When I retired from the Air Force, I transitioned into leadership roles in higher education and non-profits—complex environments with competing interests. My focus had to shift from hierarchical operational command to leading collaborative cultures, which I found challenging.
The Shift to Cultural Intelligence
Serving in roles like the Executive Officer for the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe (SACEUR) and later in higher ed and a non-profit, I learned the indispensable role of cultural intelligence. When you collaborate with other nations, different departments, or different organizations, you can’t simply demand that they meet you where you are. You must meet them on their ground.
This requires:
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Listening: Understanding their mindsets, resource constraints, and history.
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Integration: Taking their unique capabilities, which are their strengths, and integrating them into the team so they are true contributors.
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Constructive Conflict: Being willing to have hard conversations to avoid being condescending or dismissive. If you just placate someone, you undermine the entire relationship.
Building culture is the key. But leaders often focus on the wrong direction.
Thermometers vs. Thermostats: My Lesson Learned
In highly sensitive environments, like universities and non-profits, I noticed leaders spending too much time being thermometers—merely measuring and reacting to the external temperature of politics, social conflicts, or short-term situations.
I challenge myself and other leaders to become thermostats—those who actively set the cultural temperature of their institutions.
If you find yourself simply measuring the temperature of your organization or society and lamenting the state of affairs, stop and decide to make an impact instead.
This difference in perspective is critical. As an example, we are seeing violence being considered an acceptable option by too many people. The thermostat leader must make a clear, principled, and undeniable stand against this.
There are many leadership actions you can take to be the thermostat that sets the temperature of your organization. Here is one action you can start this week that can ignite a chain reaction of culture in the people and organizations closest to you.
The Mentoring Loop
As a leader, you must mentor. This is beyond your normal interaction with your team, setting goals, monitoring performance, and achieving the mission. Those are already part of your job description. I'm talking about conversations, relationships, and curiosity about the welfare of those you lead on a personal level. I guarantee you, they have questions they want to ask you about how they are doing, what they can do better, and how to do that. As a mentor, you jump the age, authority, or positional leadership gap and become a resource for your mentee. I also get better when I mentor.
I rely on mentoring because it’s a two-way street. Its a reciprocal relationship where I often learn as much from my young mentees as they learn from me. That relational growth keeps me grounded and adaptable.
My most valuable role now is not to fix everything, but to be a really good role model in the three feet around me. One tool is to be a mentor. I know I can't change the world by myself, but I can be a positive influence every day. I can be a thermostat in those three feet around me all day long. That has a ripple effect that empowers a leader to truly set the culture and make an impact.
