Page 91 - Harnessing the Strengths

74 ■ Servant-Leadership in the Intercultural Practice

Another typical sign of hyperculture is that the leader is
explicit about his or her core values: respect for differences
is a shared starting point.

Conclusion

Leaders create a culture. Managers create a monoculture.
Servant-leaders create a hyperculture. There are many ways
to do the latter. In one case, the servant-leader may focus
on successful local practices in order to extrapolate these to
a global policy. Imagine that an important innovation hap-
pens in France. Then it is relevant for you as a leader to ask
yourself if this innovation is applicable globally. If that is the
case, the local practice brings the quality of global service to
a higher level. In another case, he or she may ensure that the
global rule is of a high quality because it is made by people
of different cultural backgrounds. In both cases, the chal-
lenge is to make rules better with the help of exceptions.

Resolution
And what does this mean now for Peter Webber? What is
the answer to the typical servant-leadership approach to
the dilemma between global rules and local exceptions in
his company?
The most important process that he as a servant-leader
has to set into motion is the combining of starting points:
the universal truth at the head offi ce with the uniqueness
of the local situation. Servant-leaders bring points of view
together. In this way, they lay the basis for the bridging
of differences, and the solution comes by itself. It is inter-
esting to note that for a long time there was no word in