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About this Episode:

In this episode of The Transformative Leader Podcast, I’m excited to be speaking with speaker, trainer, and intercultural collaboration expert, Vicki Hudson. Vicki is the Chief Collaboration Officer of High Road Global Services, a company that offers skills training and coaching for global virtual teams, expatriates, and leaders across borders. Through High Road, she has brought training and consulting to companies like Procter & Gamble, IHG, UPS, The Home Depot, The Coca Cola Company, NASA, Philips Electronics, Siemens Healthcare, Martin Marietta, and many more. She is the author of the book Zen and the Art of Offshoring: How to Build a Collaborative and Profitable Team with Your Partners in India. Even if you aren’t working with international teams, Vicki’s insights are just as valuable for those of us working across cultures in our own countries, so be sure to check this episode out.

Vicki’s story is supremely fascinating, and her topic of expertise is something that hits close to home for me, as someone who immigrated at a young age and who has lived and worked all over the world. However, I must admit, my international experience pales in comparison to hers! Vicki has lived and/or worked in Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Nepal and Thailand. She developed a knack for riding camels, rickshaws, buses, and cement trucks across the globe, and enduring Indian train rides exceeding fifty-five hours at a time. She has also traveled in several countries including Austria, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, England, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Panama and Singapore. She is an active member of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR), Japan-America Society of Georgia, and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and served on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and TAG’s International Business Society.

It was an honor to speak with someone with such a rare depth of expertise on cross-cultural and intercultural experience. As the world continues to get smaller and smaller, the lessons that Vicki shares become more relevant and invaluable than ever. I know listeners will get so much out of this conversation, so this is another episode that no one should miss!

Some topics discussed in this episode include:

• The fascinating story of how Vicki came to be where she is today (including the time she inadvertently caused a riot/brawl in a Calcutta train station)

• Why cross-cultural competence and global leadership skills are so important for not only workplace culture, but the bottom line as well.

• How learning cross-cultural skills is similar to learning a new musical instrument.

• Why self-awareness and understanding of our biases and prejudices is essential to developing cross-cultural competence.

• And more…

Vicki Flier Hudson is the Chief Collaboration Officer of Highroad Global Services, which helps people and organizations work at their best across borders, distance, time, and mindsets. Vicki is a certified DISC practitioner and a certified Driving Forces Analyst. She is also a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), a certified facilitator of the Cultural Detective methodology and a trained coach through CTI (Coaches Training Institute). Vicki has been featured on NBC News, and her articles have been published in a variety of magazines.

Guest Links:

There’s no way I could do justice to Vicki’s extensive and fascinating bio on this page, so I encourage listeners to check out the About page of her website to learn more about her and her work. Be sure to also check the Resources page, which has assessments, free reports, videos, and links relevant to cross-cultural collaboration. You can connect with Vicki on LinkedIn and by emailing her at vicki@highroaders.com.

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