MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP SPECIAL The Attributes of an Effective Global
Leader
Since early 2015, when he
began working with Sodexo’s executive committee as the global services firm’s
chief transformation officer, Sunil Nayak has undergone his own leadership
transformation. The new role required the former CEO of Sodexo India On-Site
Services to work with a team of 15 executives from different nationalities and
cultures, demanding a shift to a more inclusive leadership style. “In today’s
world, success for any leader is about being a good influencer,” says Nayak,
who has since been promoted to CEO of Sodexo’s Corporate Services Asia-Pacific.
“If you impose your method, if you’re not sensitive or aware of the other
person’s method, either you won’t come to a decision or you won’t get buy-in.”
Nayak is describing a set
of competencies that employees must master if they are to become leaders on the
global stage. As organizations grow and become more global, it’s crucial that
they develop these skills in their local talent so that they can work
effectively across cultures. Based on Center for Talent Innovation (CTI)
research, we’ve identified four competencies that rising talent needs to
master to become global leaders.
Project Credibility
According to a recent CTI
study, global leaders must master a pivot to project credibility, demonstrating
authority in a form familiar to senior executives in the West (the vertical
pivot) while prioritizing emotional intelligence with stakeholders in local
global markets (the horizontal pivot). CTI’s 11-market study (of Brazil,
China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the
U.S., and the UK) finds that 62% of senior leaders in the U.S. and the UK say
that demonstrating
authority projects credibility but
only 47% of respondents in Asia think it does. Emotional intelligence (versus
demonstrating authority) is more important in the growth-hub markets: 57% of
respondents in Brazil, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South
Africa, and Turkey say that demonstrating emotional intelligence wins the trust
and respect of teams in local markets.
Leaders who pivot well
horizontally, earning the trust and respect of their team, are 21% more likely
to be satisfied with their career progression than team leaders who haven’t.
That trend holds with leaders who pivot well vertically and have won the attention
and support of senior leaders: They’re 15% more likely to be satisfied with
their advancement.
Be Inclusive
As Nayak discovered,
driving value by unleashing ideas, spurring collaboration, and solving problems
across distance and difference requires shifting management methods from
command-and-control to behaving inclusively. The way to do this is by asking
questions and listening carefully, giving actionable feedback, facilitating
constructive arguments, taking advice and implementing feedback, maintaining
regular contact with team members, and sharing credit for team success. Global
team members with inclusive leaders are four times as likely as global team
members with noninclusive leaders to say their teams embrace the input of
members whose background or experience differs from their own.
Additionally, inclusive
leaders are more likely to encourage risk taking and disruptive thinking: Their
team members are three times as likely to say they’re not afraid to fail and
four-and-a-half times as likely to report that nobody on their team is
afraid to challenge the status quo. This has critical implications for
companies whose growth in new markets is predicated on breakthrough products
and services, as a growing body of research (including our own) suggests that leaders who don’t merely tolerate failure
but avidly celebrate it unlock game-changing innovation.
Communicate Effectively (Even Virtually)
Global leaders need to know
how to communicate — not just with their teams but with global
headquarters as well. “Communication skills need to be refined to a higher
level of sophistication,” observes Paul Abbot, EVP for American Express’s
Global Commercial Payments business. “If you don’t set the tone right from the
top, nothing will ever happen.”
Across all markets, leaders
need to speak well, deliver a compelling message, and command a room. What
differs from market to market, though, is how leaders demonstrate those skills.
In many markets, men are expected to deliver a compelling message by stating
their conclusions directly, while women are expected to guide listeners to
their conclusion. In Hong Kong, China, India, and Singapore, men are expected
to command a room in a forceful manner, but in Japan, Brazil, and Russia, women
are expected to command a room by facilitating others’ dialogue.
Win Sponsorship
Navigating global
complexities can be nearly impossible for rising leaders without the support
and guidance of a sponsor, a senior-level advocate who will support their
protégé’s authority and empower them to make decisions. They also make protégés
visible to leaders regionally and at headquarters.
To attract sponsorship at
the highest levels, emerging leaders need to be sponsors themselves. Seeding
high-potential talent, selecting top performers for development and stretch
assignments, and securing a future for them at the company beyond their own
borders signals to those at headquarters that you are thinking and acting like a
global leader. Indeed, no one is better positioned to sponsor emerging talent
than someone who has succeeded in vaulting those same barriers.
These four competencies are
the basis for global leadership. As multinational corporations expand into
different markets, they must take steps to ensure their rising local talent
learns these skills. Formal training programs can teach high-potential leaders
the competencies they need to think globally and manage cross-culturally. For
example, American Express created its Accelerated Leadership Development
program, in 2011. Over the course of the six-month program, 25 participants
from American Express offices around the world tackle real-time business
challenges to hone their strategic skill set, practice cross-functional
collaboration, and learn what it takes to be a transformational leader in
today’s ever-changing environment.
Sodexo created
its Global Agility program, which includes a series of initiatives and
training modules that are designed to promote cross-cultural competence and
connect business units and leaders in its 32,700 sites worldwide. These
sessions help leaders identify the cultures in which they would function best
and understand how to shift their approach to connect meaningfully with others
when operating in less-familiar environments. Other modules focus on leading
virtual global teams, building trust across cultures, and giving feedback and
providing recognition — all critical skills for building high-performing
global teams.
As organizations increasingly
recognize that diversity is the key to innovation and market growth, it’s more
important than ever to develop local talent and nurture the skills to enable
them to succeed on the global stage.
- Sylvia Ann
Hewlett
https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-attributes-of-an-effective-global-leader
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