www.gallusconsulting.com 0203 751 6345

ASSESSING LEADERS ACROSS BORDERS

LEADERSHIP WITHOUT FRONTIERS

Leadership Capability is critical to the success of all of these organisations; without fail, every organisation we work with sees leadership capability as its number one potential enabler and its number one risk. Growth plans can be made or broken on the back of leadership capability; the leadership capability the organisation has in place and, perhaps more vital, the leadership capability it needs for the future.

When we consider that, to develop a future senior global leader typically requires that individual to have had formative work experiences across three continents, it becomes quickly apparent that the resources required are substantial. Broader talent pool = greater the potential combined leadership capability!

Back in the real world – you need global leaders now! Your organisation is perhaps expanding into an emerging market and wants to identify a proven leader that you can trust to lead the expansion in line with your strategic ambitions and company culture and who has the experience and capability to engage, motivate and direct a predominantly local workforce.

Where resources are scarce, you will want to reliably predict the success of such a leader or identify an emerging leader that could feasibly rise to the challenge with adequate support. Equally, you want to make the most of the existing leaders in emerging markets that could add value to more established markets through the creativity, tenacity and adaptability they have intrinsically developed – doing business in emerging markets presents different challenges. Cultural differences = opportunities to learn, share and try new approaches!

The demands upon leaders in growing organisations can quickly outstrip the internal leadership supply chain. Growth can dilute culture, fast. As the organisation grows its appetite for leaders who are ready and able to establish new territories leads to an insatiable hunger that can only be quenched

Organisations typically have strong personalities in their early leadership line-up with stand-out strengths which differentiate the organisation and its culture.

It is tempting to expand the leadership line up with ‘like-minded’ people however overplayed strengths can be the greatest source of weakness and risk; cloning these across a growing organisation only amplifies any inherent risk. Diversity in leadership = more effective risk mitigation!

Organisations often falter as they start to navigate fast growth. Growth is a balancing act; leadership capability has to keep up with the pace of change and increasing complexity whilst the organisation seeks to retain the positive elements of the culture that got it to where it is.

The added complexity of global markets and multi cultural teams means that, in a growing organisation, the ability to lead global teams, virtual teams and multicultural teams become ever more important. Globally minded leaders = accelerated growth plans!

The best case scenario is to catch future potential leaders early in their careers, identify them as such, and embark on a development path aligned to future business capability requirements.

This takes time however, and demands an internal talent pool of sufficient breadth and depth and the resources to facilitate global development programmes.

GROWTH PLANS CAN BE MADE OR BROKEN ON THE BACK OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY.

AT GALLUS WE WORK WITH LOTS OF ORGANISATIONS AND LEADERS ACROSS A VARIETY OF SECTORS, AT VARYING STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT. MANY ARE GLOBAL ORGANISATIONS AND, OF THOSE WHO AREN’T, MANY WOULD LIKE TO BE.

#GallusConsult Gallus Consulting Ltd

GALLUS CONSULTING

SO WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS THAT RELIABLY PREDICT LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY ACROSS CULTURAL BOUNDARIES? THE GLOBE STUDY OF 62 COUNTRIES FOUND A SUBSTANTIAL NUMBER OF CHARACTERISTICS THAT ARE UNIVERSAL IN THEIR NATURE; THAT IS, THEY ARE CONSIDERED TO EITHER CONTRIBUTE TO OR INHIBIT OTHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE LEADER’S ABILITY.

DIVERSITY IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY

GROWTH CAN DILUTE CULTURE, FAST

ENABLER

Trustworthy Positive Intelligent Informed

Just Dynamic Decisive Coordinator

Honest Motive Arouser Effective bargainer Team Builder

Foresight Confidence Builder Win-win Problem Solver Excellence Oriented

Plans ahead Motivational Skilled In Administration

Encouraging Dependable Communicative

TOXIC

Loner Non-cooperative Non Explicit Ruthless

Asocial Irritable Egocentric Dictatorial

Many of these characteristics will present little surprise, and the alignment across 62 countries (in terms of the perception of a leader based upon these characteristics) is encouraging when designing assessment and development interventions.

However, there are some characteristics that might be considered to be either enablers or toxic depending upon your cultural background, country of origin or experiences to date.Perceived strengths in some environments = major de-railers in others!

through external hires. Established leaders often bring their teams with them and, before you know it, the culture in your new global location more closely resembles that of the competitor your new leader came from as opposed to that of your own organisation. Defining and maintaining the non-negotiable elements of ‘the way you do business’ is often overlooked.

By defining a framework of core leadership characteristics and cultural norms that you want to see everywhere, you give people the freedom to express their particular leadership strengths in a recognisable way for your clients, partners and employees. Frameworks = freedom of expression!

