Very long ago, I volunteered for 2 years in an entity called AIESEC. This nonprofit’s vision was to relocate people to global leadership positions around the world and promote more understanding through greater cross-cultural awareness. It was a great learning period for me, and I was able to start developing The 4 Success Pillars in Global Leadership™ methodology.
I remember to eagerly wait for our clients to return from their assignments to hear their stories. The first one I heard was from a person who went on an 8-ish month assignment to India. While he was explaining the “clean hand – dirty hand concept,” I simply thought it was fascinating.
Later in life, I worked for a global life sciences company and learned that this technique is actually used worldwide in laboratories, clinics, practices, and so on. Although Indian etiquette requires this technique, especially for eating, it’s not exclusively used in that culture.
When you start to understand why other cultures do what they do and become more open-minded to hear more about their costumes and reasons, it’s impossible not to be fascinated. Some things, of course, will clash with our own costumes, and we might not see as a likable costume or taste.
Nevertheless, I believe that this nonprofit was on to something critical here. Cross-cultural awareness does create more understanding, in my humble opinion.
On top of that, the world is becoming more globalized and the need for global leaders has been on the rise. Being open-minded and understanding has become more important than ever.
What Can Global Leadership Do For You And Your Career?
More and more companies are expanding their reach and becoming international. The need for global leaders has been increasing in the last decade but has exploded in the last couple of years with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nowadays, it’s easy to hire from anywhere globally, so companies have been doing their math to identify the best (and cheapest) talents around the world and create multi-cultural hubs.
Aiming for a global leadership position will increase your pay and put you in a spot to compete for the best positions out there.
What Can Global Leadership Do For A Company?
The reason why so many companies are looking for talents globally is simple: you can select the best from around the world. And if you have the best, you have a power of unimaginable force at your command – or best – under your leadership.
Plus, the power of diversity is incommensurable: brainpower from diverse people coming from diverse backgrounds can be more creative, more productive, and more powerful than anything else you can imagine. Only those who have experienced this can confirm it.
I remember I once was in leadership training that had a simulation component. I was assigned to the most diverse group across all groups in the competition. It took a while for us to go through the 4 phases of teambuilding because we had a greater diversity score, but we were unstoppable once we got into the performing phase. I will never forget that.
People from different backgrounds – when together – become more open-minded and focused on the diversity of ideas, inclusion of people, and thinking outside of the box. The more diverse a group is, the slower it is for them to work well together at first, as they have plenty to adjust to. But once they do, its combined brainpower is truly amazing. They are the best in class in terms of group talent.
Companies with higher diversity will likely succeed more quickly and beat the competition, given that they’d have the right vision and well-defined values. No wonder we have more and more companies looking to diversify their workforce.
Not to mention the fascinating stories and costumes each employee would have to tell! Imagine the exciting cafeteria conversations in those places!
How Can I Prepare For Global Leadership?
I have selected 9 things you can do to help you in the journey of becoming a great global leader. The more you do from this list & the more exposure you get – the better!
- Invite diversity of people and ideas: start practicing by inviting unconventional ideas. Sometimes we dismiss that guy or gal who is constantly confronting ideas and making a fuss. Instead, try to give them a chance. Hear what they have to say and their rationale. People can give the vibes of confrontation, but sometimes all they want is to be heard. Practice listening to people. Listening does not mean accepting. It just means giving them a chance to voice their opinions. Helping people feel more included is at the core of the 3i global leader (3i = impactful, influential, inclusive). So invite different people to join your conversations, and invite their new ideas.
- Be open-minded and learn new perspectives: in our webinar, this is one of the points I stress out a lot. Learning new perspectives is what helps us become more understanding and empathetic. When we learn new perspectives, we learn new ways to see and think about things. And this allows us to relate to other people on another level. You can start practicing this by being more curious and asking questions. Ask questions about things you find strange. Strange just means you don’t know about it. Once you learn more about it, it’s no longer strange, even if you don’t like it. And even if you don’t like it, you can understand it better because it’s no longer strange. That’s why people who learn new perspectives can be more empathetic.
- Stay curious and ask questions: the previous topic and this topic goes hand in hand. By always staying curious about things, you open your possibilities to learn new things. As I said, when you learn new things, you start to relate and think in new ways.
