For example, many European cultures are accustomed to leaders being pragmatic, practical and results focussed. In other words, leaders in European countries know what needs to be done. They are focused on the pathway to achieving results and know how to tread the way in an efficient and effective way. Their teams understand this and follow because they can also see where they need to get to and rely on their leader to direct and guide them to the end. Leadership in a European context tends to be based on logic and practicality, and because of this, processes and systems are central to the process of leadership. Where the upside of this leadership approach is the attainment of results, the downside is that teams or individuals may become disenfranchised if they cannot keep up.
Many African cultures, on the other hand, demand that their leaders are human-focussed and consultative, presenting a more ‘human’ side to leadership. In African teams everybody has a voice, regardless of level of seniority, and consensus is an important part of decision making. Processes and systems do exist but they are of secondary importance to how the team feels, and as a result they are not seen as central to leadership in an organisation, rather as something that is there by necessity. It could be said that in Africa, outcomes are less of a focus compared to the ‘journey’ in getting there. The outcome is almost a byproduct of the process. This leadership has positives insofar as people feel valued. The flip side of this is, however, that it can mean that a team finds it difficult to progress and achieve good results.
These two, sometimes conflicting, leadership approaches point to the need for leaders to decolonise their approach to leadership should they be taking on a leadership role in a multicultural environment. By developing a leadership style that hybridises their own experiences with the experiences of their teams, they are far more likely to meet the needs of their teams at the same time as attaining the results they are seeking for their teams. But unless International school Heads actively embark on a process of listening, researching and understanding the culture and expectations of their new teams, and follow this with careful development and implementation of a new, hybridised leadership style that will contextually suit their schools, the schools themselves will continue to be puzzled as to why exceptional Heads appear to struggle when faced with the cultural complexities of a new leadership environment.