Unit 16

ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME, KEY ACTION 2
CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Furthering International Relations Capacities and Intercultural Engagement to

Nurture Campus Diversity and to Support Internationalisation at Home
(FRIENDS)
Unit 16: Business etiquette and protocol: Do’s and Don’ts when
conducting business in specific cultures/countries
Part 1
Mgr. Paulina Kuzior
TRANSCRIPT
Hello everyone and welcome to the last MOOC from the Silesian University of Technology in
Poland amongst Intercultural communication skills. Let me introduce myself. My name is
Paulina. I am a lawyer and a sociologist, a PhD Student at the Silesian University of
Technology. I am a founding member of two associations: the Polish Society for Technology
Assessment, and the Silesian Center for Business Ethics and Sustainable Development. I
currently work in an Advocate Office in Katowice, Poland and am preparing a PhD. thesis on
“Minors as perpetrators of cybercrime”. My scientific interests are mainly: forensic sciences,
criminal law, including economic criminal law, as well as some elements of psychology.
This chapter will discuss business etiquette and protocol. The following will be touched
upon: issues related to self-presentation, priority rules, rules for seating guests during
meetings, business dress code, as well as rules for preparing correspondence (including
electronic correspondence). Business habits in individual countries are discussed, such as
exchanging business cards. The listeners will be able also to learn about language differences
and their importance in business communication, including the issue of so-called “false
friends”. There will be also shown some business fun facts, informing about things that we
usually don't think about. We will also discuss the role and importance of non-verbal
communication. To make the topic not only theoretical, we have asked some businessmen a
few questions about business etiquette in their companies. Our interviewees are CEOs o r
high-level managers, who deal with business etiquette issues all the time. Please meet James
Hamilton, VP Operations & Controller in PubNub Inc., San Francisco, USA and Jack
Newcombe, Co-Founder and CEO in New & Co., Los Angeles, USA.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 1
Business etiquette contains written norms regulating the way in which – of moral point of
view – people should behave, while doing business matter. It is a code of conduct, a set of
behaviors which are used to prove being a professional, being a person who can behave
properly in business situations, who is a subject of trust. When it comes to business etiquette,
there are some rules that shall not be broken. It may not be obvious, but still many companies
apply their internal codes of conduct and require from their employees to behave in an
appropriate way.
Usually there is also a special business protocol, which is created on the basis of the
diplomatic protocol, and implemented into business relations. It is a set of rules enabling
understanding our interlocutor. The protocol regulates the mutual contacts of high level
people. Is part of international diplomacy and courtesy. Sometimes the protocol is being used
interchangeably with the etiquette.
We should also point to savoir-vivre, which are the rules of cultural behavior in social
situations. Savoir-vivre is not about obeying some strict social rules, it is about paying
attention to own and others’ needs. We should be able to express ourselves freely, but we
always have to remember that we must not violate the comfort of others. We shall present
ourselves in such a way that interlocutors can easily understand our intentions.
Now that we already know what exactly is business etiquette and protocol, it’s time to show
you some details. Have you ever wondered who should say “hello” as first? Have you heard
about the language differences that might affect your speech? Are you sure that you know,
what the non-verbal communication consists of? All this, and even more, we are going to
show you right in a moment.
Business etiquette consists of many more elements than just what we have to say to the other
party. Equally important, or – shall we better say – even much more important, is how we
present ourselves and how we behave, meaning how our interlocutor will see us. It is almost
impossible to show all issues of business etiquette and protocol, that is why we will focus on
a few most important of them.
First of all – greeting and starting conversation. One may say – it doesn’t matter who is the
first to say hello and welcome the others. Well, in business relations it is of great importance.
In Asian countries a common greeting is a bow. All European and North American countries
use a greeting in a form of light and short shaking hands. It is usually assumed that we shake
right hands. But there are some situations when people shake hands with their left hand. For
some eastern or African countries, such behavior might be offensive, because they left hand
is perceived by them as impure. But in Europe it does not have any negative meaning and it
may happen, that people, who are left-handed, will almost automatically reach out their left
hand, as a dominative one, to shake someone else’s hand. However the rule is, that in
business relations people shake right hands.
