BY EVA KHAN
GLOBAL
LEADERSHIP
What is Global Leadership?
Global Leaders are internationally minded leaders, leaders who do business across the globe. Dalton et al. defines a global leader as “one who manages across distance, countries, and cultures and is effective in a globally complex environment.”
As innovation continues to challenge the skills of individuals, organizations and HR departments need to focus on preparing the workforce for the needs of tomorrow.
The world is rapidly becoming multicultural. Price Waterhouse Cooper’s 14th Annual Global CEO Survey (2011) found that ‘‘bridging the global skills gap’’ was one of the top concerns cited for the future as companies look ‘‘for better ways to develop and deploy staff globally.”
The training of global leaders and staff with cross-cultural skills has become increasingly important with 62% of firms around the world reporting having global leadership development training of some form (American Management Association, 2010).
The difference between global and international leaders?
A fundamental distinction is that global leadership focuses on cross-cultural interaction rather than on either single culture description or multi-country comparison.
International leaders are bi-cultural, whilst global leaders can work seamlessly in many different cultures successfully.
To become a global leader, ‘you have to go to countries that have a totally different way of thinking, a totally different way of organization, and a totally different way of life’ (Ghosn).
Why is it important to train and develop global leaders?
In decades past, global leadership was not a required skill, but, today, established multi-national companies are expanding at a quicker pace than ever before. Despite this, 30% of US companies say they have failed to utilize their international business opportunities due to their staff not possessing the skills needed to be internationally competent (Daniel and Kedia, US Business Needs for Employees with International Expertise).
DEVELOPING
TOMORROW'S
LEADERS