How to Manage Multicultural Teams: Communication Rules That Reduce Friction

HR Business Partner Maria Pronkina explains why multicultural teams often struggle over small communication habits rather than dramatic cultural conflicts. The conversation turns ambiguous words such as "ASAP," time-zone pressure, language exclusion and indirect feedback into practical management tools: self-awareness, leadership learning, How to Work With Me exercises, written team agreements and region-sensitive processes.

Maria Pronkina · HR Business Partner at AI Digital
Hosted by Ksenia Izotova and Timur Novopashin

Maria Pronkina is an HR Business Partner at AI Digital, where she works with international teams and cross-cultural people initiatives. Her route into HR began outside the profession: she worked in cinematography as a screenwriter and casting director before moving into recruitment and then HR business partnering. Her experience includes roles at Multilogin and Tabby, where she built and supported people practices across growing technology organisations. Maria is based in Barcelona and writes about recruiting, corporate culture, engagement and the human side of work.

Connect with Maria on LinkedIn

To manage a multicultural team, replace assumptions with explicit working agreements. Define what words such as "ASAP" mean, set response and handover expectations across time zones, agree when meetings can happen, and make communication preferences visible. Train leaders to notice how their own style is perceived instead of memorising national stereotypes. Then adapt onboarding, feedback, scheduling and task allocation to the people and regions involved, and review the rules when friction shows that the current process is not working.

Teams rarely begin by asking to become multicultural. Existing members may prefer the language, humour and habits they already share, while new colleagues struggle to enter conversations that carry hidden context.

Friction then appears in small operational details. "ASAP" may mean drop everything now to one person and fit it into the schedule as soon as possible to another. A late-night message may feel harmless to the sender but urgent to a colleague who assumes a tag requires an immediate response.

The solution is not to label one interpretation correct. Leaders need to identify the ambiguous moment, agree what the team means and build a process that works across languages, locations and time zones.

Frameworks such as The Culture Map can provide useful concepts, but they become risky when managers use them to predict every individual. Maria recommends starting with self-awareness: how direct, contextual, fast or informal is your own communication, and how might it be perceived?

Team conversations should test assumptions against real cases. One useful approach is to discuss hiring or collaboration failures and separate cultural or language issues from ordinary performance, attention or personality mismatches.

This turns culture from a fixed explanation into a question. Managers can ask what happened, what the other person understood, which part of the process contributed and what evidence would change the conclusion.

A How to Work With Me exercise helps team members explain the habits colleagues would otherwise have to guess. Each person shares communication preferences, working hours, feedback needs, reactions to urgency, use of emojis and other signals that affect daily collaboration.

The goal is not to create a permanent personality label. Teams compare their answers, discuss contradictions and agree how to respond when preferences conflict. A manager may clarify that a tag does not require an evening reply, or that silence after a proposal should not be read as disapproval.

The exercise becomes most useful when the output is visible, revisited and shared with new joiners. It turns invisible expectations into a practical starting point for conversation.

Written rules translate a good conversation into repeatable behaviour. A team can define reporting deadlines, common collaboration hours, meeting-free periods, expected response times and how to mark a genuinely urgent request.

These agreements are especially important across time zones. They protect people from unnecessary after-hours pressure and reduce the chance that a meeting excludes colleagues whose working day has not started.

Rules should be short, visible and updated through experience. They are not a substitute for judgment, but they reduce the amount of cultural interpretation required in routine work and give new hires a clearer way to join the team.

A global policy cannot assume that every region shares the same communication norms, working day, religious practices or expectations of managers. HR should review onboarding, scheduling, feedback, task allocation and deadlines with local employees and leaders.

Adaptation does not mean lowering standards or treating every person as a cultural stereotype. It means preserving the business outcome while changing the process where the default creates avoidable barriers.

Maria’s core point is that long-established ways of working cannot be rewritten in a month by a manual. Sustainable change requires empathy, repeated learning, practical agreements and enough feedback to see whether people can actually use the process.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability while preserving the speakers' meaning.

Timur Novopashin: I’m more than sure that our audience will be interested in knowing — you work across different industries, yes? Hospitality, retail, software development, et cetera. Are the HR processes different in those industries? Or is it the metrics that are the same, just the flavor is a bit different?

Lili Kuznetsova: Depends on the size and the maturity of the company. Different things become more or less important. Usually for the hotel, it’s one to three people, so that's quite a small amount of people who work in HR. The main focus is hiring, some part of administrating the personal process — moving, promoting, retirement, etс. And yes, there is some part which is about people development, learning — learning mostly about the hospitality part. But this is a small piece of that, I would say.

