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