Video Transcript: Lecture 11

Hello everybody. Hello everybody. So here we go. We are in lecture number 11.  So we're talking about global leadership, and why what it is and why it matters.  So you know, we'll be, we'll be talking about a lot of different leadership theories  in this lecture. We will be talking about, you know, what's the difference between 

leaders and managers and kind of those things. And we'll, and we'll try to just  talk about the concepts in general. And then again, as we always do, this is  simply to present information and allow you to form your own opinions and form  your own thoughts on the subject. So Warren Bennis said that a leader  innovates and manager administrates. A leader develops a manager maintains.  A leader challenges the status quo where a manager accepts it. A leader has a  long range perspective, the manager has a short term perspective. The leader  asks what and why? The manager asks how and when. The leader originates.  The manager imitates, and the leader inspires. The manager controls. I've heard people make the comparison between cats and dogs. And, you know, cat  person is this characteristic, and a dog person is that characteristic. And other  people would say that the other things anyway, the debate around leadership  and management is as long and varied as you can imagine. But one thing to  keep in mind is that there are differences between domestic leadership and  global leadership, and they basically boil down to complexities. And one of the  things that we have talked about in depth and in detail and a lot is the  complexity of global organizations. So there's four dimensions of complexity, the concept of multiplicity and be ambiguity, interdependence and dynamic and  dynastism. So remember that that globalization, which we've talked about in  depth as well, is going to, is going to increase both internal and external  complexities. And in the globe study, which we've also talked about, remember  Javadon from an earlier lecture, he also is now doing work in the global mindset, found that people in different nations have some similar but many dissimilar  understandings of the traits of leaders. And I alluded that to that earlier, when I  said that, you know, there are certain cultural understandings of leadership, and  most leadership practice comes from the western perspective, which would lead to some some differences of opinion as you get into as you get into other, other  understanding. So obviously a leader in China looks a little bit different than a  leader in the United States. So understanding that cultural context is really  important, that domestic leadership is important, that there's different leadership  understandings based on areas, based on requirements, based on culture,  based on all these things. How do you find a good leader? How do you find a  leader with a quote, unquote, the right stuff that is a important question and a  harder question to answer. One of the things to remember is that globalization,  though, it creates a lot of business opportunities, and it does. It creates a lot of  business opportunities. It creates opportunities for employees. It breeds new  leaders. It provides it breeds leaders that have a global mindset. All those things are very important, but remember that in order to have proficiency in business, 

you have to have cultural understanding, you have to be adaptable, you have to  be able to work with and inspire individuals. You have to be able to do that  across a range of nations. So are there competencies that that are required for  global leadership? Well, you know, there are some. There are things that said  you got to be able to see differences. There's make connections, adjust,  integrate and lead change and local wise, Henry Mintzberg, who is a somebody  who has written many books, management theorists in Canada, he talks a lot  about a range of roles for global leaders, and he talks about these roles as  being a monitor, a spokesperson and. Liaison. He uses the word leader. He also uses words like negotiator and innovator, decision maker and change agent.  And remember, he has to be an agent to change as well creative leadership, the Center for Creative Leadership, which is another organization, actually, I had  some interest. In them. The CCL says that global leaders are more challenged  in the areas of emotional stability, ability to learn and decision making and  negotiating rules than domestic leaders. In other words, because they're  operating a global environment, they have to understand different cultures. They have to deal with all these international issues. That is harder for them than it  would be for a domestic leader, which whether that's true or not, I don't know. I  mean, I guess you could argue that the literature said was true, so therefore it's  true. So let's just go with the presumption that that is an accurate statement. If  that is an accurate statement, then you have an opportunity as an international  firm to grow leaders that can have very successful on the global market and  then come back and be able to operate domestically after a period of time, and  they could be extremely successful and move a company light years forward. So keep you know that's something to think about. The global mindset. Project,  Globe. Javadon, cultural adaptability, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity. These  are all attributes that a global leader needs. So I think you're finding a lot of  them. So there's their center, certain competencies, there's there's people,  there's leaders. They need to manage the business, they need to manage  people in relationships, and they need to manage themselves. So one of the  thing to keep in mind is that the global mindset project globe would say that then there are certain traits that are needed to be able to effectively do that. And  some of those traits would be things like humility, integrity, inquisitiveness and  resilience. You would have to have proper attitudes and orientations to the  market that you're operating in. You have to have interpersonal skills that that  can be used across cultures. And finally, you would have to have system skills  that you can influence people and systems inside and outside the company. So  if you think about it's kind of like a pyramid with five levels, and your most basic  level is the baseline knowledge necessary to operate globally. That's the global  knowledge. And then the highest level is the system skills that leads to  influence. Because remember, the definition of leadership is influence. That's  really the ability to influence others and yourself to obtain outcomes. That is a 

