Chapter 2 ikon

Chapter 2

Grasping global leadership practice

– tools for global leadership in practice

Chapter 2 ikon
Chapter
2

Grasping global leadership practice – tools for global leadership in practice

Chapter 2 - Grasping global leadership practice

”Sheer luck beats bad leadership any day – but you may be running out of luck …”

(Global leadership development professional quoted in Nielsen & Nielsen, 2016)

There is nothing to beat good luck – and good fortune certainly helps in most aspects of life. There are those who believe that global leadership is a matter of luck, but the vast majority adhere to the view that you have to make your own luck by devoting your attention, time and other resources to being better, getting to know more – and quite simply practising. Both to stay at the head of the field and to deal with setbacks when your luck runs out.

The idea that it helps to know more, to seek new ways forward and not least to learn from other people – not just for individual global leaders but also for companies operating at the global level or for Danish competitiveness in the global marketplace – was the trigger for establishing the Global Leadership Academy (GLA). The Global Leadership Academy started up in the spring of 2012 as a knowledge partnership supported by the Danish Industry Foundation through the Confederation of Danish Industry, Copenhagen Business School and nine Danish multinationals. In a 2010 survey of members of the Confederation, the respondents indicated that handling global collaboration and increasing complexity was one of the biggest management challenges that they faced (DI, 2010). The mission for the GLA was therefore to work together to explore, identify and develop critical global leadership skills; the vision for the project was to use these findings to develop organizations and leaders who can operate successfully and effectively in the global supply chain.

This handbook takes stock of the Global Leadership Academy’s work so far from a Danish standpoint, and summarises the new and practical knowledge which has emerged from this in the form of 12 tools for global leadership. However, the book is not the end of the story but rather an interlude, as this toolbox is now being offered to anyone with an interest in global leadership, and we hope that the learning produced in the Academy will live on and bear fruit in many Danish companies.

We will now share some of the key considerations and general challenges arising from efforts to optimize global leadership, as they have emerged through the work of the Academy. This is followed by an introduction to the collection of tools and a user guide to explain how global leadership can be understood and grasped using the tools in the book.

What is global leadership? Who are the global leaders?

”Global leadership is a transformational learning experience, wherein new ways of thinking and behaving occur through fundamental shifts in paradigm.”

Claus Valentiner, Adjunct professor, Executive-in-residence, CBS

This handbook is concerned with global leadership as ”globalized leadership”, i.e. leadership in a specific context characterized by strategic and cultural complexity and spanning mental, organizational and physical boundaries. Global leadership has traditionally been spoken of in connection with staff being posted abroad by their (typically large) companies. With increasing globalization of markets and work processes, the ”multicultural society” and collaboration across companies, should we now question whether the distinction between local/national and global leadership should be removed? The word ”global” suggests that this is something you only run into by going abroad. But this is by no means always the case – perhaps even more the exception than the rule. Collaboration across cultural, mental, organizational, professional and geographical boundaries is a matter of course for many managers and employees in both small and large companies, and there is a need for global, boundary-spanning leadership even where you do not need to take your passport. A major European survey run from Denmark concludes, for example, that ”companies choose different approaches when setting up their organizational frameworks for global collaboration, but more and more managers and employees find themselves in complex cultural environments” (Gertsen, Søderberg & Zølner, 2012, p. 3).

The number of managers and employees in Denmark ”affected by globalization” is growing, and the complexity is increasing – but there is little or no agreement as to what ”global” actually means and what we should make of it. The research into global leadership is here completely in line with the experience of global leadership practitioners, who use the term ”global leadership” to describe very different working environments, roles and tasks. A good pointer, based on some of the most central research into global leadership, is the following definition, which describes it as:

”a process of influencing the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of a global community to work together synergistically toward a common vision and common goals”

(Osland, Bird, Mendenhall, Osland, 2006, p. 204).

By extension, global leaders may be seen as:

Global leaders are individuals who effect significant positive change in organizations by building communities through the development of trust and the arrangement of organizational structures and processes in a context involving multiple cross-boundary stakeholders, multiple sources of external cross-boundary authority, and multiple cultures under conditions of temporal, geographical and cultural complexity.”

(Mendenhall, 2013, p. 5).

