Executive Presence

There are many components to executive presence, including posture, dress, gestures such as the form of one's initial greetings, and so on. The rules for these are largely unwritten and vary somewhat by culture. There are also important general skills required of people who aspire to join the executive ranks in most multinationals. For instance, there are clearly things that Jas could do in the report scenario just discussed to make the interaction more successful. Becoming a full-fledged global team partner brings with it a higher level of accountability. He currently appears to be expressing a kind of passive/aggressive attitude that is unlikely to establish him as an executive peer. If he wants others to see him as a true global partner, he needs to take more responsibility and initiative and step out of an outsourcing mindset himself. There is a danger that he will create a self-fulfilling prophecy: if he assumes that he is being treated as a second-class corporate citizen and acts accordingly, he may find that this is indeed the way that others treat him, even if corporate policy is to move away from outsourcing. How can Jas instead get a virtuous cycle going by altering his approach?

If Jas is unclear about his responsibilities, it's up to him to reach out and request clarification from Michael while expressing his intention to get the job done. It is not helpful to his reputation to provide a half-baked response and feel resentful about his role, especially if he is assuming that the ultimate responsibility lies elsewhere. Jas also needs to cultivate a particular skill of distilling and communicating key messages. Inexperienced people in his position tend to provide large volumes of detail without sufficiently digesting or interpreting the information. The term “executive summary” highlights the expectations of leaders who are exposed to large volumes of information on a daily basis. They want to know the main points and to have the option to drill down for further detail as needed; likewise, they expect their peers to be able to both synthesize and probe.

Several familiar cultural patterns were probably in the background of the initial response Jas gave to Michael: deference to hierarchy, a preference for relationship-based interactions, and reluctance to draw direct conclusions for others who will make their own inferences. For Jas to be effective at higher levels in this organization, however, he will need to understand these patterns and take steps to flex his own style. It is neither possible nor desirable for him to become a Westerner, but his current mentality will not serve him well in a global leadership position. Jas may find that Michael is amenable to meeting him partway if he asks him for help and expresses an eagerness to learn new skills.

Micro versus Macro Styles

Ingrid, the Swedish banker from Chapter 1 whose promotion we learned was postponed, goes on to describe what it was like to work for her new Indian boss in Bangalore.

When I was passed over for promotion, there was a structural change and I started reporting to an Indian boss, Atul, for the first time. Atul was new in this position and also doing part of the role I used to manage. When I tried to give him suggestions on how the company worked, he would always respond, “Let's see what others say.” He wasn't receptive to hearing things from me. Then he started micromanaging my team, and they came to me panicking because they were used to being very empowered with my leadership style. So I sat down to tell him that the team knows their priorities for a given day, and that he should trust them to do their jobs. He responded, “Ingrid, I've managed people for 10 years; I think that you are new to this.” Any advice I offered was shut down because of the hierarchy.

I really struggled during this time. I was blunt and outspoken and the Indian male managers there didn't know how to deal with me. I got a lot of “you need to be softer” from them. They also took away a lot of the responsibilities that challenged me and made me feel like I was growing. Even though I had more experience, my voice wasn't valued. It became all about my role and my place in the hierarchy versus what I knew how to do. These guys got very territorial and they were threatened by me because I didn't necessarily buy into the whole concept that I should respect you based on your role alone or that I should keep quiet if I know how to do something better based on my experience.

Many freshly minted leaders from India and elsewhere struggle when they start to interact with employees from other parts of the world. India is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, and its offices are filled with young people who have little business experience and are climbing a steep learning curve. It is natural in these circumstances to work in close proximity with subordinates using a very micro, hands-on style. India has also traditionally been a relatively hierarchical culture in which respect is paid to people based on their status and titles, and the model boss, teacher, or master takes a stance of strict yet benevolent authoritarianism. Non-Indians from more egalitarian and individualistic environments are often quite uncomfortable with this style, as in Ingrid's case—particularly when it is applied by leaders who are still relatively new to the job themselves, insecure about their position, and inclined to feel threatened by people who are less compliant or even bold enough to challenge them.

In order to be successful in his new role, Ingrid's new boss, Atul, will need to step back from the micro style that has proven effective to this point in his career. He must recognize that he is now dealing with more experienced team members who have different, culturally based expectations and begin to experiment with more macro, or hands-off approaches, however nervous this makes him at first. Ironically, many Western expatriates must go through the opposite transition when they realize their local employees need and want more guidance—their finely honed delegation techniques are referred to disparagingly as “delegate and disappear.”

