Global Leadership Skills

In the process of globalization, many people might ask “what skills do I need to acquire in order to lead effectively in the global environment?” In this article, we will present the basic set of competencies required. We will also categorize these competencies into three different classes and provide readers with a more integrated framework and then formulate a path of developing them in a phased approach.

In many literatures, the term “global” is often used interchangeably with the terms “international”, “multinational” and “transnational” despite the fact that distinctions do exist between these terms. So what does “global” refer to? Based on the explanation given by www.dictionary.com, the word “global” means pertaining to the whole world; worldwide; universal.

In addition, the words “leadership” and “management” are also used interchangeably, there also exists certain distinctions between these two. In essence, describing “global leadership” actually combines and expands the basis of two different roles, manager and leader.

Some researches actually define a global leader through formal position in an organization, often focusing on top executive level only. While others define a global leader based on the level of internationalization over his/her responsibilities and activities. In other words, a global leader, in the latter context, is anyone with international business responsibilities and activities in an organization. For example, a project manager who is running a software development project across US, China and India can be categorized as a global leader by the second definition.

Competency is the term that we use to describe certain personal traits or qualities, behaviors, values and knowledge. There are many existing frameworks which are combinations of these competencies. In the past research, selection of relevant competencies has generated much argument since the relevance of competencies is commonly seen to vary with task and organization involved. In this context, we attempt to formulate a set of universal competencies that enable individuals to perform their job outside their own national as well as organizational culture, regardless of their educational or ethical background is, what functional area their job description represents, or what organization they come from.

The research by Harris and Moran, (1987), focusing on cross-cultural interaction, identified the following selecting criteria for overseas service: empathy, openness, persistence, sensitivity to intercultural factors, respect for others, role flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity and a two-way communication skill. In addition, Srinivas (1995) defines eight “components of global mindset” that form the base for competencies needed to meet the challenges organizations/individuals face especially when entering a global environment. They are: curiosity and concern with context, acceptance of complexity and its contradictions, diversity consciousness and sensitivity, seeking opportunity in surprises and uncertainties, faith in organizational processes, focus on continual improvement, extended time perspective, and systems thinking. Last but not least, Rhinesmith (1996) has identified 6 more characteristics of global mindset that lead to global competencies. They are: bigger, broader picture (leading to managing competitiveness), balancing contradictory demands and needs (managing complexity), trust in networked processes rather than in hierarchical structures (managing adaptability), valuing multicultural teamwork and diversity (managing teams), flow with change/seeing change as opportunity (managing uncertainty), and expanding knowledge and skills, being open to surprises (managing learning).

The model of “Global Leadership Triad”, proposed by Brake Terence, consists of four broader categories that are relationship management, personal effectiveness, business acumen, and in the core, the transformational self. While Jordan and Cartwright (1998) proposes that the key to international success lies in a mixture of personality characteristics and managerial competencies. The “determinant of global competencies” is the psychological profile of stable personality traits, comprising four attributes: intellectual capacity, self-confidence, openness to experience and emotional stability. Managerial competencies include relational abilities, cultural sensitivity, linguistic ability and ability to handle stress.

Caligiuri and Di Santo (2001) have approached the desired competencies from a company perspective and identified eight desired developmental dimensions for global leadership programs: ability to transact business in another country, ability to change leadership style based on the situation, knowledge of the company’s worldwide business structure, knowledge of professional contacts worldwide, knowledge of international business issues, openness, flexibility, and ethnocentrism. In Spreitzer et al. (1997), 14 dimensions underlying success as an international executive have been identified, they are: broad business knowledge, sensitivity to cultural differences, courage to take stand, ability to bring out the best in people, acting consists in using feedback, being cross-culturally adventurous, seeking opportunities to learn, openness to criticism, seeking feedback and flexibility.

In addition to all the qualities mentioned above, some researches also argue the following: an excellent domestic leaders often have the same qualities as his/her global counterpart, however a global leader is able to retain these capabilities even in completely unfamiliar situations, Kets de Vries and Florent-Treacy (2002). They are the ones who possess what is known as emotional intelligence. In the paper by Meldrum and Atkinson (1998), it is indicated that emotional intelligence as a major component of global leadership competencies. It can be classified into three categories of meta-abilities:

1. Cognitive skills (ability to see things in many different ways, and self-knowledge as ability to understand and manage oneself);
2. Emotional resilience (ability to maintain confidence and objectivity under difficult circumstances);
3. Personal drive (determination to succeed, to be proactive and take personal risks).

So far, we can conclude that there are many listings of global leadership competencies. The various terms used reflect only semantic differences of the recurrent items presented. Many of existing frameworks indicates that competencies are configurations of behavior, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, intelligence and skills. However, we should also notice that, in a global context, technical expertise, factual knowledge and customer or shareholder orientation seem to gain much less importance than the “soft” qualities presented above.

After presenting different leadership competencies frameworks, we can classify these into two categories:

1. Fundamental or the leadership potential;
2. Characteristics of issues approaching;

We will look at each category in more detail.

Fundamental or the leadership potential

This category includes self-awareness, engagement in personal transformation, and inquisitiveness. We think these are the qualities that enable one to develop other characteristics. We regard them as core of global leadership competencies.

Self-awareness implies that a person well understands his/her emotions, strengths and weakness, needs and drives, source of frustration and reaction to issues. It is argued that a person has to become aware of one’s own defensiveness and its operation before he/she can realistically assess his/her problem, available resources in order to deal with the issues. Meanwhile, he/she must be able to listen to others and assess the value they can offer. This is related to openness and value diversity qualities mentioned previously. In addition, self-awareness has been regarded as fundamental for other couple of qualities mentioned above, such as maturity, self-confidence, driving for personal transformation due to knowing one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

Engagement in personal transformation can be interpreted as a commitment to the ongoing development of personal knowledge and skills, creative dissatisfaction, and “drive” to stay up to date (Brake 1997). A successful global leader always focus on continual improvement.

Inquisitiveness is in term referred as being curious. Based on the research by Brake Terence, a global leaders always seek knowledge and expertise beyond boundaries, and draw information from many sources in different ways..

Characteristics of issue approaching

The qualities described in this section refer to personal behavior by a person when approaching different issue. An excellent global leader often exhibits optimism, strict self-regulation, accurate social judgment, empathy, strong motivation to work in international environment, excellent cognitive skills and acceptance of complexity and its contradictions.

Optimism means a tendency to look on the more favorable side of happenings or possibilities and the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil. Some argued that optimism is a basis for motivation because a person feels motivated only for what he/she thinks is possible.

Self-regulation defines an ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, both negative and positive and as propensity to suspend judgment to think before acting. A leader with good self-regulation can lead by example, maintain integrity, act as a motivator for his/her team member, exhibit flexibility and handle stress.

Social judgment skills refer to taking a bigger perspective. Many researchers regard social judgment skill as one of the key leadership competencies regardless of domestic or international context. It is important in two different ways. Firstly, it enables one to extend the context beyond a particular problem or situation. Hence, it helps a person in a leading position to observe and accurately profile the culture of others. Secondly, a person with good perspective taking competency tends to acknowledge that any solution is implemented and applied in distinctly social context hence results more appropriate and fair action from him/her.

Empathy actually concerns one’s ability to interact with others. It means being participative and sensitive to others’ needs and assumptions, having genuine concern for others, participative warm-heartness, and respect. It enables a person to be more open and flexible, especially in a multi-culture situation. It also improves a person’s ability to cope with people and situations, emotionally connect with people from various backgrounds, listening to and understand different viewpoints.

Motivation to work in an international environment actually requires personal drive, goal orientation, perseverance and dedication. A good global leader who is strongly motivated, is willing to enter challenging situations and exercise different global leadership skills and practices. In addition, a leader’s own motivation is commonly seen as prerequisite for being able to motivate his/her team members.

Cognitive skills influence the way we experience and interpret our environment. They also have an effect on how much and how effectively we learn from those interpretations and experiences. International environment is commonly characterized by increased uncertainty and complexity. In this context, relevant knowledge and representations from previous experiences need to be reformed to generate new creative solutions. Also, in a very dynamic global environment, managers must have divergent thinking skills, be able to switch their focus of concentration quickly from one thing to another, and have the capacity of pattern recognition, to identify key fact and anomalous observations, speed of closure, and intelligence. These can relate to different activities such as evaluating performance and strategic options, designing strategies, plan formulation, and making informed decisions.

Acceptance of complexity and its contradictions describes a personal attitude towards the ambiguous and unpredictable. It legitimizes the need for learning and thus creates motivation for personal development. Some people view acceptance of complexity and its contradictions as seeing opportunity in adversity, using diversity to stimulate creativity, and being capable of lead life on many levels.

One of the major challenges in a global environment is cultural difference between nations, organizations and different sub-groups. Hence, being able to accept complexity and its contradictions enables a person to appreciate cultural differences. This is often seen as a fundamental and must-have characteristics for a successful global leader.

Conclusion
Globalization is an inevitable trend in the future. In order to prepare oneself for the change, we recommend he/she must go through the self-transformation process first. This means he/she needs to be aware of him/herself, change the mindset and accept behaviors that are not common in his/her culture. Second phase will be to expose oneself widely to the various culture environments to improve various “soft” skills, these include interact with personnel with different background, be more socially and culturally fair, be more optimistic and discipline and continuously motivate him/herself as well as his/her peer and subordinates.

Reference
[1] Harris, P.R., Moran, R.T. (1987), Managing Cultural Differences, 2nd ed., Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX, .
[2] Srinivas, K.M. (1995), "Globalization of business and the third world: challenge of expanding the mindsets", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 14 No.3, pp.26-49.
[3] Rhinesmith, S.H. (1996), A Manager's Guide to Globalization: Six Skills for Success in a Changing World, 2nd ed., The McGraw-Hill Companies, New York, NY, .
[4] Jordan, J., Cartwright, S. (1998), "Selecting expatriate managers: key traits and competencies", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 19 No.2, pp.89-96.
[5] Caligiuri, P., Di Santo, V. (2001), "Global competence: what is it, and can it be developed through global assignments?", Human Resource Planning, Vol. 24 No.3, pp.27-35.

[6] Spreitzer, G.M., McCall, M.W. Jr, Mahoney, J. (1997), "The early identification of international executive potential", Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 82 No.1, pp.6-29.
[7] Kets de Vries, M.F.R., Florent-Treacy, E. (2002), "Global leadership from A to Z: creating high commitment organizations", Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 295 No.309, pp.1-16.

[8] Meldrum, M., Atkinson, S. (1998), "Meta-abilities and the implementation of strategy: knowing what to do is simply not enough", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 17 No.8, pp.564-75.