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Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West by Jin Li. Cambridge University Press; 1st edition, 2012, 400 pages. ISBN-10: 0521160626, ISBN-13: 978-0521160629. Paperback; $32.39 at Amazon.com

Chinese students from middle school to university continue to come to the United States for an education in increasing numbers every year. The two cultures collide in classrooms largely due to the fact that Western and East Asian people have vastly different beliefs about learning which affects how they view the world, themselves and others.

Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit are attributes that are being discussed and promoted at education centers in the U.S., China and around the world. School leaders in China recognize that their educational system does not promote creative thinking among middle school students. Can creativity be learned? Dr. Jin Li argues in her new book, Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West that culture penetrates profoundly into all spheres of human life and underlies how children think and act. The notion of whether creativity is learned or not can only be answered by understanding other important processes that influence child development. It turns out that culture penetrates so deeply it affects how we learn, how we relate with others and how we think. Li sets out to discover if the basic learning concepts in Eastern and Western cultures are still alive today. While doing so, she also confirms a well-known fact: students from East Asian nations outscore students from the United States and other Western cultures from a very young age. The deep cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies about learning and development provide the complex reason for this.

East Versus West: Different Learning Approaches

Jin Li grew up thoroughly Chinese even though she has lived in the United States for many years. Yet, she still remembers the voices of her parents instilling the importance of learning and education in her ears: "Having studied, to then always practice what you have learned -- is this not a pleasure?" ("學而時習之不亦說乎") "Continue studying without respite, instruct others without growing weary." ("學而不厭誨人不倦") "To know what you know and know what you do not know -- this is wisdom." ("知之為知之不知為不知是知也") (p.12).

According to Li, Chinese students today have inherited the Confucian learning tradition which holds to the following (p. 14):

Learning is the most important thing in life; it is life's purpose.

Learning enables one to become a better, not just smarter, person. The ultimate purpose of learning is to self-perfect and contribute to others at the same time.

Learning is a life-long process.

The kind of knowledge that sets one person apart from another does not come to one automatically. One must seek it. Seeking knowledge requires resolve, diligence, enduring hardship, steadfastness, concentration and humility.

In contrast, students from Western cultures have a different approach to learning which follows these key themes (p. 15):

Human curiosity about the external world is the inspiration for knowledge.

A relentless spirit of inquiry into the universe will lead to knowledge.

Mind is the highest human faculty that enables this inquiry.

Reason (not heart) is the process by which we know the world.

The individual is the sole entity for inquiry, discovery and ultimate triumph.

These basic learning concepts are still alive today in both cultural worlds. What is important for those working in the field of education among Chinese middle school and high school students is to understand how different cultural characteristics influence a student's learning and to discover whether these respective learning traditions still influence present-day learners. Researchers of learning models between East Asian and Western students found results that were quite startling. They found that American children, parents and teachers explained children's achievement based on the notion of ability, but their Asian counterparts explained achievement based on effort. Based on her research, Li finds that East Asian students work harder than Western students.

One of the more well-known aspects of the Asian education system is the infamous examination system. Many critics of their examination-driven system claim that it is teacher-centered, authoritarian, favors learning by rote and stifles creativity. However, Li introduces us to an expert on the examination system in China who explains that East Asian societies are "stuck" with the exam system because it is the only solution for the situation with which their cultures are faced. Samuel Peng explains it best: " the Confucian tradition regards respect for and honoring of one's family as the most important moral foundation for oneself, at the same time Chinese people uphold the moral principle also espoused by Confucius: equality of education for all regardless of their backgrounds. However, those holding power over educational access face a serious moral dilemma when their family members request favorable treatment. If the request is denied, the person with institutional power violates the familial moral code; if the request is granted, the person violates public ethical standards. There is no other solution but to resort to the impartial test score" (p. 67).

