Cultural Synergy

The leader in my life who could create the most cultural synergy I have witnessed between teams was also the most transformational leader I have met. Philip was the general manager of a hotel called Sunsail, that used to have a resort in Antigua. Philip transformed the hotel. He also changed my life in ways that I am still grateful to him for. He was a transformational leader and one of the ways he succeeded at this was his ability to get a multinational resort staff to offer great service to multinational hotel guests. Philip was originally from New Zealand, although he had worked in the UK, and Kenya. The staff were from all over the Caribbean, as well as British. Philip made sure to utilize all the various cultures and viewpoints to manage the hotel.

‘If the organizations culture emphasizes employee participation through team management, the groups’ microcultures are likely to reflect that systems macro culture. Thus, collaborative management should be evident not only within an individual team, but in intergroup relations. (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, Pg. 271)

Philip hired me shortly after he took over as general manager. The hotel was always full, yet hemorrhaging money. Prior leadership had not been ethical, there were no controls, inventories, or standard operational procedures being enforced. Philip was a leader who was very engaged, he spent a lot of time on property and working on developing a team from the ground up. Some were old staff who had not been corrupted, and some were new hires such as myself.

By being constantly present, available and helpful, Philip created trust and respect from his team. By instituting controls and procedures, he also ensured that staff had the tools to succeed in his vison of cutting fraud and theft, and improving upon the product offered to our guests.

‘To ensure top performance, the global leader continually updates and broadens his or her understanding of culture and its impact on our lives. Although there may be few management theories that can be universally applied across all cultures, there are many principles and practices of leadership that can be adopted to various countries.” (Moran, Abramson, Moran, Pg. 289)

I was the food and beverage manager, one of the most important departments from a guest perspective, and certainly a department that financially was vital to control for the hotels financial viability. There were also serious liabilities from food safety concerns that needed to be addressed. Philips strength and his transformational abilities were not only that he offered tools and support, he was always available to me should I need his advice.

In other hotels, I had been micro managed and second guessed. I have also had general managers let me take the blame for situations they had created. Philip did none of those things. He made me feel confident that if I put in my best effort I could even fail, and he would still be there and support me. Feeling that I no longer needed to fear failure, or be blamed for failure, was an enormously transformative experience. Philip challenged me to try for new heights to strive to improve and this inspired me, this made me feel excited about going to work, and extremely

‘We all have the capacity to inspire and empower others. But we must first be willing to devote ourselves to our personal growth and development as leaders.’ (Moran, Abramson, &Moran, Pg. 276)

Philip is semi-retired now, and lives half a world away. I still stay in touch with him and value his advice. Philip showed me that a truly transformative leader is an ethical and moral one, but also one who connects with their team, and stimulates them to always want to reach for the sky.

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge