S1: Cultural Leadership with Gert Jan Hofstede

Building Better Leaders

In this weeks episode we meet Gert Jan Hofstede Professor at Wageningen University and co-author of “Cultures & Organisations - Software of the Mind.” He is a speaker and trainer about cross-cultural issues, evolution of culture, organisational behaviour, trust and transparency, specialising in agent-based models of socio-technical systems.

In understanding Cultures across the world, he make sense of understanding cultures in organisations and looks at how culture specifically influences leaders and leadership. We discuss peoples inert traits, and what tends to happen when people feel wronged.

By taking a look back over time we delve into how the dangers to people have changed from an outward perspective to a more inward threat. We ask Gert Jan why he describes “Culture as ripples on the ocean of shared human nature,” where he defines human nature as: “Status, power, and logic in reference groups.”

We all discuss how we’ve been affected by our experiences of leadership good and bad, and ask whether any individual is strong enough to coerce everyone? What traits must political leaders display, and how does this differ across the world?

Gert brings the whole cultural discussion to life with a short story loaded with lots of useful questions and examples describing the six issues of social life.

Gert Jan’s Leadership Essentials:

1. Maintaining a stable good mood, but be vigilant (technically: non-neurotic)

2. Awareness that modesty counts when it comes to knowing that your followers make you

3. Being Culture-aware (know that one size does not fit all)

Links for Gert Jan Hofstede: http://www.gertjanhofstede.com/