Many years ago, I moved from a team-first culture to one that celebrated individual heroes.
Same person. Same words.
But suddenly, many things I said seemed to mean something different.
It took a while to realise — communication doesn’t travel well across cultures.
Here’s how the same words can mean very different things depending on where you work:
| What he/she said | Why he/she said (or meant) | How it was wrongly interpreted by others/people above |
| “We accomplished this” | I don’t want to sound self-promoting | “He didn’t do anything special.” |
| “I don’t know” | I’ll double-check before sharing | He is not on top of things |
| “These are 5 ways our initiative could fail.” | I don’t want the audience to be carried away. I want them to know the risks and help me during the execution. | He is not confident about his own proposal |
| “Well, things worked in my favour and I achieved this” (Underplaying one’s role in success) | I am being humble | It was luck and not his skills |
| Saying “I am sorry” too often | I am being empathetic | Lacks authority/leadership qualities |
| Avoiding mention of personal achievements in 1:1s | “I would be considered as ‘boasting’” (or) Manager would know everything and reward me at the right time | He has very few accomplishments |
Note: The vice versa is also true. Folks moving from a hero-centric culture to an individual-centric culture can be misunderstood as well.
Knowing your org’s communication culture can save you from a lot of misjudgment.
And if you still feel misunderstood despite your best intent – maybe it’s not a communication issue at all, but a values mismatch. In such cases, no amount of “saying it better” will help — it might be time to ask if this environment truly aligns with how you work best.
Have you ever felt that your words were “lost in translation” at work? Comment it.
