Picture this scene - an Asante tribal chief in pre-colonial Ghana, West Africa is sitting in all his glory in his thatched court, deep in negotiations with a member of his tribe concerning land and livestock. The chief wants to set a collaborative tone. Or perhaps he's negotiating with a leader of a competing tribe and wants to invoke a subtle message of warning in the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt's axiom, "speak softly and carry a big stick", long before Roosevelt said it.

So he instructs his adviser and spokesman to bring out a certain ceremonial staff with a gold inlaid carving on the top - one with a carving that conjures up images of a particular well known proverb, expertly chosen for the occasion. The stick in question is called a "linguist staff" and they were common in pre-literate tribes of western Africa. Linguist staffs are visual reminders of deeply shared values and morals that are well known and agreed upon to be true. Just the mention of the proverb says it all, and the linguist staff does the talking. It's part of the context of the conversation, and depending upon how directly the chief chooses talk, the staff says what the chief may choose not to put into words. The negotiations go in the direction the chief wanted because he has leveraged and communicated values in a way that created a context and tone. This is a core leadership competence, and he has shown that he knows and uses that fact.

This African tale is centuries old, and yet at the same time completely 21st century. When I first learned about linguist staffs, I was excited to learn about them. What excites me about this personal discovery is that the staffs physically represent a leadership and organizational development principle in a way that does not originate in western leadership pulp (of which there is a lot). One can learn about the importance of leveraging core values directly from Asante tribal chiefs, without reference to modern leadership chiefs like Kouzes and Posner (their work is definitely NOT pulp). I don't detract from western leadership material; I find it full of deep resource, especially when based in experience and research. But while some practitioners talk as though western leadership models are the pinnacle of human organizational development, there is in fact as much to learn about leadership from all the world's cultures that enrich the conversation about leadership. 
 

Learning from other cultures is essential when working among them, and even when not. Although Patrick Lencioni (another of my favorite authors) hasn't yet been translated or contextualized for every language, there are examples of leadership that can be drawn from the world's cultures that will help to teach leadership lessons in those places, and also in our own.

Most of the world has a mix of cultures now, because most societies have minority populations. Wise leaders recognize this and respond accordingly. The leader of a cross-cultural organization knows that since culture eats strategy for lunch, the organization needs to respect and include multiple cultures represented. It's a matter of strategic importance that in the midst all of the different cultural value systems represented in global organizations, leaders find those values upon which their people will agree, and define how those values will be articulated, exemplified, and lived out in the organization. Our diverse cultures are a goldmine of ideas to learn from in leading our organizations, and I go as far as to say that learning about leadership in other cultures is inherently worthwhile.

I would like to hear some day about the CEOs of western fortune 500 companies that work in Africa acquiring a trove of gold inlaid linguist staffs like our African predecessors, one for each company core value. This would speak deeply about their respect for the cultural heritage of their African constituencies. Many companies do well with representing their values in ways that are recognizable in the west, such as posters, wristbands and other artifacts to promote values. But artifacts by themselves are mere decoration, while artifacts used in concert with aligned action reinforces the lesson. Most of all, my point is that leaders in cultures all around the world have seized upon this truth - to lead people well they discover, define, model and leverage common values. The best leaders start with their own behavior, and live as examples of the values they want to see among their people.

I take this truth as a self-evident truth -- a global leadership truth.

Leaders in all cultures discover, define, model and leverage common values, using culturally appropriate ways to share their ideas and negotiate with others.