Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Know Your Culture and Your Context
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it reminds us that we need to understand our culture and our context.
My granddaughter was sitting next to my wife while they were having a snack and playing with some toys together. As they were playing, my granddaughter became quiet and still, and seemed to be phased out for a moment, lost somewhere in her own mind. After a few minutes of sitting there, unblinking and unmoving, she suddenly turned to my wife, smiled, and said, “I was loading!”
To someone in another generation and time, that might not make any sense. But to a generation that has lived and grown up in a digital age, it’s obvious that this refers to what happens when a computer is loading a program, document, or website, and the cursor on the screen is spinning around and around while you wait. It’s terminology that is familiar to someone who has always known modern technology, and it has become a commonly understood idea. So when she said, “I was loading,” she understood what she was saying and it made sense to her. It also made sense to us. For just a few minutes, she was lost in her own thoughts while she refreshed her mind and her energy.
The reason why this made sense to her (and to us) is because it’s a normal part of her (and our) culture and context. It is a normal part of the broader digital culture in which we all live, and it is a normal part of the specific context of her own life, where she uses devices and computers as part of her daily activity. Therefore, because it is a normal part of her culture and her context, it is an idea that she understood and could apply to her own activity. And because I also understand her culture and context, I knew what she meant when she made that statement.
That’s a great reminder for your leadership as well. You need to understand the culture and context in which you live. You need to know the greater cultural time period and environment that helps to define and shape where and when you live. You also need to know the specific local culture and context in which you are operating. Both of these things have an impact on the kind of decisions you make. For example, in one place I worked, the word “debrief” was a trauma-connected word and, therefore, not a word I could use in a meeting. In another place, a program that I had successfully implemented elsewhere did not work in this new place because the local culture and context was different.
That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from my granddaughter’s comment that she was “loading” when she had phased out for a few minutes. You need to understand the culture and context in which you live and work, both globally and locally. Know what the shaping factors are that are within your region and field of expertise, as well as what they are in the specific place in which you live and work and lead. If you want to lead well and make wise decisions, one thing you must do is to know your culture and your context.
