How Leaders Can Turn Cultural Misunderstandings Into Stronger Teams

“I don’t like him. He’s rude.” That was the chatter I was hearing about our newest hire, an IT whiz from Ankara in my native Turkey. 

Dismayed as I was to hear this assessment, I wasn’t totally surprised. The person who made it was American; exactly the sort of eternally upbeat, outgoing person the country’s reputation is built upon. Our new hire, on the other hand, was more introverted and subdued — he was polite, but not overly focused on pleasantries. 

What was happening here wasn’t a difference in personality as much as culture. I experienced this myself when I first moved to the U.S. — people were so friendly, it was almost unnerving. It took me a while to realize the friendliness wasn’t fake. Nor was it the same thing as closeness. Americans will ask how you’re doing, mean it for the few seconds it takes to respond and move on. In Turkey, you don’t ask unless you have the time to actually hear the answer. It took time for me to understand this and adapt to it. 

Jotform has offices across five countries; even within those offices, our teams are incredibly diverse. Our strength comes from our differing backgrounds and perspectives, but they can also lead to moments of friction, like the one with our new hire. As leaders, it’s incumbent on us to build a culture that leverages these differences rather than suffers from them. Here’s how. 

Hire open-minded people

Hiring is one of the areas I refuse to delegate completely — it’s just too important. By the time we’ve narrowed the field to a handful of candidates for a position, it’s clear that any one of them has the qualifications needed to do the job well. But when making a final hiring decision, I want to learn more about how they think. 

One of the key qualities I always look for? Open-mindedness. 

Open-minded people don’t assume their default way of thinking is automatically the right one. When something collides with their perspective, they don’t dismiss it — they want to know more. 

To find this, I like to ask candidates to tell me about a time they were proven wrong. Do they get defensive and shift blame, or do they walk me through what changed their mind? The answer tells me whether they’ll bring that same flexibility to a teammate who does things differently than they expect.

Get your teams together 

There are several reasons that I have my teams work in-office, not the least of which is that remote workers tend to struggle more with isolation and stress than onsite workers, and experience lower overall well-being. 

That’s in part because so much is lost when we interact only through screens. Nonverbal communication, like body language and tone of voice, make up the bulk of how we present ourselves to others, much of which get flattened out online. If you recall the feeling of emptiness and exhaustion that often accompanied a pandemic-era online happy hour or team-building exercise, you know what I’m talking about. 

At my company, we have what we call Jotformers Week, in which employees from nearly two dozen countries gather together for several days of camaraderie. And because no one likes forced fun, we ask what would make the experience meaningful for participants, ensuring everyone has a say in how the time is spent. 

These retreats build a sense of cohesion, filling in the gaps that time and distance tend to create. A tone that seemed cold over Slack gets clarified over dinner. A silence that may have seemed disagreement turns out to be the way someone gathers their thoughts. Our American team quickly found out that our new Turkish IT hire only seems stern; he actually has a quietly wicked sense of humor that regularly has the group in stitches. 

Making time for in-person team building is an expense, to be sure. But having your employees feel genuinely connected, even across oceans? That’s priceless. 

Leave less room for interpretation

In the absence of information, people will make it up, the saying goes. Ambiguity tends to breed misunderstandings, which can quickly erode the culture you’ve worked so hard to create. 

Don’t leave room for misinterpretation. Write down what your company stands for, and make sure everyone sees it. Reinforce it regularly in visible forums like company-wide newsletters and all-hands calls. 

Also, be clear about expectations. At Jotform, I encourage employees to sign off on nights and weekends. When they take PTO, I tell them to delete Slack off their phones and truly take time to refresh and recharge. This way, no one has to spend their family vacation stressing about whether they’re expected to check in — they already have the answer, no interpretation or guessing needed. 

Not only does this practice create a sense of psychological safety, it also closes the gap where cultural misunderstanding tends to take root. The rule is just the rule, the same for everyone reading it. 

Misunderstandings happen, especially when you have a culturally diverse team. Good leaders encourage their employees to approach differences with curiosity, create opportunities for team-building and reduce ambiguity.

“I don’t like him. He’s rude.” That was the chatter I was hearing about our newest hire, an IT whiz from Ankara in my native Turkey. 

Dismayed as I was to hear this assessment, I wasn’t totally surprised. The person who made it was American; exactly the sort of eternally upbeat, outgoing person the country’s reputation is built upon. Our new hire, on the other hand, was more introverted and subdued — he was polite, but not overly focused on pleasantries. 

What was happening here wasn’t a difference in personality as much as culture. I experienced this myself when I first moved to the U.S. — people were so friendly, it was almost unnerving. It took me a while to realize the friendliness wasn’t fake. Nor was it the same thing as closeness. Americans will ask how you’re doing, mean it for the few seconds it takes to respond and move on. In Turkey, you don’t ask unless you have the time to actually hear the answer. It took time for me to understand this and adapt to it.