Confucian versus Socratic Parenting Styles: The Heart of Chinese Motivation for Learning

Where do children develop their learning beliefs? Are they born with them or do they come from the environment in their home and family? Asian and Western parents socialize their children very differently when it comes to education; this is a well-known fact. For example, in an East Asian cultural context, when a child performs well, his parents do not usually respond with excessive praise like Western parents do. Instead, after acknowledging a job well done, the East Asian parents encourage the child to try harder and achieve more next time. However, despite widespread criticism of the Asian examination system and learning approaches, it is actually the Asian approach that fosters a life-long love of learning.

Li collected data from simulated mother-child conversations so that she could discover different socialization processes for the two cultures. According to her analysis of the conversations, Li found that Western parents want their children to develop a "love of learning," yet they fear that if they are too demanding they will hinder their child's natural curiosity. On the other hand, Western parents find that if they are not demanding enough, then their child does not work or meet the standards. In contrast, her analysis of mother-child conversations about learning incidents shows that Asian parents teach their children to understand the value of diligence, extra effort and endurance. An Asian mother will encourage her child to do more and do better no matter how much or how well the child has achieved. This Asian approach, according to Li, fosters a love for life-long learning. In traditional Confucian culture, a love of learning is a moral imperative and is achieved over time by the development of moral virtuesfilial piety, modesty, effort and perseverance. In contrast, Li explains that American students value independence and individual effort in order to achieve "the prize" (grades, income, status).

Confucian Learning Approaches Meet Twenty-first Century Global Realities

With an increasing number of Chinese learners coming to the United States for an education from middle school to graduate school, the qualities of Chinese students have caused many debates. Currently, people have two contradictory viewpoints about Chinese students studying in American classrooms: passive learners, quiet and disciplined versus active participants, critical thinkers with a spirit of inquiry. While Li argues that Asian parents still hold to traditional Confucian learning approaches, Chinese middle school students demonstrate different characteristics than older Asian students. For the most part, there is very little perceived difference from their Western counterparts as they are active learners. They prefer more interaction with their teachers. These younger middle school students have been influenced by Western culture via social media, internet, movies and cross-cultural exchanges. However, there are still Confucian characteristics that persist. Confucian culture is deeply rooted in East Asian families for the better.

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Eastern Versus Western Learning Approaches : Book Review

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Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West by Jin Li. Reviewed by Lisa Nagle There are deep cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies regarding learning and development. The notion of whether creativity is learned or not is just one of these.

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- Direct
- Democratic
- Charismatic
- Celebrity
- Empowering

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From country to country, leadership styles vary greatly based on political reign, cultural values and historical events. Kate Simmons offers some advice for any manager who is thinking about re-locating between east and west.

The way that business leaders choose to conduct business is based on their personality, but also on many external influences. Sometimes the leadership styles can be so different that adapting may seem impossible. The first step to being well adjusted is to understand how things are done.

Leadership Styles
Direct
Under this style of management, the leader leads and all other employees follow in succession knowing both their place and their role. The leader gives directions and may even dole out punishment for poor work or a lack of following orders. The downside is that this type of leadership can seem very domineering to some individuals and may contribute to a lack of employee retention.
Democratic
This leadership style is sometimes called participative. Within a company that adopts a democratic style, others are encouraged to be part of the process. Creativity and contribution are applauded and promoted. This style of leadership allows the employees to contribute and grow as leaders themselves.
Charismatic
A charismatic leader may not always be the best at what they do, but people want to be around them and hear what they say. They have a personality and a way of dealing with people that make them desirable leaders. This style of leadership allows the employees to contribute and grow as leaders themselves. A common trait of the charismatic leader is often that of being self-centred. This can have catastrophic ramifications if the choices they make are not wise.
Celebrity
The celebrity leader is in the tabloids and news as much as your favorite movie stars. They are often selected for management positions because of their superstar likeness. The drawback to celebrity leadership is that it can often become so much about them as a person the company and employees are forgotten or neglected.
Empowering
This leadership style sees the delegation of tasks. Individuals are then often allowed to work and develop while seeking guidance from the leader when needed. Provided all employees are well suited to this style of management it can be very successful. It helps to foster strong and competent employees.

