There are a million paths that can lead you to become a successful global leader. Still, in a nutshell, all of them are related to cultivating the right skillset, developing a broader perspective and an open mind, and having the right attitude that will drive the right perception about you.
In this guide on becoming a successful global leader, you will learn our top tips to develop the right skillset, mindset, and qualities you have to cultivate to propel you to success.
Table of Contents
What Does It Mean To Be A Successful Global Leader?
To lead is to show a path – or means of access – to a particular place or direction. So the leader is that person who shows the way. Successful global leaders show the way and inspire people to walk that path and grow in this journey.
For that, the successful global leader needs the right vision and well-defined long-term goals. Leaders show the way because they know where they are going. They have a plan and a purpose. And they know how to manage change even during adversities.
Successful global leaders are impactful, influential, and inclusive – or the 3i Global Leader – and they use these “powers” for positive change and impact. Read in this article more about that. It’s not about power, though. It’s about your potential to achieve and transform things around you.
Leader Versus Manager
At the beginning of my career, I could not distinguish a leader from a manager until I met my first successful global leader. Not every manager is a leader. And not every leader is a manager. That sounds catchy, right? But it’s true.
Managers are usually someone who is appointed by the organization based on their skills, knowledge, experience, and expertise. They help employees achieve company goals by implementing processes and telling people what to do next.
Leaders, on the other hand, may or may not have any formal authority. Instead, they inspire people and show them the direction to achieve a vision and a goal.
A mentor once told me that the manager is behind the workers, supervising their job, while a leader is at the front, showing how it’s done and leading the way. In my experience as a leader, I also want to mention an additional tip: because successful global leaders are leading the way, they must sometimes look back and make sure no one is being left behind.
One last thing in this topic to stress out is that ideally, you should have the qualities both of a leader and a manager. Organizations need inspiration and direction, sure, but they also need policies and procedures.
I find it very sad how the internet is flooded with infographics portraying managers as bad and leaders as a good thing. The fact is that organizations need both: you should be the manager who is an awesome leader! If you are only a leader or only a manager, that’s when it’s terrible. You’ll fall short any time soon.
And if you – reading this – is thinking, “I am not even a manager yet.” Well, you might not be formally a manager, but you are managing things, projects and initiatives. We rely too much on our titles. You don’t have to possess a title to be a manager, and you don’t have to maintain a title to be a leader. And so, I posit that you should be a manager and leader, regardless of title.
Values Of A Successful Global Leader
Global Leaders must know what their personal core-values are. We talked about this in this post and also told you how to uncover your set of core-values to improve your performance and life. However, there are a few values that every successful global leader share to thrive and successfully lead cross-cultural people or initiatives.
- Honesty: honesty and good character is appreciated in any part of the globe. Your reputation. Especially that one that you accumulate over the years is a make or break in global leadership.
- Respect: although value-sets can change in different cultures, all cultures around the world expect respect. Expressing respect in other cultures can be different, though, so it is vital to connect with local people in different places where you operate and learn how to best express respect.
- Appreciation: successful global leaders definitely value expressing their gratitude for the things people do and their efforts. Around the world, people expect that you appreciate them and see their worth.
- Trust: trust is a building block for global leadership. If you don’t build trust and a strong working relationship bond, you won’t be as successful as you could.
Qualities of a Successful Global Leader
Resourcefulness: successful global leaders are much like pioneers or adventurers. They explore new cultures and lands, and if they are not resourceful enough, they can see themselves in a critical pinch. The more versatile and adaptable you are in using your resources, the better. It’s like McGyver, that 80’s series. Remember that? The man was capable of using whatever he had at hand, and based on his skills and some creativity, he would get himself out of any pinch. For me, he is the personification of resourcefulness.
Open-mindedness: one key element for avoiding trouble when dealing with cross-cultural environments is being open-minded. When you are too fast to assume and judge, instead of being open-minded and patient in learning new perspectives, then you create the perfect recipe for misunderstandings.
Curiosity: very much like the previous one, the quality of being curious must be part of your D.N.A. if you want to succeed as a global leader. If you are too averse to the differences and changes in general, global leadership is not for you.