So what I mean is: if the team is small, you mostly focus on very basic things which are necessary just to run the business. If we talk about big companies like Adidas and even mine — I’m working at the moment in inDrive — even mine, of course, we are not the size of Adidas, but we have all the pieces of the HR processes. We have hiring and admission, of course, but we have big HR business partner teams. We have a performance, proper performance cycle. We have learning — not just optional ones, but also leadership development programs. So we have proper analytics on that side. We have proper C&B, et cetera, et cetera. So we have all the pieces which usually exist in an HR world, I do believe.

So this is the difference, I think — the focus and the attention the business leader is also paying into some parts of HR. And now — it wasn't that day, but now you have to do lots in terms of automation, AI, building systems. This is something new. I don't know how it works at the moment in different companies, but in ours, it’s focused.

Ksenia Izotova: Lili, you’ve mentioned that right now you are responsible for development, culture, goal setting. What is your favorite part?

Lili Kuznetsova: To be honest, my favorite part is to have a development conversation with people. But this is not a huge part of the scope when you are a director. It’s just sometimes you can do that. For example, recently I was certified for providing a dialogue within the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment. There’s a quite famous psychometric tool, which is great. I think I really love that at the moment. We implemented that, and I find myself really enjoying having a conversation as a result of that tool because I do believe that this one-on-one touch really helps people to push their career, push their efficiency and understanding of themselves. But again, this is a small piece, so usually you’re doing something else.

And lastly, I’d say I enjoy being a manager. I think that’s why I feel good about that. At this specific stage, I would say that more or less everything I’m doing is project management, and then it’s change management. It doesn't matter the topic. I think that’s why I’m quite okay with this range of things. So I have experts in the fields who really know deeply, professionally, the field. Of course, I’m not an analyst, for example. So if it should be me driving people analytics in the company, it won't work very well. But I have experts who are doing that well. And I’m good at managing the teams, different teams, and helping to push within different circumstances within the company, the projects.

Because lots of difficulties are on the way to implement something. Usually, I think everyone knows that if you try to implement something new within the whole company at the same time, this is quite a thing. So I would say that this is something I like and don’t like at the same time.

Ksenia Izotova: What exactly are you implementing? Of course, no names, no specificity, but in general, what are the main challenges?

Lili Kuznetsova: Yeah. I would say that four years ago, for example, when I joined the company, we didn't have a performance cycle in place. There wasn’t really a need for that base, but there was start of conversation that maybe we would become this size, but when it’s needed. And I need to say that firstly there wasn’t support from business on that part. They weren’t sure that it’s something needed. There was quite no about that. But we can hear from here and there that it was a request on some formal process. And it wasn't an easy thing to somehow agree on that. So I tried to find someone who really is on the same page with me and agree that this project is really important for the company.

And then we try to collect the pain points of our stakeholders, and then we figure out that their pain points can be really covered by the process. It just is not so clear for them. So then it was like a process to bring different people outside of the company and inside from the company to discuss how it should work for us. So it really won’t be like a bureaucracy, but really would be a nice and a needed process. And now we have that, and it works and really brings the benefits it was expected.

It was one example, and it’s for everything. Leadership development programs — "we don’t have time for that, it’s a big budget, how we should find the time with all our operation process" — etс, etс. And we have that from, for the last maybe year and a half.

At the moment, I’m working on a goal setting automation process. So this is just the very beginning. But usually when you come to your main stakeholders, one doesn’t want it at all, the second one really needs it right now, the next one already built something for themselves very similar to that. They all see that product differently. So if you're trying to implement something which works for the whole company more or less the same, from my perspective, this is the main issue — to find a common ground, especially if you have, let’s say 10 top managers, 15 top managers. Everyone has their opinion, and usually there are no good or bad opinions. They are just different. So to help them to find a common ground and agree to something so they will be really committed to implement — this is one of the main, I think, difficulties when you’re trying to do something else.

I remember the time when I was a business partner. Honestly, it wasn't like that. When you are a job business partner for one team division, you just figure it out with your main stakeholder. You do it, and you implement it immediately. When I moved to the center of expertise, it was one of the major pain points to somehow adapt to the situation when you cannot just write down and implement immediately. First, you need to take into account lots of opinions on that, align those opinions, build something properly, work for different types of organization, and only then implement, and it takes a much longer timeline when you work in the center of expertise. And this is something you have to deal with.