Global leadership does not alter the fact that there is a need for familiar management disciplines such as situational leadership, lean management, performance management, team management etc. But the global element adds a level of complexity to the business of leadership, which makes ”everyday” management into the foundation that the global leader stands on and adds further dimensions to. What characterizes and distinguishes global leadership from local management is precisely the fact that leadership has to be exercised in a particularly complex setting and under specific conditions that depend entirely on the context in which the company operates on the global market. Much of the interest in global leadership thus centres around the handling of specific elements, or a differentiation of global leadership tasks and roles as a way of getting to grips with the concept on a practical and a theoretical level. Another approach which has attracted a lot of attention is the idea of a ”global mindset”, which is a general readiness to tackle global complexity, and which will crop up many times in this handbook.

Global leadership – leading with a global mindset

”Global mindset is being comfortable with being uncomfortable in uncomfortable places.”

(Anonymous global leadership practitioner, US Academy of Management 2010 Annual Meeting workshop).

A global mindset is the capacity for mental ”multi-context-tasking” and agile adaptability in a complex global role – a kind of umbrella competence which the other sought-after global skills are coloured and enhanced by:

”a manager with a global mindset understands the need for global integration and local responsiveness and works to optimize this duality. The global mindset includes an appreciation for diversity as well as homogeneity and openness to learning from everywhere.”

(Pucik, 2006, p. 88).

Research indicates that the development of a global mindset, both as an individual management skill and as an organizational competence, is desirable in global leadership, because it enables global organizations and their managers to build bridges between local conditions and the company’s own global experience and capabilities. And this ability to look beyond specific contexts appears to be key: ”It’s funny because now my brain is shifting between the US, Czech Republic, Hungary, Denmark, and I can tell you that the advantage that I have now as opposed to having had only the Danish experience is that it brings a perspective to my job saying ’when you do something make sure to double check that these guys are happy’.” (Storgaard & Skovgaard-Smith, 2012, p. 32).

Although a ”global mindset” boundary-spanning competence may seem appealing, it does raise a number of other questions: Is a global mindset the same for all businesses? Should all managers display a global mindset in the same way? And, not least, how much is ”enough” – and how much is too much? These questions were at the heart of the Academy’s work and apply to all of the tools presented in this handbook.

What makes that so special?

A fundamental assumption when we work on global leadership is that it is different from e.g. Danish leadership, local leadership or leadership in general. However, opinions on this have differed widely, and there are good arguments both for and against. If we take the broad-brush approach, we might say that neither the inexperienced nor the most experienced global managers typically find it helpful to talk about global leadership as something special. The very seasoned among them have gathered so much experience that distinctions that stood out clearly at the beginning of their careers can now be viewed more from above, where the similarities may be more obvious. The less experienced have not yet got to grips with the substance, do not have a clear idea of the level of detail and complexity, and do not see the differences. For those managers who find themselves between these two extremes, our experience suggests that it makes good sense to talk about global leadership as something special, possibly because many management careers start off in Denmark and only later take on international or global dimensions.

If we look across the activities of the Global Leadership Academy, the distinctive and particularly challenging nature of global leadership can be summed up in a number of dualities which have been recurring themes across research projects, networking meetings and conferences:

  1. Leader vs organization: Global leadership as an individual or a collective/organizational competence – and how do they fit together?
  2. ”Both-and” or ”either-or” ... or both of these? Reconciling the irreconcilable: global vs local, standardization vs differentiation, integration vs local adaptation, HQ vs subsidiary etc.
  3. Corporate structure and/or national culture: Can values-based on a strong corporate culture be a guiding principle for the global organization and build bridges over cultural and other divides?
  4.  Global leadership – ”one size fits all” or situational: What does the context mean for global leadership? Are there any general principles?
  5.  Personal vs task focus: Are global leaders special people who can be best understood by looking at personality traits, or does it make more sense to look at their tasks and roles?
  6. Global leaders and/or global HR professionals: Those practising global leadership and the people aiming to facilitate its development take a different view of the matter
  7. ”Corporate Danglish” vs mother tongue: English and other foreign language skills are something we do not discuss enough – they are assumed to be in place, but we are often mistaken
  8. The Danish background – ballast and/or benefit: Is a Danish background an advantage or a disadvantage to a global leader?
  9. Intercultural skills vs general boundary-spanning competence: Cultural differences are important – but perhaps not the most important differences in a global role characterized by all kinds of diversity
  10. Closeness and distance: Virtualization and matrix organization as a breeding ground for virtual collaboration and communication methods/channels in the global working environment – how can we create a sense of closeness at a distance?

Based on these ten issues, we assume in this handbook that it does make sense to talk about global leadership as something special; both because that was the assignment given to the Academy and because it throws light on the aspects of global leadership that are felt to be challenging. Global leadership does not alter the fact that managers have to assess performance and develop their staff, but the process may be changed – particularly if you have been used to performing your management role in a more local and familiar setting. The fact that managers and staff are physically separated from each other does not change the fact that teams have to find common ground and communicate effectively with each other, but the ways of communicating effectively and finding common ground may vary – and differ from what you are used to.

”It’s OK to be a little bit global”

Danish managers may not necessarily make a show of their global work; often they simply do not see themselves as global players. A slightly subtle but nevertheless key point from the Academy’s work is in fact that it can be difficult to identify the global leaders. Many of the managers that the Academy saw as part of the target group, and on a textbook definition quite clearly operate globally, do not necessarily regard themselves as belonging to this category – or as one global leader put it: ”I have two people sitting in Poland and five in India. I don’t know whether that is exactly global leadership, but it is certainly a lot of trouble.” (Global leader at Global Leadership Academy seminar, August 2016).

The population of ”global leaders” in Denmark may be masked by a kind of ”underreported globality”, so that the true number is much larger than we can perceive at first sight. We can only guess at the reason for this, but it may be down to a kind of ”tall poppy syndrome” or performance anxiety in relation to things global – people do not like to puff themselves up and make themselves ”superior” and more global than they really are. And if you fly a little under the radar when it comes to globality, you may not need to bother so much with it or worry about making mistakes. Many Danish global leaders do not refer to themselves as ”global” but rather relate to the global dimension at the task level (not at the identity or role level) in a slightly understated way: ”Okay, so we also have some staff in Hungary” or ”And by the way, I’m also involved in an international project to implement our new sales management system”.

Many Danish companies are at a watershed, where many years of international/multinational operation are moving towards more holistic governance models and ”horizontal” collaboration in global work processes, and shared ”customer journeys” across national borders call for a new kind of global partnership – however many countries the business is represented in. Critical mass in global leadership is not about the number of countries and physical borders to be crossed – it is more relevant to look at responsibilities, decision-making systems and work processes as markers of whether one is ”global”. It is striking that many of the managers that we have talked to can be characterized as ”do it yourself” global leaders, in that they have not had very much help, time or space to develop the necessary global skills. There are many different reasons for this – one of which may be that people will hardly feel called upon either to organize or to take part in global competence development activities if they do not see their own or their company’s practice as global.

Denmark has many ”global enterprises”, but we do not often hear them spoken of as ”global”. The Academy’s experience suggests that we can usefully discuss and work with globality in a way that makes more companies of this kind feel included – and so motivates them to equip themselves better for the opportunities and challenges that globalization brings. Whatever we choose to call it, many managers are looking for more support and facilitation to help them to handle their leadership role in a globalized reality. Don’t hang back – it’s OK to be a little bit global.

Globally speaking

”The worst thing was starting to work in English the whole time. I actually thought I was pretty good in English, but it is really difficult to have to write consistently fantastic English.”

(Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children Denmark, Børsen, June 28, 2017).

A similar point arises in relation to language. Things are supposed to be so global, but if we are honest, many of the managers in Denmark who have the greatest development potential within global leadership are happiest speaking Danish ... And that is also true of many of the more experienced global leaders. Language is the crucial factor that we do not talk about enough. ”Corporate Danglish” and ”management by Google Translate” do not always offer the best basis for constructive discussions on global leadership. The globalization of management work in Denmark is at a relatively early stage of development in many companies, if we disregard the visible minority of globalization pioneers who have the size and history to have reached a level of globalization where it is not just marketing speak and wishful thinking to claim that the ”company language is English”.

We may note in this connection that there is a gap between the often red-hot interest in global matters among management development professionals (external/internal consultants and HR) and the language they use, and the way in which the people practising global leadership refer to it and perceive themselves. It is hardly surprising that those whose speciality or core competence is global leadership development see different opportunities and potential than those for whom ”globality” is just one aspect of a wide range of challenges to be addressed. However, this division underlines the need to build bridges over this chasm. For example, a recurring observation in the Academy’s work has been that global leaders are tired of what they see as an ”HR problem mindset” when it comes to handling national cultural differences. These leaders recognize the importance of cultural differences, but seek a more positive approach to handling them which also covers the potential merits of their own and other people’s cultural background and the possibility that ”diversity makes us strong”.

