I've encountered two main, antagonistic stances in my professional life as an energy consultant.
One can be described with a very Brazilian popular saying: "He who has the power commands, he who has sense obeys." The other was what the CEO of a large American energy company told me: "Say what is best, even if it's not what we want to hear."
In our Brazilian imagination, we believe that the best approach is to avoid creating friction. To be cordial, obedient, and preferably passive, to always "look good."
The underlying thesis is that it's not worth provoking conflict. And so, conflict, which is seen by leading companies as a special opportunity to explore differences in search of excellent solutions, doesn't flourish in Brazil.
Why create a situation if it's possible to leave everything as it is? But there's a "catch." Those companies that are willing to identify and resolve conflicts are, as a rule, much further ahead than those that cultivate smooth talking.