"Culture shapes a society's political responses, and its leadership and politics, in turn, shape culture. What exactly is culture? I like this concise definition offered by BusinessDictionary.com: culture is the 'pattern of responses discovered, developed, or invented during the group's history of handling problems which arise from interactions among its members, and between them and their environment. These responses are considered the correct way to perceive, feel, think, and act, and are passed on to the new members through immersion and teaching. Culture determines what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable.'

"One of the worst mistakes you can make as a reporter is to underestimate the power of culture in how societies respond to big changes. Another is to conclude that culture is immutable and can never change. Cultures can change, and they often do – sometimes under the raw pressure of events and the need to survive, and sometimes thanks to political choices engineered by leaders. The late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously observed: 'The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.'

'That is why I also like the definition of leadership offered by a Harvard University expert on the subject, Ronald Heifetz, who says the role of a leader is 'to help people face reality and to mobilize them to make change' as their environment changes to ensure the security and prosperity of their community. Since the age of accelerations involves a change in the physical, technological, and social environment for so many people, leadership today is about nurturing the right cultural attitudes and specific policy choices that best enable the mimicking of Mother Nature's killer apps.

"The power of a visionary leader to help a society and culture navigate its way through big moments requiring adaptation is beautifully depicted in one of my all-time favorite movie scenes. The film Invictus tells the story of how Nelson Mandela, in his first term as president of South Africa, enlists the country's famed rugby team, the Springboks, on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup and, through that, to start the healing of that apartheid-torn land. The almost all-white Springboks had been a symbol of white domination, and blacks routinely rooted against them. When the post-apartheid, black-led South African sports committee moved to change the team's name and colors, President Mandela stopped them. He explained that part of making whites feel at home in a black-led South Africa was not uprooting all their cherished symbols.

" 'That is selfish thinking,' Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, says in the movie. 'It does not serve the nation.' Then, speaking of South Africa's whites, Mandela adds, 'We have to surprise them with compassion, with restraint and generosity.'

"I love that line: We have to surprise them. There is no better way to change a culture than having a leader who surprises supporters and opponents by rising about his history, his constituencies, and his pollsters, and just doing the right things for his country. Through his enlightened leadership, Mandela did a lot to change the culture of South Africa. He created a little more trust and healthier interdependencies between blacks and whites and, in doing so, made that country more resilient."