Ksenia Izotova: So let's summarize life hacks from Lili on how to defend an idea in front of several stakeholders. So step number one is to find the pain points. So after the pain points are found, number two is to find a common ground between all of the 15, I heard, people?

Lili Kuznetsova: It depends. It depends each time.

Ksenia Izotova: And then finally the whole project becomes more or less viable.

Lili Kuznetsova: So yeah, you’re right in terms of pain points, and then I come up with some kind of decision interview on that, and I collect the feedback, so to be ready. And most of the time, I need to tell you that if you really need to take into account all the opinions on that, and you don’t have someone who will just say, "We're doing like that, and that’s it." So in this case, usually at the end of the day, when you collect all the opinions, you will have to collect them in the one room and facilitate their discussion. So you have this information. You collect all the feedback, so now you can build on the session, so the stakeholder team can come together and think about that all together and align on something.

Because what I usually see — HR professionals, they really would like to implement something because they do believe this is really the right thing. And I was like that when I joined the company four years ago. I figured out that on the topic of talent development, there is almost nothing that exists in the company. I put a long list. I was from a big corporation. I see how it should work. I have a long list of everything we should implement. And then I figure out that if I do not think about my ambitions and my perspective only, and figure out what is the stage of the development of the company, what the company needs, this list should be very short, and you don’t have to implement everything because it’s not going to work. Just because the tool exists doesn’t mean everyone will use that.

It was really eye-opening experience when I figured out that I won't be able to implement everything immediately. But when we really figure out, for example, with the performance cycle, that we need that, and we implement that, we have — I think it was a company when we never had something mandatory before, and then we have a performance cycle. And we have 100% discipline engagement in all the parts, or almost. So it was like 90% of the peer reviews was done, 90-something percent of self-review was done. So when you really do it for the company, not for yourself, it really works well.

So in terms of the previous question, so yeah, I think that you’re right in terms of the first two parts. But the last one — it’s not you sometimes who should make this decision. You should find these people who really should make this decision and help them to agree on something, and then it will be win-win, I would say.

Ksenia Izotova: Does your coaching and psychotherapeutic experience help you when managing those sessions with the stakeholders?

Lili Kuznetsova: I think this is just a part of my thinking at the moment. I just cannot think the other way because I have the knowledge, but I’m not consciously using some of my knowledge here, but it is really helpful. Usually, I’m not the person who facilitates these sessions. We ask someone, we choose every time some facilitator. Depending on the situation, I do all I can to prepare the session to be sure that the flow is right, that the content is there, that the preparation and the interview and the stakeholders and the participant is there, etс. And then I participate as an observer. And here, I would say that yes, seeing the group dynamic, seeing how people behave, et cetera, et cetera, it’s really — I think something my background is helping to analyze, so then I can do with that some other actions. So I would say that.

I wasn't the pioneer here, so something was built before me. I need to say lots of good words to my colleagues and my manager who was building that. I think that this is a part of our corporate culture at least at the moment. It wasn't like that all the time, but at the moment it is. And I think this is important for every company somehow to build how they are making their decisions. Because it’s very different. In some companies, there is one person, a CEO, who makes the decision. The CEO listens to all the opinions. Sometimes I do not even ask about the opinions. It all depends on the corporate culture. But for us, it is to discuss together and come up with something which really works well for everyone.

And in terms of culture, I think that for our company, culture was the important thing from the very beginning. If you know something about the inDrive company, it was started as a protest kind of thing when the prices for the taxi become so high in the wintertime, so people cannot afford that, and it was extremely cold that day in Yakutia where it all started. And then just people collected, and it wasn't a thing, it was just a chat in a contact social network those days. And then it became a business, and then it became an international business, a great one. Many countries all over the world are now working.

And this is the essence of the business, this bidding system where this is not us making a decision what is the price for the ride. It is a decision between the customer and the driver. And now at the moment, we have not only taxis, of course, in our services, but let’s say on the example of taxis, they can kinda agree on that. And this is something because of that, I think, because it all starts with some ideas. That’s why culture for our companies is not something we just build on, write down on the wall, etс. Our CEO is a big visioneer on that topic. He really supports the culture topic.

