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Cross-cultural leadership and understanding – not limited to the “big city”

Diversity in action. Images may be subject to copyright.

“You guys live in such a nice little town,” Larry S. was telling me.

My new teaching colleague was sharing his first impressions of Lawrenceburg, Indiana soon after being dumped by the faculty dean in the teacher’s lounge of the town’s small junior college campus.

“Larry, this is Susan – Susan, this is Larry, the new accounting instructor. Susan teaches computer classes.”

It turned out that Larry had always lived in a metropolis, and was now experiencing some culture shock after relocation from Indianapolis, a city of one million plus people, to this little river town of less than 7,000.

We got to talking, and it scared me when I learned he had no place to live, let alone a place to stay his first night. Larry was quite black and Lawrenceburg was still very racist, so I invited him to live at our house until he could find a place of his own.

Larry told me he was born near Salisbury, Zimbabwe, now called Harare, the biggest city in this African country, with a population of around 2 million. Harare is also the commercial capital of the country. The British founded the city in 1890 and called it Salisbury but when Zimbabwe gained independence in the early 1980's, the name was changed to Harare after a Shona chief, Neharawa.

True, Lawrenceburg was a comfortable, little town back in the mid 1970s. Located in the tri-states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, “Whiskey City” was situated on the Ohio River and known by this moniker, since Seagram Whiskey was the town’s main (and only) major employer.

Indiana Vocational Technical College, where Larry and I taught, was a very small local campus (known informally as Ivy Tech and headquartered in Indianapolis) that catered mostly to white, young adults studying business-related classes.

My husband Fred and I knew most people in Lawrenceburg, from the local politicians, newspaper owner and medical practitioners, to teachers and other folks who worked for the Canadian distiller. Fred worked for the region’s mental health center.
In those days, if you went shopping in downtown Lawrenceburg you would find the typical small-town stores. Of course, this was pre-Walmart and most shops and larger stores carried American manufactured items.

Meanwhile, Fred and I have moved to a somewhat larger region; the population of the small city where we now reside is about 20,000. I think my colleague, Larry, would enjoy visiting here some day!

As a teacher back in Lawrenceburg, I once had a student from Russia. That was an exciting venture for me; I enjoyed hearing his life story and about how he moved to Indiana. Where I now live, I can probably count a representation of at least 20 ethnicities and cultures represented. (Moreover, we have a Walmart.)

Honestly, the days of Mom and Pop businesses that catered to people who looked, felt, thought, and talked the same as Mom and Pop are over. Ethnic and cultural diversity have reached even the most remote and isolated regions of our nation.

In what ways are you preparing to build a successful enterprise in the midst of this diversity?

Business diversity expert Dr. Greg Waddell, who writes about adapting leadership style to cultural context, asks this question, while saying he does not lament for the days when everyone was like him – and neither do I.

It really is quite exciting to live in times where you can easily meet people from around the globe, even if you live in a small city or even a smaller little village or town.

Here are three reasons why both Dr. Waddell and I get excited about diversity:

1. Ethnic and cultural diversity is here to stay. “It’s always better to accept reality than it is to live in denial,” Dr. Waddell notes.

2. While cultures differ in fundamental ways, these differences follow certain patterns and can be learned. We CAN learn to do business with people from other cultures. It has been happening for centuries all over the world.

3. The ethnic diversity in which we live today provides an excellent opportunity to discover new approaches to leadership.

Dr. Waddell suggests this change requires effort and preparation. Even with practice, this can be an intimidating experience, “because it requires seeing yourself through the eyes of another culture.”

Many of the management theories that were inscribed in the hallowed pages of management literature of the 1970s and 80s are now obsolete. Almost all of the research behind these earlier business theories was carried out in the context of a Euro-Anglo cultural background.

Sure, there is a lot that we can learn from these classic studies, as long as we see them as one way to envision leadership and as long as we remain open to the very real possibility that these concepts may not work today.

Cultures typically differ in some predictable ways. So, if a person is willing to do what it takes to learn new information about other cultures and ethnicities, he or she can learn to be culturally and ethnically sensitive.

Not too long ago, I took a college course in intercultural communication. Students were assigned to choose a culture different from our own, and to do a report about differences.

Darned, if some of the white students didn’t pick their grandparents’ countries of Sweden, Switzerland and Germany for their reports. I was surprised they were allowed to get away with their lazy, “safe” decisions. What could they have possibly learned?

Once a person really learns about differences or uniquenesses, they are more adept at adjusting leadership behavior to fit the situation, Waddell believes.

Here is a short list of several cultural patterns that Waddell finds helpful in understanding cultural diversity.

•Power Distance. How people view power and the degree to which differences in power are not only allowed but even preferred.

•Individualism versus Collectivism. Some cultures think as a group—others think individually. The Anglo-European culture of the U.S. has been consistently identified as high in individualism.

•Uncertainty Avoidance. This is the degree to which a culture sees uncertainty as a bad thing, something to be avoided.

•Contextual versus Verbal communication. Some cultures allow the context to communicate meaning without words. In the U.S., we usually feel the need to say it.

•Human nature. Some cultures sees human nature as fundamentally evil while others as fundamentally good.