Asian Leadership

Business in Asia is significantly influenced by political connections. There is also more focus on family when a successor is appointed. It is common for companies to be left to children or other close family members. When examining governance of a corporation, Asia is less focused on regulators, directors, and stakeholders.

Although some Asian companies do have this type of control, it is not commonly adopted as of yet. The most common leadership style within these companies is directive, where the leader has the final say on every issue; however, the new generation has started to adopt a more empowering approach in order to groom a more capable workforce.

Western Leadership

In the west companies, unlike in Asia, often allow governance to some degree by boards and stockholders. The influences of political connections are not as prevalent here and the CEO's are often appointed from within the company after having a significant history with the company.

Few companies hire from outside the company for these executive leadership positions. There are specialized leadership development training programs in place to help aspiring CEO's obtain the necessary skills.

The directive approach leading style was common, but it has seen a large decline in its popularity and employment as the other four styles are on the rise. The leadership characteristic of passion is very prominent in western culture and is a desirable trait, in Asia they tend to be less emotional and have an increased self-awareness.

Considering a Relocation

If relocation is an option for your future, research the companies and positions that you are considering in accordance. Once you have acquired some information, see how it aligns with your personality and think about whether or not you would strive under that leadership style. It is best to consider all possibilities before moving and then finding out that the company does not meet your emotional needs and values.

How to Cope With a Change

The ability to deal with changing business structures is incredibly important and, if mastered, can make you a very well regarded part of the team. One way to deal with a change in leadership style is to consider all angles of the situation and then control your reactions and emotions. In essence, 'suck it up buttercup' - you may also choose to adopt methods of dealing with stress to help your with that.

The other option is to re-evaluate your future with the company. It is just as important that the company you work for supports your values as it is that you support theirs. It just may be that you have grown in different directions and the time for a change is nigh.
Kate Simmons is a freelance journalist who loves to write about business-related topics, specifically leadership, management and ways of professional development.

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Leadership Styles and Culture in the West and Asia

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From country to country, leadership styles vary greatly based on political reign, cultural values and historical events. Kate Simmons offers some advice for any manager who is thinking about re-locating between east and west. The way that business leaders choose to conduct business is based on their personality, but also on many external influences.

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I recently returned from a trip to Beijing where I was working with senior managers to develop leadership skills in one of the largest companies in the world. This is a truly global firm, with headquarters in China and the U.S., and most of its leaders are native to their respective countries.

As part of the process, I was using a 360-degree feedback instrument to provide insights on the strengths of each leader, which in this context provided something of a cross-cultural view into how employees feel about their leaders' effectiveness. I was surprised to find that, in the aggregate, leaders in the East outperformed leaders from the West in every category of the assessment - which is to say, the Chinese participants judged their bosses better than their Western counterparts did at focusing on results, communicating, innovating, building relationships, employing technical expertise, and a host of other leadership abilities. That was surprising because when I've conducted a similar (though to be fair, not exact,) analysis with our broader database of companies and employees, Western leaders outpaced their Eastern counterparts. What to make of these seemingly contradictory results?

As I rested sore legs from hiking The Great Wall, I gave this a lot of thought. Several people have suggested to me that perhaps the Eastern responders to the 360 survey were not as candid as their Western colleagues or that they were more concerned about the possibility of retribution should they give low ratings. But the scores in most cases were very close - in some measures only a difference of two hundredths of a percent. If either of these possibilities were the case, I'd expect the differences to be far greater. And there was a third party managing the 360 process so the feedback was anonymous and about as protected as one can get.