Inclusiveness: needless to say, successful global leaders are inclusive. They make all different people, cultures, and ideas come together by inviting and listening to them. The more inclusive a global leader is, the more they will create a good working environment. Everybody likes to know that they count and are worthy. And that’s when diversity comes into place. The more diverse a workforce is, the less singled out you’ll be. If everyone is different, everyone fits the bill of being different. Everyone is then alike.
The 4 Success Pillars Of Global Leadership
The traditional trajectory in global leadership was to learn about people leadership and get experiences in different places worldwide. In the last decade, though, successful global leaders realized that this was not enough anymore: to be successful, we need to learn a new way to think, relate and strategize as a global leader. And for that, we have to learn all the 4 pillars of global leadership.
- Personal Leadership: is the ability to take care of your wellbeing, have an assertive and positive mental game, manage your willpower, control your stress, and lead a balanced life to exert your full personal power for optimal performance.
- People Leadership: is the ability to build trust, master work relationships in different cultures, and create high-performing and collaborative teams.
- Organizational Leadership: is the ability to leverage data & information and help organizations set strategic goals while motivating individuals to execute their assignments to achieve those goals successfully. How to leverage information and data to produce problem-solving strategies is what this is all about.
- Cultural Leadership: is about driving culture & values and influencing stakeholders so that the company’s vision can positively impact the world. This goes beyond people leadership because it is as if the organization is a living being. In a sense, it is. How you drive cultural values will set the pace for accepted behaviors, practices, and actions.
Each of these pillars has a specific set of skills to be mastered. We recently shared a post where we outlined in detail all the skills successful global leaders master in each of these 4 pillars.
But if you asked me, what the most important skill in each of the pillars is, this is what I would say:
- In personal leadership, make sure to learn about willpower management and ensuring a top-notch mental game for optimal performance.
- In people leadership, make sure to learn communication skills, especially how to communicate differently with low and high-context cultures.
- In organizational leadership, make sure to learn finance for non-finance people. You don’t need formulas and such. You need to understand how your actions and day-to-day initiatives impact the company financially. Finance is the basic language all companies and all countries share. It is a must-have for every successful global leader.
- In cultural leadership, make sure to learn what unconscious bias is and what are your particular biases, be them conscious or unconscious.
6 Types Of Successful Global Leader
It would be easier if all global leaders came from the same blueprint. But they don’t. As a matter of fact, everyone is unique because they come from different backgrounds and experiences.
However, if we can establish a pattern to make things easier to understand and relate, we can devise 6 main types of successful global leaders and each goes through decision-making in different ways. For each of these types, because they value different things and responses, addressing each is also different.
The Productive Global Leader
They are very goal-oriented, driven, and generally quite structured and organized. Their relationship with time is very precious to them.
The Innovative Global Leader
They are innovative, creative, and generally quite flexible & adaptive. They know exactly how to use their creative powers and those around them to innovate things.
The Balanced Global Leader
They are very balanced, wise, and generally very fair and trustworthy. They know how to balance work & life and know how to prioritize tasks.
The Connected Global Leader
They are very well connected, extremely charismatic, and – generally – very bold and outspoken. They are not afraid to mingle, fit in, and have some fun.
The Supportive Global Leader
They are super supportive, caring, and generally have everyone’s wellbeing and growth in mind. They know how to connect with people and build trust.
The Data-Drive Global Leader
They are data-driven, possess amazing critical thinking qualities, and, generally, are great at problem-solving by analyzing facts and data.
Want to learn what your style is and how it affects your decision-making? Take our quiz below to learn all about it and receive a pdf guide.
How To Become A Successful Global Leader
As we said at the beginning of our post, there is no single way to become a successful global leader. However, there is a path to success trailed by other global leaders and that you can leverage for yourself.
As you continue to grow and expand your global leadership experiences, you will leverage the tips below and innovate new ways to succeed in international positions and situations.
1. Don’t assume
As we said before, understanding new perspectives, being curious, and being open-minded are vital in global leadership, especially if you want to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
2. Be aware of local cultural values
Every place has its inherent set of cultural values. These values were built through the time and existence of that community, which makes sense there. Understanding what these values are will help you “meet them where they are at.”
