Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance The 2015 Global Leadership Development Study Peers. Research. Tools. Data. Reach deep and begin global leadership development early pg. 6 Business acumen is foundational but insufficient; social skills make the difference pg. 10 Experiential learning is a powerful teacher pg.15 A global mindset integrates diverse perspectives pg. 19 Featuring insights from: Ford Schlumberger Novartis Lear Corporation Johnson & Johnson In partnership with: Only 1 / 2 OF ORGANIZATIONS MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO DEVELOP LEADERS’ GLOBAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES. Only 1 / 3 DESCRIBE THEIR DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS AS EFFECTIVE. American Management Association
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Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
High-performance organizations are up to 14x more likely than lower performers to report outstanding business results in the global marketplace. Developing leaders who are able to drive high performance in a global business environment requires commitment, resources, and an enlightened and informed approach that goes beyond simply skill-building. In the challenging and competitive world business arena, successful leaders have well-honed capabilities, but they also purposefully cultivate a global mindset. “There’s a lot involved in developing a global mindset, and not all of it is even quantifiable,” observes Janice Hyslip, career planning and leadership development manager for global oilfield services firm Schlumberger. As she alludes, even in a company renowned for opening global mobility and exposure to diversity to all employees, an absolute definition of global mindset and the experiences required to create it can be elusive. This is a testament to the challenges organizations
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Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance The 2015 Global Leadership Development Study
Peers. Research. Tools. Data.
Reach deep and begin global leadership development early
pg. 6
Business acumen is foundational but insufficient; social skills make the difference pg. 10
Experiential learning is a powerful teacher
pg.15
A global mindset integrates diverse perspectives
pg. 19
Featuring insights from:
FordSchlumbergerNovartisLear CorporationJohnson & Johnson
In partnership with:
Only 1/2 OF ORGANIZATIONS MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO DEVELOP
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to i4cp.com/contact.
FOR COPIES OF THIS REPORTResearch reports published by i4cp are made available to member organizations and may be shared internally on an unlimited basis. For non-member access or information on i4cp membership, visit the i4cp website at i4cp.com or call 1-866-375-i4cp (4427).
i4cp EDITORIAL STAFF
Managing Editor & Director of Research Services: Lorrie Lykins
Creative Director: Eric Davis
i4cp RESEARCH
Chief Research and Marketing Officer: Kevin Martin
Senior Vice President of Research: Jay Jamrog
Senior Researcher: Joe Jamrog
Research Coordinator: Andrew Dixon
About i4cpi4cp is a human capital research firm that discovers the people practices that drive high
performance. Ranked among the fastest-growing companies on the Inc. 500|5000 list for three
consecutive years, i4cp provides its extensive member network of leading global employers and
government institutions with the research, peer collaboration, tools, and data essential to developing and executing
workforce strategies and practices that deliver higher market performance. To learn about i4cp and i4cp's People-Profit
Chain™, an empirical model to increase organizational performance up to 3x, go to i4cp.com/ppc.
Visit i4cp.com to learn more.Find us on:
About American Management AssociationAmerican Management Association (www.amanet.org) is a world leader in talent
development, advancing the skills of individuals to drive business success. AMA’s
approach to improving performance combines experiential learning—learning through
doing—with opportunities for ongoing professional growth at every step of one’s career.
AMA supports the goals of individuals and organizations through a complete range of products and services, including
classroom and live online seminars, e-learning programs, webcasts, webinars, podcasts, corporate and government
solutions, business books and research. Organizations worldwide, including the majority of the Fortune 500, turn to AMA as
their trusted partner in professional development and draw upon its experience to enhance skills, abilities and knowledge
with noticeable results from day one.
Visit www.amanet.org for more information.
About TrainingTraining is a 51-year-old professional development magazine written for training, human
resources, and business management professionals in all industries that advocate training
and workforce development as a business tool. Training also produces world-class
conferences, expositions, and digital products that focus on job-related, employer-sponsored training and education in the
working world. Training is published by Lakewood Media Group.
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Only 1/2 OF ORGANIZATIONS MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO DEVELOP
LEADERS’ GLOBAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES.
Only 1/3DESCRIBE THEIR
DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS AS EFFECTIVE.
High-performance organizations are up to 14x more likely than lower-
performers to report outstanding business results in the global marketplace.
Developing leaders who are able to drive high performance in a global business
environment requires commitment, resources, and an enlightened and
informed approach that goes beyond simply skill-building. In the challenging
and competitive world business arena, successful leaders have well-honed
capabilities, but they also purposefully cultivate a global mindset.
