Page 66 - Harnessing the Strengths

Dilemma 1: Leading Versus Serving ■ 49

In cultures where leaders earn their status by effectively
carrying out their tasks (the performance-oriented cultures),
people prefer answer B. In cultures where ascribed status is
the norm, they would sooner choose A. In all cultures it is
about how power is distributed, regardless of the perfor-
mance of the whole.

Problems and Solutions

The difference in viewpoints in an intercultural environ-
ment ensures various dilemmas arise, for example those
below:

• Master versus servant
• Autocratic versus participative leadership
• Grand design versus emergent strategy

Serving and leading seem to be two largely irreconcilable
concepts, and that is what they are, at least for leaders who
remain stuck in their own cultural point of view. A servant-
leader, however, overcomes these limitations and uses them,
in fact, to combine two extremes. These people will not let
themselves be seduced into choosing between performance
and attribution; rather, they use their status to help others
to perform. This also works the other way: the performance
of their team also gives them more status. In this way, per-
formance and attribution are used in order to strengthen
each other.
As you will see, there are many different ways in which
to do this. Depending on culture and the personality of a
leader, there can be different starting points; however, the
solutions, in all their different forms, share the same theme
and are manifestations of servant-leadership.