So perhaps there are other reasons. Joe Folkman, one of the world's leading psychometricians, suggested to me that maybe superior recruiting in Eastern markets was what made the difference. The company is very popular in Asia - kind of like working for Google in the U.S. So it may be that the company attracts superior talent in the Asian markets. Or the Chinese leaders' scores might be higher for the same reason that women tend to score higher on 360s than men the world over: Because they frequently feel they need to be seen to be working harder. Being perceived to work hard often contributes to strong leadership scores, since it's viewed as a sign of commitment.

There are other factors to consider as well - time in a job (the longer people work together the higher they tend to score their leaders, provided leaders don't get complacent), the success of a unit (successful units tend to view their leaders as successful), and so forth. And of course, this is just one organization.

But, then, an entirely different thought came to me. What if I was asking the wrong question? What if the important thing wasn't which group scored better but the fact that the scores were so close? Granted that Western leadership skills were at one time considered superior, what if that advantage, perceived or real, no longer exists? From atop the Wall, it looked to me like the similarities mattered far more than the differences. In fact, the list of commonalities was long. Here are just a few:

1. The direct reports of both groups felt that the ability to inspire and motivate was a critical attribute of great leaders in general - and something they all wanted from their own. In all my work, inspiring and motivating is the attribute most strongly associated with the highest leadership scores (and the best company performance). The world over, I would argue, everyone prefers leaders who bring out the best in us and inspire us to be better than we ever thought we could be on our own.

2. The leadership attribute managers in both groups valued most, though, was the drive for results. Isn't that just like a senior executive - Just get the job done! Leaders always have to produce results no matter where in the world they are, of course - that's the point of leading. But I'd say that when leaders, East or West, can combine their focus on results with an ability to inspire, they have the magic bullet for managing up and down the organization.

3. Both groups were equally interested in improving their own leadership skills. No complacency here, despite what so many leaders of change initiatives might have you believe. No matter their background, few people show up to work each day intending to do a lousy job. Most want to do good work and to feel good about the work they are doing. When leaders can harness that natural inclination and cultivate it, it becomes passion, which can make all the difference in performance.

4. Nearly everyone who had done some kind of leadership development in the last two years had been focused on remediation of some weakness area. The world over, no matter what culture we grow up in, it seems we are inexorably drawn to fixing our weaknesses when we think of making improvements. While I can easily show you why raising the bar and building on strength is a far more valuable route, nowhere is that intuitively obvious, it would appear.

5. When it came to developing a strength, the initial reaction from both groups was to do more of the same. That works to a point but, as I have previously discussed, there is great power in developing different but complementary skills that can magnify our strengths. And yet, despite Eastern Yin Yang traditions, using complementary skills to make a strength more effective was no more obvious to the Chinese participants than it was to their Western colleagues.

I'm not saying that cultural differences don't exist or don't matter (I really did not enjoy the jelly fish or Yak tendons that I ate, for instance). The client kept focusing on them, as well. But in the end perhaps this matters more: We are more similar, even as leaders, than we had ever thought.

This post is part of the HBR Insight Center The Next Generation of Global Leaders.

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East Meets West: Who Has Better Leaders?

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I recently returned from a trip to Beijing where I was working with senior managers to develop leadership skills in one of the largest companies in the world. This is a truly global firm, with headquarters in China and the U.S., and most of its leaders are native to their respective countries.

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"While there is rich cultural diversity in Asian countries, it is not as pronounced or complex as in many Western systems such as the USA and the UK. In inner city London it is perfectly possible for a teacher to be facing a class of children with ten to fifteen different languages." -- Alma Harris

Is education in the East superior to education in the West? Today I begin a new series that explores this question with researchers, educators, parents and students from both cultures.

If one looks at the PISA results, one might easily be tempted to agree that students in schools in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Korea continue to outperform their counterparts in the USA and the UK. However, as we learned from Yong Zhao in my recent Global Search interview, his research indicates that PISA rankings have a significant negative correlation with entrepreneurial qualities. Indeed, many Chinese see their country's education system as weak. In an effort to foster innovation and cultivate creativity, Chinese parents continue to flock to the West, enrolling their children in Western colleges and even high schools.

