The rapid pace of globalization demands that leaders operate in a variety of business environments. Today, a leader’s cultural dexterity and global awareness are viewed as essential for business success, not merely nice-to-haves.

“Prior to five years ago globalization was mostly Western-based and often U.S.- or North American-based companies operating in a global environment,” said Rick Lash, director of the leadership and talent practice for Hay Group Canada. “Increasingly [you’re seeing] there are many major global players that are coming from growth economies — like Brazil, China, India, for example — where many of these very large companies are now operating globally as well,” he said. “It’s become a much more crowded space ... that’s one of the reasons why having leaders who can operate effectively in a global environment is critical.”

Companies should devote time to building truly global leaders, who are different from multinational leaders, according to Kathy Gersch, a co-founder of Kotter International, a change company that helps leaders build the capacity to drive transformation in their organizations.

“It’s no longer sufficient to just be able to work in a single area of the world; it has to become a truly global approach — build leaders that truly understand and appreciate the differences around the world, but [who] can also manage across them all and can engage people’s heads and hearts about where the organization is going and their roles in driving that forward,” she said.

Armed With Cultural Competence

To be successful, leaders must be adaptable as well as culturally sensitive to the way business is practiced in different parts of the world. Lash provided an anecdote based on his conversation with representatives of a pharmaceutical company based in the U.S. that hosted a meeting with international attendees.

“If you’ve got a bunch of French people in the room, before you ever get to the business, you’ve got to make sure you feed them because they’re all used to having a nice breakfast before you start discussion, whereas if you’ve got predominantly American people, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the agenda out ahead of time and start right away with the business,” Lash said. “If you’ve got people from other parts of the world, they may have different needs. You’ve got to be very adaptable and recognize that as a leader you have to be very sensitive to those cultural differences and the impact that will make in how you do simple things like facilitate a meeting.”