Interpersonal Skills for
the Global Workplace
The practisable micro-skills that determine who gets heard, promoted, and trusted in multinational organisations. For high-level L2 professionals across Asia.
The Invisible Ceiling
Your best Asian talent is technically excellent, deeply knowledgeable, and consistently underrepresented in senior leadership conversations. The gap is not competence. It is not English proficiency. It is interpersonal timing — three specific deficits that compound over time.
The Voice Deficit
L2 speakers contribute significantly less in mixed-language meetings. Processing delay + competitive turn-taking = invisible expertise.
The Feedback Deficit
Cultural norms (wa, mianzi, kibun) make direct feedback a relational risk. Managers perceived as “difficult to read” or “not holding teams accountable.”
The Trust Deficit
Affective trust (Asian norm) is invisible to cognitive trust (Western norm) colleagues. Consistent delivery misread as “distant” or “transactional.”
Speak Up, Stand Out, Stay You
SM-IPS-01 is a teacher-led, practice-driven programme. Four modules. Sixteen lessons. Twelve to sixteen contact hours. Every lesson follows the 70/20/10 ratio: 70% role play, 20% teacher coaching, 10% framing. Participants practise real workplace scenarios with real feedback, building a personal Phrase Journal of expressions that work for their voice and context.
Your Voice in the Room
Entering fast-moving meetings. Contributing without creating opposition. Recovering from interruptions.
The Difficult Conversation
Giving feedback. Receiving criticism. Disagreeing with authority at the right intensity level.
Building & Repairing Trust
Setting boundaries. Diagnosing misunderstandings. Calibrating apologies across cultures.
Leading Others
Delegating with cultural calibration. Managing up. Motivating across five cultures in one team.
Six Asia-Rooted Case Studies
Every framework is taught through a real company scenario. Participants see the interpersonal challenge in context before they practise solving it.
Rakuten
Englishnization & the Voice Deficit
Samsung
Dual register & feedback across cultures
Nissan-Renault
Trust repair after institutional crisis
BYD / Stella Li
Managing up as a woman in global leadership
Grab
Leading across five SE Asian cultures
Uniqlo
Cognitive vs. affective trust breakdown
Four Sigma Frameworks
Developed from 28 years of cross-cultural interpersonal coaching across Asia. Each framework is unique to the Sigma curriculum and trademarked.
Sigma Feedback Bridge™
Five-step protocol: Context, Observation, Impact, Invitation, Forward. The Invitation step is the cross-cultural differentiator that Western models miss.
Module 2Misunderstanding Triangle™
Every cross-cultural friction is Language, Cultural, or Intent. Diagnose the type before responding. Default to Language when unsure — it’s the least confrontational.
Module 3Graduated Intensity Scale™
Four levels of directness for disagreement. From Level 1 (minimal risk) to Level 4 (maximum). Choose your register deliberately based on context and relationship.
Module 2Agree-Acknowledge-Add™
Three-step contribution protocol. Validate, demonstrate understanding, introduce alternative. Redirects the conversation without creating opposition.
Module 1“The goal is not to change who you are. It is to ensure that who you are is visible, heard, and trusted — regardless of the language or the room.”— Brendan McMahon, Founder, Sigma Mentoring
Visiting Faculty, Hertford College, Oxford
Why This Course Matters
Interpersonal skills training delivers measurable returns when it is practice-driven and culturally specific. Generic “soft skills” programmes produce awareness without behavioural change. SM-IPS-01 produces transfer.
Three Delivery Options
All options include the full SM-IPS-01 curriculum, Phrase Banks (Track A + Track B), and the complete interactive teaching ecosystem.
In-House Cohort
per cohort of 8–16 participants
- 16 lessons, 12–16 contact hours
- Delivered at your premises or online
- All materials + Phrase Journals
- Post-course Competency Report
Corporate Programme
multi-cohort, multi-location
- Everything in In-House, plus:
- Facilitator preparation session
- Pre-course diagnostic for all participants
- Customised case studies (your industry)
- Post-course ROI report for leadership
- LMS video library access (14 videos)
Video Access Only
self-paced supplementary
- 14 demonstration videos
- 4 module quizzes + final assessment
- Digital Phrase Journal
- Does NOT replace classroom
Brendan McMahon
Founder, Sigma Mentoring. Visiting Faculty, Hertford College, University of Oxford. 28 years working across Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Former FutureBrand Japan, Diamond Agency, Interbrand Japan, PCCW. Fluent in English, Japanese, and French.
The Sigma curriculum includes Leadership and Management Styles (SM-LMS-02), Leading Across Cultures (SM-LAC-01), Game Theory and Strategic Negotiation (SM-GT-CS-01/02), Negotiation and Strategic Influence (SM-NEG-01), AI Fluency for Leaders (SM-AFL-01), Business Ethics (SM-ETH-01), and Business Networking (SM-BNS-01).
Commission SM-IPS-01
for Your Organisation
Request a proposal with pricing, scheduling, and customisation options for your team.
Typically responds within 24 hours. Proposals include participant diagnostic, scheduling options, and customisation recommendations.
