I found this article about what skills that leaders need in the business world. The article, Developing the Global Leader, is by Julia Hanna with help form Bill George. On thing that Bil George says is “The most successful leaders will not necessarily be those with the highest IQ, Of course, they will need to be intelligent. But they’ll also need to have a high level of cultural and emotional intelligence”.
The first skill that is mentioned is an understanding of details in which the business is run. The second tip is about developing a global and local perspective. This is helpful because each area is different and has their own needs.Another piece of advice that is given is about overcome the dominant thinking at work. “Leadership has to lean in favor of nondominant thinking,” he then says “That requires a tremendous amount of intercultural empathy and a passion for diversity in life experiences.” Then on of the most important tip, in my opinion, is that the organization needs to be at a horizontal hierarchy then a vertical one. This means that “One’s title and role are far less important than the capacity to get things done.” Is there any tips that you think would be useful to a leader in an international position?
November 7th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
This is an interesting article. I think it raises a good point about how your leadership style and goals should fit your group members or followers. If you are leading in a international capacity, then you will probably encounter some hurdles that people leadering in smaller venues might not encounter. For me, I would think that the most important thing for an international leader would be to remain open minded. Like one of the points above says you would need intercultural empathy and a passion for diversity. Afterall, how effective of a leader can you be if you aren’t able to understand the thoughts and opinions of your group? You can’t go into the position having already disadvantaged parts of your group.
November 14th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
This is so amazing! Leadership is so much more than being good at something, it is being able to understand people around you and being able to become culturally competent so that you are able to connect with various people who comes from different backgrounds. Any leader, I believe, needs to be able to be open minded because in this world, on any level, because nations contain a plethora of people from heritages that root in all places of the world. Though it may be more important for international leaders, I firmly believe all people should become better leaders by empowering the identities of everyone in the group.