Leading across cultures
By James, December 09 2021Cultural differences in leadership styles often cause unexpected misunderstandings. Americans, for example, tend to consider themselves egalitarian and think of the Japanese as hierarchical. But American leadership can be confusing. Though American bosses are outwardly egalitarian—asking subordinates to use first names and to speak up in meetings—they can be extremely top-down in the way they make decisions.
I find that it’s common for people from different countries to grapple with mutual incomprehension. In this case, it is usually because managers fail to distinguish between two important dimensions of leadership culture.