Take Stock of Your Strengths With a Cultural Balance Sheet

Culture is the second of the Five Cs of Leadership Capital in my book, The Treasure You Seek. The Five Cs are tools used to build and strengthen Leadership Capital, which is made up of experiential, relationship, and financial capital.

Culture is similar to identity, but not exactly the same. We think of religion, ethnicity, language, and nationality when we talk about identity. But culture is your full identity: your family, heritage, and history—all those individual experiences—that made life easy or tough growing up.

Think of it like a balance sheet.?

On one side, the assets column shows how your background has enabled you to achieve great things. It’s the strength of the community you grew up in, the traditions of your faith, how your parents fostered your education, the wise choices you made early in your career, and the skills you developed.

On the other side, the liabilities column reflects the challenges and setbacks you have faced. Perhaps you grew up in a household without many resources, and your family had to do a lot with very little. Maybe you were exposed to abuse and addiction. You may have experienced learning difficulties that went unrecognized or unsupported. In other words, you adapted and learned in spite of these challenges.

When you tally up your assets and liabilities, you see how your strengths outweigh your weaknesses. This is your cultural leadership capital.?

Here’s where leadership capital differs from financial capital: You can move some of those cultural “liabilities” over to the assets column because those experiences actually contributed positively to your experiential capital.?

Here’s how it works:

• You grew up in a home where your family struggled with money. This taught you to be fiscally responsible.
• You changed schools several times because your family moved around. This made you adaptable.
• You saw the effect of drug and alcohol addiction on close friends or loved ones. This made you compassionate.
• You had to work twice as hard as your friends in school because you had a learning difficulty. This taught you to think outside the box and be creative.

When I lead discussions about the cultural balance sheet, we quickly move away from demographic categories. Regardless of socioeconomic background, everyone has experiences that build them up or stand in their way.?

Leaders who understand where they come from can show up for their teams and communities in powerful ways. They draw upon both what they have been given and what they have had to earn.?

Enjoy the journey,

Archie