Articles
September 11, 2025
MFHA leader: Practicing cultural intelligence increases retention
Erika Cospy Carr shares tips to improve operations and enhance the guest experience.
CQ isn’t a soft skill or side initiative, but a leadership strength and business imperative. It’s how organizations retain top talent, Cospy Carr says.
Erika Cospy Carr, Vice President of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), has some hard truths to share with the restaurant industry. Culture, she says, is the reason why good employees stay with an employer—and why they leave.
In a workplace as fast paced and demanding as a restaurant, culture will either fuel success or fracture it.
The MFHA’s leader says embracing cultural intelligence is integral to restaurateurs retaining talent and growing their businesses.
What exactly is cultural intelligence?
CQ is about curiosity, adaptability, and action across difference, but it’s not just knowing that people are different. It’s about knowing how to navigate that difference with purpose. Moreover, it’s about being able to recognize how our backgrounds, biases, and experiences shape our perceptions and decision making. It’s also critical to building trust and authentic engagement across teams, companies, and communities.
What are some of the current challenges in today’s workplace?
Some human costs of conducting business as usual today include burnout, disengagement, turnover, and institutional and leadership mistrust. At a time when leadership is expected to deliver so much—productivity, consistency, and connection— to name a few, they’ve got to be culturally fluent, empathetic, and able to adapt without losing clarity. Another hard truth is that most workplace leaders aren’t prepared to deliver the leadership that today’s workforce and future ones demand. Leaders will thrive in the future if they know how to blend insight with emotion, data with discernment, and innovation with inclusion. If they don’t, the cost of their inaction will be great.
What is MFHA’s role in helping leaders understand its importance?
CQ isn’t a soft skill or side initiative, but a leadership strength and business imperative. It’s how organizations retain top talent, unlock creativity, and build trust across teams. At MFHA, our goal is to help businesses build culturally intelligent teams, leaders, and brands that drive success across the industry’s myriad restaurant, foodservice, and hospitality organizations.
We’re committed to helping brands develop future-ready leaders that drive innovation, inclusivity, and growth. Shaping systems, attitudes, and actions to build culturally intelligent brands will not only redefine the industry’s future but also elevate the guest experience it provides.
What are the positives of adapting cultural intelligence in the workplace?
From a practical standpoint, it improves day-to-day team dynamics, reduces customer friction, and can literally save a brand’s reputation when things go sideways. In terms of scalability, it can work with a 5-person team or a 5,000-person operation. It’s also measurable, in that you can track team sentiment, retention metrics, and even customer satisfaction. And, from a teachable perspective, it helps establish openness and respect. Small shifts can drive major changes.
How do you start to lead with cultural intelligence?
Awareness is the first step, but that insight will only matter if you turn it into action. There are five things you can do:
Learn more about the MFHA here
In a workplace as fast paced and demanding as a restaurant, culture will either fuel success or fracture it.
The MFHA’s leader says embracing cultural intelligence is integral to restaurateurs retaining talent and growing their businesses.
What exactly is cultural intelligence?
CQ is about curiosity, adaptability, and action across difference, but it’s not just knowing that people are different. It’s about knowing how to navigate that difference with purpose. Moreover, it’s about being able to recognize how our backgrounds, biases, and experiences shape our perceptions and decision making. It’s also critical to building trust and authentic engagement across teams, companies, and communities.
What are some of the current challenges in today’s workplace?
Some human costs of conducting business as usual today include burnout, disengagement, turnover, and institutional and leadership mistrust. At a time when leadership is expected to deliver so much—productivity, consistency, and connection— to name a few, they’ve got to be culturally fluent, empathetic, and able to adapt without losing clarity. Another hard truth is that most workplace leaders aren’t prepared to deliver the leadership that today’s workforce and future ones demand. Leaders will thrive in the future if they know how to blend insight with emotion, data with discernment, and innovation with inclusion. If they don’t, the cost of their inaction will be great.
What is MFHA’s role in helping leaders understand its importance?
CQ isn’t a soft skill or side initiative, but a leadership strength and business imperative. It’s how organizations retain top talent, unlock creativity, and build trust across teams. At MFHA, our goal is to help businesses build culturally intelligent teams, leaders, and brands that drive success across the industry’s myriad restaurant, foodservice, and hospitality organizations.
We’re committed to helping brands develop future-ready leaders that drive innovation, inclusivity, and growth. Shaping systems, attitudes, and actions to build culturally intelligent brands will not only redefine the industry’s future but also elevate the guest experience it provides.
What are the positives of adapting cultural intelligence in the workplace?
From a practical standpoint, it improves day-to-day team dynamics, reduces customer friction, and can literally save a brand’s reputation when things go sideways. In terms of scalability, it can work with a 5-person team or a 5,000-person operation. It’s also measurable, in that you can track team sentiment, retention metrics, and even customer satisfaction. And, from a teachable perspective, it helps establish openness and respect. Small shifts can drive major changes.
How do you start to lead with cultural intelligence?
Awareness is the first step, but that insight will only matter if you turn it into action. There are five things you can do:
- Don’t make assumptions. Pause to ask questions and build feedback.
- Make the invisible visible. Name and explain a norm aloud and create space to audit unspoken rules.
- Normalize extending conversations instead of shutting them down. Include the words “say more” when engaged in leadership training to normalize deeper conversations, especially regarding feedback, conflict, or brainstorming.
- Don’t mentor others in your own image. Adapt your coaching to reflect the person’s learning or communication style.
- Run 5-minute debriefs using a CQ lens following a major project, meeting, or customer situation. Ask what perspectives were missing, who should have been at the table, and where culture showed up.
Learn more about the MFHA here
Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news from the National Restaurant Association, published every other Thursday
By clicking Submit I agree to receive email communications from the National Restaurant Association and agree to our Privacy Policy(Opens in a new window).