Welcome to Bending Culture!
Elena Malkova
Cross-Cultural Communication & Collaboration Expert | Empowering Inclusive Leadership & Multicultural Team Success | Speaker on Cultural Diversity & Productivity
Ever feel like workplace diversity is just a buzzword? ??
It’s not.
In today’s globalized world, it’s the secret sauce to thriving teams, creative solutions, and fresh perspectives.
Here in the Netherlands alone, 1 in 10 workers comes from outside the country. That’s over 800,000 people bringing new ideas, experiences, and viewpoints that can propel innovation—or, if mishandled, lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and roadblocks.
That is why I deeply believe in importance of developing this (relatively) new soft skill – cultural intelligence , CQ.
CQ is a set of capabilities to adopt to and effectively function in cultural diverse settings, what our work surroundings are quickly becoming.
So this blog is my modest contribution to increasing of awareness and developing of CQ.
That is nice to know, Elena, but what’s in it for me?
If you’re a manager, HR leader, or anyone navigating a multicultural workplace, Bending Culture is here to help you make sense of it all. This isn’t just about avoiding cultural clashes (though that’s a bonus); it’s about harnessing the power of diversity for real, measurable success. Each newsletter will offer practical, tested tips to help you transform cultural differences from challenges into your organization’s greatest strength.
But what makes you think that you are the right person for the job?
A bit about me—I’ve been living and breathing cultural diversity for 30 years, since I first moved to the Netherlands and jumped into international sales and management. Since then, I’ve seen firsthand how cultural diversity can shape a team, for better or worse. Now, I work with organizations to unlock the full potential of inclusive workplaces, turning cultural challenges into sustainable success stories.
If you’re ready to lead in a world that’s more connected—and more culturally diverse—than ever, join me on this journey. Subscribe, learn, laugh (maybe at a few of my own culture-shock moments and f…-ups!), and discover how to make diversity work for you.
And hey, if you know anyone else who’d benefit from fresh insights on inclusive leadership, forward this along. The more, the merrier (and for sure more diverse)!