I once gave direct, honest feedback to a team member. Clear. Constructive. Timely. In my head, it was respect. In their eyes, it was embarrassment. Nothing in the policy was wrong. Everything in the moment was. Then I moved. From hotels to resorts. From land to remote locations. From remote locations to the high seas. And I started noticing what no handbook prepares you for. The same feedback created trust in some geographies. It created distance in others. The same recogniti

Years ago, I attended a session on cultural sensitivity as a participant. It made intellectual sense. But working from India then, it remained abstract. That changed when I ventured abroad. First to the Maldives. Then to the high seas. Over time, that session began to return to me through experience. The first time I had filled in for my HRD was during one such assignment. I was unfamiliar with Western workplace norms, and this was a period when internet access wasn’t what it