LEADERSHIP WITHOUT FRONTIERS

www.gallusconsulting.com 0203 751 6345

CULTURALLY CONTINGENT CHARACTERISTICS

Anticipatory Evasive Micro-manager Excellence Oriented

Ambitious Formal Orderly Sensitive

Autonomous Habitual Procedural Sincere

Cautious Independent Communicative Status-conscious

Class conscious Indirect Provocateur Subdued

Compassionate Individualistic Risk taker Unique

Cunning Intra-group Competitor Ruler Wilful

Domineering Intra-group Conflict Avoider Self-effacing Worldly

Elitist Intuitive Self-sacrificial

Enthusiastic Logical Team Builder

House et al. (eds), Culture, Leadership, and Organisations: The Globe Study og 62 Societies. Sage, 1980 (revised 2001)

With good design, an assessment intervention can be configured to identify those who are adaptable across cultures (and to provide reliable data to suggest how to amplify their strengths and minimise de-railment); and/or to identify those who are strong leaders with characteristics that are likely to make them more successful in certain types of cultures.

This awareness in itself can be invaluable for the best deployment of an organisation’s leadership capability.

IT STARTS WITH WHY...

Leadership capability can be assessed in various ways; psychometrics, assessment centres, global collaboration projects and overseas assignments are just some examples. Good design doesn’t happen by accident. Clarity of purpose = good design!

KNOW WHAT YOU NEED NOW AND WHAT YOU WILL NEED IN THE FUTURE TO DELIVER AGAINST THE ORGANISATION’S STRATEGY

• Elements of the organisation’s leadership model are likely to fall into both categories; some elements will generate indicators that can reliably predict leadership capability across borders whilst other elements will need to have indicators that can be applied dependent upon the culture you are assessing for/in.

• The leaders and future leaders undergoing assessment and evaluation will be influenced by the cultural norms of their formative development. They may consider certain behaviours to be indicators of weakness where your culture considers them to be strengths and vice versa.

• Assessors will also bring their cultural perceptions to the exercise. Self-awareness is critical as is an understanding of the cultural implications upon the perceived value of leadership characteristics. Without both of these, objective and impartial assessment is certain to be flawed.

THE GLOBE STUDY DATA IS INTERESTING ON A NUMBER OF LEVELS:

#GallusConsult Gallus Consulting Ltd

Define and align your leadership capability requirementsKnow what you need now and what you will need in the future to deliver against the organisation’s strategy. How do these needs vary across the globe?

Capture the cultureDefine the framework within which you want leaders in your organisation to express their individual star qualities. What characteristics are non-negotiable wherever a leader may be?

Clarify your purposeBe clear about who you’re assessing, what you’re looking for and why. Think about the career point at which you are assessing and consider how the qualities you are looking for may present themselves at this stage.

Put time to designDon’t rush the design and pull in expert help where you need it. The contributions of a culturally aware Occupational Psychologist at design stage can be the difference that makes the difference!

Think like a participantThink about the experience you want participants to have. What feelings do you want to leave them with? Put yourself through the exercises and give an honest critique of the experience and how explicitly it relates to the environment participants will have come from or are going to. Without face validity the outputs of an assessment can be easily ignored!

Invest in the bestMany psychometric tools are published in a wide variety of languages however the reliability of the norm data across disparate cultural groups can be patchy. Only use robust tools

where usage is high across the globe and where sufficient norm data is available. Use experienced assessors who understand cultural impacts upon validity and reliability of the assessment methods and tools you are planning to use.

Mind your languageOrganisations often run their assessment processes in English regardless of the first language of participants. This might be appropriate where the agreed business language is English, however don’t forget that copious amounts of data presented in someone’s second language take more time to digest and that the subtleties of language and cultural meaning-making can make for some interesting misunderstandings. Make sure you’re assessing the right things and not just getting an indication of the English language skills of your participants!

CommunicateTell them why they have been selected, what to expect and what happens next! Get feedback from your participants and, where appropriate, refine the assessment process (being careful not to damage its ability to differentiate over time.)

Metrics that matterCalibrate the effectiveness of your assessment process over time and across cultures with longitudinal studies supported by quantitative and qualitative data.

Don’t stop there…Determine next steps before the assessment journey starts and make sure feedback is met with suitable development interventions. Use the output ethically and wisely – trust doesn’t come with a refill!

IT’S NOT EASY BUT IT’S WORTH IT…

Assessing leaders across borders is becoming more important to organisations across the world and is here to stay. A sound understanding of purpose and good design, coupled with the right tools and experienced assessors, creates a process that identifies the most capable leaders and future leaders, lays out a path for their development, and ultimately ensures that they can be deployed to the right places in the most effective way.

Gallus build sustainable, high performance environments that everybody can believe in. With particular expertise in leadership capability and alignment, organisation design, business transformation and enterprise risk management, Gallus challenge assumptions, cultivate belief and drive positive change by making performance excellence systemic.

An established business with Headquarters in Northampton, UK and offices in London, Manchester and Aberdeen, Gallus work with ambitious organisations across the world from a wide range of sectors.Find us at www.gallusconsulting.com or call +44(0)20 3751 6345.

GALLUS CONSULTING