Most of the countries prefer shaking hands five to seven times. But in the other ones,
including Poland, it should rather be two to three times. Shaking hands for a longer time may
cause discomfort, so it is not allowed to hold someone’s hand, when they want to take it back.
FUN FACT: Did you know that in Poland it is still quite common, that a man kisses a woman’s
hand in greetings? It is a sign of respect and the man shows that he is gallant. Although it
does not happen as often, as it used to fifty years ago, it still can be an expression of courtesy.
Nowadays, however, such behavior can put a woman in an ambiguous situation, reducing
her business role, so in business situations men should avoid kissing women’s hands.
How to address people in different situations? If we do not know much about the person who
we are talking to, we should address them according to the general courtesy forms. That
means that we should use forms like “Dear Mr. (name)” or “Dear Sir”. But if our interlocutors
have some academic titles, we should use them, so we should say “Dear Professor (name)”.
The situation looks the same when addressing people who have professional titles. Then we
should say for example “Dear Counsellor” or “Dear Doctor”.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In some languages there are additional spoken forms including Mr. and
Mrs. In Poland and in Germany it is very important to address people as formal as it could
be, so while speaking Polish or German we should use the more polite versions of addressing
someone. That means that in such situations it is better to say “Dear Mr. Professor”, which in
Polish would be “Szanowny Panie Profesorze”.
When we are introducing a person to a wider audience we should use the person’s titles.
That means it is better to say “Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet Professor Smith” than
“please meet Mr. Smith”. However if Professor Smith was introducing himself, he should
rather say “Hello everyone, my name is John Smith” than “my name is Professor John Smith”.
What he might say, if he wants to tell others about his title, could be “My name is John Smith,
I am the Professor of University ABC”. It is very important to introduce the “unknown”, new
person to others, so when a new person shows up, he or she should be shown around.
Let us check how it really looks like in business.
Question: How does the on-boarding process look like in your company? Are the new people
in the company introduced to the already existing team?
James: I can say in general, yeah, it will vary slightly from office to office. But the idea is that,
you know, when they come into the office, they're welcomed and shown around, shown
where they're sitting, they're usually spending the first a little bit of time, like just getting
their technology, which they need, pretty much straight away to be able to interact on email
and Slack and all the key ways of communication. We do a company announcements for any
new employee or contractor, welcoming them, telling them a little bit about themselves. And
then each, you know, we have a certain set of onboarding tasks from like IT and HR. We set
up like boot camps, which are, we'll gather like new employees together and we'll talk
through different, say HR topics and then, outside of that, when we will do, teams will
actually have their own onboarding plans for getting them up to speed. We'd like to make
sure, like everybody has what we call like a 30, 60, 90 plan. So what are the expectations in
the first 30 days? Next 60 and 90 days. As a, as a kind of ramp ups so that they know that
they're on track, if there's anything they can, if they're meeting certain goals, then they're
doing a good job.
Jack: When I hire, it's very difficult to get a job. It's difficult to get an interview. It's difficult
to get a job. And then once you get your foot in the door, we try to set people up to succeed.
So train them, coach them up, give them feedback early so that they can do a good job going
forward. A lot of other companies, it'll be easy to get a job and then it's sort of a, a mentality
of well, either you can do the work or you can’t. We spent a lot of time and effort and
resources on the front end of finding really good people and then, trying to train them and
coach them up, going forward. So I think it's very important. I think for the first, you know,
first month is critical. First three months are really important for six months even beyond
that, they can start to kind of spread their wings and fly. But it's super important and the
responsibilities on the company to train them, coach them up as much as possible because
we've done so much work on the front end before they get in the door here.
The same rules of addressing people apply in preparing business correspondence. When
writing a formal letter or e-mail, we should start it with “Dear Sir”, “Dear Mr. Smith” etc. and
end it with “yours sincerely or yours faithfully” or “kind regards”. It is not advised to use
emoticons in formal correspondence, so we should avoid putting smileys into what we are
writing. We also should not use abbreviations. The person that we are writing to cannot
wonder what we meant, our message shall be clear and factual. And we shall remember to
always check the e-mails for spelling and grammar errors, before actually sending them.
