EP 26 - Culture Is Not Soft. It’s the Core of Leadership
In leadership, few words are used as frequently and understood as little as culture. Many see it as something abstract, a soft aspect of corporate life, far less tangible than financial results or operational KPIs. Yet, in reality, culture determines whether strategy succeeds or fails.
In this Episode:
Francois Jacquemin explores how culture shapes leadership, trust, and performance in diverse organizations. He argues that culture is not soft but the essential foundation of leadership impact.
From the beginning of my career, I was fascinated by how culture connects to value creation.
Even in accounting, the concept of “goodwill” reflects the intangible assets of trust, reputation, and cohesion, which are translated into financial worth. It’s an acknowledgment that the human and cultural fabric of a company has monetary value.
Throughout my professional journey, I’ve never worked in a monocultural environment. My teams have always been a blend of nationalities, backgrounds, and generations. This constant exposure to diversity has not only shaped my leadership but also deepened my understanding of what makes organizations resilient.
Working across cultures forces you to pay attention. Language, silence, and micro-expressions all carry meaning. When these signals are missing, as in remote leadership, misinterpretations grow, and minor frustrations can turn into major ruptures. Restoring trust in such cases demands time, empathy, and adaptability.
Creating a safe environment is not a slogan; it’s a discipline. It means reaching out before conflict arises, understanding the emotional context of your team, and being prepared to adjust. Sometimes, it requires decisive change, moving people, reshaping projects, or redefining collaboration. Other times, it calls for patience and the humility to listen before acting.
Cultural leadership is not about imposing one standard. It’s about identifying individual strengths within their cultural context and giving people room to grow from where they stand. When teams are allowed to evolve authentically, collective performance becomes more sustainable.
Ultimately, culture is not soft. It is the architecture of trust, performance, and leadership itself. The best leaders don’t manage culture, they embody it.
Timecode:
00:00 Introduction to Culture and Diversity
00:57 Personal Experiences with Multicultural Environments
02:33 Challenges and Adaptations in Multicultural Teams
03:12 Strategies for Building Trust and Overcoming Frustrations
05:39 Adapting to Change and Leveraging Strengths
Francois Links:
Apple Podcast
Transcript:
One element that I've always, uh, found very interesting is the, um, culture, and it's linked also to diversity. That's something that we, we talked about, uh, in another podcast a few, few months ago was, uh, what, what diversity means. I'd like to now maybe be because of the, the, some of the feedback work a bit on the, on, give a bit more light on the cultural element of that diversity.
Even before the beginning of my career, I, uh, I found that very interesting. Uh, there is, um, in the, uh, the accounting book, there is, there is goodwill in, in there. There's also some, some cultural elements and, and, and, and items. And, and I found that interesting that you can translate. Culture and goodwill into, into money.
Uh, which is something I've done at the time. And, um, it's, it's something which has also followed me through throughout my career. The culture element is something which, uh, either you're part of a community, very close community or in, in, in a country where it is inward looking and, uh, whether it's in the state of province also, and then you, you, you're bound in, in that cultural element and you, you thrive as a business.
Then it's a monocultural approach, but I've never been in that situation. I've always been into a situation where none of my colleagues were almost of the same nationality, and it's something which, um. Has probably shaped me, uh, today. Maybe it's opened me more or gave me more confidence or or less confidence.
Um, it's just, uh, I need to be a bit more, uh, intro do, do a bit more introspection about this. But the element is that. Culture has always been, or different culture has always been part of my business life. Whether it's my, my first job it was, uh, was Belgian. There were luxembourgish, English, French, and, and German there.
And then it, it moved into always, uh, multicultural environments. What does, does it have to do with diversity? Well, if you come from different background, different studies, different age. Um, or generation then, uh, the diversity is there because the point of view, the weight of experience is different. Um, the, the, you are less candid or more candid, depending on, on where you're from.
And, uh, it's something that you have to, uh, or that I always had to, to play with. And to, uh, to be used to, uh, different cultures. Of course, uh, there's always a, a, some form of fear factor or, um, not, you know, the, the lack of trust, you know, is different. So what does that mean? Maybe I had that too much when, when I was kid, or, or, or young.
But it's something which. I had to fight against, and I've completely changed that. My, uh, my approach now is much more towards, uh, you know, reaching out to, toward to, to people and creating, uh, an environment of trust. Is, is that sufficient to be able to lead team at the international level or in several countries?
Like, like Aha. Uh, certainly not. Um, but it's a, it's an important element. The first step, of course, is go towards people and creating a, an, an environment where we can. We can discuss a safe space of trying to as much as possible, creating that safe space, uh, which is not always possible because if you lead a team, which is in another country, from another country, then, then there's the, uh, the, the body language is missing, the, uh, the warmth of moving into, uh, I mean the warmth.
Uh, let, let's be, let's be clear. If you move into a room and, and then they create and, and, and there are people there or you are in the room and people move into the room, there is, there are emotions that are created, whether positive or negative, simply by micro movement, uh, which is something that, uh, that.
That I've learned about, uh, in, in, in, in, in that big group I was working in, but also, um, naturally you'll get used to to, to those elements. If you don't have them, then, uh, you need to compensate that. And, and it's not always easy. So, uh, then more mistakes are, are, are made, which are longer lasting because then the, there is.
More frustration being built without being identified and over a few weeks or months, then this frustration can, can go and explode into, uh, a bit more drama, which, um, is more in the, in the fashion of the explosion than the content of the drama itself. But it's something that needs to be tackled and especially on the, on, on, on the emotional element and reaching out towards people to, to, to people for.
Establishing the relationship when they're from different culture is one thing, but when there is drama and there are, um, emotion, negative emotion involved, then it is something totally different. So there's much more work that need to be done. More time is needed, and um, more openness is required from both sides, but not all the sides can do that.
Um, so what to do? Yeah, good question. At the beginning, uh, being helpless, uh, is, is, uh, is the, is the first thing that happens and, and then, uh, we need to, we need to leave that. Environment of frustration, of, uh, primal fear, maybe, or, or not willingness to, to, to, to go beyond that, uh, or be, be being frozen. Uh, we need to find a, a common currency.
I found in business that it was easy to, to speak about project or changing the project, moving the person from a certain tip. Specific type of work into a slightly different angle with a different vision, with a different, uh, need and giving assurance that whatever was done in the past was going to be taken care of by, by somebody else.
And creating a new, a new environment, a positive environment, uh, was, uh, was very, uh, was very strong, but it's not always working because sometimes the link to the old project, the emotion link to the old project was so strong. So. It's about trial and error. It's about, uh, sometimes, uh, creating a, an earthquake.
Uh, sometimes it's about, uh, little changes and, um, uh, it's not always the same with the same person as well. So what does that mean? It means that we need to be adaptable. We need to be able to understand, uh, who and, and the audiences, uh, what the cultural. State is of the person at the moment of the, of, of, of the, of the drama and be able to, to go beyond that.
And sometimes it's simply not working. There are simply, uh, element, um, of, of, of the culture or of the person, him self, which, which cannot. You know, be, uh, be overcome. And, uh, that's why people change job. That's why people change, uh, project. That's why people jump from, from, from, from the train or, uh, hop on another train.
And, and it is part of, of life, which we, we need to, we need to accept. My opinion has always been, I prefer working on the strength of a person and identify those strength and, uh, in their cultural environment. And then be able to let them progress using those strengths. So leaving, leaving the person sufficient space into, uh, their own culture to progress while giving a lot of understanding into, uh, into, in either keeping myself the understanding, but also part of the team and the colleague being able to, to, to work together and, and, and by giving ourselves space in our own culture to, to evolve.