Leading with a Global Mindset

One of the most difficult challenges faced by the corporate leaders is that they are now required to lead diverse teams. They need to develop a global mindset to be effective. Unlike before, now, they need to be multifaceted and keep abreast of the global happenings, political systems, be aware of the cultural values and customer behavior in different nations, and be able to develop a business relationship with people with varied cultures, religious beliefs, values and so on.

Leading a global team has its own set advantages- you can get an insight in to the uniqueness of a particular culture, while you will also be able to save costs by expanding. If you know how to get full potential out of your global team, you can reap millions, or should we say, you could save thousands by knowing exactly what not to do. For example, if you are planning to establish a food outlet in say, in parts of Asia, you need to understand the local tastes and preferences before the launch. If you have someone in your team who can guide you on this front, you can save millions.

With that said, you now need to shift from the traditional methods of working in an organization to novel methods, so as to accommodate the global team members. Developing a global mindset cannot be accomplished in a day. It is an ongoing process, which requires redesigning the organization’s structure, to accommodate the cultural differences of these teams. It is to be remembered that culture has a huge impact on how an individual reacts to a leadership. While Asians are more used to autocratic leadership style, a person from the United States and some parts of Europe are likely to enjoy autonomy while accomplishing tasks.

To take this point further, in some African cultures, managers may find organizational members to be family oriented, as in many cultures. Remembering the rule about putting employees’ needs first is key. Showing value for family and friends above all is important. Work is work, but employees must know they are valued and their values are important to managers. So, to score an edge with African team members, you need to share traits such as being charismatic, protective of the subordinates, concerned about their well being, modest and compassionate. If you can imbibe these values, you are sure to make positive points with your team, and be an effective leader. Similarly, if your team members belong to Caribbean and Latin American cultures, they too will also welcome a charismatic, protective leader. Most Asian culture employees look upon a leader with high regard, with almost paternal respect. So, they are comfortable with autocratic leadership.

Culture plays a pivotal role in upbringing of a person, his values, belief and so on. By understanding culture of a person, you also get an insight in to the behavior pattern, values, needs and desires of each individual employee. For example, if you send greetings to your subordinate on a local festival, you will be breaking the cross cultural barrier and are likely to garner greater support and improve productivity.

Understanding these values will enable a global leader to tap full potential from his team. A side benefit is that it may also avoid any conflicts within the team and build strength, as well as a competitive advantage.

Essence of Successful Leadership

Effective Communication
One of the biggest challenges today for the leaders is effective communication. In a survey on communication, as many as 79% employees pointed out lack of communication within the organization. The problem manifolds in a global team, owing to communication snags as team members speak different languages. Also, the same phrases and expressions may have different meanings in different cultures. It should be noted that communication also includes non verbal communication such as gestures and facial expressions. These can be easily misinterpreted when the team members are from different cultures. These misinterpretations would break the communication chain, and would adversely affect the team’s performance, productivity and even the team spirit. Even leaders are otherwise good communicators fail when dealing with a multicultural teams.

Need for culturally explicit behavior
Global leadership often fails due to its indifferent attitude towards the culture of its team members. This indifference creates lose ends in the leadership, and adversely affects the cohesiveness of the team. On the contrary, leaders who respect and understands these cultural differences can reap full benefits from its team members and create cultural harmony within the team, thus improving productivity and innovation.

Developing Global Mindset
Having a global mindset will arm a leader to perceive the world market, and understand the competitors better. This mindset will also help them fill the cultural gap that exists within its team members.

Collaborating with Team members
It is not just enough to have a global mindset. The leader has to inculcate the team spirit with the subordinates and collaborate with them. An effective collaboration with team mates of differing culture would enable the leader to get an edge over the competition, through effective use of the team members.

Trust
Often there is lack of trust between the leader and the team members. This mistrust leads to lack of communication; the leader may not be willing to share vital information with his team mates and vice versa, causing distrust and total chaos within the team. In such a situation, the team will be at complete tangent with each other, and the common goals will never be met. So, trust is one of the vital factors for an effective leadership. Your subordinates will pick up your traits, so if you exhibit trust and confidence in your subordinates, you can expect the same from them too.

Cultural Discrimination
Call it racial discrimination, cultural discrimination or it could also be a political rift between the nations…that often lead to hatred or ‘one man up’ feeling in the teammates or the leader. For example, if a leader is always trying to display his culture, his race to be superior to the rest, he is sure to kindle hatred in the minds of the team members. In such circumstances, it would be foolish to expect whole hearted support from the fellow team members.

Charismatic leadership
Gone are the days when you can treat your team members with ‘Carrot and Stick’ principle. You have to treat them as equals if you want support from them. A successful leader is one who exudes charisma, who is appreciative of his team members, and treats them as equal.

These are some of the traits that a successful leader must have! For more information please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Paul Gerhardt: www.paulgerhardt.com

Supervision and Work Ethic

Research indicates that several factors affect work ethic in an individual. Certain work ethic are embedded in to an individual right from his childhood, while certain ethics are inculcated as a result of supervision and experience.

