Global Mindset Blog

Global Leadership – Skills Global Leaders Need

February 17th, 2013

The McKinsey Quarterly sited a study where 76 percent of senior executives said they believe their organizations need to develop global-leadership capabilities, but only 7 percent think they are currently doing so very effectively. However those companies who are getting it right in terms of global leadership development and acting as true global players are coincidentally taking three key actions: 1)Diversifying their boards culturally and linguistically, 2)Hiring and promoting from other country locations into top leadership positions (not just from the home country where headquarters is located), and 3)Decentralizing procedures and processes to a variety of locations around the world. For example, Bayer, the German pharmaceutical giant, housed their global IT system at the US subsidiary, not at headquarters in Germany. A seemingly radical move by most traditional expansion strategies.

Skills global leaders need to be successful:

Experience living abroad.
Cultural sensitivity, collaborative skills and a greater focus on emotional competencies.
The ability to accept that a particular situation my not be like anything they are familiar with.
The capacity to motivate, influence and enable individuals across cultures to uphold corporate culture and accomplish company goals.

How can leaders develop global skills?

Travel often and participate face-to-face in meetings with colleagues from the location.
Practice getting comfortable with ambiguity.
Be open to new ways of doing things, spend more time listening and less time speaking.
Commit to Global Leadership Development programs or participate in seminars.
Understand what’s going on-line and use all forms of technology to communicate with team members located globally.

Many say that we are at a leadership deficit in the business world and not only do we need existing leaders to improve their global skills, we need 1000s more truly developed leaders who can think, act and lead globally. Leadership is becoming more and more important in terms of motivating employees, facilitating new innovations, and driving projects forward. Are your leaders and is your organization prepared?

We’ll talk more in detail next month on how to assess and find the right global leaders.

For more information on how to work globally, contact us info@lamsonconsulting.com

Tags: cultural, Cultural Differences, Culture, global business, Global Expansion, Global Leadership

Posted in Cross Cultural, Cultural Differences, Cultural Values, Culture, Global Business, Global Consultant, Global Consulting, Global Leadership, Global Mindset.

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