And recently we come up with new values for our company, and it takes, I think, something like a year maybe, really to come up with the final new values for the company. I can observe, prepare for all this discussion, and I see how it was born and etс like that, I think. Yeah. And at the moment I’m doing the implementation part. So now we have new values. It means that for the next several years, we need to do lots of work to change management, to implement them, to implement everywhere, to implement in a hiring process, in a promotion process, in performance cycle, in learning and onboarding, and it should be a part of feedback conversations. It should be a part of recognition conversations. So it should be everywhere.

We mostly use the classical change management model, ADKAR, here, to implement something. So we are on the very part, from the very beginning. So we are trying to do as many opportunities to touch the meanings as possible, so people will definitely know them at least, so till the end of the year, they will definitely all know them and can somehow verbalize what each of these six new values mean. So this is what we are doing at the moment, and I do believe it is really important that we have focused resources and a huge support from the top management team in that.

Ksenia Izotova: : Is AI going to be a part of it or is it going to be more human-centered and human-driven?

Lili Kuznetsova: We implement AI, but we are not implementing AI in a specific project way. So we kinda use more AI to save people hours, let’s say like that. So where it’s possible. We create some small games or something using AI, but we’re not using AI directly to implement values. That’s not what we are using.

And I think, honestly saying, culture is one of the trickiest things I work with all these years. If you really take it seriously, not just, "Okay, company thinks about these six things, okay." If you really take it seriously as a person, and our employees, since we are a mission-driven company, they usually quite take it seriously. So they challenge you. They’re really digging deep to understand what it means for them and their work, etс, etс.

And I need to say that I think there should be a person there, so another human being there, to collect that, to answer that, to think about that. So I would say that through all my projects, this is the least one I would be ready to somehow transfer to AI, at least right now. Maybe in the future I will be able to, but here I’m old-fashioned in terms of culture.

Timur Novopashin: What I’ve been meaning to ask you, and I think everyone in the audience also will be super curious to hear that. How do you get promoted when you’re working as an employee? So give us some tips. So what helps you to grow professionally?

Lili Kuznetsova: I think that usually people who really care about what they are doing, this is the first thing, are seen by their manager. Second one is not to be afraid to follow your curiosity and jump into some projects outside of your immediate scope but something you really would be interested to do. And lead or participate. The third thing is to really develop yourself all the time. Honestly saying, this is something unavoidable. What I mean here — if I continue to work in talent development or in learning using only my knowledge I have 10 years ago, I would be outdated every day, at this very moment.

Everything is changing. The world is really inconsistent, so you have to develop yourself even just to be able to stay relevant in your profession. So to develop, you need to really develop yourself — it’s two modes all the time, trying to learn on the job. I don't really like learning, honestly, but I like having new kinds of new skills. So that's why I find some motivation for myself to learn all the time because I really enjoy trying to do something interesting and new. I don't like a routine, and I do believe that everyone can find the motivation in learning for themselves if they dive deep into that.

And the last thing, you need to speak openly with your manager. This is very important. People sometimes assume that their manager will see how great you are, and they will offer that something. And to some extent, it really happens, but normally for the manager, any change, it means that it’s extra work. So if someone is doing their job at a great level, doing something else and not requesting promotion, this is the best ever situation for the manager because you are just enjoying a great performer without having the necessity to really build a new structure, replace, etс, etс.

So it doesn't mean the manager is a bad person or doesn't wanna do something good for you, but they do not have the capacity sometimes. Sometimes they just aren’t able to read your mind, etс. So if you're really interested in the promotion, it’s natural you have some clear explanation why you need that. You need to speak about that with your manager. If your manager is a normal person, of course. I hope that most people are great in that role. But yeah, sometimes you cannot, but mostly you can have this conversation. Please do that, and it will be really helpful for you to do.

Timur Novopashin: In my experience, when it comes to negotiations, all the time it comes down to money. But when you’re already working, you’re an employee, so there is a talent process, again, performance review, etc, but it’s still confusing for a lot of people. So how do you ask for a raise? How do you know that you’re like this door one, et cetera. Are there any practical things, tips for an employee that you can share with us? So if you wanna not necessarily be promoted, but let’s say you wanna earn more money within the company, what should you do?

Lili Kuznetsova: First, a conversation is also an important part because first each company has its own capacity to increase people’s salaries, and it’s very different. Depends on the market, depends on the current budgeting situation, and when you ask about that, be ready that managers usually won’t be able to make an increase, salary during the next months because usually companies have some specific periods when it’s possible to do any kind of changes in your salary.