3. Learn about low/high context cultures
Every culture needs to put context in different perspectives. Some cultures need more context to communicate, and they gain satisfaction from interactions and relationships. So they invest in building relationships right from the first encounter. These are the high-context cultures.
On the other hand, other cultures need less context to operate, and they extract satisfaction from other sources, like getting results and getting things done. So they stick to the facts and focus on the task at hand. These are low-context cultures.
That is why in some cultures chit-chatting at the beginning of a meeting is vital, where in others, going directly to the point is more respectful.
4. Lead by example
Leaders who lead by example basically do the same things that they are expecting others to do. And this way, they are walking the talk, and showing how it’s done.
5. Check understanding
In this video, I talk about 3 communication golden rules for global leaders and the importance of checking people’s understanding.
When dealing with cross-cultural people, certain things that signify one thing to you may mean something completely different in other places. So please double-check that the person you are delivering the message to is receiving that message in the way it was intended. This is vital for good communication.
6. Encourage and help others to grow
People grow in different ways and have an interest in different things. When we say to encourage people to grow, we are actually telling you to promote their growth in what they want, not what you want. This way, their engagement will be higher, and the company will certainly benefit from an employee that is engaged and has new skills. So the rule of thumb is to listen to what they want first.
In this sense, learning how to provide feedback with great emotional intelligence will help you people grow in the endeavors that they need and want.
7. Develop your emotional intelligence
When I first read Daniel Goleman more than 2 decades ago, I was pretty intrigued to discover that there are many facets to intelligence. I came from a place where the only type of (recognized) intelligence was the cognitive one. Emotional intelligence is your capacity to be aware of, control, and express emotions and handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. And just as a curiosity, Howard Gardner actually researched and developed the Multiple Intelligence Theory. So I.Q. and E.Q. are not the only ones out there.
8. Improve your resilience
Piggy-backing on the previous topic, one element of emotional intelligence is our ability to be resilient in the face of challenging circumstances. Resilience is like a muscle. We can develop it by training it diligently and consistently. Check out our 28-Days Resilience Challenge, and exercise your resilience with us for 28 days!
9. Know what to do when things go wrong
Yeah. Sh*t happens. When things go wrong, we have to pull ourselves together and make sure to shake things off and move on. Read here what we suggest as a viable framework of action.
10. Have a strong vision
The saying is real: “if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?” Having a vision is the first piece in the global leadership chain reaction. If you don’t have that, you can’t know your direction. If you don’t know your direction, you can’t make a plan. And if you don’t make a plan, you might waste resources, brainpower, and opportunities amidst the chaos. Therefore, having a vision is imperative.
11. Know your Core-Values
When we do things aligned with our values, our level of satisfaction with whatever it is that we are doing increases. Accepting and doing tasks, initiatives, and projects aligned with our values is crucial for our mental health. Likewise, being in environments where similar values are displayed is also critical. Studies show that companies that hire employees without checking if their values are aligned with the company’s see higher turnover rates. And that makes sense. If someone joins a company with a very different set of values from theirs, they will feel unhappy and leave. So knowing our core-values is critical for our careers, satisfaction, but also our choices and selections.
12. Know yourself
On the same vibe as the previous one, it won’t be easy to manage your emotional intelligence if you don’t know your personality traits, preferences, values, desires, motivators, and triggers. Knowing ourselves is key for good personal leadership.
13. Meet people where they are at
One severe mistake I see many global leaders making is becoming arrogant. They climb the power ladder and assume that other people should adjust to their personalities and preferences. Don’t make this mistake. Meet people where they are at, especially in a cross-cultural setting. For that, you’ll have to be curious and inquire to understand where they are exactly.
Also, consider that the higher you went, the more experienced and knowledgeable you are. Other people below you might not have had the same learning experience. So it is unfair to assume that everyone can (and should) adjust to you, your traits, and your preferences and style.
14. Find a mentor
Even seasoned global leaders have mentors. Having mentors is not a discredit. On the contrary, it means you never stop learning. I am so lucky that I still have one of my first mentors in my social network. He inspires me and gives tips to this day.
