Leading Across Borders

Asia’s top companies are now looking to become regional and global players and yet the biggest constraint to their internationalisation efforts could be a lack of cross-border leadership talent. A recent study by Egon Zehnder International and Singapore’s Human Capital Leadership Institute (HCLI) indicated that building a pipeline of leaders capable of succeeding across borders was one of the top priorities for Asia-based CEOs. HCLI explored further with a seminar as to how companies can better identify and develop global leaders from Asia. The results of that review have been published in HQ Asia, Issue 4, 2012, “Leading across borders: Playing global, staying Asian”.

Here’s how to lead across borders along with further implications (“et alors”).

Leading Across Borders

In describing the DNA of “successful leaders across borders”, despite the high-level of seminar participant diversity (with representatives from many countries and industries), there was a high-level of consensus that there are three key cross-border leadership characteristics, viz:

Comfort with Discomfort

Successful cross-border leaders seem to not just tolerate discomfort and ambiguity, they seem to “embrace it.” They recognise the need to act decisively without possessing complete knowledge of the situation (realising that learning from a poor decision is better than no decision at all).

Competences required: curiosity, positivity and perseverance.

Judicious Relationship Building

Successful cross-border leaders appear to be able to not only overcome cultural misunderstandings but establish trust and build alliances across cultures. Good relations are nurtured but with prudence so that they are the right relations with the right people.

Competencies required: observation, listening and learning agility.

Authentic Adaptation

Successful cross-border leaders stay true to their own cultural roots: they adapt their behaviours according to the environment but also stay authentic realising that total assimilation into another culture would rob them of their unique value-adding differentiators.

Competencies required: strong self-awareness and inter-cultural sensitivity.

Et alors?

The study concludes that “as companies are beginning to realise, cultural differences should not be managed away. Rather they should be recognised, celebrated and leveraged.” In this respect, Asian companies are not unlike companies anywhere else in the world. For organisations who happen to have a regional or global agenda, various anti-discrimination laws might mean that that cultural differences are at least “recognised” (to some extent); however there is still some work to be done to both “celebrate” and “leverage” cultural diversity.

In the wider context, this relates back to one of the three key characteristics: authentic adaptation. If an organisation is global-but-centralised, with one predominant culture, then it is likely that there will be a corporate culture of assimilation. Diversity might be recognised but at the same time expected to adapt fully to conform with the dominant culture. If that mind-set persists, then leaders will find it very hard to successfully lead across borders because they will be unable to retain their authenticity and with it their “unique value-adding differences.”

The conclusions of the review are particular pertinent when it comes to leadership development: whilst the three key characteristics are noted as essential for successful cross-border leadership, how does an organisation identify and develop such talent? The key “tips” collected from the seminar were 1/ Avoid confirmation bias by extending your selection beyond those who are immediately visible; 2/ Use intercultural diagnostics (e.g. “Cultural Intelligence Scale”, “Intercultural Awareness Profiler” and “Global Mindset Inventory”); and finally 3/ Be objective in your talent selection process – have assessment centres to determine potential and then develop accordingly.