“There’s a lot involved in developing a global mindset, and not all of it is even
quantifiable,” observes Janice Hyslip, career planning and leadership development
manager for global oilfield services firm Schlumberger. As she alludes, even in a
company renowned for opening global mobility and exposure to diversity to all
employees, an absolute definition of global mindset and the experiences required
to create it can be elusive. This is a testament to the challenges organizations face
in global leadership development.
Collaborative research by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and
the American Management Association (AMA) found many companies’ global
performance at risk: Only half of organizations make it a priority to develop
leaders’ global skills and competencies, and only a third describe their
development efforts as effective.
Exploring the ways in which high-performance organizations help leaders build
the skills and sophisticated perspective needed to achieve and sustain business
results in the global marketplace is the core focus of Developing Global-Minded
Leaders to Drive High Performance.
Key findings • Global development that begins with first-level leaders or
individual contributors fuels success. Delaying such efforts until candidates reach higher leadership levels has a negative effect on development effectiveness.
The 2015 Global Leadership
Development Study is the
sixth such collaborative by
the Institute for Corporate
Productivity and the American
Management Association.
Early-2015 responses from 1,398
business leaders represented
global, international, and
national organizations across
varied industries.
This iteration identifies high-
performance practices based on
the following three indices:
• i4cp’s Market Performance
Index (MPI)
• The Study’s Global Leadership
Development Effectiveness
(GLDE) Index
• The Study’s Global
Performance Index (GPI)*
*See pages three and four for index descriptions.
• Business and financial acumen are fundamental capabilities for leaders, but insufficient; social skills are the real differentiators, enabling leaders to apply influence and inclusiveness to drive greater productivity.
• Experiential learning is an essential element of blended development programs. Live classes, simulations, games, and specific work assignments deliver active learning effectively.
• Global mindset is a distinctive characteristic of effective global leaders. Embracing cross-cultural diversity and driving collaborative relationships within and beyond organizations are hallmarks of this evolved perspective.
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance (hereafter, the Study) explores those findings and
the development approaches that distinguish top competitors in global business—the next practices that drive both
organizational performance and effective global leadership development.
2 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
L
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Even in a company renowned
for opening global mobility
and exposure to diversity to
all employees, an absolute
definition of global mindset
and the experiences required
to create it can be elusive.
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 3
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
INTRODUCTION
The era of national companies is overAlthough many organizations can be characterized as
national—headquartered and conducting business in
one specific country or limited by regulation to operation
within specific guidelines—the reality is that advances
in technology and shifts in worker and consumer
demographics require all organizations to adopt a
more global perspective. In that sense, no company can
accurately be viewed as exclusively national any longer.
In both domestic and global business settings,
organizations are thrust daily into circumstances that
demand interactions with diverse customers, employees
and potential employees, contingent workers, vendors,
suppliers, and the many other stakeholders who affect
competitive position and enterprise performance. It
simply is no longer possible to ignore the need to ably
and perceptively interface with those of other nations,
cultures, belief systems, capabilities, and perspectives.
For firms operating globally, Stacy Eng, director of global
learning at healthcare company Johnson & Johnson
underscores the importance of GLD, noting that “we
do business in over 60 countries and have employees
around the world. We see Johnson & Johnson as a family
of companies. While you may work for a specific sector
in one country, you must be able to collaborate and
network with people everywhere. You can’t just focus on
your specific market—you need to have broader insights
into the global marketplace.”
For nearly 75% of all organizations operating in global
markets, outstanding business performance remains
elusive. However, high-performance organizations are
up to 14x more likely than their competitors to report
faster and greater success expanding into new markets
and more rapid growth in global sales.
Year over year, leadership development is a top
issue executives cite as critical to organizational
performance. Over time, the challenge to prepare
leaders to meet competitive pressures grows more
compelling as enterprises expand, reaching across
geographies to acquire diverse talent, penetrate new
markets, and forge profitable partnerships. That
means that focused and effective global leadership
development programs have become crucial keys to
building leaders capable of driving high performance
in a world business environment.
Along with providing a snapshot of global
business effectiveness, averages of the business
performance responses formed the basis for a Global
Performance Index (GPI) used to identify practices
of the elite group of organizations out-performing
their competitors in global markets.
i4cp’s Market Performance Index (MPI) was used in
the Study to help identify development practices that
correlate with high performance in the marketplace.
The index is created by averaging responses
about companies’ revenue growth, market share,
profitability, and customer satisfaction over time.