FUN FACT. Did you know that…? In the United States there are 11 million meetings held each
day on average. That adds up quickly to 55 million a week and 220 million a month. By the
end of the year, the meeting total is well over a billion.
FUN FACT: Did you know that the time employees spend in meetings has risen around 10%
each year, since 2000? This means, that we are more attentive during the meetings, listen
more carefully and ask more questions to be answered.
When speaking with people from other countries or other cultural areas, we have to watch
our language. Some things which for us are nothing special, for others may be naughty or
offensive. Such words, which sound similar, but have way different meaning in different
languages, are called “false friends”. We will now present you some “false friends” in Polish,
in comparison with other languages.
The most interesting differences that every Pole will tell you when asked, are two words.
First of them comes mainly from German, but it also appears in the same meaning in other
languages. The word is: die Kurve. It means a bend. In English however there is a similar
sounding word – curve. These two words do not mean anything bad. But in Polish there is a
word “kurwa”, which in fact is a curse. So beware of using this word in front of Polish people,
because you might get wrong.
The other well-known difference is Polish word “szukać”. It means “to search” or “to look
for”. Therefore Poles usually use this word when they are looking for somebody or trying to
find a way somewhere. But it becomes dangerous when Polish people go to Czechia or
Slovakia and try use this word for anything. In these languages there is a word written
“šukať”. Slovak letter “š” is pronounced the same way as Polish “sz”. But the literal translation
of this word in Slovak or Czech means “to fuck”. So a person who would like to say “I am
looking for Anna”, should avoid using “szukam Anny” while traveling to these countries.
There are many more interesting words, which sound or look similar, but mean something
totally different. We will show you a few quick examples:
English word “preservative” in Polish means “konserwant”. But Polish word “prezerwatywa”
means “a condom” in English. Polish word “droga”, which means “a road”, in Croatian means
“a drug”. Russian word “чашка” (read as čaška) means “a teacup”, but the same sounding
Polish word “czaszka” means “a skull”. English word “embarrassed” is similar to Spanish
“embarazada”, which is translated as “pregnant”. English word “kitchen” is similar to German
“Kittchen”, but the literal translation from German would be “jail”. Danish word “Tag” means
“thank you”. It sound similar to Polish “tak”, which means “yes”. English word “dress” in
Polish means “sukienka”. But there is a Polish word “dres”, which means “a tracksuit”. A
German word “Dom” in Polish means “cathedral”. But Polish word “dom” means “a house”.
There are many more similarities between words like the ones mentioned above. Sometimes
when people want to tell someone that he is lucky, they may use a phrase “ale fart”. Then an
English-speaking person may feel uncomfortable being accused of this kind of behavior.
There are also some phrases which has the same meaning in different languages, but their
literal translation is different. So when travelling to Europe, you must clearly note what
language are you talking in, and make sure that the person you are talking to understands
what you mean.
FUN FACT: Did you know that in Polish the word “No” is a non-formal way of saying “yes”? If
you talk with somebody in English and his answer would be “no”, this would mean, that he
disagrees with you. But when you talk with somebody in Polish, and you hear “no”, you must
remember it is a nodding, not disagreeing.
You should always have in mind your sense of humor. There may be things which are funny
for you or you treat them as a joke, but your interlocutor, due to the language or culture
differences may pick them up against your intentions. There are also some phrases, which
keep their meaning only in a language, that they come from and should not be literally
translated into any other language. These phrases are called idioms. Many Polish people who
do not know English well, use a special phrase to thank somebody for doing something for
them in the future. Poles say “z góry dziękuję”, which they translate into “thank you from
the mountain”, while what they really mean is “thank you in advance”. A good example could
be an idiom meaning that something is very easy. In English it is “a piece of cake”, in Polish
it is “bułka z masłem”, which literally is translated as “a bread roll with butter”. When a Pole
wants to say, that he does something very rarely, he may say “raz na ruski rok”, which
literally is translated as “once for a Russian year”, when in fact he should say “very seldom”
or “hardly ever”.
