Cultural Values in Leadership

half a day everyone

i am a pacific islander of chamorro

descent

and as a student of management i’ve

always wanted to share

my notion of what leadership is

from an islander perspective

specifically from a chamorro perspective

i’ve always told students about the

importance of maintaining

a strategic toolbox that consists of all

of these competencies

knowledge and abilities that are going

to help you

do well in any organizational setting so

to start off with we think about this

notion of

integrity accountability from the

standpoint of a leader

and i go back to when i was growing up

i always heard in different studies

settings in the village

in my home my mother saying

adagi my my good size

watch out because god’s not sleeping and

that adage was was passed on because

she wanted to make sure that we behaved

wherever we were

and so we when you pull that into an

organizational setting you think about

this notion of someone’s watching

okay you’re managing resources you’re

managing people

you’re dealing with stakeholders

someone’s watching

all the time and so another cultural

value that’s important is this notion of

in adahi and so in adahi means

to take care of something that guides

our moral compass when we deal with

others

that sense of purpose that sense of

mission

in an organization in adahi

that culture of care that we expect in

any organization

but let’s take a look at the players

within that particular

organization these

individuals we consider members of our

team

in the chamorro culture this notion of

chet lu

means brother it also means sister

uh guam historian dr antatori wrote

in the matrilineal system

brothers and sisters strongly supported

each other

to take care of the family property

to ensure that they took care of the

children

to ensure that they brought in

assets to take care of the family

household

brother the brother uh sister

relationship was such where it was

considered

very important it was a permanent

structure

and it was highly reliable and i love

that

about dr hittori’s definition of chet

liu

so when you think about the organization

the cultural term in that gopher comes

to mind

in that goflee means to watch out for

technically it means brotherly love so

you when you think about the term

chet lu you think about members in your

organization

members of your team this notion of

collegiality

this notion of esprit de corps kicks in

and i love that i love that because when

you

allow folks to to know that they are

part equally part of an organization

that they are well cared for

this notion of diversity equity and

inclusion comes to mind

when folks feel like they’re included

in any setting then it makes them feel

good

so it is motivating and that’s what i

love about this particular

term with regard to leadership another

term

that resonates with me is that of

mine mines gun means endurance

minecon means forbearance to

to to basically uh stand withstand

the test of time when challenges come

a threat comes across our organization

we need to buckle down we need to

posture ourselves to endure to persevere

and that’s what i love about that term

as well

so we bring it all together and a very

common

cultural term and some more that you’ll

hear in gua among tomorrow’s even across

the globe

is in that fat malic

to make good it is a way that we

view situations in our lives the way

that we deal problems the way that we

build challenges

and what that prompts us to do is find a

way

to make things whole find a way to keep

things balanced

find a way to keep things in harmony

so enough malik taking into

consideration

all the other terms that i’ve just

shared

i want to close with this thought

let’s move together in the same

direction

and work towards collective good

so zeus massey