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” I think what this saying really means is that when you understand exactly what you want to be mentored about, the teacher will appear simply because you will know what to look for.
And looking for mentors is exactly what you have to do. Don’t sit and wait for a mentor to fall off from the sky. That’s not how things work. Instead, go actively find yourself several mentors.
Find at least a couple within your workplace and also a couple outside your workplace. Gaining perspective from people outside your environment is invaluable and a tip that took me very long to acknowledge and leverage.
15. Learn how to evaluate performance properly
Learning from mistakes is vital. But how you see something as a mistake depends on how you are evaluating performance. There are 2 ways to evaluate performance. You can measure based on a result-orientation approach and a growth-orientation approach. Short-term goals are usually assessed based on results, while long-term goals are evaluated based on progress and growth. Unfortunately, many leaders nowadays are pretty shortsighted and consider everything based on results. And so, we demand people to become super-heroes and walk a path that is not sustainable in the long run.
On top of that, most people manage performance purely based on what they recall. They don’t implement any system or workflow to consistently (and fairly) manage performance.
One good way to work on this in a fair, and consistent way, that doesn’t strain your brain to remember things from many months ago, is by using a workflow board. You and your team can use a workflow board to improve the team’s performance and help you evaluate progress, results and overall performance.
16. Have a career growth plan
It’s easy to derail our careers if we did not plan our paths beforehand. In my first years after Business School, I would hear my H.R.s saying that I should have my 5-year plan, 10-year plan, etc., and I always rolled my eyes. It took me a few years to actually understand how important it is to devise a career path. It helps us make more sensible decisions about which jobs to pick, which training to choose, and what kind of content we should prioritize in terms of training and experiences. If you are interested in building your own Strategic Leadership Growth Plan, check out our Global Executive Blueprint Program. It helps you exactly with that.
17. Learn what to do in your first 90 days in every new job
Every new job is a transition. Your transition can be more – or less – painful, depending on whether you have a good plan for it or not. Studies show that onboarding employees who have a 90-days plan perform better and stay longer at the company. That is one of the reasons why the U.S. president also has to present their 100-days plan once they take office. It’s not only a best practice to have a plan for a transition. It’s smart.
18. Master all the skills in the 4 pillars of global leadership
As I said before, the time when mastering only people leadership was enough is long gone. The traditional way does not work in these globalized times. Mastering the 4 pillars is vital for successful global leadership: personal leadership, people leadership, organizational leadership, cultural leadership. Each of these pillars has its unique set of skills to learn and master.
19. Take care of your health and energy levels
It took me a long while to understand that keeping myself healthy and energized was also part of the job. Yes, that’s right. Keeping yourself healthy and sharp is part of any job. And that is why you see many famous C.E.O.s in Fortune 500 Companies saying that “they eat for performance.” But, of course, they are doing exactly that; they are doing their jobs, which also consist of taking care of their health.
Especially in global leadership, where you work with different time-zones and environments, taking care of yourself is imperative to avoid burnout.
20. Work on your executive presence
Did you know that there are 7 different ways to show up in every situation? And depending on how you show up, your executive presence will be perceived differently. So learning how you are perceived and how you really want to show up – consciously – is vital for an excellent executive presence. For that, I suggest you take the E.L.I. Assessment, which stands for Energy Leadership Index Assessment. It’s an attitudinal assessment that helps you understand exactly how you are showing up: in regular times and stressful times. You cannot improve your executive presence if you are not even aware of how you are showing up.
21. Have business acumen
You may be the best leader in the world, but if you don’t have business acumen, it will be very unlikely that you will contribute to your full potential. In our 13-pages guide, Your First 90-Days As A Global Leader, contains suggestions on what to look for to learn and have greater business acumen. Check that out.
22. Uncover your unconscious biases
Due to recent events in the U.S. and the “Black Lives Matter,” I now see a lot more talk about unconscious bias and how it can impact decisions. I’m delighted because learning about our unconscious biases is super important. If you think you don’t have any biases (conscious or unconscious), I am sorry to break into you, but you are wrong. Everybody has an unconscious bias. They were created while you were growing up and during your experiencing of life. So if you are still alive – and if you are reading this, I am sure you are – you have unconscious biases.