The organization is growing faster geographically than our competitors
The organization’s global sales are growing faster than those of our
competitors
The organization is more successful than our competitors at entering
markets in new countries
Organizations responding high/very high percent with 1,000 or more employees. Source: i4cp
HIGH MARKET PERFORMERS ARE UP TO 14X MORE LIKELY TO EXCEL IN GLOBAL BUSINESS RESULTS
half (48%) rate their efforts highly. When compared
with lower-performers, HPOs are nearly 2x more likely
to claim GLD effectiveness, and the Study confirmed
a strong correlation between GLD effectiveness and
bottom-line market performance. Further, HPOs are
more than twice as likely as lower performers (66%
versus 31%) to make global leadership development a
high priority.
Dedicated programs can make a difference, but are they essential?Should organizations have specific global leadership
programs, or just embed global concepts in existing
leadership development? The research clearly shows
that learning programs dedicated to teaching global
leadership skills have a positive impact on market
performance and global leadership excellence, and 28%
of HPOs currently do this.
However, the Study found an element that was not
anticipated: Lack of a dedicated program actually has
a negative effect on global leadership development
effectiveness. Moreover, it is negatively correlated with
bottom-line business impact. In short, if organizations
aren't currently dedicating programs to global leadership
development, it's time to do so.
Learning programs dedicated
to teaching global leadership
skills have a positive impact
on market performance and
global leadership excellence.
L
L
Responses to the effectiveness query yielded
the GLDE, or Global Leadership Development
Effectiveness Index, providing a means of
discovering practices used by organizations that have
achieved highly effective development approaches.
2014
2015
Source: i4cp
GLD EFFECTIVENESS IS UP 57%21%
33%
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Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
APPLYING THE RESEARCH Ford drives results with two distinct global leadership development programs
Ford Motor Company has ambitious plans for growth,
projecting annual global sales of more than nine million
of its vehicles by 2020—an estimated 55% increase
in sales over the next five years. That goal relies on
leaders equipped to drive results across widely varying
geographies and cultures.
Helping to prepare Ford leaders at multiple levels for
success in global markets is the responsibility of John
Hine, the company’s global director of organization
leadership and professional development. He and his
team oversee four core leadership programs targeting
varied levels of management, beginning with front-line
supervisors. Training for the rigors of global competition
begins at the executive director level with the Global
Executive Leadership (GEL) program, and culminates in
Ford’s Global Leadership Summit for the vice-president
level.
Hine explains that core content for both global programs
ensures consistent learning delivery: “The GEL program is
attended by leaders from North America, South America,
Asia/Pacific, and Europe. Leaders participate in their own
regions, but there is a common curriculum. The approach
leverages live, multi-modular programs for which we
bring people together three times during the year for
sessions of four to five days.”
The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) involves two
sessions—a week-long spring gathering in China, and a
five-day visit to Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan, facility in the
fall. Following an annual October nomination process,
Ford’s senior leadership team selects GLS participants for
the following year. The 2015 GLS cohort of 25 includes
leaders from Europe, South America, Asia/Pacific, and
North America.
HOW FORD PRIORITIZES GLD WITH STAND-ALONE PROGRAMS1. Define the outcome.
Ford began with specific sales and growth goals
for its global business.
2. Make the commitment.
Ford recognized that global goals require global
leadership capabilities and dedicated resources
to build them.
3. Designate a lead.
John Hine and his team oversee Ford’s two global
leadership programs.
4. Specify participants.
Regional leaders attend Ford’s GEL program;
following a nomination process, the senior
leadership team chooses GLS participants.
Assessments are used in both programs.
5. Build a framework.
Hine’s team delivers a common curriculum to GEL
participants worldwide in three sessions per year.
GLS cohorts of 25 attend two week-long sessions
with specified learning agendas.
6. Put it into practice.
The GEL program counted 150 participants in
2015. One cohort of 25 elite leaders will complete
the 2015 GLS.
6 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
FINDING 1
Reach deep and begin global leadership development early
Next practices that drive global high performanceThe i4cp/AMA research uncovered four next practices—defined as approaches with positive market performance
impact that a small group of top-performing organizations are employing and which every organization should
consider implementing to improve global leadership development programs.
“As a leader, I take it as a personal responsibility, not only
to see that I am growing, but that people under my care
are growing, too—especially the first level of leaders who
are positioned to become the next level of leaders—they
need to be groomed and shown the path,” says Dr. Khalid
Saifuddin, head of global central monitoring for Novartis
Healthcare Private Limited in India. His perspective points
to the importance of timing when it comes to effective
GLD.
