Cross-Cultural Communication in Mentoring: Impact on Individual Growth

Development of cross-cultural communication in mentoring can influence individual performance, growth, and wellbeing for both faculty mentors and mentees however few faculty training programs exist at academic health centers. It is important to not only provide information, but also create spaces for individual faculty to practice and apply cross-cultural communication skills. Enhanced utilization of cross-cultural communication skills assists with the development of empathy and emotional intelligence while simultaneously improving interpersonal relationships, thus contributing to a positive sense of belonging and wellbeing in professional spaces. A new program called the Cross-Cultural Communication in Mentoring includes the following core competencies: Cultural humility, social identity theory, empathic listening, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and psychological safety. The curriculum was developed with the premise that personal growth and learning occur by active participation with the content and engagement in personal reflection. As such, the curriculum relies heavily on humanistic learning theory and experiential learning theory. The primary competency objective was skill development, and the curriculum required active participation in order to learn and practice cross-cultural communication skills and activities. A secondary competency objective focused on the development of self-awareness and cultural humility. An essential curricular element was interactive small group learning and personal reflection. The eight-module curriculum has been delivered in 2024 and 2025. Each module is 1 hour and is delivered via the ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) platform. For all eight modules, participants reported significant increases in knowledge scores from pre- to post-session (p<0.001 for each module and overall). Qualitatively, participants found the curriculum to have high relevance to their work, expressed a strong desire for more small-group time and practical exercises, and appreciated the interactive format. The study findings demonstrated that participation in a structured competency-based curriculum was associated with improved knowledge and application of knowledge related to culturally aware mentoring. The use of such novel curriculum may improve faculty mentoring in diverse academic health centers and ECHO platforms may allow for their easy scalability.