simple definition of leadership. So there's a lot of ways to assess global  leadership competencies. There's many instruments or assessments or surveys  or tests, if you will, that measure them. I have them written down here, but I  don't think I'm going to discuss them, because really that confuses the issue.  Just recognize that there are assessments that exist that can measure global  competence, and then, and then, say, a person has the mindset, the different  skill sets that are required to be successful, operating internationally and  operating globally. So we're gonna, we're gonna leave that aside for now, but,  but know that those kind of things exist. One of the things that I want to remind  us is that leading global teams is very difficult because there's a lot of  complexity, especially if you have a global team that is that is geographically  dispersed or virtual that makes things incredibly difficult. I work in an  organization where we have a geographically dispersed team, and leading that  kind of global team is very difficult because you have people from all over the  place that have different cultural values, had different norms, and they're all  trying to work within the same organization and assimilate within this  organization. So that makes it, that makes it very difficult. That makes it very  tough. Remember that leading teams requires the establishment of the team,  the coaching of the team, and then setting those team norms. Remember that  as a global team, we talked about these terms before, but you're going to have  increased multiplicity, you're going to have increased ambiguity, and you're  going to have increased interdependence. So you got as a global leader that's  managing a global team, you got to be able to manage the basic. Conditions of  the team performance, which would be organizational issues, social processes,  task processes, and then issues that are in the international context, which  would also bring in some of those other cultural variables that we discussed in  lecture three. I think so. So you got to bring all those together, because, as you  know, culture is going to affect how people define and manage their roles and  identify what's acceptable and what's not acceptable within the team dynamic.  It's also defines conflict resolution norms and whether somebody excuse conflict and does not want to address conflict. Or if somebody is very proactive in  addressing that conflict, and obviously putting somebody together from a culture that is very blunt, combined with somebody who is very passive in addressing  conflict, could be a recipe for disaster, and as a global leader, those are the kind  of things that you have to consider, worry about and discuss with your team all  the time. So there are different models, again, for addressing these conflict  norms and these communication norms there's we won't talk about the models  but, but what we will talk about is the importance of communication. So  communication through technology is important. I had a boss who who insisted  that you turn your camera on when having a virtual meeting, because he felt it  was important to see facial expressions. It was important to see, you know,  whether you're leaning in and whether you're paying attention or whether you're 

you know, kind of back, just kind of ignoring or looking around, or if you're on  your phone, or whatever the case may be. He wanted to be able to know that  and identify that, so he thought turning a camera on was really important now,  as somebody who didn't always like turning my camera on and is not always  comfortable in that space, that has become very challenging for me, but it's  something that I can understand the importance of communication and  remember that verbal communication, non verbal communication, is just as  important and sometimes conveys more than verbal communication does. For  instance, if you were talking to me and I start rolling my eyes, obviously that's  going to communicate a message that is that you don't like what I'm saying, or  that's not desirable. So I know, over these last 11 lectures, I haven't been able to see you, but I know you haven't rolled your eyes once. So that's that's good.  Thank you for that. There is value when you're operating virtually. Remember,  there is value to operating face to face as well. So it's good to periodically bring  people together and discuss things face to face, because obviously there's an  exchange of ideas, and that's different when people are together, as opposed to  virtually. I had this conversation with somebody very recently about the  importance of face to face interactions within a virtual environment as well. So,  you know, certainly turning on cameras and things like that are going to help and assist. I feel like with my camera on, as opposed to you listening to my voice  only, you probably have learned a little bit more about me. You can see I talked  my hands a lot. I know that. You see, I like drinking a lot of water. Yeah, you can, you know, see that I wear different things and communicate different messages  that way. So obviously there are things that that turning on camera and being  face to face and communicating is is visible, is visible through this kind of  medium, but there's nothing like being face to face and picking up on social cues and things of that nature. So one of the things that is a problem in global teams  is the concept of social loafing, which can occur when people are putting in their  effort, and they're not doing a good job, and everybody's not committed, and all  those kind of things, and you have the weakest link for the team member. You  have certainly seen that, I'm sure, in your business and in your life. But that is a  problem, and the way to address social loafing is through, is through  understanding the balance of Team tasks and team rewards versus individual  tasks. So what is the stability of the team membership? What are the cultures,  what are the labor laws, what are the reward options, and what is the nature of  the task? And as a global leader, you have to be. Able to understand all those  nuances and build a team, and know your team, and build a team that's going to discourage social loafing and accomplish the task that needs to occur. So  there's a quite a few change models that exist. There's Cotter's eight step  model. There's some other change models, but we'll discuss an easy change  model, which is unfreeze change refreeze model, and that's Kurt Lewin. And that basically says, when you want to go through the change process, you unfreeze, 

