Cultural Diversity Is Not Your Problem. Leadership Blind Spots Are

Most leaders don’t fail at cultural diversity because they don’t care.
They fail because they misdiagnose the problem.

I regularly walk into organisations where the story sounds like this:

• “We have too many nationalities.”
• “Communication is difficult.”
• “People don’t take responsibility.”
• “There’s tension on the floor.”

The reflex response is predictable: more training, more meetings, more posters about respect.

None of that fixes the real issue.

What’s actually happening

In culturally diverse environments, people don’t disagree on values as much as they disagree on interpretation.

• What “take initiative” means
• When it’s acceptable to challenge a decision
• Whether rules are flexible or fixed
• Who owns a problem when something goes wrong

Leaders assume these interpretations are shared.
They’re not.

So teams comply — but they don’t commit.
They nod — but execute differently.
They avoid conflict — until it explodes.

A case from the floor

In a production environment with multiple nationalities across shifts, management kept repeating the same message:

“If there’s a problem, escalate immediately.”

From a Dutch leadership perspective, that’s clear.

From other cultural perspectives, escalation meant:

• disrespect
• loss of face
• incompetence
• or bypassing hierarchy

So people waited. Issues grew. Management blamed attitude.

The problem wasn’t mindset.
It was unspoken assumptions.

The leadership shift that works

Strong cultural leadership starts with one discipline:

Stop explaining. Start checking interpretation.

Not:

“Is that clear?”

But:

“What will you do when this happens?”
“Who do you involve?”
“When do you escalate — exactly?”

When leaders do this consistently, something changes:

• fewer repeat errors
• faster decisions
• less emotional escalation

Not because people suddenly “get culture” —
but because leadership made expectations operational.

Cultural diversity doesn’t break performance. Leadership shortcuts do!!