Is there an ideal organizational level at which to identify
global leadership candidates and begin to develop them
for their future roles? Many companies pinpoint high-
potential talent early in their career trajectories. But the
Study found that organizations don’t apply that same
rigor when it comes to identifying candidates for global
development.
Most organizations begin global leadership development
with mid- and upper-level leaders. However, the Study
revealed strong negative correlations with development
Start early—identify candidates at the individual
contributor or first levels of leadership and begin
their development in global leadership right away.
NEXT PRACTICE
Strong negative
correlation to GLDE
Strong positive
correlation to GLDE
Executive-level
Senior and functional-level leaders
Mid-level leaders
First-level leaders
Individual contributors
All respondents High-performance organizations Low-performance organizations Organizations with 1,000 or more employees. Source: i4cp
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS INCREASES WHEN CANDIDATES ARE IDENTIFIED EARLY
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 7
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
AMONG MANY AVAILABLE OPTIONS, 360-DEGREE ASSESSMENTS ARE FAVORED FOR CANDIDATE SELECTION
effectiveness when organizations look to higher levels
to identify global leadership candidates. Conversely, the
strongest positive correlations to GLDE emerged when
global leadership development began early—with first-
level leaders and individual contributors.
Global development begins at the first levels of
leadership at Johnson & Johnson, says Stacy Eng: “We
begin early to help leaders start forming the right habits
and behaviors. Then when they reach more senior roles
they already have the leadership foundation. We start
infusing global elements in our new manager training.”
Evidence-based selection yields top global leadership candidatesWhen it comes to selecting the ideal candidates for
development as potential future global leaders, high-
performance organizations take subjectivity out of the
equation as much as possible. HPOs far outdistance
their lower-performing counterparts by rooting the
selection process in objectivity: two-thirds use some
type of assessment
tool—360-degree
assessments are a
popular choice. One
in four HPOs takes
it a step further by
utilizing multiple
assessments. In
contrast, fewer than half of lower-performing companies
rely on assessments to guide their candidate selection.
8 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
experiences. However, Schlumberger augments that
on-the-job education with training that provides support
along the way up the organization.
According to Hyslip, first courses on leadership-related
people skills occur during employees’ second year of
tenure; additional leadership, and more structured,
courses follow as individuals move up organizational
levels.
APPLYING THE RESEARCH
Mobility develops global focus at Schlumberger
“We see leadership development and talent processes as
being entwined,” explains Janice Hyslip, career planning
and leadership development manager for the world’s
largest oilfield services company, Schlumberger. “So for
us, leadership development is not really a program, it’s
more a part of our DNA—how we do things—and it’s
based on our philosophy of promoting from within.”
Early mobility for its workforce of about 120,000
is a distinguishing trait for Schlumberger and one
that attracts talent. The notion of global mobility, or
borderless careers, begins at recruitment and applies to
all.
“It’s what people sign up for when they join us,” Hyslip
explains. “We believe in early exposure even for
individual contributors, and that includes people we
hire right out of college. It starts day one. To develop
leaders, companies want to build adaptability, tolerance
for ambiguity, and the ability to work with diverse
people. There is nothing that replaces early exposure to
help individuals develop those traits. It almost becomes
ingrained. If you take risks on employees when they’re
younger, the risk to the organization will be much lower
than if you did so later.”
Starting early with mobility and development comes
with an expectation that employees will learn and adapt
to situations largely through their day-to-day work
HOW SCHLUMBERGER BEGINS GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT EARLY
1. Build a culture of global development.
Schlumberger’s dedication to development puts
into practice a cornerstone of the company’s
culture—promote from within.
2. Use mobility and development to attract and
keep top talent.
Global mobility is at the heart of Schlumberger’s
employee value proposition. Conversations
about mobility and development begin during
recruitment interviews.
3. Mitigate risk through early exposure.
Stretch employees’ capabilities with global
assignments early in their careers to save on
long-term investments in unproven talent.
4. Use that early exposure to cultivate global
mindsets.
Early and ongoing mobility offers learning
opportunities that instill and nurture cross-
cultural collaborative skills, adaptability, and
other critical global leadership capabilities.
5. Provide structure.
Schlumberger uses company values and
behavioral imperatives to frame and guide
development.
