Everyone should be a minority.

I believe everyone should experience being a minority at least once. 

I recently returned from southern India, and exploring the differences between our cultures has been fascinating. First, let me say that India isn’t for beginners (a funny internet sensation). The place is hot, crowded, loud, busy, and filled with many unfamiliar smells, especially for someone from the Midwest United States. Rural India, while still hot, is amazing. It’s July, so it’s hot back home too. The people of Southern India are some of the kindest, warmest, and most welcoming I’ve met anywhere in the world. 

I often discuss culture in this blog because I believe it’s something leaders can never focus on enough. A quick search will reveal many references to the idea that "a goldfish can’t see the water," just as we can’t see our own culture.  In a commencement address at Kenyon College, David Foster Wallace stated, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about”.  

One of these dudes is a minority, even with an epic mustache.

My recent experience with Indians in their home country highlighted how much my middle-class American culture is individualized, rebellious against existing systems, driven by personal expression, and built on achievement. As I left, I noticed how much my friends in India work to live, whereas my friends and I in the US live to work. I’m not in a position to say one approach is better than the other, but I do observe much higher stress and anxiety among my friends here. 

This makes me question how much of our culture, both in our families and workplaces, is designed to give us something we don’t want. One of the most important things we can do as leaders is to continuously define our purpose and audit our focus and energy relative to that purpose. Daniel Coyle, in The Culture Code, states, “Purpose isn’t about tapping into some mystical internal drive but rather about creating simple beacons that focus attention and engagement on the shared goal. Successful cultures do this by relentlessly seeking ways to tell and retell their story.” It’s hard work, and I think it’s easier to understand after we swim in a different aquarium for a while. 

Leaders, what’s your purpose? Does your culture help or hinder you?