To the extent to which he is able to grasp Ingrid and her team's background and training, Atul will be able to take her conduct less personally and experiment with different leadership approaches without feeling threatened. Working with the team to establish a vision for what they are trying to accomplish together could serve as a partial antidote to his tendency to micromanage; if he feels that team members buy into a shared vision, it may be easier for him to delegate work more freely.

Agile Leadership

There is also a second part to the story from Chapter 1 regarding Huang Shiguang's failed assignment to Germany. Huang's boss in China, a Westerner who has been his champion for years, describes what happened when there was a conflict between the company's China and Germany offices over the sourcing of high-tech equipment. The German offices were insisting that China operations would need to import the equipment from Europe in order to ensure quality.

Huang showed me the numbers and told me he knew his source in China was of equal quality and much cheaper. I believed him. But in the end, I was the one who had to escalate the issue to the corporate level and push through the decision. Huang didn't have the global network or the knowledge of the company's historical sourcing channels. And to be honest, he didn't have the stomach to go head-to-head with our German colleagues in order to push forward his point of view. I actually can't think of any of our current Chinese local leaders who would have been able to succeed in the same situation—but this is exactly what we need them to be doing. We're seeking people with the ability to leverage their in-depth local knowledge not just for the benefit of the local subsidiary but for the entire global organization.

During his time on assignment in Germany, Huang's tendency was to keep a low profile because he felt out of his element and was not sure how to behave. However, he would have benefitted by adapting with greater agility to his new surroundings and doing more to absorb and follow local patterns of behavior. He could have explored ways to position himself more visibly: reaching out to meet key individuals, asking his sponsors for introductions to executives, and participating in cross-functional meetings to demonstrate that he has wider interests and expertise beyond the finance function to which he currently belongs.

Along with his low profile, Huang's reticence to speak when he did not have a fully formulated expert point of view, combined with a reluctance to sing his own praises—modesty is normally seen as a virtue in China—led to his being ignored by German colleagues. Delivering a strong point of view requires not only marshalling evidence but clearly stating its implications and being prepared to respond to challenging questions and opposing views. Instead of avoiding or minimizing open conflict, which is a common cultural pattern throughout much of Asia, Huang needs to realize that conflict is expected among his German counterparts, who respect head-to-head advocacy as a sign of executive prowess. Learning the patterns of speech embedded in the phrase, “I disagree because…” is a good place to start, and is much better than “you don't understand this market.…”

Leaders in fast-growth markets have found many ways to get results. The energetic, data-based advocacy that they learn to exert in working with their global counterparts is sometimes combined with under-the-radar local pilot efforts to demonstrate that a different solution is possible. If their perception is that “headquarters will just slow us down,” pressing ahead with an experiment that generates evidence and wins local executive buy-in can be the first step toward managing upward and challenging existing processes. This is a cross-border version of the innovator's admonition, “Act first and ask for permission later.”

Talent Recruitment

As we will discuss in more detail in Chapter 5, effective global leaders seek out diversity and ensure that unconscious bias—which we all possess in some form—does not distort hiring decisions. There is a particular variation of this problem in many multinational subsidiary environments today that is based on the tension between skill requirements for handling two kinds of audiences: global counterparts and local customers. Often job candidates or junior employees start with one capability or the other but not both.

It is important for global leaders to ask, “What kind of talent are we bringing in?” Finding this balance is critical in China, for example, and according to many Chinese businesspeople, the Western multinationals are doing it all wrong.

Leaders who want to make sure their organizations are bringing in the right talent are well-advised to review their recruiting practices for local market relevance as well as cultural bias. Here are some useful questions:

• Do our recruiting practices attract candidates who reflect a broad spectrum of local/regional diversity?
• Are our recruitment decisions based on “like me” organizational fit, or do they include a range of experienced talent from all key markets?
• Do our hiring practices support the company's global growth strategy?
• Do these practices reflect local market opportunities and priorities?

Another aspect of recruiting is defining a strategy for engaging with the many firms that offer to provide candidates in the whirligig Chinese job market.