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 9
A couple of frameworks give structure to leadership
development. The Management Essentials program
specifies expectations of managers and develops
behaviors in four categories: strategy and vision, building
teams that excel, focusing on customers and customer
service, and delivering results that inspire. CEO Paal
Kibsgaard added the Schlumberger Blueprint to define
behaviors for all employees that embody organizational
values and drive success.
On the challenging side, ground-up development can be
an expensive proposition for organizations, Hyslip points
out. And job exposure is just the beginning.
“There are a lot of other factors—in your culture, in how
you measure people, how you hold them accountable,
the discipline in your company, expectations. Our model
is very competitive. If you’re tested very early and you
don’t make it at a certain level, you’re not going to keep
moving up in your career. But there’s a big pool of
people that do continue to compete for the next level of
management. The strength of our process is seen when
we do our succession planning and we’re never ever
short of really top people who are either ready now or
ready in the future for leadership roles because we have
developed such an extensive pool.”
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
“To develop leaders, companies
want to build adaptability,
tolerance for ambiguity, and
the ability to work with diverse
people. There is nothing that
replaces early exposure to help
individuals develop those traits.”
Janice HyslipCareer Planning and
Leadership Development Manager
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10 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
FINDING 2
Business acumen is foundational but insufficient; social skills make the differenceIt’s all about bottom-line impact. So said more than
eight of 10 survey respondents who made driving
business results their top choice when asked about 17
capabilities important for global leaders. Ninety percent
of those representing high-performance firms agreed.
Increasingly, possession of business and financial
acumen abilities has become a base-line expectation.
Social skills that build trust, collaboration, and influence distinguish high-performance leadershipThe 2014 i4cp/AMA study, Global Leadership
Development: Preparing Leaders for a Globalized Market,
concluded that “collaboration and influence define the
new global leader.” Collaborative skills centered on
coaching diverse individuals and managing performance
of virtual teams. Influence involved persuading others to
alter their viewpoints, motivating people to take positive
action, and achieving excellence in work performance.
The current Study revisited influence and collaboration
and also examined capabilities and behaviors related
to relationship-building and effective communication.
The conclusion: it is these softer, or social, skills that
stand out as true differentiators among global leaders—
especially those heading high-performance organizations.
Johnson & Johnson’s Eng explains that global
development in her company includes a focus on such
“soft skills as coaching and feedback, leading in a virtual
environment, communications skills, leading teams, and
transitioning roles.”
Across influence, collaboration, relationships, and
communication, the Study asked about leaders’
effectiveness in 29 capabilities, all of which correlated
strongly to the MPI, the GPI, and the GLDE. Enormous
differences in capability effectiveness emerged between
high-performance organizations and their lower-
performing counterparts.
High-performance leaders possess proven business
acumen, but their abilities to develop themselves
and others, while also building relationships with
key stakeholders beyond enterprise walls, signal
capabilities that drive global success.
NEXT PRACTICE
TOP 10 CAPABILITIES HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE IN THEIR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS1. Focusing on customers
2. Building trust
3. Developing others
4. Driving business results
5. Developing strategy
6. Communicating clearly
7. Exerting positive influence
8. Taking personal responsibility
9. Facilitating collaboration
10. Positively affecting employee engagement
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 11
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Leading beyond the organization is a hallmark of high-performance global leadersAmong social skills linked to influence, relationship-
building capabilities are particularly important. Leading
beyond the enterprise by establishing productive
relationships with diverse stakeholders outside the
organization and integral to its success is a key element
in achieving both business results and competitive
advantage. Leaders in high-performance organizations
are 3x more likely than those from lower-performing
firms (68% versus 23%) to take such action to interact
effectively with government officials, partners, resellers
and customers.
Internally, those high-performance leaders are nearly
2.5x more likely to build similar relationships with
diverse individuals across all organizational levels.
Together, these behaviors are hallmarks of collaborative,
influential, and culturally agile leaders capable of driving
high performance in global settings.
EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL SKILLS FOR GLOBAL LEADERS
• Encouraging open expression of ideas
• Building relationships inside and outside the
organization
• Adjusting communication styles to varied
audiences
• Demonstrating awareness of global differences in
cultural practices
• Maintaining positive relationships under difficult
circumstances
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
12 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
APPLYING THE RESEARCH
Ford’s GLS program emphasizes self-awareness and looks beyond enterprise walls
Ford’s Global Leadership Summit (GLS) program
encompasses self-development and relationships
beyond the enterprise. John Hine says, “The first week
[spent in China] is all about participants’ appreciating
and understanding the quality of their leadership, their
leadership style and their impact as leaders on those
around them. It’s also about building an appreciation for
the culture in our fastest-growing market and improving
the leaders’ impact on the people they interface with
in that market. Participants quickly learn that China
represents the content of the program and not just a
location for the learning event.”
