Do Leaders Shape Culture, or Does Culture Shape Leaders?
Leaders may believe they steer their business ships. But “there is a long-standing controversy about the relationship between culture and leadership. Do leaders shape culture, or are they shaped by it?” as Bolman and Deal (2008) point out.
On the one hand, Lee, Han, Byron and Fan (2008) observe that “the style of leaders should be similarly gentle and soft, but also persistent and powerful.”. Obviously, leaders shape culture in their words and actions every day, at least to some extent. In line with the above, Heifetz and Laurie (1997) note that “leadership has to take place every day. It cannot be the responsibility of the few, a rare event, or an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In our world, in our businesses, we face adaptive challenges all the time”. Leaders must also consider the cultural context they operate within. When steering businesses, they should both understand and employ the cultural web leaders belong to. Such webs include:
1) Stories: How an organisation understands and explains itself
2) Rituals and Routines: Accepted norms and practises
3) Symbols: The unofficial and official representations of culture
4) Organisational Structures: Formal structures and hierarchy, as well as the informal path to power and influence
5) Power Structures: The people who get things done and the systems they use
6) Control Systems: How an organisation controls outcomes.
Understanding the cultural context helps leaders to steer effectively. Inevitably these efforts shape how leaders behave, think and make decisions, for leaders must align with the culture in place but also model desired behaviours. In other words, successful leaders are shaped by surrounding culture.
On the other hand, Kahneman (2012) argues that leaders’ behavioural patterns are often mirages and results of the halo effect. Also, outcome bias and psychological-optimism bias play a significant role in leaders’ decision-making. Such bias creates the illusion of understanding the influence, quality and performance of leadership practises. Flyvbjerg (2017) and Taleb (2010) illustrate that behavioural patterns and psychological bias make leadership fragile.
By observing the nature and quality of leadership practises, we can list important characteristics for successful leaders:
1) leaders should steer businesses authentically, within the context of corporate culture and social values
2) leaders should guide followers with their hearts, souls and heads
3) leaders should establish meaningful relationships with all stakeholders
4) leaders should articulate a desired future and create a path to arrive there
5) leaders should use their experience to develop deep self-awareness
6) leaders should develop a broad repertoire of approaches.
Olivier and Verity (2008) observe, “the single biggest challenge that faces business leaders is to attract, retain and develop the best people – to get them all working together to pursue a vision of some sort – firstly to identify that vision and then to lead the entire army off in that direction.”
To pursue their visions, successful leaders must focus on emotional intelligence and self-awareness, collaborating with key stakeholders and ignoring conventional boundaries. All human beings have the capacity to inspire and empower others, but successful leaders must first develop themselves.
Thus we have arrived at the answer to our original question: ”Do leaders shape culture or are they shaped by it?” The answer is both. Yes, they do. Yes, they are.
References
Bolman L., Deal T. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2008).
Flyvbjerg, B. (2017) (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
George B., Sims P., McLean A., Mayer D. (2007) Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, Harvard Business Review.
Heifetz, R. A. (1994) Leadership Without Easy Answers, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Heifetz, R. A., and Laurie D. L. (1997) The Work of Leadership, Harvard Business Review.
Kahneman D. Thinking, Fast and Slow (Great Britain: Penguin Books, 2012).
Lee, Y. T., Han, A. G., Byron, T. K. , and Fan, H. X. (2008). Daoist leadership, theory and application. In C. C. Chen and Y. T. Lee (Eds.), Leadership and management in China: Philosophies, theories, and practices: 83-107. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Olivier R., and Verity J. (2008) Rehearsing tomorrow’s leaders: the potential of mythodrama. Business Strategy Series. 9(3), pp. 138-143, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Taleb N. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, 2nd ed., (New York: Random House, 2010).
