You can watch this episode in our YouTube channel here

Why do talented people from non-Western backgrounds get overlooked in Western-led organisations – even when they're doing great work?

In this episode of Cultural Friction, I talk with Biljana Tasetovikj, founder of Invisible Rules. Biljana spent 18 years in international education, including running a U.S. State Department cultural programme, and helped Macedonian students secure more than $5.1M in scholarships. Then, five years into her role, a promotion was turned down – and she started to notice the unwritten rules she'd been missing.

We talk about:
• The long emails that buried her request – and the two-line replies from her bosses
• Why being exposed to another culture doesn't make you good at working across it
• The silent room: why people from some cultures wait to be asked before they speak
• What managers often misread as "passive" or "disengaged"
• Practical steps for Western managers leading teams from the Balkans and Eastern Europe
• The hidden cost of cultural friction – people bringing only half of themselves to work

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CONNECT WITH BILJANA
🌐 Invisible Rules: https://theinvisiblerules.com/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biljana-kuzmanovska-tasetovikj/
📅 Book a free session with Biljana: https://cal.com/biljana-tasetovikj-wblqwh/30min
✍️ Substack: https://invisiblerules.substack.com/

CONNECT WITH BRENDAN
🌐 https://brendanthomasquinn.com
Cross-cultural communication workshops, multicultural team training and leadership advisory for organisations working across cultures.

CHAPTERS (approximate)
Introduction
How Biljana got into international education
The promotion that revealed the invisible rules
Exposure isn't a skill
Relationship first vs task first – and planning a year ahead
Adapting without losing yourself
What non-Western professionals often misread
The silent room
Advice for Western managers
The hidden cost of cultural friction
How to find Biljana and Invisible Rules

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all podcast apps – search "Cultural Friction".

Subscribe for new episodes on leading culturally diverse teams.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

You have two strong candidates for one team lead role. You promote the one who speaks up and asks for it. Eight months later, the other one resigns.

Mark speaks in every meeting, talks about his results and has asked twice about the next step. Sofia speaks less, notices what everyone else missed, and is the person her colleagues go to when they’re stuck. She has never asked about promotion. We promote Mark. It feels like an easy decision.

In this episode, Brendan Thomas Quinn explains promotion bias in multicultural teams. He covers why we trust people who remind us of ourselves, how confidence in the working language gets mistaken for ability, and how individualist, collectivist and high power distance work cultures teach people different rules for showing good work. He also looks at what promotion bias costs the business over the following year, and gives four moves to make your next promotion decision fairer.

The person who waits to be asked still wants the role.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open: one role, two strong people
00:45 Intro and today’s themes
01:45 The friction: Mark, Sofia and the promotion decision
07:00 Reason one: we trust what feels familiar (affinity bias)
08:30 Reason two: confidence is easy to mistake for ability
09:45 Reason three: different rules for showing good work
11:45 What we were missing, and what it costs
13:00 Move one: define the role before we look at the people
14:15 Move two: collect evidence from outside the meeting room
15:30 Move three: ask about ambition directly, and in private
16:45 Move four: check our own pattern, and get a second view
18:00 The one thing

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https://brendanthomasquinn.com/leadership-programme/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=cf-promotion-bias

LINKS
Episode page: https://brendanthomasquinn.com/cultural-friction-podcast/promotion-bias/
Full article: https://brendanthomasquinn.com/promotion-bias-multicultural-teams/
Cultural Friction newsletter: https://brendanthomasquinn.com/cultural-friction/

If you don’t want to miss the next episode, follow the show wherever you’re listening.

Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay

SOURCES

• Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and Women of the Corporation. Basic Books.
• Rivera, L. A. (2012). Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms. American Sociological Review, 77(6), 999–1022.
• Neeley, T. B. (2013). Language Matters: Status Loss and Achieved Status Distinctions in Global Organizations. Organization Science, 24(2), 476–497.
• House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W. & Gupta, V. (2004). Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Sage.
• Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

The Local Team Knew the Deal Wouldn't Work

Head office makes a confident decision. A new market, a price and a partner. The regional team can see straight away that it won't work in their market. Either nobody asks them, or they say so once and nothing changes. Five months later the launch has failed, and it turns out the people in that market knew from the start.