- Learn all skills in the 4 pillars of global leadership: as we mentioned in a previous post of the 4 pillars of global leadership, global leaders have to learn skills in personal leadership, people leadership, organizational leadership, and cultural leadership. If you want to learn all those skills in one single place without hassle, check out our Global Executive Leadership Program. It’s a lot to learn, but it’s a learning that will benefit all aspects of your life, not only your work as a global leader.
- Accept jobs with international experiences: gaining international experience is key if you aim for a global role in a medium to a big company. The more experiences you gain, the better. Each international assignment will be necessary because you will deal with people from different cultures and learn from them. How do they do things, how quick or slow do they take action on something, how do they communicate, and so on. So accept jobs with international experiences. If you want to ace these jobs, we put together a guide for your first 90 days in a global position. You’ll learn how to make the most out of your first 90 days. And even if the job itself is not working for a region, accept jobs where you might have international projects. Maybe it’s a system implementation that will be rolled out in more than one country. Get yourself into these projects. You will learn tons.
- Engage with different cultures: during work or leisure time, make sure to engage with other cultures. Other cultures do not necessarily mean international. It can be a culture from a different place in your own country. Or a neighboring country. Make sure to acquaint yourself with different people. Ask them questions. Be curious. Share an interesting story and ask them their opinion. You will gain a lot of perspectives from a simple conversation on a park’s bench. Want some conversation starter tips? I love what Vanessa Van Edwards came up with, and it’s pretty helpful with any culture.
- Seek other global leaders and exchange experiences: you might be amazed by how much you can learn from other people’s stories. When you exchange stories and experiences you had with one culture, you can gain information and perspective from the person sharing it. It is valuable to understand a particular culture further, and it’s pretty amazing what it can do to deepen new bonds and relationships. You can start by joining our Private Facebook group called Tower of Action and introducing yourself.
- Get immersed in another culture: the best way to get out of your comfort zone completely is by immersing yourself in another culture. This is not for the faint of heart, folks. If you decide to have an expatriation experience, make sure to plan and prepare ahead of time and define the goals you want to achieve with that experience. If you want to learn more about what to expect and how to adapt to an expatriation experience, go check out our 101 Guide to Expatriation.
- Plan your career goals: planning your career path means planning the steps to achieve a long-term goal. In that sense, you’ll have to define what you want to achieve in your career and then go backwards to determine which steps you need to take to get you there. If you never planned for such a long-term goal, check our framework on achieving a long-term goal. Now, remember, because it is something you are planning so much into the future, there will be times where you’ll feel frustrated or times that you’ll feel you are not making any progress. Or worse, even feeling that you are achieving negative progress instead. Check out our post on how to counter “shit-talking yourself” when this negative feeling effect comes up. Also, as a side note, our Global Executive Leadership Program has an extraordinary side component to help you build your Leadership Growth Plan, so if you are interested in devising your career path, go check it out.
Where Can I Learn More About This Stuff?
Option 1: Global Executive Leadership Program
If you are serious about learning more about the 4 pillars and each of the main global leadership competencies, you are in luck. As we told you above, we offer a Global Executive Leadership Program covering all aspects of these 4 pillars in a very transformational and interactive self-paced online course. It’s not meant for any leader. It’s intended for those who want to become impactful, influential, and inclusive global leaders. Those who want to be super charismatic, highly approachable, and successful people; leaders who spread good vibes everywhere they go. If this is who you want to become and want to learn all the skills and competencies in each of the 4 pillars in one single place without any hassle, join our newsletter. We will launch this program in July, and by subscribing, you’ll be the first one to know.
Option 2: How to become a 3i Global Leader – Free webinar
If you seek a quick training that talks about some examples and experiences in each of the 4 leadership areas to illustrate them, stay tuned for our on demand webinar. It’s a 90 minutes webinar packed with information on the 4 secret pillars of success and how to become a 3i global leader (impactful, influential, inclusive). Subscribe to our newsletter so that we can let you know when it’s out.
Option 3: Global Leadership Competencies – Coaching Program
On top of this, we also offer executive coaching programs for busy professionals. Contact us if you want to improve a specific skill in any of the 4 pillars or work on many skills at once. We can customize a program just for you. Or, conversely, you can follow our regular program, where we will talk about one of the competencies each week during a more extended program.
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