Leader as a 'Charioteer'

Leader as a 'Charioteer'.

The 'charioteer' analogy has many overtones from a corporate leadership perspective. This post is but about the role of a leader as a Charioteer of the Corporate culture.

Organisations have one predominant culture. True but a half-truth. Every organisation has several subcultures prevailing alongside the predominant culture at the same time

All organisations undergo a process of differentiation as they age, succeed & grow. Consequently, smaller sub-units of unique culture get formed around their leaders. The six major domains around which such sub-cultures get formed in an organisation are :

👉 Functional differentiation

👉 Geographical

decentralization

👉 Product, markets or

technology differentiations

👉 Divisionalization

👉 Hierarchical differentiations

👉 Power of Leader &

proximity to Central

Leadership

This is very similar to the Charioteer of a powerful Six horse chariot!

Is it wise to allow formation of

sub cultures?

A sharp charioteer recognises that each horse is different and thus knows how far he should allow them space to be different and yet run a common race. He also knows when to pull the reigns & not allow a horse to overturn the chariot.

An effective Leader plays that role in the enterprise culture