Let us listen to our interviewee about language differences.
Question: Do you think that language differences can be a barrier to communication with
clients from other countries? How can you deal with them?
James: Definitely. Yeah, I think, they definitely are a barrier. You can overcome them. Um, but
certainly, you know, there is, you know, sometimes meetings when you're, when you're
working with people in two different languages, sometimes it takes a little bit more time. It
takes a little bit more in investment. It's a barrier only in the sense, if you're not willing to
put some investment into it, if you're trying to move really, really quickly, and you're having
language challenges, I think that it can maybe feel like a barrier. But, you know, I'd say you
have to do a lot of work to take, take your time and actually try to understand where those,
why you have those barriers. And I think for us, when we're dealing with them, you know,
we deal with that a lot at PubNub. I think the biggest think is just to remember, I think it’s
very easy, especially as an English speaker, to think that everybody knows English very well,
because it’s so common to us, it is very common global language, and so it’s easy to start
talking very casual English, And so it's easy to get. I know even myself, I get easily just start
talking very casual English without paying attention. Um, and I do think it can sometimes
cause confusion if I'm not careful with the words and the speed which I speak. So it can cause
misunderstanding. Yeah. And that can be, that can be a barrier, to kind of communicating
what you're trying to get across to the other person.
Jack: So there are two, there are two situations. So one is what I was talking about, which is
if English, so we're in America. So English is the language that's spoken here. And if English
is not your first language, you can be really good at English, like great at it. But there are
going to be some small nuances or slang that you're just not going to get. So, and I work with
people that were not born in this country, but have lived here for 40 years and there's still
parts of the language that they don't totally understand. So in that regard, absolutely. Um, I
think it's the onus, it's the responsibility is on the native speaker to understand that and
speak clearly and communicate clearly and not use slang and it's really on them to
communicate effectively so that they can get the point across.
Before starting the exact conversation, we can try a small talk. It is talking about nothing, a
kind of introduction to the proper conversation. It precedes discussing important business
matters. However, there are some topics that we should not discuss in small talk. These
include religion, politics or the economy, but also ideological and moral issues. We do not
discuss difficult matters, we do not talk about absent people. We do not ask questions about
which our interlocutor does not want to talk about. We can talk about traveling, cultural
events or sport. We can also express admiration for the painting hanging in the room. We
can also talk about the weather but we should have in mind that this topic in some countries
may not be interesting, while in others is a “must-be” of every conversation. For example, in
Great Britain it is very polite to talk about the weather for a few minutes at the beginning of
the meeting. On the other hand, in Poland talking about a weather is treated like an artificial
time filler if there is totally nothing that we can talk about, and we do not like silence at the
same time. In some countries, like for example United States, it is common that everyone
greets others with additional “how are you?”. It is also a kind of small talk, however the
answer should usually be like “I am fine, thanks”. Such question hardly ever is an invitation
to tell all the bad things which happened to us.
To become a good businessman, you also need to learn the basics of non-verbal
communication, such as interpersonal distance, voice intonation, and eye contact, which may
also vary depending on the country of origin of our interlocutor or the culture from which
he comes.
Let us start with the interpersonal distance. In some countries, such as China or Japan, a man
should not be publicly touched by a woman. On the other hand, in European cultures it is
more about propriety than about cultural conditions. In Iran, Saudi Arabia or Yemen we
should not show any closeness even to our relatives – brothers and sisters should not greet
each other in public. In Europe and Northern America it is quite an ordinary phenomenon,
that siblings of different gender can share a handshake or a kiss on the cheek in the middle
of the street. However, there are some rules that are not meant to be broken, if it goes about
interpersonal distance. There are several spheres which are designed on the basis of the type
of situation that we currently are in. The closest one is the intimate sphere and it is up to
about 45 centimeter. it is reserved for people closest to us whom we have full confidence in.
