Basic leadership skills, such as good judgment, integrity or the art of dealing with people, are universal. However, successful leadership also depends on factors specific for different cultures. A leader's strength in one culture may be a weakness in another.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of organisational psychology at University College London and CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, pointed this out in an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review website. He says research clearly shows that the region in which a leader operates influences mainly their decision making, communication style and negative tendencies. Chamorro-Premuzic then demonstrates this on the following types of leadership.
1. Decision making
Depending on how leaders make decisions, we distinguish synchronised and opportunistic leaders.
Synchronised leaders follow through. First of all, they always seek agreement with all interested parties. Then they lead everybody through the entire process. These leaders can mostly be found in Northeast Asia (Mainland China, South Korea, Japan), Indonesia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile).
Opportunistic leaders initiate and demonstrate their flexible approach to achieving goals. They thrive in environments full of ambiguity. They are very ambitious and not afraid to take risks. They occur mainly in northern and western Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain) as well as in Western countries strongly influenced by British culture (USA, Australia, New Zealand) and Asian countries based on the British economic model (India, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong).
2. Communication style
Depending on how they communicate, leaders can be divided into straight-shooters and diplomats.
Straight-shooting leaders are expected by their culture to confront difficult issues immediately instead of conducting lengthy negotiations or thinking about the feelings of others. This behaviour is typical of Northeast Asia as well as, for example, the Netherlands.
Diplomatic leaders, on the other hand, always maintain a calm and friendly tone of communication. They address confrontation emphatically and perceive it as a necessary evil. They are typical of New Zealand, Sweden, Canada and most of Latin America.
3. Negative tendencies
Chamorro-Premuzic describes these trends as a shift to the "dark side" of leadership. This category includes "kiss-up/kick-down" and passive-aggressive leaders.
Kiss-up/kick-down leaders focus a lot of attention, respect and effort on communicating with their superiors while treating their subordinates bossily and without compromise. This behaviour is tolerated especially in Western Asia (Turkey, India, United Arab Emirates) followed by Serbia, Greece, Kenya or South Korea.
Passive-aggressive leaders do not trust others; they tend to be critical and often resentful. However, they hate conflict and avoid it, which only leads to greater problems. This style of leadership is most often seen in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Leadership should always be approached from a cultural perspective, based on the culture of both a given region and specific organisations. Culture is the sum of values and beliefs of influential leaders of the past.
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