Leadership development is the way the companies deal with the forces shaping the future. There are lots of opinions about what the future holds. That’s what led Stephanie Neal of DDI to ask “Which are the skills that leaders need to be successful now and in the future?” Here’s part of the opening paragraph of her post.
“Yet, since 2011 there has been a continued lack of focus on two skills that also relate to critical areas for business growth: Fostering creativity and innovation and Leading across countries and cultures.”
Leadership development in a global environment
I wondered what it meant to develop leaders to “lead across countries and cultures.” So I contacted Melissa Lamson, my go-to expert on “global management.” She told me that some things are what they’ve been for decades.
Leadership is about relationships
If you want to lead effectively in any context, you have to develop relationships with the people on your team. Trust is the foundation for those relationships. That hasn’t changed. Neither has some of the context.
Leadership “over there.”
For decades, “global management” has been about “over there.” If you grew up in one country and were managing in a different country, you needed to learn about the culture of the country where you’re assigned. That’s still true.
If you’re based in your home country and you’re dealing with people from another country or culture, you have to learn about their culture and business norms. That hasn’t changed either. But now, Melissa says, there’s another important piece.
Developing leaders for the “new” global
Today you might have to become a global manager even if you never leave your home country and even if you never have a team member based outside your country’s borders. Increasingly the teams we lead are made up of people who grew up in different cultures. The really big leadership development challenge for the future is learning to lead teams of people who come from more than two cultures and who have to work together to win.
A Final Thought from Melissa Lamson
“It’s about having a global mindset all the time. Global mindset is not just a tool you pull out of the box when you’re in a different country.”
