Food for Thoughts – Global Leadership
The subject of leadership was hammered by all media for the past 30 years, it has gone through phases, schools of thought and theories.
It was often mistaken with management but I think this ambiguity has passed. In this paper the subject matter is a geographical leader. Imagine a successful person in Brazil working for a multinational is required to go and work in let us say Angola (they speak Portuguese and was a former Portuguese Colony). Imagine the cultural shock to move to a place with no football and no Churrasceria (the extremely meat loving Brazilians steak houses). The preparation of such a leader has to go through an intensive awareness program and the acquisition of new skills and new outlook to life.
The preparation as I see it will be dependent on 2 elements:
1- Culture study: where major milestones are illustrated by the timeline below : Hofstede is the pioneer to try and measure cultural variations between clusters of countries with similar attitudes. The GLOBE project is current and more ambitious, it also touches on the leadership styles needed in particular types of communities and countries. Connerly and Pedersen wrote a book about leadership success in different Geographie
2- Leadership studies: where some major milestones are illustrated in the timeline below: The behavioral school of thought about leadership started in the sixties, followed by the situational school in the 80s; globalization on a systematic way was tackled starting 2001. It is noted that prior to each of these milestones pioneering works took place in all areas of leadership
Combining these two elements would be necessary for preparing a leader using a particular leadership style and tailoring it to the particular geography. It implies:
1- Awareness of the new culture
Awareness is the understanding of the new culture elements and how they differ from own cultural elements.
This relates to the family values, gender values, sensitivity to stereotypes, recognition of communication modes, sensitivity to linguistic differences.
An important factor would be to know how will own spouse/family will integrate in the new culture, in particular schooling for kids.
2- Knowledge of the new culture
This relates to knowledge of history, Geography, political system, major radio/tv stations and newspapers, education system and educational degrees variations.
3- Developing necessary skills to operate in the new culture
This is the major issue for an expatriate; skills are needed to develop the necessary leadership style that would succeed in the expatriation country.
It is necessary to develop the human skills needed to motivate and galvanize the people of another culture to achieve the company’s objectives. The point is to build a power base, establish the right connections and enhance one’s position and company’s image to thrive in the new environment
This preparation process was devised by ourselves under the name G2-LEADERS
Leave a Comment