•Work and Leisure. Many cultures see work as an unavoidable or even necessary evil needed to get to what life is really about. Others see work as the main point of life.

There are so many more considerations to address when trying to become a better cross-cultural leader. This short list shows, at least, that cultural differences can be understood. In other words, these differences are not mysterious and impossible to comprehend.

Waddell suggests the main requirement is to have “an inquisitive spirit and a willingness to experience some discomfort for the sake of learning to see the world from a different perspective.”

What about you? What are some of your feelings toward cultural and ethnic diversity? To what extent is it making an impact on your organization? How well do you think other companies are adapting?

All are very good questions to consider in your journey to understanding cross cultural leadership.

A Real Civil Rights Veteran Shares Her Review of The Help - The Joyce Ladner Report

No thanks Kathryn Stockett, I don't want to be "The Help" (Joyce Ladner)

"God forbid that a black maid who cooks their food would ever be allowed to use the same toilet the white people use. I guess this explains the fixation segregationists had with toilets.... for in so many public places there were four. One each for black women, black men, white women, and white men. It's no wonder they didn't have money for libraries and good schools. It was all spent making sure that no black person would ever sit on the same toilet a white behind had graced."
* * * * *

Don't miss this blog post by SNCC veteran and sociologist Joyce Ladner about The Help. This native of Hattiesburg, MS, writes about her own experience as a black teenage maid for white people in her community in the 1950s. Writer Ben Greenberg blogs he was particularly moved by the anecdote about her grandmother's attendance of the wedding of a young white woman whom the grandmother, as the family's maid, had raised.

Read Ladner's review at http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/

When workplace diversity becomes a fraud; don't let the PR photos fool you

Employees at the "XYZ" Company, where diversity reigns(?)

Now come on. Do you really believe that many (most?) large organizations are as "diverse" as they appear in their advertising and public relations venues? I am talking about that photograph of "casually" posed black and white females and males, all wearing elegant suits with their arms folded, and looking as if they are at the pinnacle of their corporations.

It’s quite unfortunate that the rally cry for diversity has companies scrambling to make sure that they appear diverse to the outsider, states William Powell, writing for The Leadership Advisor, an online publication representing an international leadership organization.

In fact, a significant percentage of companies have developed informal “quotas” to make sure they are a diverse organization, causing some business leaders to claim diversity in the workplace has become a fraud. "The common thought is that it mitigates discrimination accusations and makes them appear forward thinking to stakeholders and investors. Pretty much keeping up appearance for the current “trend”," Powell says.

Of course this isn’t true for all companies, but it’s more common than what it should be. The mantra “diversity strengthens an organization” is absolutely true, but with one caveat. You have to embrace what diversity brings. The mere existence of various cultures, ethnicities, gender and religious beliefs within the same relational space does not connote strength of anything. It’s just a description of a group of people.

Far too often, even in the face of this pseudo or fraudulent diversity, there is an expectation that those diverse groups of people must somehow lose whatever makes them diverse for the sake of conforming to specific standards so that there is less conflict.

I remember this so well from my old college sorority days. "Lose that sweater. It's the wrong color! We wear camel blazers. Cut your hair. We all wear Sassoons at Delta Delta Delta! (Now, that last remark dates me!)

Unfortunately, leadership of a number of organizations see diversity within the organization as an increased chance of conflict, "so their conflict strategy is to encourage (dare I say, enforce) this generic sense of homogeneity" (Powell's words).

Of course, this counters the power of diversity altogether and is ignorant leadership. For most people, it is common to feel threatened by an unfamiliar viewpoint. Take a look at the childish drama seen in Washington D.C. Is this how you want your organization to behave?

So where can an organization initiate change?

Start by genuinely making it a point to include the opinions and insight of those from varied cultures and ethnic groups.

"Switch off your judgment for a moment (or permanently) and instead of seeing their perspective through your filters, ask questions to understand why that seems like a viable solution for that individual. You may actually learn something. You are giving people a voice and may be able to incorporate a hybrid of what differing opinions bring to the table."

If you value what a person’s culture/ethnicity (something extremely personal) brings to the table for solution management, how engaged do you think that person will be? How likely are they to be looking for work elsewhere? Things don’t have to be perfect, just moving forward in a way that can allow them to be proud to be a part of making the solution a reality.

We now certainly know from diversity research, that embracing the true value of diversity, allows for the discovery of innovation and creativity within an organization. "Typically, turnover may decrease as engagement increases. How much stronger would your bottom be if just 8% of your workforce would increase their discretionary effort by 5%?" Powell states.

Why is Powell's message surprising?

Folks who live and work at the apex of multinationals and other large organizations, for the most part, are quite elitist. (Think Brown University, Harvard, Smith). Diversity is “in” but not so in that such an apex employee would actually send his or her child to a public school (where most of these “diverse” employees send their children).

We have seen elitist politicians kill health care, public education, social security, Medicare and Medicaid etc. in the name of greed. We have seen them short the market until retirement plans for the “diverse” are DOA.

Until rich and elite white people get serious about diversity, nothing much is ever going to change. For an organization to “look” diverse, probably fools the stockholders for a while. (But no problem, the elites are killing stockholders off, too.)