you do the change, and then you freeze again, and then you evaluate that  change, and then you need to unfreeze, freeze again. Our unchanged unfreeze, change, freeze again, etc. And that's just a continual pipeline and continual  circle, and something that you continually do over and over again to bring about  organizational change. Cotter's, 8 step model, assumes that change is not  orderly or sequential, because it rests on human behavior. So Cotter sees  change as influenced by culture, and you have to be able to communicate  across organizational borders. So as a global leader, you're going to have to  lead change initiatives and change process. And as you know, and we talked a  lot about stability for organizations, not only are organizations not always happy  about change, and they don't want to change, neither do individuals within those organizations, because people get comfortable. So as a global leader, being  able to navigate those dynamics is difficult and important. So just something to  keep in mind as a global leader, there's different leadership models. There's  different leadership approaches that you can use. As a Christian, I'm sure you  are familiar with servant leadership, also known as values based leadership,  which is a system where the follower is put first, and in order meet our  organizational objectives, you consider the followers needs and the process of  being a leader and meeting those organizational needs, and then the follower  will be so happy that you are considering them and working with them, that they  will be willing to do whatever it takes for the organization to make the  organization better. That approach may work very well in Christian circles. It may work very well in the United States, but that that approach may not work in other areas, especially areas that are more collective and authoritative, that that may  not work as well. And certainly there's been evidence to support that, and there's been also, there's been evidence to support that servant leadership can work  across many different structures. So that's just one example of a leadership  structure. I mean, obviously transactional is you come in, you do your work, you  get paid, you go home. That's certainly a leadership model as well. But as a  global leader, it's understanding the environment you're working in, being able to understand the nuances of the culture, being able to get the highest  performance from your team, and employing a strategy in a leadership approach that's going to work to maximize potential, give you that competitive advantage  and make you a successful organization. So I hope you enjoyed our little talk on  global leadership, our last lecture, our last lecture, wow, is going to be on  assessing and entering international markets. That's obviously important for  international markets. But before we get there, as we do every single time, we  are going to discuss an international company, and that international company  today is AT&T, so AT&T, obviously wireless, they also sell products. So you can  get internet, obviously you can get TV. You can get a lot of different things for  them, wireless internet, TV, they have business accounts. They have prepaid  accounts, they have bundling services. They offer all kinds of stuff. So what is 

AT&T? Let's learn about AT&T. So AT&T, obviously, they had strong second  quarter results, but AT&T is very important. Involved in in social initiatives, as are most companies that we have talked about. They also have a strong purpose  and purpose around and surrounding, around connections. And they are, as I  said, a global company. So you can see what they stand for, their values. You  can learn about Warner media, which is a subset area of them, and you can see some of the TV shows that that are. Are part of Warner meeting media. So  AT&T, global company operates globally, obviously, has a diversified portfolio,  and as you can imagine, they have several global leadership challenges that  they need to address every single day, and they need to structure themselves in  a way to be able to handle those, those different issues that arise. So as a  global leader of AT&T, you have a responsibility for teams that are virtual, that  are in the office, that are across different offices, things of that nature. So it's  quite a challenging environment to work in, but AT&T has found a way to do it  well. So with that, I want to congratulate you on finishing lecture number 11, and  as we close in prayer, we will get ready to move into lecture number 12. So Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for this class. Thank you for just giving us these  past 11 lectures to learn about international business. Thank you for giving us  the time together to to learn together, to communicate in powerful ways over  mediums around the world. You know Christian leaders is definitely a testament  to that international mindset, that international business and operating  International and the ways to do it right. And Lord, I'm so thankful for the  opportunity to to be part of teaching for this organization. So Lord, I just pray  that you'll bless every student. You'll keep them you'll keep them safe. You will  help to remove barriers that would prevent them from finishing strong. Lord, I  pray that you will give them the strength and the boldness to speak and proclaim you Jesus. In Jesus name, we pray amen. Thank you so much, and I will see  you for the final lecture. Really enjoyed this. Thank you.