From ”the big checklist for global leadership” to 12 tools

When the Global Leadership Academy started up, many of the participants still expected that one of the main outcomes of the project would be to identify and produce a ”checklist” with the five to ten key skills required to succeed as a global leader. We were disabused of this idea quite quickly… Instead, it became clear that global leadership is much more complex than that. Critical voices from practice will perhaps object at this point that complexity, chaos and a conspicuous lack of firm recommendations are an inevitable side-effect when researchers get mixed up in otherwise quite practical matters. However, nobody has all the answers on this matter – the term ”global leadership” is something of an umbrella concept in both a practical and a theoretical perspective. So the work of the Academy has taken us further than we originally expected – in fact, so far that towards the end of the project we realized that the original mission could not be achieved in quite the way that many of us had more or less explicitly imagined at the beginning, for the simple reason that no-one any longer believed that it would be possible or meaningful to identify the five or ten critical success factors for global leadership. So ”the big checklist for global leadership” ended up as a collection of 12 tools, each addressing a different, complementary aspect of global leadership, which we will elaborate on below.

Find out more

Osland, J. S., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M., & Osland, A. (2006). Developing Global Leadership Capabilities and Global Mindset: A Review. (9. udgave, p. 197 – 222). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 204.

Mendenhall, M.E. (2013). ”Leadership and the Birth of Global Leadership.” In: Mendenhall, M.E.; Oddou, G. R.; Osland, J. S.; Bird, A. & Maznevski, M. L. (red.), Global Leadership: Research, Practice, and Development, 2013, 2. udgave, New York, NY: Routledge, p. 1 – 20.

Nielsen, Rikke Kristine with Nielsen, Jens Boye. Global leadership practice and development revisited. Exploring 3 roles – discovering 7 dualities. Copenhagen: Global Leadership Academy – Copenhagen Business School and Danish Confederation of Industry, 2016.

Bird, A.; Broundal, M.; Hansen, P. G.; Maznevski, M.; Mortensen, E.; Nielsen, R.K.; Poulfelt, F. (2016). Exploring the Individual-Organizational Global Mindset Nexus: A MNC- Practitioner-Academia Dialogue. Academy of Management Proceedings: Academy of Management Proceedings. Vol. 2016.

Nielsen, R.K. (2017). Global Mindset in Context: Middle Manager Microfoundations of Strategic Global Mindset. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2017, The Academy of Management, 2017.

Nielsen, R.K. (2014). ”Ledelse med globalt mindset – lederkompetencer i det globale”. In: F. Poulfelt (ed.), Børsens Ledelseshåndbøger, Strategi & Ledelse. Copenhagen: Børsens Forlag.

Nielsen, R.K. (2011). Kompetence-spotting i det globale ledelseslandskab: På udkig efter ”global mindset”. Ledelseidag.dk, No. 10, November, 2011.

Nielsen, R.K. (2014). Global Mindset as Managerial Meta-competence and Organizational Capability: Boundary-crossing Leadership Cooperation in the MNC. The Case of ”Group Mindset” in Solar A/S. Doctoral School of Organization and Management Studies, PhD Series; 24, 2014.

Lauring, J. & Klitmøller, A. (2015). Danish Leadership Style in a Global Context. Copenhagen: Global Leadership Academy – Danish Confederation of Industry and Copenhagen Business School.

Storgaard, M. & Smith, I. S. (2012). Designing Organizations with a Global Mindset. Copenhagen: Global Leadership Academy – Danish Confederation of Industry and Copenhagen Business School.

Lauring, J.; Klitmøller, A. & Normann, J. (2014). Global Leadership Competencies for the Future. Global Leadership Behaviour. Global Leadership Academy – Danish Confederation of Industry and Copenhagen Business School.

Lauring, J. & Klitmøller, A. (2014). Global Leadership Competencies for the Future. Virtual Collaboration. Global Leadership Academy – Danish Confederation of Industry and Copenhagen Business School.

Lauring, J. & Klitmøller, A. (2014). Global Leadership Competencies for the Future. Trust and Tension in Global Work. Global Leadership Academy – Danish Confederation of Industry and Copenhagen Business School.