The cultures of West and East are different, but clearly, like all cultures, they have a lot to learn from each other. I am delighted to welcome Andy Hargreaves and Alma Harris to The Global Search for Education today to share their perspectives on what East and West can learn from each other in educational performance.

Alma Harris is Professor and Director of the Institute of Educational Leadership at the University of Malaya and Professor of Educational Leadership at the Institute of Education (IOE) London. Andy Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education, Lynch School of Education, Boston College. Both Andy and Alma are co-authors of the new book, Uplifting Leadership, coming July 2014 from Wiley Business.

"Students and their families carry more responsibility for student success in the East." -- Andy Hargreaves
Alma Harris - 6 Lessons for the East from the West. 1. Championing Inclusive Education.
Unlike many of the education systems in the East, the inclusion of children with special needs is a fundamental right in the West. It is common to see children with physical disabilities working alongside their able-bodied peers in classrooms. This is an opportunity that is not afforded in many of the education systems in the East where children with special educational needs are not part of the daily life of ordinary schools but are taught or supported separately. The core principle of equity for all in the West supports inclusion as a natural part of many education systems.
2. Meeting Diverse Needs.
While there is rich cultural diversity in Asian countries, it is not as pronounced or complex as in many Western systems such as the USA and the UK. For example, in inner city London it is perfectly possible for a teacher to be facing a class of children with ten to fifteen different languages. In this amalgam of culture, language and religion, standardized teaching will not hit the mark; there are no uniform solutions that will work. Progress is made because of highly skilled teachers who understand differentiation and are committed to success for each child irrespective of background.
3. Providing World Class Higher Education.
Growing numbers of young people from Asia will be starting their University education in the West. As the international league tables clearly show, the hallmarks of a world class university education still reside in the West rather than the East. Therefore, the huge demand from young people in Asia to be educated in the best universities in the West looks set to continue.

"As the international league tables clearly show, the hallmarks of a world class university education still reside in the West rather than the East. Therefore, the huge demand from young people in Asia to be educated in the best universities in the West looks set to continue." -- Alma Harris
4. Listening to Student Voices.
When walking around a classroom, ask yourself how many children are asking questions rather than just answering them? Pupil participation is viewed as an important part of the educational process in the UK and the USA. In short, students are contributors, not just recipients of the educational process they experience. While there is a move towards greater student voice in the East, it is still an area to be further developed.
5. Distributing Leadership.
Schools in the East are still largely bound by centralized control mechanisms that are dependent on the leadership, authority and responsibility of certain individuals. In some systems in the East, like Singapore, there are strong reciprocal relationships between the various layers in the system and this is paying dividends in terms of better performance. In most cases however, leadership in the East tends towards the autocratic and remains fairly top down. In contrast, the West has recognized that shared or distributed leadership is a potential game changer in terms of better performance.
6. Public Education as the Gold Standard.
In the East, the privatization juggernaut is a powerful force as parents seek out the best education for their children where the public school system is simply not meeting demands or expectations. While the same privatization juggernaut is rolling through the English hills and plains of the USA, despite some success, there remains a strong opposition and a resilient view that education is a public good and not a commercial enterprise.

