Leadership is undoubtedly one of the key aspects of creating a culture and climate that extracts the best performance from employees . It is an important contributor to sustained long-term employee engagement and satisfaction. This is a key element in creating a high-performing organization. When a trained and successful leader from one culture attempts to use those same skills and experiences, which made them successful, on employees from different cultures or cultural backgrounds and fails; is he now a bad leader? If the leader does not take into account the diversity present and does not understand the differences in perception, he will not be able to successfully influence his employees. Leadership is defined as “a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, toward the achievement of a goal” (Kruse, 2013). Who defines good leadership? Is it the leader's supervisor or is it the manager training course instructor or is it the employees/peers/supervisors collectively who determine good leadership? Leaders must understand that they must earn the respect of the group in order to allow it to influence them. Leaders who do not accept or understand that it is, among other characteristics, the perception of leadership that matters, will fail or, at the very least, will not be able to extract the full potential of the group, or may create a toxic work environment. As stated in the book Classical Readings in Organizational Behavior, “power will be defined as any force that results in behavior that would not have occurred if the force had not been present” (Ott, Parkes and Simpson, 2008, p.355). . Leaders within an organization have certain powers that enable them to manage their organization effectively... middle of paper ......arson education. Legere, M. (May 23, 2013). Lt. Gen. Mary Legere '82, 2013 commencement address. Accessed today 2014 from UNH: http://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2013/05/lt-gen-mary-legere-82- 2013-beginning-speechMaxwell, J. (2007, 12 26). Give the gift of encouragement. Accessed in 2014 from Bloomberg businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-12-26/give-the-gift-of-encouragementbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-adviceOtt, S ., Parkes, S. and Simpson, R. (2008). Classic readings on organizational behavior. Robbins, SP, Judge, TA, & Campbell, TT (2010). Organizational behavior. Pearson Education. Watson, T. (2012). Watson Towers. Retrieved 2013 from the Global Workforce Study: Engagement at Risk: Driving Strong Performance in a volatile Global Enviornment: http://towerswatson.com/assets/pdf/2012-Towers-Watson-Global-Workforce-Study.pdf