Be ready that it won't be — they won’t be able to do it immediately upon your request. I would say that what can be a sign that you really can request that — first thing, your scope not just change a little bit, but it’s extremely become bigger, really really bigger and you can request that to discuss it as a more scope will lead to any change in terms of the money.

And I would say that in some companies you will have the answer no, and this is a decision I really offer you to think about. So yes, if the company said, "No, you will have to take care about that and no salary change," then it is a decision, should you agree on this, more things to do. You can say no, which is also fine. Okay, I will stay with my scope, with my money. That’s okay for me. So you need to see the whole offer before agreeing on something.

I don't know lots of company who review several times a year the salary of the employees. Once a year, it’s a pretty normal contract. It means that you are okay. They increase your salary along the way there is. But you need to take into account that if you work in Europe this is not the same as when you work in, for example, in CIS because this is a very different situation. The salary increases in Europe can be, like, very small in terms of the percentage. Really small, and it’s normal. It doesn't mean that they do not value you. It just means that you’re in Europe. This is an absolutely different market and do not expect 10, 15% of increases every year. That won’t be possible mostly.

How to understand that you can discuss that. So long time, no changes, really changes in the scope and the role, etc, you can request that, definitely. And what to do to have more of that. Honestly speaking, rather than doing your job in a great way, I don't have any other answers here. Because there is no recipe for what to do to have more money in this term. So your manager will make a decision how — they have the amount of money they will somehow should, divide it to each of their team members. To prioritize someone this time or next time, they will talk about several things.

First one, how your salary compares to your grade at the moment, and what kind of scope you are doing, how hard is your place to you, this also should be taken into account. But mostly also how potential you are, how great you are doing your job. This is the only thing I can tell you.

Ksenia Izotova: If you want to be promoted or if you want to get a raise, I’m sure that our audience will definitely benefit from such an HR leader as yourself. Because everyone is so hesitant, to sound too pushy or to sound unclear or to sound too vague. So how would you just recommend it if you want a salary raise and if you want to get to be promoted?

Lili Kuznetsova: So in terms of salary, I would say something like: "I was analyzing the, let’s say, my scope and my salary, and at the moment it is very important for me to find the opportunity to earn more. I need more money because of…" It doesn't matter why, but if you have a close relationship, you can explain that it’s important. "I don’t know. I need to take care of myself, my family, etc, etc. So I am looking for the opportunity to earn more, and so I would really like to understand if there are any opportunities to have more money with another company? Can you just describe them to me?" The manager will have to somehow describe that.

So how can this person have more money being in its own position or maybe move to another position, and then I would maybe offer the person to think a bit which option sounds more convenient to them. And they’re "Okay, I think I kinda like this one. Can you help me to make a plan to be, to prepare myself for that? Because I know that it won't maybe happen immediately, but I’m ready to do something." So this is the main thing.

So usually people come to their manager with the expectation that you are not paying me enough with a, with this message. It then sounds for the manager who is not "Oh, so what's your expectations from me?" So the person is already angry about something. So just come before and discuss the opportunity to increase the salary, not come with a message that you feel that you are underpaid based on what, this is the important, the way how you start a conversation.

And about the promotion also, I would offer the discussion like, "I've been doing my job for the last year. I have feedback, good feedback from you, good feedback from my colleagues. I do believe I’m doing well with my job. And, you know —" It would be great if you have a specific piece, a specific way to grow. If not, then, at least guide your manager. "I'm really looking for the opportunity to grow. This is important for me. I am ready to take on new responsibilities, to learn something. I’m ready to do this," and you will have at the end this.

So this is an offer. So you offered something from your side, your dedication, result consistency, something. And you expect for the manager, from the manager a promotion, a salary something. And if you find a good balance there, you will be in a win-win situation. Especially if you are interested in having to deal with some pinpoint project or something manager would be happy to share that with someone who really would like to do that.

But if you don’t have good feedback from your manager, if you're not dealing well with your task, I am sorry, you don’t have any chances. First, you need to deal really well with your scope and then start this conversation. If not, I would first be focused on developing this part rather than expect that. Just because you want to develop but don’t have proper results, no one will help you before you will improve that.

Timur Novopashin: We don't wanna leave the podcast without talking about AI implementation, of course. When it comes to talking about AI, there are a lot of things to consider, the culture, the ramifications, everything. But what I like to do, I like to focus on specific cases. And I wanna ask you to share with us a good example of AI implementation that you personally enjoy. If your company or your team used — you personally implemented something to the process — and you enjoy working with it, it really saves the time, so like a good example, and maybe an example that didn’t work out well.