A bias can exist related to any topic. We immediately connect bias with race, but bias can exist in many formats and dimensions. For example, you can have a bias towards fat people, fit people, rich people, poor people, and so on. And how you behave differently when biases are triggered can be very impactful. And can also impact how inclusive you are (or are not) and what type of working environment you create.
23. Learn finance for non-finance people
Talking about bias, it may sound biased to say that you should learn finance for non-finance people, coming from a person who worked with finance for more than 15 years. But the truth is that there is a clear performance division between global leaders who are literate in finance and those who are not.
Finance is not only the common language in the world, but it also helps you make better decisions, thrive in all your initiatives, and ensure long-term sustainable success.
24. Know when to delegate
You can’t do it all, man. You are human. Delegating is not a demerit, like some think, and is also not inconsiderate like others think. So long as you are not mindlessly dumping work into other people, delegation is a key skill in global leadership. It benefits not only you, but also others around you. You can help people around you learn new skills and grow. We have 2 full articles on when to delegate and how to delegate, for you to check out, and learn all about it.
25. Be accountable
Take responsibility for your actions. If you messed it up, don’t pin on other people.
I was recently talking to a friend about the rigorous and rigid hierarchies that exist in Chinese corporations. She was telling me that it is so indeed, but also, as part of the culture, it is the manager who is always responsible for any failure (or success), no matter who in the team failed. So they centralize and are rigid, but at the same time they are accountable for their team’s actions (even if someone went rogue) exactly because everything is so centralized and rigid.
I am not saying what the right style to lead is; I am just saying that taking responsibility is important in global leadership, regardless of managing style.
26. Define what success means for you
Very linked with the performance topic, it’s always a good idea to define what success looks like to us. In that sense, make sure you have your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) well established and how you can prevent sh*t-talking yourself when things don’t go your way.
27. Take control of your career
I lost count of how many times I heard Jack Welch say in his townhalls at the company that we were responsible for our careers. He was a total believer that we should take control of our careers and plan our career paths for ourselves. I believe that too. Many people fantasize that they will “be discovered,” or “one day, people will see my value.” That may happen. But don’t leave such an important thing as your career to chance. Take control by having a career growth path, having mentors, seeking the right opportunities, and having a well-defined long-term goal.
28. Always have a Plan B
Plan B does not mean Goal B. Nobody is telling you to change your goals. If your first plan or strategy didn’t work, find another path. Don’t change the goal. Change the plan and achieve what you want. Again, the topic of resilience is critical and ties well in here. Read our full article about reasons why you should always have a plan B and how to create it.
29. Set clear boundaries
Being a successful global leader requires you to set clear boundaries. With everyone around you and with yourself. What and when things are acceptable becomes essential. Create rules of engagement with your team and make sure to enforce the boundaries to create a good work environment. This is also part of managing people’s expectations. When you set clear boundaries, people will understand what to expect, and relationships can run smoother this way. If you don’t manage expectations and don’t set clear boundaries, misunderstandings can happen, and connections (and trust!) can weaken.
30. Have an executive coach
The same way the most successful global leaders have mentors, they also have executive coaches. A professional executive coach will help you make sense out of things happening at work, organize your thoughts and help you devise new plans to accomplish what you want. They can also help you improve specific skills, how you relate to people, track your improvement over time, and challenge you in those times when – well – you need that little push.
Next Steps In Becoming A Successful Global Leader
OPTION 1: Global Executive Leadership Program
If you are interested in learning more about the 4 secret pillars of success in Global Leadership, and developing as a global leader, don’t miss this. Our 9-week Global Executive Leadership Program covers all aspects of the 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 be impactful, influential, and inclusive global leaders. It’s for those who want to learn how to make good decisions and create effective but enjoyable workplaces. You can learn all these skills in each of the 4 pillars, in one single place without any hassle. Subscribe to get more information on the program, and you’ll be notified once it’s launched.
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 global leadership success and how to become a 3i global leader (impactful, influential, inclusive). Subscribe to our newsletter below if you also want to receive weekly content on global leadership.
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 longer program.
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