It is used rather in informal situations. Violation of this zone by unauthorized persons causes
considerable discomfort. The next one, a little wider, is the personal sphere, which is
between 45 and 122 centimeter. It is used in both informal and formal situations. We find
ourselves in it while in contact with other interlocutors or conversations in a very small
group. Even bigger is the social sphere. Its range is between 122 and 360 centimeter. It is
used for meetings in medium groups, like business presentation in front of 20
representatives of other companies. We are away from the presenter, but still have some
contact, enough to – for example – ask a question or interrupt if necessary. And the last
sphere is the biggest one. It is called public sphere and its range is everything over 360 cm.
It is used for meeting with a very big audience, with almost no possibility of direct contact
between the presenter and the public. We shall remember that the distance between us and
the person or people we are talking to, needs to be adjusted to our mutual relations and the
type of the conversation. It will not be comfortable to present our offer to a single person
sitting at the end of the big conference room, but it also will not be good when hundreds of
people surround us during some event.
Let us now get to the voice intonation. Voice intonation can provide us with valuable
information about our interlocutor. We also need to remember that our voice can tell about
us much more than we would like to show. By modulating our voice and choosing the right
words, we can strongly influence the way our listeners perceive us and evoke the emotions
we desire. But there are some serious mistakes that people make, that can ruin their business
contacts. First of them is a condescending tone, which means treating the interlocutor in
advance. Nobody likes to feel like he is worse than others, so starting conversation in a
manner “I am better than you, I know better than you” in most of the situations will not bring
success. The next mistake is speaking too fast. If we are stressed, we usually speak faster,
and that may cause some misunderstanding. Not even saying about how our stress is visible
to the other person. People prefer doing business with others who are enough self-confident
and know exactly what they are about to offer. Next mistake is speaking too loud. Although
conversation with some nations may be louder and more impetuous, and with others more
calm and sustainable, speaking too loud is always seen as a business faux-pas. Nobody wants
to be shout at, so talking with very loud people is very uncomfortable. On the other hand, we
should focus on preparing our speech in such a way, which will be interesting for others. If
the way we are talking is boring, people will not even know what we are talking about, not
saying about catching their attention.
FUN FACT: Did you know that 4% of meeting time is considered unproductive by
participants? That means that at least this percentage of meeting is held in an inappropriate
way – because of boring speeches, not answering the asked questions, talking about nothing
at all.
Eye-contact is also an interesting element of non-verbal communication. It is a massive
means of communication. Our eyes can show many hidden information. While in Asian
countries people from their very first days are taught, that they should lower their eyes
because such behavior means good upbringing. Adult Asians avoid eye contact with an older
person or a senior person in the professional hierarchy. In Europe and Northern America,
the situation is way different. Young children are taught to look in the eyes of the older ones
and adult prefer keeping intermediate eye contact on any occasion. Therefore avoiding eye
contact will be for Europeans and Americans a sign that their interlocutor is shy, guilty or is
hiding something.
Look of our face is one of the most important element of communication. European and
American people are used to be smiling all the time. For them a smile always has a positive
meaning. But in Asian countries it is the other way round. By smiling or laughing, people
show fear, nervousness or embarrassment. If one breaks his leg on his way to the meeting,
Europeans and Americans will be sad and concerned, while Asians may chuckle a bit. The
worst thing that we can do is to become stone-faced and showing completely no emotions
about what we are just listening. With our face, we can show six main emotions: surprise,
disgust, happiness, anger, fear, sadness.
Let us check what the entrepreneurs think about the non-verbal communication.
Question: In your opinion – is the non-verbal communication important while talking to
company’s employees or clients?
James: Absolutely. You know, I think nonverbal communication, you can tell if a, you know,
people are paying attention if they're generally interested, if they're engaged. Certainly
things, you know, especially when you're meeting somebody live, by seeing their body
language, it's very important. That's why, you know, even when we're doing remote meetings
like we're doing now, it's some, it's very nice to have a video. You get more than just the
words. You can actually see a little bit about what people are all right thinking and dealing
and implicitly get to connect much better with people and you when you see how they are,
um, you get to see how their body language is when you're interacting.
