Page 42 - Harnessing the Strengths

Culture Clashes ■ 25

as night and day. The different ways depend entirely on the
cultural background of the people. Every servant-leader
has his or her own starting point, a starting point that is
determined by personal culture, personal organization, and
personal temperament.
As a result, people from totally different starting
points, and via different paths, can still come to the same
solutions. What these solutions have in common, and how
you can identify them, is that they are harmonious, they are
effi cient, and they can count on wide support. The ability to
overcome linear thinking and structurally reconcile cultural
dilemmas is referred to here as cross-cultural competence.

To sum it up—servant-leadership is
fundamentally different in that it moves
us:

• From linear to cyclical thinking
• From one-way to two-way direction
• From choosing between two opposite values to
combining them
• From one-dimensional to holistic
• From top-down to bottom-up
• From analysis to synthesis

Practice

The servant-leadership approach of integrating opposites
that is recommended here is anything but “out-there.” The
belief that the key to resolving problems can be found by
combining opposing values is based on thousands of real-
life stories, shared by entrepreneurs all over the world. At the
consulting company Trompenaars Hampden-Turner (THT)