Chapter 2: Culturally Competent Leadership

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Develop leadership skills and cultural competencies to cultivate a diverse and inclusive organizational culture. (LO4)

Cultural competence is the ability of a leader to skillfully manage and support unique people, combining knowledge and skills with awareness, curiosity, and sensitivity for other cultural beliefs. It takes time, motivation, and practice to develop cultural competence. And as the world continues to evolve, cultural competence will also continue to evolve.

Leaders have the opportunity to empower others, assembling diverse and unique teams. Leaders who can do this are setting the standard for how a workplace should be run, balancing the skills of different people, recruiting talent that brings another world view, and consistently evaluating their organization for areas to improve. Moreover, culturally competent leaders can make each member of the team feel included and provide a sense of belonging.

Before learning about how to develop cultural competence, carefully review and reflect on the following questions:

Developing Cultural Competence

In order to be culturally competent, there are several characteristics that a leader possesses:

1. Cultural Awareness
2. Cultural Desire
3. Cultural Knowledge
4. Cultural Skill
5. Cultural Encounters

Select each of the hot spots below to learn more about each of these characteristics

Additional Learning Materials:

Read:

1. Cultural Competencies (14 pages) (LO4)
   1. Developing Your Cultural Competency section will be reviewed in the Discussion Forum.

Watch:

1. What is Cross-Cultural Competence? (2:01) (LO4)
2. Cultural Competency (2:08) (LO4)
3. Be an Inclusive Leader (1:53) (LO4)

Listen:

1. Cultural Competence (20:23) (LO4)

References for Remixed Content:

Open RN (n.d.) Nursing fundamentals. Open RN. Retrieved February 3, 2022 from https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/nursingfundamentals

Image Credits for Opening Collage:

“culture is not a crime” by Dawn Endico is licensed under CC BY 2.0

“Xhosa Bride, Lesedi Cultural Village, Gauteng, South Africa” by South African Tourism is licensed under CC BY 2.0

“Karneval der Kulturen|Carnival of Cultures” by K.H.Reichert [ … ] is licensed under CC BY 2.0

“United colours of India” by Marco Bellucci is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

“Boat in Zhouzhuang 周庄 (‘Venice of China’)” by Kristoffer Trolle is licensed under CC BY 2.0