Global Leadership: Competencies, Mindset, and Effectiveness

Introduction

Although the process of globalization began in antiquity, it has greatly accelerated in recent years to the point where the marketplace is increasingly globalized and economic downturns in one country can have profoundly severe rippling effects around the world. Moreover, innovations in transportation and communications have created an environment in which products and services must appeal to a far larger audience than in the past, yet many organizations are failing to respond to these changes in timely and appropriate ways. Against this backdrop, it is clear that more effective global leadership is needed by both the private and public sectors.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature to define and thoroughly explain global leadership, along with an analysis of the importance of competencies in the context of global leaders. In addition, the paper provides a definition and critique of the role of a global mindset in relation to the global competency inventory. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning global leadership issues is presented in the conclusion.

Defining Global Leadership

Strictly applied, the term "global leadership" suggests that someone has been tasked with leading an entire globe, but this eventuality has not yet been inflicted on humankind in the modern era. Although there is no universally agreed-upon definition, Tardiff (2017) provides several examples drawn from the scholarly literature to define global leadership today. Some of the most relevant definitions of global leadership provided by Tardiff (2017) include the following:

• A process of influencing the thinking, attitudes, and behaviors of a global community to work together synergistically toward a common vision and common goals;
• An emerging group of professionals adept at operating in international and multicultural contexts;
• A global leader is an individual who inspires a group of people to willingly pursue a positive vision in an effectively organized fashion while fostering individual and collective growth in a context characterized by significant levels of complexity, flow, and presence;
• The leadership of individuals who influence and bring about significant positive changes in firms, organizations, and communities by facilitating the appropriate level of trust, organizational structures and processes, and involving multiple stakeholders, resources, and cultures under various conditions of temporal, geographical, and cultural complexity; and
• The bridging of people between organizations yet across established demarcations, boundaries, and borders through the reciprocal benefit of culture, resource pooling, and intellectual property.

Taken together, these definitions provide a useful framework for better understanding the main characteristics of modern global leadership in a rapidly changing world. For example, according to Javidan, Bullough, and Dibble (2016), "Gaining such an understanding is critical because not all individuals are equally strong in all global mindset characteristics. Individual leaders rarely encompass all the qualities required for effective leadership in a global context" (p. 59). While it is reasonable to suggest that the increasingly globalized marketplace will experience significant changes over the next several decades, these definitions of global leadership will likely remain relevant and appropriate.

Having established what global leadership is, it is also important to determine what effective global leaders actually do that sets them apart from their less qualified counterparts. A study by Caligiuri (2006, p. 220) determined that there are ten main tasks routinely performed by global leaders:

1. Global leaders work with colleagues from other countries;
2. Global leaders interact with external clients from other countries;
3. Global leaders interact with internal clients from other countries;
4. Global leaders may need to speak in a language other than their mother tongue at work;
5. Global leaders supervise employees of different nationalities;
6. Global leaders develop a strategic business plan on a worldwide basis for their unit;
7. Global leaders manage a budget on a worldwide basis for their unit;
8. Global leaders negotiate in other countries or with people from other countries;
9. Global leaders manage foreign suppliers or vendors; and
10. Global leaders manage risk on a worldwide basis for their unit.

The key similarity among these tasks is that global leaders routinely deal with people from other countries, and in some cases they should also be able to speak the language or languages of those countries. While English has assumed a near lingua franca status in international commerce (as well as being the universal language of international aviation), the most effective global leaders are increasingly regarded as those who are able to speak two or more languages. Because all leaders and their situations are unique in some fashion, global leaders may or may not perform all or even most of the above-listed tasks. In order for them to be effective at those they do perform, however, they need a set of core competencies that exemplify effective global leaders — issues discussed further below.

References

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