Jack: What matters is that it is important to people. So when, when we meet people and we
see their appearance, or if we're in a meeting and we are engaging, we are making certain
assumptions about that person in the moment. So if you're talking to somebody and they're
nodding their head vigorously, you feel like, okay, they're listening to me. If they're sitting
there, stone faced, or worse smirking or shaking their head, you can say a lot. So, um, forget
about my company. It's just incredibly important. And it's sort of unfortunate but, and
especially as the boss, as the leader, I have to constantly be aware of my body language
because if your boss comes in and the leader and he's having a bad day and he's grumpy,
you're not gonna want to work hard, you're not going to want to be there. So I have to make
sure that I'm positive and it doesn't have to be like fake. But I have to represent my way,
represent myself as I want to be here because then other people will see that and they'll want
to be here too. And as it pertains to communication, it's incredibly important. What I say to
people is that an email is probably the worst form of communication because there's no
nuance to an email. Phone call is a little bit better cause you can hear the person's voice.
Video is much better than a phone call cause you can see the person and then face to face is
the absolute best because you can actually get a read on what's going on. Because
communication, the most important part of communication isn't what you're going to say.
It's thinking about your audience and what they want to hear. And the only way if you're
writing an email, you have no idea if you're talking on the phone you have a little bit of an
idea. If you're doing this you have a little bit more of an idea. And if you're face to face you
can glean a lot from somebody's body language. So it's very important.
Business rules contain also dress code. It is a set of rules, thanks to which we may know how
to dress properly depending on the occasion. There are several types of dress code: casual,
smart casual, black tie, business dress code and white tie. Casual dress code is a non-formal
way of clothing. It is good for shopping, going for a trip or to the cinema, but not necessarily
should be used on business meetings. Smart causal dress code is slightly more formal, but
still not typical outfit in accordance with the protocol. It is good for the office, but only for
everyday work, it should not be used when we have in plans some important meetings. Black
tie is appropriate for formal evening meetings. It should contain white shirt, black tie, vest,
jacket and elegant shoes for men and long or at least midi dress, small envelope-purse and
high heeled shoes. The best colors for black tie are: grenade, all shades of gray, browns and
black. Some institutions require from their employees a special business dress code while
representing their company. A classical business dress code would therefore be a black suit,
a tie and white shirt for men. Women have more options, they can wear a white shirt
combined with classical skirt or elegant trousers, or a midi dress, all sometimes covered with
a suit jacket. White tie is not appropriate for business situations. It is used nowadays only for
special occasions, like weddings or very festive balls.
Let us check what our interviewees think about the dress code:
Question: How important in your company is the dress code? Are there any situations that
company requires employees dress in certain way?
Jack: it's a balance, because appearance does matter and it matters how your teammates
view you, how and how you view yourself on a day to day basis. So what I tell people is that
you want to, you want to be authentic to yourself. So style is personal and what you wear
should represent you and who you are. But it's really important to give off the impression
and the first impression that you care. You're meeting with an investor, you're meeting with
a client, you have to read the room and understand sometimes you got to get dressed up. So
if I'm going to an award ceremony or I'm in a more formal setting, I will absolutely put on a
suit. If it's a black tie event, put on a tuxedo, you know, you have to, you always, the thing
about fashion is you want to feel comfortable. That's the most important thing. So, and when
I say comfortable, I don't mean like pajamas, I mean like appropriate.
James: I would say, we don't have a formal required dress code. We certainly don't want
people to wear anything inappropriate. When you have an open dress code, you don't want
people wearing something that's is just inappropriate in nature.
Another important issue in business etiquette is how we should be seating our guests at the
table. The first rule is that guests should be seated alternately: a man, a woman, a man, a
woman and so on. When we have some honorary guests, the most important guest should be
seated on the right side of the host organizing the meeting. It is said that the further away
from the host or the most important guest - the less honorable a place is. If the table is
rectangular, the inviting party, for example the owner of the company, sits at the top of the
table. The most important guest should sit on his right, and the senior employee in the
company on his left. The further away the employee sits from the most important people, the
lower in rank is his function. When the table is round – the host takes his seat as the first one,
then on his right side is a place for the most important guest and on his left side a place for
his employee (or his wife if it is less formal meeting). If the host has an assistant, the assistant
takes a sit as the last one. In formal situations, married couples should be seated separate
from each other. This does not apply to just-married or soon-to-be-married couples.
