Even if the essence of leadership talent is universal, the context a leader is in will shape how they behave, ought to behave, and are evaluated. As a consequence, some leaders may be popular in some cultures but not in others (think Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chávez), and many high-performing managers may struggle when they are moved from one culture to another, for example, from Germany to Indonesia or from a nongovernmental organization to a fintech startup.

One of the simplest and best descriptions of culture is Google’s ‘how we do things

around here.’ An organization’s culture reflects its leaders’ values, particularly its founders’ values.

Standing out, a desirable goal for both employees and leaders, is generally a disadvantage for group activity. As we would expect, people aspire to leadership more often in individualistic cultures, because leadership in itself is regarded as a way of standing out from the crowd. Conversely, collectivistic cultures focus on team rather than individual accomplishments and have stronger preferences for leaders who are low-key and humble. Leaders in individualistic cultures will be given more leeway to make single-handed decisions and have procedural power, while collectivistic cultures will relish consensual and democratic decision making.

More precisely, traits such as confidence, narcissism, psychopathy, and charisma advance individuals’ careers without improving the success of the groups they lead. Clearly, we would be better off if we sifted out individuals with such traits, as opposed to rewarding them. The success of teams and organizations is more important than an individual’s personal success, especially when individual victory harms the rest of the group.

As a leader, you are the embodiment of that company. What that means is this: Your values—your sense of integrity and decency and honesty, the way you comport yourself in the world—are a stand-in for the values of the company. You can be the head of a seven-person organization or a quarter-million- person organization, and the same truth holds: what people think of you is what they’ll think of your company.