Here is the second of two guest posts contributed by Tom Virtue. You can click here to read “Cultural Pressure Part One.” This is a continuation of those thoughts and I’d encourage you to spark some interaction and dialogue by raising questions or leaving a comment of your own.
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“Would the girl/boy you were be proud of the woman/man you are becoming?Attributed to Laurence J. Peter (1919 ~ 1990)
“Cultural Pressure” Part 2 of 2
Yesterday we began a discussion of “cultural pressures” in the context of the fact that God has given us stewardship over our well-being even when we are experiencing pushes and pulls in our work (or other) environments to get us to conform.
We looked at Performance pressure, Happy Talk pressure, and Gender pressure yesterday. Did those bring to mind some of your own examples? Let’s look at a couple more that came to my mind before trying to look for some applications.
Responsibility pressure: There are leaders who for whatever reason have a tendency to avoid taking responsibility. For those of us who have a tendency toward responsibility that creates an internal pressure toward taking on more responsibility to help the organization. However, if the leader avoids responsibility it probably means they won’t have our backs even if we do what we think is our responsibility, but for sure not if we start assuming more responsibility than is ours. This environment sets up a constant internal struggle for the responsible person – wanting to assume responsibility but knowing that our contribution probably won’t be honored, appreciated, or have long-term staying power ultimately.
Interpret the silence pressure: Patrick Lencioni says that healthy organizations “over-communicate clarity.” When we work in environments where leaders under communicate it has some similarity to the Happy Talk environment in that we are left to our own interpretation of how things are going, what the leader thinks of the team’s progress, what the leader thinks about anything. That puts us in a tentative place… wondering, trying to look for signs, reading the tea leaves. It can lead us to second-guessing ourselves and our contribution so that we don’t function out of confidence and security – not a place where we give our best or even know how we can give our best!We could look at a lot more possible environments, but will leave it there. Where does that put us? Is the answer to find a perfect leadership environment? Good luck! I’ve created some of these environments myself no matter what my intentions were to lead authentically and with competence.
Where it leads us is back to the beginning – we are stewards of our well-being. Exercising that stewardship could mean making a change from the environment where you currently work (not suggested unless there is at least a year to 15 month period of time where serious concerns can’t be reconciled). It could mean speaking into the culture where you currently work – whether it is perceived to be welcomed or not. It could mean living out your identity responsibly while not seeking to change the culture around you. All of those options have been appropriate for me at different points. All I know is that I want to feel honestly satisfied with who I am at work as it will shape who I am as a whole person. That is something for which God holds me personally responsible!
What about you?How is your working (or church, or social, or family) culture pressuring you to adapt and conform?
What has been your strategy of relating to this culture so far?… Is it working for you?
What do you think about this idea of experiencing cultural pressure to conform and its impact on your well-being? Does is stimulate some thoughts that you would add to the discussion here?“
Would the girl/boy you were be proud of the woman/man you are becoming?
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Tom Virtue has been on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ for 37 years and currently serves with the Epic Movement in coaching and developing leaders. He’s been married for 38 years to Karen, has three kids and two grandkids with another three grandkids on this way soon.