Meet Daniel, a commercial director at head office who's good at his job, and Ana, who has run the regional office for six years. Ana sees the plan for the first time on a call two weeks before launch. She knows the price is too high, the partner has a bad name locally, and the launch date falls in the quietest month of the year. She raises it in the clearest way she can in that room. Daniel hears a small detail and parks it. Neither of them is wrong, given what each of them knew.

We look at why the company pays for a failure like this twice, and at the two reasons the knowledge never reaches the decision. First, where the decision rights sit: decisions are made at the centre, and there's no real way for what the region knows to travel up in time. Second, power distance: telling head office plainly that its plan won't work carries a real cost, so most people say it once, carefully, and then stop.

Then what we can do about it, in two halves. First, when we ask and how we ask: bring the region in before the decision, and ask the people who know specific questions. Second, what happens to the answer: make it safe to disagree, and tell people what happened to their input, even when we decided differently.

The company had the answer the whole time. It just never reached the people making the decision.

IN THIS EPISODE
(0:00) The local team knew from the start
(0:40) Today's problem
(1:00) Daniel, Ana and the launch call
(3:50) What each of them understood
(5:20) Why the company pays twice
(6:40) Reason one: where the decision rights sit
(8:20) Reason two: power distance
(9:55) Why Ana said it once, softly, and then stopped
(12:15) What to do, part one: when we ask and how we ask
(15:20) What to do, part two: what happens to the answer
(18:15) THE ONE THING
(18:55) Work with Brendan

WORK WITH BRENDAN
If regional initiatives keep failing for reasons your local teams saw coming, that's exactly the kind of thing I work through one-to-one with leaders: advisory, coaching and workshops. You can find out more about the work I do at brendanthomasquinn.com, and you can also find me on LinkedIn.

If you don't want to miss the next episode, hit subscribe wherever you're listening.

MUSIC
Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay

SOURCES
Bartlett, C. A. & Ghoshal, S. (1989). Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution. Harvard Business School Press.
Detert, J. R. & Edmondson, A. C. (2011). Implicit Voice Theories: Taken-for-Granted Rules of Self-Censorship at Work. Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 461–488.
Browaeys, M.-J. & Price, R. (2019). Understanding Cross-Cultural Management. Pearson.
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill.


Chapter times are approximate.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Why Our Best Regional Hire Leaves Sooner Than We Think

We hired well. It took them the best part of a year to find their feet — and then, just as they got good, they resigned. The exit interview said "a better opportunity," so it went in the file under money. It usually wasn't money.

This episode is about the person every international team has: the one who ends up as the bridge between head office and the local team. They're the one we ring before a difficult call. The one who explains each side to the other and quietly sorts out the misunderstandings, usually before we've noticed there was anything to sort out. None of it is in their job description, and none of it is in their review.

We look at the two forces that push that person out, neither of which gets measured anywhere. First, the second, unwritten job they're doing — what researchers call cultural brokerage — where the only reward for being good at the bridge is more bridging. Second, the small signals that tell someone they belong: asked first, copied in, credited by name, hearing the news when everyone else does. Those signals rarely reach the person furthest from head office, and nobody withholds them on purpose. Put the two together and the person carrying the most is the person feeling the least secure. Then a recruiter calls, and the pitch isn't more money — it's someone finally giving the work a name.

Then four things we can do about it this week, none of which costs anything: name the bridge work and count it, share the load, fix the belonging signals on purpose, and check in early and regularly rather than finding out in the exit interview.

The people most worth keeping are the least likely to complain.

IN THIS EPISODE
(0:00) We hired well — and four months after they got good, they resigned
(1:00) Today's problem
(1:15) The person who became the bridge between head office and the region
(3:30) What it really costs us when they leave
(5:00) Reason one: the second job nobody wrote down
(8:00) Reason two: the belonging signals that don't reach them
(10:30) Why the two combine — and why the recruiter's pitch works
(12:00) Move one: name the bridge work, and count it
(13:15) Move two: share the load
(14:30) Move three: fix the belonging signals on purpose
(15:45) Move four: check in early and regularly
(17:00) THE ONE THING
(17:45) Work with Brendan

WORK WITH BRENDAN
If this is a live issue for your team right now, that's exactly the kind of thing I work through one-to-one with leaders — advisory, coaching and workshops. You can find out more about the work I do at brendanthomasquinn.com, and you can also find me on LinkedIn.

