Chief Learning Officer - June 2008 - (Page 44) Global leaders can see many different perspectives and views at once — even contradictory ones. Rather than having a single interpretation of an event and an immediate response, a global leader chooses from a broader behavioral repertoire than a domestic leader. Where Can Talent Management Help? Many elements of global mindset develop slowly over time as experience is integrated and applied to new situations or via slow changes in personality or style. This suggests talent management for global leaders starts at the point of hire, selecting candidates with the necessary intellectual and psychological profiles. IQ remains a stable predictor of success, and cognitive complexity is critical for success. In addition, openminded, nonjudgmental and inquisitive qualities also should be sought out from the beginning. That said, efforts on coaching and developing global leaders may shift from “closing gaps” to “managing overused strengths.” Consider the new hire who has a high IQ, expert intuition and skill in handling complex situations: Without an equal portion of self-insight and the ability to establish a high degree of trust, the new hire may disable a team’s decision-making or condition it to become dependent on him or her. Once a promising leader has insight into a new hire’s strengths and weaknesses and the motivation and interest to change in critical areas, we recommend six things to consider in helping the person develop a global mindset: 1. Get the new hire out of his or her home country. Curiosity and education will take a leader well along this journey, yet there is no substitute for living in a country. 2. Identify mentors in the organization who exemplify the characteristics of global leaders, and deliberately connect them. While there is some controversy on matching mentors and mentees, allowing a pool of mentors and mentees to self-select into pairings yields good results. 3. Build skills in managing strengths. Helping people with high capabilities in different areas means helping them see the line they can cross by using that capability too much, which has implications for coaching and feedback models. 4. Think two to three assignments ahead. The time horizon for developing global leaders must be significantly longer than for domestic leaders. Many of the high-value integrative skills that high-performing global leaders need will come over successive assignments. http://www.thetrainingassociates.com http://www.thetrainingassociates.com
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