Last updated on November 7th, 2020 at 07:34 pm
15 Global Competencies For A Global Leader To Thrive in Diverse Trends of Globalization
Trends in globalization have a resultant effect on accelerated growth in the number of global organizations that require leaders with global competencies. Moreover, due to the global dynamics of increased immigration, outsourcing, and advances in technology, multinationals are becoming more global and multicultural than ever with a necessity to maintain a competitive advantage in the volatile global economy.
A great example of the power of global competence is the evidence of immigrant entrepreneurs in shaping up America’s startup economy, where they have co-founded billion-dollar startups in the United States.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Cumberland et al. (2016) point out that the following have swept the globe with the need for global leadership:
- Liberalization of trade,
- Dissolution of borders to countries
- Technological changes
The global public workforce has not been left out from the adoption of professional expertise that transcends national borders (Mau, 2017). The demand for universal leaders has consequently exceeded the number of qualified individuals.
Organizations now search for models to identify individuals who will be competent global leaders.
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Employees in the global marketplace vary in culture, political beliefs and religion.
The resultant effect is the increasingly intercultural workforce (Cumberland et al., 2016). Diverse workplaces bring out positive change for organizations due to increased creativity and innovation.
The adoption of information technology has made it easier for organizations to create these culturally diverse teams in addition to virtual global teams. The global marketplace hence requires global leaders that can manage these diversified workplaces.
This is what fills in the global leadership vacuum.
Global leadership knowledge results from experience. but is developed through training. The essential competencies prerequisite of a worldwide leader to interact and work productively with people from different cultures include various traits, attitudes, skills, and abilities that comprise global managerial expertise.
As substantiated by Mau (2017), many attempts have been made to build upon the work on leadership competencies. The objective is identifying the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behavior that constitute effective global leadership.
Richie et al. (2017) articulate that the present state of useful global leadership competencies appears to converge towards three overarching categories of skills according to scholars’ conceptualizations. that is
- Intrapersonal competencies
- Interpersonal competencies
- Business acumen competencies
Specific Competencies
Firstly are the intrapersonal competencies
These mirror the internal psychological/emotional sphere of a global leader.
They are also known as self-management competencies. They relate to stress management for a worldwide leader that lives and works in a different environment, and with people who do not share similar customs or viewpoints.
As leaders maintain an emotional equilibrium, they effectively use their social and mental competencies to learn well and develop relationships. The seven skills at these level include:
- Optimism
- Self-confidence
- Self-identity
- Non-stress tendency
- Emotional resilience
- Stress management
Secondly, are interpersonal competencies
These are directed at the management of people and relationships.
Also known as relationship management competencies, they assess the interest and likelihood of a global leader to develop and maintain positive and healthy relations with others who share different perspectives, beliefs, and values, socially and at the works place.
These six interpersonal competencies include:
- Interest in relationships
- Interpersonal engagement
- Self-awareness
- Emotional sensitivity
- Social flexibility
- Self-management.
Thirdly, are the business acumen competencies
They are inclusive of the cognitive and behavioral abilities related to business and organizational realities. These exhibit the perception and strength of a global leader to learn what they need to know to function in the foreign context.
They five competencies of a leader with high business acumen include
- Non-judgmentalness
- Tolerance of ambiguity
- Inquisitiveness
- Cosmopolitanism
- Flexibility in interest
How to Use These Global Competencies
Identification of these global competencies is effectual not only in the executive personal or professional development coaching but also in the selection and promotion criteria for global responsibilities.
Notwithstanding, programs are provided to develop effective global mindsets whose intercultural competencies are measured against a yardstick (Hassanzadeh et al., 2015).
Also, diversity and cross-cultural courses are designed to increase awareness of these skills. Global leaders, too, analyze themselves for improvement.
Sets of Combinations of the Competencies
Comprehensive leadership training should be fine-tuned and measured to develop competency sets for different global leadership ideal-types (Richie et al., 2017). Global leaders should envision developmental paths that accompany their movements to higher levels of tasks and relationships.
An associated set of competencies can be designed to focus on the complex and subtle interaction of a global leader as their demands require in the worldwide marketplace.
1. A case scenario of a low task with less complex relationships
For example, Richie et al., 2017 states that a global leader in a role that is of low relationship complexity or low task requires interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies like intercultural communication, social flexibility, resilience, and cognitive complexity.
2. For a highly complex task combined with less complex relationships
On the other hand, if the global leader is needed for a task of high complexity while the relationship complexity is low, he should have competencies related to business acumen like responsiveness to change, environmental scanning in addition to intrapersonal domains including resilience and cognitive complexity.
3. Highly complex task combined with very complex relationships
A global leader in a high task complex and high relationship complex must have the full set of the intrapersonal proficiencies like tenacity, thinking agility and courage. The leader also requires the interpersonal prerequisites like sharing leadership and cross-cultural negotiation coupled with business acumen competencies like building partnerships, frame-shifting.
Further Reading: https://wenmoth.net/2020/10/31/global-competence/
References
Cumberland, D. M., Herd, A., Alagaraja, M., & Kerrick, S. A. (2016). Assessment and development of global leadership competencies in the workplace: A review of literature. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18(3), 301-317.
Hassanzadeh, M., Silong, A. D., Asmuni, A., & Wahat, N. W. A. (2015). Global Leadership Competencies. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 5(2), 137.
Mau, T. A. (2017). Leadership competencies for a global public service. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 83(1), 3-22.
Reiche, B. S., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M. E., & Osland, J. S. (2017). Contextualizing leadership: a typology of global leadership roles. Journal of International Business Studies, 48(5), 552-572.
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Great article indeed
Thank you for your feedback Adel.
This was a great read – I think I’ll make a note of these competencies in my workspace so I’ll always have them in mind when I’m working and taking the time to improve myself. Completely agree that these are all vital things to have within your skill set, and for that reason they should be at the forefront of our minds as business owners.
Hannah,
Personal growth is an ongoing process.😎
Glad that you agree on having skill sets that can thrive on a global scale.
We are yet to see what how human capital will evolve affecting these competencies due to the strategies the world is adopting to conquer in the uncertain times of the corona virus pandemic.
xo xo