If you don't want to miss the next episode, hit subscribe wherever you're listening.

MUSIC
Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay

SOURCES
Coyle, D. (2018). The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. Bantam.
Molinsky, A. (2013). Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures Without Losing Yourself in the Process. Harvard Business Review Press.
Jang, S. (2017). Cultural Brokerage and Creative Performance in Multicultural Teams. Organization Science, 28(6), 993–1009.

Source article: brendanthomasquinn.com/retaining-international-hires-multicultural-teams/

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Two Companies Merged. Two Cultures Didn't.

The deal closed. The org chart was redrawn. On paper, two companies became one. So why, eighteen months on, are there still two of everything — two systems, two chat channels, two sets of people who quietly stick to their own side?

In this episode we look at why so many mergers stall without anyone noticing, and why "we're one company now" so often isn't true. A merger isn't one team with a mix of people in it — it's two whole teams pushed together, each arriving complete with its own tools, habits and trusted colleagues. So they sit side by side instead of becoming one. It's a quiet stall that costs real money, and it won't close on its own.

You'll get four practical, structural moves to weaken the divide — plus the one idea to take away: we don't get rid of a divide by pretending it isn't there; we weaken it by building things that cross it.

Cultural Friction with Brendan Thomas Quinn — twenty minutes, one real problem, and what we can actually do about it. If this is live on your team, find out more at brendanthomasquinn.com, and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Cultural stereotypes at work rarely arrive as prejudice. They arrive as preparation — and that's exactly what makes them so hard to spot.

You did the reading. A new colleague was joining from a region you hadn't worked with much, so you learned what to expect and adjusted: softened your delivery, slowed the meeting down, held back the direct question. Then you met them, and none of it fit. The careful accommodation you'd built landed as hesitancy, and it took weeks to work out what had gone wrong.

The guide wasn't lying to you. It was describing an average. You were dealing with a person.

This episode unpicks why even the most diligent, well-prepared leaders walk into this — and what to do instead:

• What cultural frameworks actually measure — populations, not the person in your Tuesday meeting
• The ecological fallacy, and why the variation within any country dwarfs the gap between countries
• "Sophisticated stereotyping" — why a stereotype built from real research is harder to shake than a crude one, because we defend it instead of dropping it
• Four moves you can start this week: hold the framework as a hypothesis not a conclusion, ask people directly how they like to work, widen the explanations you reach for before culture, and update fast — out loud

The frameworks earn their place when they make you curious. They cost you when they make you certain.

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If cultural friction is a live issue for your team right now, that's exactly the kind of thing I work through with leaders one-to-one — advisory, coaching and workshops. Find out more at brendanthomasquinn.com.

New here? Hit follow so you don't miss the next episode.

References: Osland & Bird (2000), "Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping"; Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov (2010), Cultures and Organisations; Gerhart & Fang (2005); Robinson (1950); Meyer (2014), The Culture Map.

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

You wrote the process down. Everyone agreed to it. And still — half your team follows it to the letter while the other half treats it as a helpful suggestion, and both sides are quietly deciding the other lot are the problem.

This episode is about why. Meet Claire and two of her best people: Kenji in Osaka, who follows every step every time, and Rafa in São Paulo, who skips the review to rescue a client in a panic. Both are doing their honest best. Both are certain they're the sensible one — and the trust between them is quietly draining away.

Drawing on Michele Gelfand's research into "tight" and "loose" cultures, we unpick why the same rule reads as a binding promise to one person and a sensible default to another, why enforcing harder (or relaxing everything) both backfire, and four moves you can start this week to turn the divide from a fault line into a real strength.

It looks like a discipline problem. It almost never is. Here's what to build instead.

Work with Brendan: If this is a live issue for your team right now, it's exactly the kind of thing I work through one-to-one with leaders — advisory, coaching and workshops. More at https://brendanthomasquinn.com

Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay.

Sources: Gelfand et al., Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study (2011) · Gelfand, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers (2018)

Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes.

Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it.

And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.