"Teachers still command great respect in the families and societies of many Asian cultures." -- Andy Hargreaves
Andy Hargreaves - 4 Lessons for the West from the East. 1. Effort and Endeavor.
In the West, lack of student success is often regarded as being due to lack of ability in the student, or of poor support from the school or society. In the East, lack of success is more often perceived as being the result of lack of effort, discipline and persistence on the part of the student and his or her parents. Students and their families carry more responsibility for student success in the East. There, inability does not debar students from success or mastery of calculus or a musical instrument - it is time, endeavor, and practice that are critical factors. Although this "Tiger Mother" orientation has been exaggerated by the "no excuses" movement in the West, more attention to the virtues of personal responsibility, hard work, dedication and sacrifice would be no bad thing.
2. Creativity and Critical Thinking.
Asian countries like Singapore have scored well on the recent PISA survey of problem solving. Problem solving, as represented in PISA, though, really amounts to questions of logic that can be broken down into smaller components of linear-sequential thinking that can be aggregated into a final solution. Creativity calls for leaps of imagination or dramatic shifts of perspective. Critical thinking involves challenging authority and questioning accepted modes of thinking. In Asia, how far will it be possible for challenges of established wisdom in business, science or engineering to be insulated from criticisms of political and bureaucratic authority?
3. Student Engagement.
Student achievement depends on students being engaged with their learning. There are basically five kinds of engagement - whether the learning is presented in such a way that makes it intrinsically interesting (fun, enjoyable, intriguing etc), whether it is seen as important (high status, canonical, worth knowing), whether it is useful (in work, life or higher education), whether it is worth the cost or the effort compared to other ways of spending one's time (dedication, perseverance, deferred gratification, etc), and whether it drives a quest for mastery, like playing the piano or running a marathon. Asian educational systems and cultures place high importance on the last two kinds of engagement more than the first three. In Japan, however, where a low birth rate has meant easy access to university, and with a curriculum that has emphasized the last two kinds of engagement over the other, students are now questioning whether the effort is worth the cost, especially if the curriculum offers no intrinsic enjoyment or pleasure. The West has sometimes offered more fun or enjoyment, and stressed that things are worth knowing for their own sake, but with many different course options available and the availability of many repeat chances, especially in America, the effort/return equation is not always as pressing as it perhaps should be compared to Asian societies.
4. Respect for Education.
One of Confucius's legendary quotes was this: "If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people." Confucian and Buddhist traditions revere teachers and teaching. Despite the aberration of the Chinese cultural revolution which reviled teachers and intellectuals instead of revering them, and despite the decline of respect for teachers and education in nations like Japan due to the globalization of Western popular culture, teachers still command great respect in the families and societies of many Asian cultures. In high performing Singapore and Finland (which some people regard as having been heavily influenced historically by Russian values and traditions), teachers are seen as the builders of their nations, just as Confucius claimed, and they are selected and rewarded accordingly. What the West needs to learn from this influence is that teachers are important not just because they like children, or help all students reach their potential, but also because the future society depends on them.
For more on Uplifting Leadership

Alma Harris, C. M. Rubin, Andy Hargreaves

(All photos are courtesy of Andy Hargreaves and Alma Harris)

In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. Eija Kauppinen (Finland), State Secretary Tapio Kosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Professor Manabu Sato (Japan), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, "The Global Search for Education" and "How Will We Read?" She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland, is the publisher of CMRubinWorld, and is a Disruptor Foundation Fellow.

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The Global Search for Education: East vs. West - Part 1

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"While there is rich cultural diversity in Asian countries, it is not as pronounced or complex as in many Western systems such as the USA and the UK. In inner city London it is perfectly possible for a teacher to be facing a class of children with ten to fifteen different languages."

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I recently returned from a trip to Beijing where I was working with senior managers to develop leadership skills in one of the largest companies in the world. This is a truly global firm, with headquarters in China and the U.S., and most of its leaders are native to their respective countries.

As part of the process, I was using a 360-degree feedback instrument to provide insights on the strengths of each leader, which in this context provided something of a cross-cultural view into how employees feel about their leaders' effectiveness. I was surprised to find that, in the aggregate, leaders in the East outperformed leaders from the West in every category of the assessment - which is to say, the Chinese participants judged their bosses better than their Western counterparts did at focusing on results, communicating, innovating, building relationships, employing technical expertise, and a host of other leadership abilities. That was surprising because when I've conducted a similar (though to be fair, not exact,) analysis with our broader database of companies and employees, Western leaders outpaced their Eastern counterparts. What to make of these seemingly contradictory results?

