Number 16 - Culture clash in leadership

What does it mean to be a leader?

Cultural awareness is paramount to effective leadership. One must appreciate and understand where their team members come from. That should include all types of cultures from national and regional cultures, to profession, age, gender, organization etc. Failure to take culture into account means ineffective leadership and often rejection!

I find that the importance of knowing who your team is, is perfectly illustrated by a short story we were taught in high school literature in Greece. According to my high school memories, the story takes place in post revolution Greece. The country had just come into existence after overthrowing the Ottoman yoke and desperately needed capable people to fill important state posts.

Capable statesmen where of course hard to find in Greece, but the Greek diaspora was there to answer the call! Our protagonist is such a man: a member of the diaspora that has had a successful career in Europe and comes packaged with all 1800s western notions of what a country is and how it is run. Oblivious to what he is getting himself into, he accepts the role of a governor in an island and packs his stuff to get himself where he needs to be.

So he embarks on the boat that will bring him to his post but he is soon shocked to his core! There is no formal army regiment to receive him, no instructions to where he should be going, no advisers and not even flags on the vessel to indicate a VIP is on board! Eventually, a rugged man comes at him and asks him for his ticket - the people were not even aware of who he is.

Outraged, he finds out the captain and lashes out against him for the unceremonious welcome. It is at this point where we see the clash of worlds to its full extent: the captain completely rebukes him and treats him with contempt. He perceives the governor as one more arrogant foreigner who is incapable at best, to a glorified tax collector at worst. All his life, he has learned that authority is something inherently bad and foreign, given the recent Ottoman occupation. The captain and the governor are thus experiencing a violent culture clash and unless the governor finds a way to communicate to the islanders he risks failing his mission.

The lesson is thus that if leadership is to be successful, one has to be mindful of other people's preconceptions. In this case, if we agree that respect to statesmen is a good thing, we need to understand that this is a value that we need to cultivate to the islanders. We cannot just assume it should be there and be angry at our poor reception!

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