course was meant to equip participants with a three-step process (self-awareness, cultural mapping and style switching) that would enable them to work more effectively across cultural boundaries globally and particularly in the growing Asian markets. Also, the purpose of the course was to help the participants understand culture and discern its different dimensions and the underlying assumptions of one’s own cultural perspective and enhance their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in managing cross‐cultural situations.

We thank KPMG Romania and the Romanian Diplomatic Institute for their support in organizing the first edition of the “Leading across cultures” leadership training course for the Romanian participants.