Kay Xander MellishExpert on Danish business culture

Danish working culture vs American working culture

5 May 2020 · 2 min

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2:01

In this short interview, Speaker A asks Speaker B about the core message of his keynote talks aimed at helping Americans work with Danes. Speaker B explains that Danes value modesty, avoid self‑promotion, underpromise rather than overpromise, keep excitement subdued, and use a sly, sarcastic sense of humor. These traits often lead Americans to misinterpret Danes as uninterested, incompetent, or negative. Conversely, Americans tend to equate being a good professional with high energy, overt enthusiasm, and confident self‑advertising. The mismatch creates major misunderstandings in cross‑cultural business interactions. The segment ends with a Danish sign‑off from Speaker C, noting the program’s sponsorship by BMW and UNX.

So let's talk about what you talk about when you go out and do keynote speaks for companies and for corporations. I mean, your concept is kind of like how to— I don't know if you could say work with Americans, but what's the basic idea of your keynote speech?
Well, I think that Americans and Danes do generally work well together, but there are a couple major misunderstandings. For Danes, to be a good person, you should be modest. You should not blow your horn too much. It's bad taste. And you should also have kind of a, kind of a sly sense of humor about yourself. So when Danes come to the US, they don't want to oversell their goods. They never want to overpromise. They end up underpromising. They're like, well, I guess I'm pretty good at marketing. Well, no, Americans don't like that. You have to say, I'm really good at marketing. They do not understand it when Danes downplay their skill. They're like, oh, that guy must not be very good. And Danes also don't like to show their excitement. That's considered, you know, it's kind of considered childish to wave your arms around. It's not done. So Americans often think they're bored. They think, well, he's not really interested in this deal. He doesn't seem very interested. And the sarcasm, which for Danes, that's what makes you a good person, to have that fun sarcastic sense of humor. The Americans do not get it. And if they do get it, they often see it as negativity. It's like, oh, he's making fun of me. So that's a real major misunderstanding. Okay. Also from the American side, as you can kind of see with my own energy, you know, we think that being a good person is being energetic and, you know, really selling things.
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