Goals

The goal of this lesson was to introduce the idea of cultural dimensions and cause you to think about the beliefs you have that arise from you national culture.  Because of how we absorb and develop our cultural identity you will have undoubtedly been completely unaware of many of the ways they affect how you think and respond.  They will even affect what you consider to be the right way to interpret the Bible.

The next goal was for you to develop the internal challenge to “no longer be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2)

The third goal was to give you insight and prepare you to look at how you lead with different eyes. Then to prepare you to develop your own insight in to the approaches to leadership we have already considered and the practical approaches that are still to come. You will need to assess for yourselves just how much they belong to the Kingdom; how you would use them with people of the Kingdom of God and with people who still have your national culture well and truly embedded in their thinking. Also you will, from time to time, need to lead people who are of a different national cultures.

This whole module is about Leading with Insight, about self-awareness, others-awareness and understanding how to be flexible in you leadership style as you work with others.  As we have seen our national cultures have a massive impact upon this.

Action Plan

Take time to reflect on what you have learned and identify what actions you need to take as a result in order to develop your own cultural-awareness for yourself and others.

Further Study

To consider the traits of your national culture you may need to use the on line tool available at to http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html to understand the rankings of your country.  Identify the key features and investigate what the Bible has to say about them.

Using Hofstede’s web site, choose another country and compare its culture to the culture of your own country. How would the differences affect how would you lead people from that other country? If you are already leading people from another country choose that one for your comparison.

Next

There are two important aspects to be considered when a leader leads others. The first is the essential leadership practices that the leader must exhibit; the second is the needs of the people in the team being led. “Leading through Others”, the next module in the Growing the Servant Heart programme examines both these areas from the Christ-centred servant leadership perspective. They are equally applicable to church and Christians enterprises.

Biblography

Books

Hofstede,G, Hofstede, J.G., Minkov, M.: Cultures and Organisations Software of the Mind (2010) – McGraw-Hill

Web

http://geert-hofstede.com