Have you heard the expression "people are people and business is business"?  Today this phrase is an antiquated illustration of a bygone era. Our workplace is now global, not only local, and what one culture believes in can be very different from another.

Understanding cultural differences used to be something that was kept at a distance, but now everyone has to keep up with shifting trends and the complexities of being employed in a diverse workforce.

In the book Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success by David Livermore, it highlights that the missing piece to success is having awareness and knowledge of what Livermore calls cultural intelligence or CQ.

Similar to IQ (Intelligence Quotient) CQ is rooted in research from over 25 countries and has been tested in business and education sectors. According to Livermore, there is solid proof that CQ is valuable because it affects the understanding of diversity, leadership style and how you communicate respect. Livermore outlines numerous cultural values in his book and highlights the following two as the most important:

1.Time Orientation.

Not all cultures share North America's obsession with punctuality. Some cultures are more interested in emphasizing the priority of social relationships, thus meetings and events simply begin and end when everyone feels the time is right rather than artificially imposing clock time.  

2. Power Distance.

This refers to how far apart leaders and followers feel from each other. Cultures that score high in power distance offer a great deal of formal respect to leaders, job titles and status, and it is expected that leaders are entitled to specific privileges. Cultures with a low power distance believe that everyone should have equal rights and can question and challenge the views of others.  

According to Livermore, business is not simply business anymore. It is global, not just local, and CQ is the secret to career success for everyone. Today cultural differences are no longer kept at a distance but instead are right beside each of us every day.