Book a talk with Kay
A practical, entertaining talk for mixed Danish and American teams on why each side works and communicates the way it does.
Kay Xander Mellish – an American who has lived in Denmark for 25 years – delivers insights and strategies for how the two nationalities can work better together.
How can Danes survive and thrive when working with the energetic, excitable Americans?
And how can Americans better understand Danish flat hierarchy, Janteloven, and humor?
Kay Xander Mellish is an American who has worked for big US companies, like Disney and CNN, and for big Danish companies, like Carlsberg and Danske Bank. She knows where the two working cultures clash – and where they can complement each other.
Based on her books “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes” and “Working with Danes: Tips for Americans” Kay will help Danish and American teams, colleagues, and customers co-operate more smoothly.
Her customers include major Danish companies and SMEs, as well as mixed teams and Danes selling to the US.
Kay offers 60 or 90 minute keynotes, half-day workshops, and individual coaching for managers and new US arrivals in Denmark.
A dual citizen of Denmark and the US, Kay has corporate experience in both countries. In the US, she worked for units of Disney, News Corp., and Time-Warner before moving to Denmark, where she has been on staff at Danske Bank and Carlsberg, in addition to working at small and medium size companies.
Since 2013, Kay has worked with large and mid-size companies helping Danes and Americans work better together.
Kay lives in Copenhagen, but travels frequently around Denmark to deliver presentations. She also returns to the USA at least twice a year, where her favorite stops are Wisconsin, Arizona, and New York City.
In this excerpt from “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes”, Kay Xander Mellish offers tips for answering the inevitable American question “How are you?”.
She also explains how to make small talk with US business partners – and sometimes with their spouses, who are often invited to business dinners.
In this excerpt from “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes”, Kay Xander Mellish clears up some minor points of language that can trip up Danes.
(By the way, americansk, the Danish word for the language spoken in the US, is not translated directly. Most Americans will just say they speak English.)
In this excerpt from “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes,” Kay Xander Mellish talks about the enthusiasm and energy that defines Americans and American business, and advises Danes that their calm, mature, “no big arm movements” demeanor may be seen as disinterest or even boredom by their US counterparts.
In this excerpt from the book “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes”, Kay Xander Mellish explains why your US reports may insist on “keeping you in the loop” on matters that don’t interest you at all. It all goes back to the fearsome US litigation environment: with that little “cc”, your colleagues are passing legal responsibility on to you, and covering their own backsides if it all goes wrong.
“Working with Americans: Tips for Danes” and “Working with Danes: Tips for Americans” are entertaining, easy-to-read collections of practical tips for Danes and Americans who want to work better together. Get a paperback or an eBook version on Amazon, Saxo, or from our webshop. Bulk purchase discounts available – or consider our fun flip book that includes both books.
Hear Kay’s tips on working better with Americans or working with Danes while you drive, work out, or tidy up the house with our audiobooks, which have a running time of 2 hours. Kay reads the text herself. Both “Working with Americans” and “Working with Danes” are available on Spotify, Amazon Audible, NexTory, and Bookbeat.
Kay can tailor a presentation to your group and your objectives
Kay has spoken to more than 250 corporate, business, and tourist audiences, and she brings a combination of journalism, lived experience, research, humor, and storytelling to every presentation.
Kay has been explaining Denmark and Danish culture to international audiences since 2013. She’s the author of How to Work in Denmark, Working with Americans/Working with Danes, and How to Live in Denmark, and creator of the How to Live in Denmark podcast.
Let Kay energize your audience with an entertaining but educational keynote speech.
Or contact Kay through LinkedIn