Glaspie: Applying New Tools in Different Cultures

“Everything I thought I knew about developing leaders failed. I took all the processes and systems and assessment tools with me, and they all failed. But this guy taught me more about how to develop leaders than anything else, because what I learned was that he wasn’t the only problem. There were some basic assumptions built into everything we thought we knew that kept failing,” he said.

Part of the problem was that in the West African culture where Glaspie was deployed, one just didn’t give feedback on one’s boss. So, tools such as 360-degree analysis, where an employee’s immediate work circle, including subordinates, peers and supervisors, provides feedback, generated a lot of false positives.

“So, we had to recalibrate. I had to ask what the critical success factors that we look at here, and what were those indicators that tell us who to select for leadership. All the competency models that we built here [in the United States] didn’t work,” Glaspie said.

Glaspie eventually identified three factors that were necessary to be a successful leader in a culture like West Africa. One was courage, which was necessary to be able to go against cultural and social norms, if necessary, while making decisions. Another critical factor was a diverse skillset which would enable a leader to work across departments, rather than specialize in one or two areas. Finally, a diverse network was found to be necessary in order to predict who has open ideas and could work with people who might not agree with them, but who could still engender respect from them.

So, why did the systems and tools that worked so well in evaluating someone in the United States work so poorly in a country like West Africa? Glaspie said it came down to four things.

“All the assumptions we made about people were wrong. We had to put people in positions they were not qualified for. Also, a lot of the policies didn’t work, and needed to be adjusted and adapted to the cultural norms that we found there. The processes needed to be adjusted, as well. Finally, the product or systems needed to be simplified so that the workforce could understand it,” he said.


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