Global Business Leadership

Global Business Leadership

When I first registered for the global leadership class, I thought "isn't all business the same?" In the sense that I really wasn't sure what distinguished global leadership from any other type of leadership. Having never held a management position in the workplace, I was perhaps at a disadvantage to understand the nuances of the question of global business leadership. The course has broadened my understanding of leadership on a global scale.

I see leadership as the process of leading people. The latter point is specific to understanding what leadership is -- people. A manager is someone who manages resources, and directs them to tasks, but these resources are not necessarily people -- they can be capital, or equipment. Thus, a manager is someone who determines who and what will perform the different tasks that will bring the organization closer to its stated objectives. Leadership is somewhat different, relating to specifically to people, and specifically to more psychological aspects of managing people. Anyone with sufficient formal authority can determine tasks for people, given a culture such as the military where formal authority trumps all, but leadership is a softer skill. The leader inspires people, and guides them. The types of verbs that are associated with leadership are different from those associated with management, for example a leader motivates, energizes, inspires, influences…in essence a leader is someone who doesn't just tell people what to do, but who engages people, and transforms how they view their role within the organization. A good leader should be able to do this in a way that allows for superior results relative to someone who does not engage in leadership, but merely directs resources. By influencing behaviors and mindsets, a leader performs a critical role that is distinct from managing (Rost, 1998).

Global leadership is a distinct form of leadership, pertaining to a modern business environment where the leadership has to translate across countries and cultures. This is a tricky element of leadership, because leadership is inherently about the way that the leader interacts with the followers -- cultural context can be quite important. In some countries, leadership is uncommon due to high deference for formal authority. In other situations, people from different cultures are motivated by entirely different values. Global leadership is the process of leading in a global environment, something that requires tremendous skill in navigating through different cultures, and seeks to build a common culture where the leader's effectiveness is high throughout the entire organization. Leading in a global context can be quite challenging for someone with limited intercultural experience.

The power of leadership was in evidence when I studied Elon Musk, leader of SpaceX and Tesla. Musk's leadership style is inspirational, in that he has a strong vision of the future, and communicates this well. These two companies in particular are driven by a set of ideals, but also by Musk's vision. There is a tremendous amount of hard work involved, so people who work for these companies need to buy into the vision, in order to be willing to commit themselves to pursuing success on Musk's terms. So Musk works with teams of people, who come from all over the world -- Musk himself being an immigrant -- and gets everybody in these companies to buy into his vision wholly and completely. Thus, a common culture has developed at these companies. At SpaceX when a rocket failed to launch, everybody was as eager to figure out the cause of the crash as Musk was, because that is part of the culture to which everybody has bought into at SpaceX, and that culture reflects Musk's leadership.

Section 2

Leaders very much influence the future, because they are the visionaries. The leader has the vision of where the organization needs to go for the future, then communicates that vision and gets buy-in from everybody else. In that way, leaders guide an organization, and all the people within the organization, towards the future. This has a lot of influence on shaping the future because ultimately, the leader will convert many others -- often quite talented people -- to his or her way of thinking. The vision, which otherwise would have been for one person, becomes much greater because it has the weight of an organization behind it. If Tesla is going to have everybody in self-driving electric cars, that is a vision for the future -- Musk saw a future and sought to pursue it in a way that few people in business have been able to do. But when people do this, they often achieve great things. Think back one hundred years to Henry Ford's vision for the automobile, and how that vision transformed American society. He got people to buy into this vision, as engineers, in government, as consumers and even as workers.

Leaders are also critical for the future because when they are put into positions where they have control over a lot of resources, they have the ability to put those resources into their vision. Thinking in multiple time frames, using analysis, thinking systemically, and identifying the impacts of their decisions on outcomes are key leadership traits, in particular of the best leaders who genuinely will influence the future. The strategic plan is critical to this. A strategic plan is a means by which the leader can ensure that his or her vision is implemented. In that, there is definitely an element of management involved in leadership. Strategy requires, however, more than simply utilizing resources. Most companies can acquire reasonable managerial talent, as this is not in short supply, and is a skill that can be learned.

Leadership, therefore, is a means by which companies can distinguish themselves. A leader who can inspire people and motivate them to be their best, within the context of a well-conceived strategic plan and quality management, will be able to outperform other companies that also perform quite well. In most industries, there are more than one company performing well, so leadership is one of the things that will distinguish the good from the great in the long run, because leaders are typically able not only to be at their best, but have the rest of their organization operating at its best as well.