Leading with Cultural Intelligence, 2012a

7.6 Case Study 6: On Opposite Political Sides
“Did you see last night’s primary?” Scott says to his staff during their morning coffee break as a team.
“Yeah. McAllister is going down! That ‘lefty’ annoys me. Talking about big government and ways to
spend our hard earned money. No one in their right mind will vote for him. I’ll be celebrating when
he loses come November,” Joe notes.
Scott replies, “If this liberal trend keeps up we won’t have any more freedoms. None of us will have
jobs when big government steps in.” He sees his colleagues nodding their heads enthusiastically and
hears echoes from his team, “Yep, that’s right.”
Scott notices that Amber, who he hired as a sales assistant to the team, is quiet. Maybe she is one of
them, he thinks. “Hey Amber, you’re kind of looking quiet over there. What are you, red or blue?”
Amber is a bit hesitant. This is her first professional experience since graduating from college 6
months ago. Most of her teammates are in their mid 40s and have been working with the company
for 10 years or more. She does not want any ill feelings, but she also does not agree with the language
that is used and the conversation. She certainly does not want to create a bad image of her to her
boss. “Well, I don’t think it’s about big taxes. I just don’t like the views of the new GOP candidate,”
she says, carefully.
Scott quickly replies, “That doesn’t matter. If you’re voting liberal you’re going to bankrupt our
country, and that’s it.”
Amber is taken back by the fierceness in her boss’s tone of voice and decides she will not participate
in conversations like this anymore. However, in the next couple of months, her team finds ways to
comment about her political views. They have even nicknamed her, calling her “Lefty.” She finds it
disturbing that every time she speaks up about her viewpoints, her team instantly fires back with a
counterargument—Scott included. When she has gently brought up the issue to her team, they laugh
and say, “We’re just joking. Don’t be so sensitive, Lefty.”
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