Leadership from a Global Perspective

 Investigating leadership

The concept of leadership comes to shape through an individual’s ability to influence others towards achieving the best results. The ultimate goal of a leader is to use his power to direct followers on the best course of action and in the event, achieve set goals. It imperative to acknowledge that, leadership from a global context involves interaction between people from different cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, leadership has to make efforts to understand the nature of cultural environments in which they operate if at all they are to successfully influence their followers. In any case, a servant leader would work hard to influence others through his deeds of selflessness. The aspect of leadership does not happen in a vacuum and as such, leaders should possess qualities and leadership style that define organizational culture (Northouse, 2010). The approach will go a long way in determining the direction to which all members pursue.

It is worth noting how people from different countries view power, authority and control different and therefore, leaders need to understand such challenges to succeed in a global context. Leaders operating away from their domestic environment have to meet the demand that comes with new legal, cultural, economic and regulatory frameworks to achieve the set objectives. There is a very intricate balance between personal traits and company culture and as such a global leader must understand where to draw the line to win the battle.

Employees in any firm would want to see leaders motivate them to the desired direction. This calls for leaders to understand how to handle them in the best way possible. For instance, motivating employees in the United States would call for rewarding individual members while in Chinese setting the approach would call for a group approach. In essence, global leaders whether operating in the political, corporate or civil society have to operate against the backdrop of dynamic systems as poised by global pressures and trends (Ghemawat, 2012). The nature of operating environment notwithstanding, the hallmark of leadership is to collaborate with others to overcome any challenges and take advantage of the available opportunities to meet objectives beforehand.

Similarities and differences with the United States.

The differences

The United States leadership is cited to be arrogance in the sense that it promotes self-serving interests. Individuals work hard and use personal traits in a leadership capacity to gain prestige and material prowess. People have been brought up to think of themselves first as opposed to the interest of the society. The approach is contrary to the servant leadership expectations and as such, this element leaves leaders from the United States with no choice but to learn how to propel the wheels of leadership away from the domestic market. Leadership is motivated by the pursuit of one’s interest to become wealthy through hard work. Corporate leaders strive to rise over and above the rest through keeping their competitive niche. The approach would lead to unethical practices such as price wars, an advertisement that demonizes opponent’s products, and staff poaching just to name but a few.

The leadership of United States comes to play through the whims of capitalism and individualism as opposed to the leadership of Asian countries which embrace collectivism. Therefore, a US-based leader will aggressively advocate for members of staff to innovatively work through challenges to emerge winners in their respective fields. However, Asian based leadership encourages the group to achieve set goals and as such, individuals strive to excel and achieve best results within a group setting. In nutshell American leaders tend to be assertive, aggressive, optimistic, goal oriented and ready to assimilate change. Their leadership style encourages teamwork and corporate spirit, though their interests come first. The Asian countries leadership assumes Confucian hierarchy with much emphasis on group work.

Similarities

The Eastern leadership is said to have higher emotional intelligence than the westerners. However, it does not mean westerners are not sensitive. Just like their counterparts in from the east, they aware of such emotions and endeavor to regulate them whenever they are required (Rook, 2013). The US leadership knows the dos and don’ts just like their counterparts in other parts of the world.

An organization that best prepares leaders

The Coca-Cola Company inspire and engage their employees to become future leaders. The company uses Toastmaster club to offer its employees an opportunity to advance leadership styles. The Toastmasters program comes in handy to allow employees advance their communication and leadership skills. The meetings are held before other colleagues where employees are expected to present an impromptu and prepared speech. Further, they are encouraged to plan and manage meetings while at the same time giving and receiving constructive feedback. Participating in Toastmasters program pushes employees to take on challenges they would never have thought before. Therefore, they enable employees to step on projects that shape their leadership skills. Coca-Cola goes a long way to organize for conferences, workshops coupled with Q&A sessions that shape and polish people skills. In any case, Coca-Cola company understands very well how communicating with confidence is part and parcel of global leadership and as such, by engaging staff in the Toastmaster program, they have leaders in the making. A leader will never influence his followers to greatness if he lacks confidence and communicative skills (Toastmaster International, 2016). Employees in this company will rest assured they can lead anywhere across the globe and once they are prepared psychologically, it becomes easier to deal with other challenges that come with leadership.

References

Ghemawat, P. (2012). Developing global leaders. Retrieved from McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/developing-global-leaders

Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sixth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Rook, C. (2013). How Different Cultures Perceive Effective Leadership. Retrieved from Leadership & Organizations: https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/how-different-cultures-perceive-effective-leadership-2996

ToastMasters International. (2016). Develop your Leaders from Within. Retrieved from ToastMasters International: Where Leaders are Made: https://www.toastmasters.org/~/media/915BDF9660724AE1991E5B049EC7F876.ashx