There are also some less important issues related to the etiquette, however they still have a
huge meaning for the final effect. One of these issues is exchanging business cards. First of
all, we should say a few words about business card itself. A standardized size is 5x9
centimeter. The paper from which the business card is made, should be thick enough to avoid
accidental creasing. The colors and fonts used in the business card project should be toned
and appropriate. The data put into the business card should contain at least: our name, our
function, name and address of our company, phone number and e-mail address. We shall
remember to have enough business cards for every meeting. A situation, when we have less
business cards than the amount of people whom we should give them, is inacceptable. The
exchange of business cards should be initiated by the one who is of higher rank in the
business hierarchy. While handing a business card, we should focus on doing it in such way,
that the person who we are giving it to would be able to read it immediately. This means that
we shall not give it upside down or reversed. In Asian countries, especially Japan, South
Korea or China, it is quite important to have the regional version of business card. This
means, that out business card should be written in English on one side, and in Japanese,
Korean or Chinese on the other side. It should be handed with two hands, however in South
Korea it is allowed to hand in only with the right hand. A handed business card should be put
down on the table and stay there for the whole meeting. It is very unrespectful to tuck away
given business card without careful reading the information on it. In European countries
business cards are not that important. We should have one to share, but – contrary to Asia –
it is rather like “let us keep in contact” then introducing ourselves.
Business relations are also about persuasion. There are some phrases, which – properly used
– may help a lot to achieve our goal. First of these is the word “no” or “not”. Our brain does
not get all of the information properly at once and by the time we really understand what
others are saying to us, our organism starts acting contrary. The finest example would be the
phrase “do not be nervous”. While we hear “don’t be nervous”, our brain first gets the straight
information – “be nervous”. And we are getting nervous, which is contrary to what we have
been told. So instead of this, we could say “keep calm”, and there is a huge chance that the
reaction will be just as we expect. But there are some situations, when people have to
disagree to our offer, regardless why. This is just the way they are, they have to say “no”.
When we ask “will you meet me tomorrow?”, we hear “no”. When we ask “would you like
some pizza for the dinner?”, we hear “no”. When we ask “Will you dance with me”, we hear
no. Then we can try to ask the same questions, but already assuming the rejection. “I bet you
will not have time to meet me tomorrow?”, “I bet you will not want pizza for the dinner?”, “I
bet you will not dance with me?”. And there the magic happens. If a person has to reject any
question we ask, it means, that the answer will always be contrary to the question. So if we
say “I bet you will not dance with me?”, the answer in this case could be “of course I will
dance with you”. In business relations it works exactly the same. When we ask “I bet you will
not sign this contract”, we can hear “of course I will sign it”.
Another word with a special meaning, is the word “but”. When used in a sentence, it cancels
everything that came before it. So when we hear “I would love to meet you, but I do not have
any time”, our brain subconsciously gets only the information “I do not have any time”.
Knowing it, we can use it in business situations “You can go to other company, but we are
better than them”. We hear one thing, but we understand something totally different.
One more interesting word is “try”. When someone does not want to or is not able to do
something, we can ask him just to try doing it. Thanks to this we may know, that he will do
his best to do what he has been asked for, but he still is safe when something goes wrong,
because he “just tried”. When we hear “try to be on time”, “try to finish this project
tomorrow”, we know it is not an obligation, however it would be great if we managed to do
as requested.
Knowing these three words and their meaning, we can prepare our speech or conversation
in such a way, that our interlocutor will answer exactly the way we need it, without even
noticing it.
FUN FACT: Did you know that during thinking, we only use about 35% of our brains? That is
why our brain can figure out something else that we heard, exactly like causing stressful
reaction, when someone tells us not to be nervous.
Now it is time to check our interviewees’ opinion about the persuasion.
Question: What, in your opinion, is the role and the meaning of persuasion in business?