It may sound rather strange, but childhood experiences play a major role in how a person behaves in work culture. Values such as discipline and self control are learnt in early childhood. Children who met their goals as kids, or rather performed to satisfy parents in the childhood, have stronger work ethics as grown ups. Such employees are highly disciplined, take initiative on their own, and adapt to work culture faster.

Parents with authoritative traits help develop work ethic in their children. These kids become self reliant and initiative takers in their career. Again, the family background, traits shown by the parents also helps to develop work ethic in children.

Let’s now see the role of good supervision in developing work ethic. These are:

• To create and maintain a positive working environment that boosts employee morale and help them excel their tasks

• Set working norms for the group and encourage the team and the supervisors that excel in their tasks and meet organizational goals

• Set out detailed goals with regards to productivity, craftsmanship quality etc, so that each individual is clear about the organizational expectations. The goals are clearly laid down right at the time of hiring a new employee, and taking him through the orientation process. Also, while delegating work to the employees, the expectations are clearly given. If there is need, the supervisor may also provide training, and explain how a task is to be handled. For example, while creating a new design for a label, the supervisor will clearly mention the prefer color schemes etc,

• Create an ambiance that your employees will enjoy working in the environment. This is not to say that the organization will relax the norms or standards, but it means that the atmosphere will be such that the employees will not have any fear while voicing their opinion.

• There should be effective delegation and individual work accountability

• The supervisor should ensure that each individual in his team is allocated work as per his abilities, and also he should help cultivate commitment amongst the team members by being totally committed to organizational goals. He should motivate the team members and seek active participation of each individual.

• The supervisor should also carry on performance appraisal periodically within the department and feedback should be given to the supervisee. The evaluation should be comprehensive and should involve all the aspects such as quality of work, on time delivery, punctuality, attendance, work attitude, behavior, strengths, weaknesses, ability to think out of the box, and so forth

• The employees that excelled in performance should be suitably rewarded, in terms of recognition and appreciation and even be paid better emoluments to keep him motivated.

• Motivate those you supervise through words and action.

In a nut shell, work ethic would depend on several factors, some beyond the control of a supervisor. Yet, a supervisor can contribute to better work ethic amongst his subordinates by following the guidelines mentioned above.

How to Improve Leadership

We are living in some very interesting times. We no longer are competing in a localized area for sales, resources and talent. Globalization has called for new traits of leaders in this new environment. Leadership will make all of the difference. Let us take a look at how one can improve leadership qualities and become an effective leader in today’s competitive environment. This means learning how to motivate team members, enhance cohesiveness and improve productivity.

Training Will Make that Important Difference

There have been numerous contemporary studies on what is needed to lead in this new global environment. Organizations must realize that it will take awareness and a proactive stance to stay competitive. To be able to imbibe these qualities and implement it, leaders need a quality training program steeped in research. It has been observed that corporations that implemented leadership training programs achieved a much greater competitive stance. Training programs would arm corporate leaders to gear up and learn behavior patterns that would help them to create a conducive and cohesive atmosphere within a diverse team. Leadership training help managers focus better on team challenges such as appreciating various cultures, values, norms, and communication styles. Effective programs aim at imparting cultural knowledge and teach methods of effective communication with multi-cultural employees. As a result, there is a usual boost the team morale, and achieve greater productivity.

Training on Cultural Diversity

During training, leaders are given an insight in to different cultures, customs and values of various diversity groups. The leaders are trained to respect the customs and values. For example, if you are working with an employee based in Gulf nations, you will need to understand and appreciate that team members cannot be working full-time during their holy month. Likewise, if you are working with an Indian team, you will have to appreciate that they come from far more conservative society as compared to the Western World. You will be made to understand that religion is never to be argued upon, no matter who is on your team. This awareness and openness towards people and their cultures foster better collaboration amongst all team members.

While leaders and organizational members are learning about different cultures, and their values, they will also get an insight about their spending habits. For example, if someone wanted to launch a new consumer product in India, the best time would be in October and November. For Gulf nations, it would be in August through September. While for European nations it would be before Christmas. These are the times when people are willing to open their wallets and shop! So, learning about cultures will not just bring cohesiveness and team spirit, it will also help leaders in making the right decisions at the right time.

Mentoring expatriates

It is often argued that there are not enough mentoring programs for the expatriate leaders to gear them to meet the global challenges. Many a times, a product or service does not take off as desired due to lack of effective leadership qualities in the expatriate employee. This anomaly can be overcome by providing a mentoring program in global leadership.

Employee Network Program

Trainings are best followed up with an employee network program done in intervals of at least every three months. Various cultural topics can be discussed at meetings or forums. Here, employees will gain an understanding about different cultures and global leadership from knowledgeable individuals.

