9.2 Culturally Competent Leadership

Cultural competence is the ability of a leader to skilfully manage and support unique people, combining knowledge and skills with awareness, curiosity, and sensitivity for other cultural beliefs. It takes time, motivation, and practice to develop cultural competence. And as the world continues to evolve, cultural competence will also continue to evolve.

Operations Management leaders have the opportunity to empower others, assembling diverse and unique teams. Leaders who can do this are setting the standard for how a workplace should be run, balancing the skills of different people, recruiting talent that brings another world view, and consistently evaluating their organization for areas to improve. Moreover, culturally competent leaders can make each member of the team feel included and provide a sense of belonging.

Developing Cultural Competence

To become culturally competent, you must first understand the meaning of cultural awareness. According to Collins Dictionary, cultural awareness is the “…understanding of the differences between themselves and people from other countries or other backgrounds, especially differences in attitudes and values.”^[1]

Watch this video: Becoming Culturally Competent by Arkansas Open Educational Resources [4:02] (transcript available on Youtube) on becoming culturally competent and think about how you can add this to your own skill set in Operations Management.

To learn more about the ways in which a leader can become culturally competent, please refer to the resources in the toolkit below.

“Culturally Competent Leadership” in Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Organizational Culture by Andrea Bearman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.