Lili Kuznetsova: I think this example also has good and bad parts of it. Something like a year and a half ago, there was a decision to try to create an AI bot, which just simply answers the questions from the employees on some topic. So this project everyone was talking about, that we have a specific dedicated AI project manager in our company. So we decided to really start with that.

So what was happening? My team, usually they are really people ambassadors of a new change. So we decided to be a pilot in the department for this tool. Also because we have lots of questions from the employees on the different topics, on learning, on development, on performance, etc, etc. First there was maybe eight months to choose a platform which can absorb our materials and then give us our proper answer to the employees. So first thing, it takes a lot of time, and it’s a huge cross-functional job, what I need to tell you.

So because we are in HR, we are not technical experts, usually. Sometimes we do have someone who is educated in that, like I personally have this kind of person on my team, but usually not. For me, not. I cannot choose the system. I cannot do that by myself. So we really need the people from the tech team to help us here. And do not try to do it by yourself. This is my advice to you.

And there was lots of testing. And then we find the proper solution really brings the proper answer. And then when we figure out our guidelines, we use the Confluence pages as a source for this AI, so they can collect information and give the answer. And when we figure out that our Confluence page instructions, they are user-friendly, not bot-friendly, and this is different.

What is the main difference? So for AI bot, they are not interested in nice wording. They cannot read pictures, they cannot read print screens, etc, etc. They need more like Q&A format saying whether some description, no pictures, everything should be described in a wording. So it takes some time for my team to extend our guidelines a bit, so they will be friendly for the AI, so it can really collect all the information and give a proposal.

Then it takes a lot of time, so you need lots of people who go there and just ask random questions to figure out what kind of answer you have. And this is important, what source do you add there. Because first thing we do, we added Slack, and then it brings as an answer something which was written in Slack 2018. They are some kind of discussion engineering team. I don't know how they collect this information. And then we understand that you should be really controlling the amount of data which is absorbed by this AI, so it's the answer back.

And then the first thing where we were, there was a failure — we were thinking how to show this to them. And decided to do a Slack channel. And then we figured out that not lots of people would love to ask their questions in a channel because other people will see the questions. So I cannot ask questions like, "My stupid manager doesn’t want me to raise my salary. What should I do?" They will not ask that in an open channel, so you need some specific space for them.

And then we prepare on our portal a link with a page where it looks like just a search bar. You can write any kind of question, and if they have the answer to the question, they will give you. If not they will say, "I don’t know the answer of the question," which is also very important so they will not guess something. And people are really using that, and it really brings the situation where now our employees have to deal much less with this, same amount of the same questions people are asking, because they can just go and safely ask it to the bot and will have the same answer.

Timur Novopashin: I myself experienced such a tool in my previous company, Wolt. And it was quite useful. And from what I was on the receiving end of this process, yes I was an employee — and I was testing, I was asking questions. Of course, some employees usually treat their TA counterparts as HR business partners as well. Okay. Because TA function usually is the closest to the business, so they come to you with questions. So I was also giving some guidance. But what I saw, I believe that the team was also facing the same issues.

I usually like to end on a very nice note. Because our audience consists of talented people, HR experts, and also other professionals who are generally interested in talent and people topics. And they would love to see a person behind the function, so just to end it on a nice note — Lili, in terms of your downtime, when you wanna plug out and rest, what do you do? What do you do to recharge?

Lili Kuznetsova: I was a workaholic for many years. Years of therapy helps me to manage that in a better way. So the first thing helping me very much is not a surprise, it’s a sport. The best thing which fits me is kickboxing. I really recommend it. This is pretty cool. This is not about fighting with others, but it’s extremely cool from my perspective.

Second thing, how — I’m a lucky person, very close to the sea, so if it’s a season after work just go and swim a little bit and just sit and see the water and how the sun goes down. These kinds of things are also very helpful and relaxing. I would say that being with my son can be relaxing, but no, usually we are playing some kind of active games, so it’s not a relaxing thing. But it’s definitely changing you from work topics.

And I would say that having a time with friends, having some dinner, conversation, chat, this is also very important for social people, so they won’t miss this part of their lives. So at the end of the day, I would say that I recommend finding a bunch of things which help you to feel good, because if not then it really can lead to some well-being issues at the end of the day.

Timur Novopashin: Thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing your perspective.

Ksenia Izotova: Thanks a lot, Lili.

Lili Kuznetsova: I really enjoyed the conversation with you.