These programs will ensure that all involved emerge as successful global leaders. Leadership is both an art and a science. The first step is realizing that effective leadership involves learning new ideas. The second step is taking action to gain the required training to create and sustain a competitive stance in this new global environment.

Transformational Leadership

A transformational leader is a person who is able to influence individuals and earns their trust; respect and admiration to a great extent thereby help them shift their focus from individual interest to the collective interest of the organization or the team. This in turn works to meet the organizational goals, improve productivity and efficiency. He focuses on the values and importance of a task, and influences his subordinates to let go off the personal goals to achieve a larger perspective-the corporate goals.

A transformational leader will inspire and motivate his subordinates, give due consideration to the followers, and provide intellectual simulation. Through the behavioral pattern of the leader, the subordinates are motivated to accept new challenges and develop better solutions. He motivates them to think out of the box, and develop new, viable solutions.

Research indicates that transformational leadership has yielded positive results in improving performance and in developing positive attitude amongst the subordinates.

Having said that, let us see how a leader can assume the role of a transformational leader.

First and foremost, a transformational leader is extremely social. He interacts proactively with the subordinates and tries to alter the group behavior to suit the organizational environment and strikes a chord with team members, to ignite a positive response from them.

Now, to be able connect with the team members, a leader must possess fantastic communication skills. Here, communication encompasses verbal and non verbal communication. A transformational leader understands the emotional responses and cues given by the team members.

The second trait that a transformational leader must have- is self awareness. Self awareness arises from self confidence. A leader will not over estimate or under estimate himself or his subordinates or his superiors. When a leader has assessed the true worth of him and his team mates, he is likely to achieve the goals along with his team mates. The leader focuses on his subordinates, evaluates them, and provides them coaching in areas where they need development and training.

Let us see this with an example: In a company selling FMCG goods, the transformational leader of a sales team will set realistic targets for his team, encourages them and trains them to achieve their targets, and asks them to think of novel ideas to promote the product. He is receptive of the ideas of his team mates. Here, the leader is not just passing orders to his subordinates about the goals to be met, but he is proactively taking interest and is trying to be the vehicle to meet the goals. He is keeping the communication lines open by asking them to think about novel ways, and he listens to their ideas, thereby building a mutual relationship of trust and cohesiveness in the team.

A point to be noted here is that he is setting realistic goals after assessing the skills of his team members. He fully understands the strengths and the weaknesses of his team members and is ready to help them overcome their weaknesses, and fortify their strengths. This is the reason why organizations look forward to transformational leadership.

Understanding Leadership Styles

Leadership in simple terms means the ability of an individual to bring about change or being a vehicle to the change. The change could be political, social, economical, behavioral or organizational change.

Talking of leaders and leadership styles, there cannot be a ‘One Size Fits All’ approach. Understanding leadership styles and its effective implementation can help the organization meet its goals.

So, let us take a look at some of the leadership styles.

The earlier theorists believed in the ‘Great Person Theory’, where in it was thought that leaders are born and not trained. This theory existed up till 1950s. The 1960s saw a shift in the leadership theories, which now was attributed to a predefined behavior and style. This new theory or the behavioral leadership theory believed that people can be trained to become leaders. This theory emphasized on learning certain traits such as being a visionary, who can teach others and believes in a democratic set up. He is the one who influences people to boost their performance. This leadership style comprise of transformational leadership, charismatic leadership and transactional leadership.

Transformational Leadership is one where the leader acts as a great motivating force to his followers, and helps them to achieve their goals. A transformational leader is full of zeal and zest and is ready to help his followers at all times.

As against this, a leader following transactional leadership style is more focused on the tasks and deadlines that his followers must meet. He is a go getter, is more focused on getting the work done, directing the task and meeting corporate objectives. He does not inspire his followers, though.

A charismatic leader is a role model of his followers, due to his insight, confidence, his ability to thing out of the box, and due his unconventional behavior. He is the hero, the ultimate man for his followers. He enjoys a great relationship with his subordinates, and influences them greatly to perform better.

Often an individual assumes the role of a leader in a particular situation. This theory was proposed by Fred Fielder. He advocates that a leader may be born in a particular situation, where he is able to influence members in the group. If the leader has congenial relations with the group, his chances of achieving success increase.

These leadership theories have undergone an evolution process with the globalization. Although many of us might think globalization to be a recent phenomenon, it is not. Human beings have always migrated towards greener pastures centuries ago, and are doing so even today. With the advancement in information technology and the infrastructural development, the process of globalization has accelerated in the last 2 decades or so.

Globalization has changed the leadership theories, as the business widened, spanning across several borders, cultures and societies. It also paved the way for better products, better services, and mergers, giving rise to giant conglomerates. With a view to get a global perspective, multinationals are hiring people of different nationalities.

Thus, developing a global perspective is now indispensable for successful leadership. A leader with a broader horizon can meet the ever changing global challenges and can also effectively guide his multi cultural team members. That’s the new leadership mantra!