Cross-Cultural Competencies for Leaders

Cross-Cultural Competencies for Leaders

Global leaders require a unique set of skills beyond what is needed for normal managerial practices. Unlike local managers, leaders in large multinational corporations encounter unique challenges. To effectively address these challenges, global leaders must be proficient in a set of competencies to succeed in a fast-changing global environment. These include cultural sensitivity, cultural intelligence, culturally mindful communication, developing a global mindset, and the ability to form networks.

Cultural sensitivity is one of the top priority competencies for leaders managing multicultural teams. It refers to the ability to recognize and accept employees from different cultural backgrounds. Since cultural alignment affects employees’ behaviors, leaders must accept that employees will behave differently as long as they do not violate the organization’s code of conduct (Hassanzadeh et al., 2015). Global leaders should also train diverse teams to embrace cultural sensitivity to thrive.

Secondly, cultural intelligence refers to the ability to differentiate between when a person operates from universal human influence and when they act based on cultural conditioning. Culturally competent global leaders control their behavior to exploit the potential of diverse teams. Third, cultural communication is the ability to communicate with people from different cultures effectively. Global leaders must appreciate the social and cultural norms of the host country and communicate appropriately (Hassanzadeh et al., 2015). For instance, in an American workplace, hierarchy rarely applies in employee-manager relationships. Accordingly, a Japanese manager working in America must accept that even junior employees will address them openly. The Japanese manager should also avoid being bossy in the manner in which they communicate.

Fourth, global leaders should embrace a global mindset when communicating with their juniors. A global mindset refers to relating freely with the host country’s population (Simier, 2018). For instance, a European executive working in America should drop the directness of European communication and instead be collaborative. Direct communication in America is viewed as rudeness. Fifth, global leaders should be open to creating new partners with local players. Once an organization starts operating in a global environment, it will encounter multiple challenges that a local player can only solve (Simier, 2018). For instance, sourcing new hires may be a problem during the initial stages of business. Leaders must form partnerships with local recruitment agencies to hire the best talent.

The Most Difficult Competence to Attain

Communication is the hardest competence to attain among the five global leadership competencies. To learn appropriate communication, one needs to master the social life and culture of the host community. After that, one must learn the appropriate words to use in different contexts. For a leader, learning all that takes time and effort.

References

Hassanzadeh, M., Silong, A. D., Asmuni, A., & Abd Wahat, N. W. (2015). Global Leadership Competencies. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n2p137

Simmer, C. (2018). Council Post: Four Core Competencies for Leading Culturally Diverse Teams. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/07/18/four-core-competencies-for-leading-culturally-diverse-teams/?sh=

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Explain the five cross-cultural competencies for leaders.

Cross-Cultural Competencies for Leaders

Discuss which of the five competencies you think would be most difficult to attain for a public leader.