James: Certainly persuasion is very important in business, you know, on one hand, you know,
from external perspective, you want to be able to convince your customers, that your product
is superior to the competition or those products that you're going against. And you need to
be thoughtful and careful and detail oriented in the way that you persuade customers and
how you do it. And what is kind of understanding what drives customers.
Jack: The short answer is persuasion doesn't matter. You got to focus on the skills and work
ethic. The long answer is once you get that, it matters a lot. because if you think about it, if
somebody is very persuasive but they don't have the skills, well they're going to talk
themselves into a job and you might like working with them, but at some point you're going
to get sick and tired of them making mistakes.
One more important thing is using a profile photo. Everyday all the people in the world take
hundreds of thousands photos of themselves and others. We take photos everywhere – when
we are on a business trip, when we go for a vacation with our family, during the meeting with
our relatives and so on. At the same time more and more various applications require adding
photo of ourselves to the profile. In this way – can we use any of our photos to fill in our on-
line profile? Social media, mailbox, phone contact, internal company’s messenger – they all
have a place for a photograph and usually are the tools to contact others. As far as we can put
almost every photo to our private accounts – so personal social media accounts, private
mailbox etc., the situation gets more complicated when it goes to our professional outlook. If
we do business, we want to do it with professional. Therefore the photo should show us as
professionals, meaning respecting the business dress code and look like we know what we
are doing. So the photographs from holidays, family meetings or other non-formal events,
will not be appropriate to represent our business account. It is all about the first impression.
The way that people will see you for the first time, is actually the way they will treat you
later. The most important are first three minutes of looking at the person. So when we write
an e-mail to someone and there is our photo, this would be the first impression, that we need
to take care of. Getting known the dress code rules and the persuasion tricks, nothing in our
first impression should be accidental. If we mess up to present ourselves as professionals,
we may not have anymore a chance to prove we are trustworthy. So let us better leave
vacation photos for ourselves, and for professional goal let us better have a business portrait
photo. How should it look like? Well, there are several points to check, to get a perfect
business photograph. First of all we have to decide whether we want a photo while standing,
or better sitting by the desk, or pretending to chat on the computer. Then smile slightly, but
watch not to smile too wide. People smiling too wide are considered to be less professional,
and people not smiling at all are considered to be inaccessible. We should also think of
putting a light make up (regardless of our gender). When our face is matte and smooth, it
looks fresh, what makes a better impression on others. Next step is to think about our
clothing. It is better to choose something smart casual or classical business dress code, we
should avoid choosing very intensive colors. But if we do not want to be just black and white,
we can put on some intense color necklace or handkerchief. However apart from this, red-
painted nails are not a good idea. After all these preparations, we are finally ready to take a
professional business photo.
There were presented plenty of information about business etiquette and protocol. Now it’s
time to sum up everything that was mentioned during this course.
Business etiquette contains written norms regulating the way in which – of moral point of
view – people should behave, while doing business matter. Business protocol is a set of rules
enabling understanding our interlocutor. Savoir-vivre are the rules of cultural behavior in
social situations
Greeting and starting conversation – we should address people with their full name and title.
However we should not introduce ourselves with the tile. When preparing a business
correspondence, we should use the formal way of addressing people and starting / finishing
the message.
While talking to others, we have to watch our language. There are many “false friends”, which
– being neutral for us – may offend others. Also our jokes may not be properly understood
by others.
More important than words is the non-verbal communication. It contains mainly
interpersonal distance, voice intonation, eye contact and face expression.
There is a business dress code, which suggests how should we dress in various situations.
Exchanging business cards may vary depending on the country. However we always should
read the handed business cards carefully and give it a proper respect.
We can use some small-talk as a preparation to a proper conversation. It should touch only
neutral topics.
Business relations are also about persuasion. There are some phrases, which – properly used
– may help a lot to achieve our goal. We presented three main words: “no,not”, “but” and
“try”.
And that would be it for this unit. Thanks for watching and good luck with your business
etiquette and protocol adventure in the future!

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ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME, KEY ACTION 2

CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Furthering International Relations Capacities and Intercultural Engagement to

Mgr. Paulina Kuzior

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