Performance Management

In a recent Community Business study entitled “Adopting an Asian Lens to Talent Development,” researchers found that local employees perceived leadership models and assessment processes used within global multinationals operating in the region to be “Western.” The Indian study participants, for instance, agreed that “when assessing talent, this is done through a Western lens. They felt it was essential to redefine success…and adapt competencies to include the ‘Indian style.’”⁸

Given the predominance of Western models for assessing talent within most multinationals, it is unsurprising that the focus is on leadership performance gaps. These gaps reinforce the view that the talent from the new markets is not ready for leadership in the organization. As a result, the voices of key individuals from global markets do not gain enough resonance in the organization to challenge the organizing structural biases that preclude them having a seat at the table and prevent the organization from transitioning to a truly global identity. Organizations that do not fundamentally reassess their performance management systems will continue to wander in this house of mirrors with no exit, wasting precious time on their path toward globalization.

High-potential Asian employees often express frustration at not being promoted, even though they execute perfectly the expectations for their role. Executives at headquarters and regional expatriate leaders tend to list a lack of several key competencies (global business savvy, strategic thinking, the ability to articulate a strong argument, out-of-the box problem solving and so on) that prevent these high-potentials from advancing. When asked if these competencies are explicit requirements on which employees are measured, leaders at most companies pause and then admit that at least some of them are not. The harsh reality is that many emerging leaders working for Western multinationals are being evaluated on a set of implicit leadership expectations that are so culturally embedded that they are often not even articulated, much less measured.

In the pharma example that describes the interaction between Jas and Michael, there is responsibility on both sides. Michael can help to break the destructive circular pattern of unarticulated expectations and critical performance evaluation by reaching out to Jas and learning more about his capabilities and developmental needs. They should get to know each other a lot better, and this is a worthwhile investment of Michael's time in spite of the geographical and cultural distance that separates them. It may be that Jas is not the right person for the role, but it is more likely that he needs hands-on mentoring, exposure to best practice models, and constructive feedback that will enable him to grow into his position. Jas will feel more comfortable discussing his developmental needs if he feels that Michael believes in him and is actively involved in providing support; Michael will also be better able to target what he delegates and to accurately anticipate and rely upon the work that Jas produces.

Another factor that keeps locally hired high-potential leaders from being favorably assessed and promoted is that it is safer to continue importing known leaders from mature markets. After all, these leaders have a network, years of organizational knowledge, and visibility with senior executives. Given the choice between sticking their necks out to advocate for a talented but far less visible local hire in a fast-growth market or simply bringing in a person the leadership team at headquarters already recognizes and likes, most expatriate leaders will choose the latter because it is safer and much easier to gain approval. “Promoting one of my Chinese team members into a critical role that is visible to regional and global leadership puts my career and reputation at risk,” says an international assignee based in Shanghai. “It is much easier just to import a person who already has system-wide credibility, even though this is expensive and worse for our organization's future capability.” Changing this dynamic requires a higher organizational tolerance for failure and strong support for helping non-Western talent succeed in stretch roles.

Leaders who are assessing the present performance and future prospects of individuals in fast-growth markets should consider widening their frame of reference to incorporate input such as the following:

• How effective is this candidate going to be in working with local customers and employees in comparison with expatriate candidates for the same role?
• How do local customers perceive the employee's performance?
• How do other local employees perceive the employee's performance?
• What are key needs for our organization to grow in the local market, and how is this employee contributing?
  • Personal network with customers, suppliers, government regulators
  • Sales and marketing skills
  • Ability and willingness to develop more junior employees
  • Loyalty of coworkers and subordinates (who might elect to follow this leader elsewhere in the event of a transition)
  • Ability to influence others within the local organization
  • Resourcefulness in getting things done regardless of obstacles

Succession Planning

The ultimate mark of effective leadership is finding and grooming a worthy successor, while ensuring that other leaders throughout the organization are doing the same. Corporate succession planning becomes critical when organizations are trying to create global leadership bench strength across all key markets. Current leaders must recognize that the most talented people in their pipeline may not look like them at all.

The power base in most Western multinationals still lies in Europe or the United States, but that model is growing increasingly outdated and irrelevant. As economic power shifts from west to east and north to south, organizations themselves must change to create room for new types of talent, and existing leaders must adapt to drive growth in a transformed environment.

Those leaders who currently operate within the comfort of their company's dominant leadership style need to push themselves out of their comfort zones in order to engage tomorrow's leaders—whose approach to business will be very different. They must also commit to supporting and growing future leaders as a strategic imperative, and provide them with the tools they need to succeed. The organization that insists on retaining a culturally narrow definition of talent will be less capable of leveraging the unique strengths of employees for competitive advantage in the markets that really matter.