As I rested sore legs from hiking The Great Wall, I gave this a lot of thought. Several people have suggested to me that perhaps the Eastern responders to the 360 survey were not as candid as their Western colleagues or that they were more concerned about the possibility of retribution should they give low ratings. But the scores in most cases were very close - in some measures only a difference of two hundredths of a percent. If either of these possibilities were the case, I'd expect the differences to be far greater. And there was a third party managing the 360 process so the feedback was anonymous and about as protected as one can get.

So perhaps there are other reasons. Joe Folkman, one of the world's leading psychometricians, suggested to me that maybe superior recruiting in Eastern markets was what made the difference. The company is very popular in Asia - kind of like working for Google in the U.S. So it may be that the company attracts superior talent in the Asian markets. Or the Chinese leaders' scores might be higher for the same reason that women tend to score higher on 360s than men the world over: Because they frequently feel they need to be seen to be working harder. Being perceived to work hard often contributes to strong leadership scores, since it's viewed as a sign of commitment.

There are other factors to consider as well - time in a job (the longer people work together the higher they tend to score their leaders, provided leaders don't get complacent), the success of a unit (successful units tend to view their leaders as successful), and so forth. And of course, this is just one organization.

But, then, an entirely different thought came to me. What if I was asking the wrong question? What if the important thing wasn't which group scored better but the fact that the scores were so close? Granted that Western leadership skills were at one time considered superior, what if that advantage, perceived or real, no longer exists? From atop the Wall, it looked to me like the similarities mattered far more than the differences. In fact, the list of commonalities was long. Here are just a few:

1. The direct reports of both groups felt that the ability to inspire and motivate was a critical attribute of great leaders in general - and something they all wanted from their own. In all my work, inspiring and motivating is the attribute most strongly associated with the highest leadership scores (and the best company performance). The world over, I would argue, everyone prefers leaders who bring out the best in us and inspire us to be better than we ever thought we could be on our own.

2. The leadership attribute managers in both groups valued most, though, was the drive for results. Isn't that just like a senior executive - Just get the job done! Leaders always have to produce results no matter where in the world they are, of course - that's the point of leading. But I'd say that when leaders, East or West, can combine their focus on results with an ability to inspire, they have the magic bullet for managing up and down the organization.

3. Both groups were equally interested in improving their own leadership skills. No complacency here, despite what so many leaders of change initiatives might have you believe. No matter their background, few people show up to work each day intending to do a lousy job. Most want to do good work and to feel good about the work they are doing. When leaders can harness that natural inclination and cultivate it, it becomes passion, which can make all the difference in performance.

4. Nearly everyone who had done some kind of leadership development in the last two years had been focused on remediation of some weakness area. The world over, no matter what culture we grow up in, it seems we are inexorably drawn to fixing our weaknesses when we think of making improvements. While I can easily show you why raising the bar and building on strength is a far more valuable route, nowhere is that intuitively obvious, it would appear.

5. When it came to developing a strength, the initial reaction from both groups was to do more of the same. That works to a point but, as I have previously discussed, there is great power in developing different but complementary skills that can magnify our strengths. And yet, despite Eastern Yin Yang traditions, using complementary skills to make a strength more effective was no more obvious to the Chinese participants than it was to their Western colleagues.

I'm not saying that cultural differences don't exist or don't matter (I really did not enjoy the jelly fish or Yak tendons that I ate, for instance). The client kept focusing on them, as well. But in the end perhaps this matters more: We are more similar, even as leaders, than we had ever thought.

This post is part of the HBR Insight Center The Next Generation of Global Leaders.

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East Meets West: Who Has Better Leaders?

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I recently returned from a trip to Beijing where I was working with senior managers to develop leadership skills in one of the largest companies in the world. This is a truly global firm, with headquarters in China and the U.S., and most of its leaders are native to their respective countries.