Building on participants’ existing business savvy is part
of the GLS experience, too. “We ask them to gain a better
appreciation for what the real opportunity is for us in
growth markets like Asia/Pacific. It can be a big eye-
opener, providing the realization that their leadership
style needs to shift. The opportunity in a growth market
like China is tremendous, but it requires different
leadership qualities to engage and lead the people.”
Facilitators from Ford (including Hine) and two external
instructors deliver learning in multiple ways. “When we’re
in China, the experiences we have there contribute a lot
of the content participants gain exposure to. We spend
more time facilitating discussions about what people
observed, how it relates to their business or what we
should do about it than we spend worrying about having
an expert coming in to talk about a model.”
Leading beyond enterprise walls Experiential learning for GLS participants begins with
a visit to two Ford dealerships, which the group helps
open that day. They also observe delivery of vehicles to
customers. Hine continues: “We tour the facilities and
interact with the personnel who run those dealerships.
We also interact with their customers.”
Taking leadership development beyond the walls of
Ford, the GLS group tours competitors’ dealerships so
participants can, says Hine, “see how they compare and
contrast to Ford Motor Company’s dealerships in terms of
the energy, the atmosphere, the quality of product, and
the operation.”
Exposure to market factors in China adds another
dimension to the program. Hine takes participants to
the Parts Depot, “an area in Chongqing where customers
can buy parts for any type of car. Those parts range from
“The opportunity in a
growth market like China is
tremendous, but it requires
different leadership qualities
to engage and lead the
people.”
John HineGlobal Director of Organization Leadership
and Professional Development
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Institute for Corporate Productivity | 13
Global Leadership Development: Knowledge Immersion NowDeveloping Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
knockoff copies to an official part for a vehicle and are
priced very competitively compared with what might be
charged at a dealership. The GLS group then explores
a key question: How does this way of doing business in
China create competitive advantage for others and not
us? The dealer visit and Parts Depot are experiences we
extensively debrief.”
Other beyond-the-enterprise learning during the China
trip involves meetings with joint venture partners
to explore those working relationships, associated
challenges, and the cultural factors that influence
those partnerships. Culture also comes into play at
the conclusion of the week when a traditional Chinese
banquet is held. According to Hine, GLS participants
receive instruction “on the protocols and behavioral
expectations related to the banquet and learn about the
role it plays in doing business in China. We also spend
time touring their facilities, driving their indigenous
products, and providing feedback on their products.”
Hine and his team are working on expanding learning
opportunities for leaders after GLS completion, aiming
to reinforce business and social/cultural skills and
craft “more informal opportunities to continue leaders’
explorations of their leadership styles and quality.
We’re trying to get people to realize that learning takes
place every day in every interaction that we have. When
people understand they can learn something from every
interaction, we’ll have a true global learning organization
at Ford.”
APPLYING THE RESEARCH
At Novartis, global development includes skills for the virtual world
As head of global central monitoring, Novartis Healthcare
Private Limited, physician Khalid Saifuddin leads a
team in Hyderabad, India, that embodies cross-cultural
interaction. The group, which Saifuddin pioneered for
Novartis, provides continuous central remote monitoring
for early safety detection and data quality for the
company’s globally dispersed pharmaceutical trials. The
revolutionary approach encompasses almost all trials
within Novartis.
In his position, Saifuddin is a leader of leaders. His team
of more than 70 managers and individual contributors
perform real-time data reviews of trials Novartis is
conducting worldwide. Saifuddin is responsible for their
performance and development. The latter begins with
what he describes as a “robust” development plan early
in the year.
“We have a talent management system that every
associate is obliged to update,” Saifuddin explains. “They
also have a development discussion with their manager
about their strengths, training needs, and short and
long-term development plans. Associate and manager
agree on those factors and development is planned for
the year. That could include face-to-face training, online
training, workshops, mentoring, coaching or on-the-job
training, but the focus is on experiential learning.”
Some development content comes from Novartis
headquarters in Switzerland. “We get guidance on global
leadership development and what we call the Novartis
leadership model, which addresses different skills at
different leadership levels—managing yourself, managing
14 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
others, manager of managers, functional manager,
business manager, et cetera.”
For Saifuddin’s team, development typically takes the
form of action learning, such as peer interactions and
role-playing, within live workshops conducted three
to four times per year that aim to build leadership
capabilities across different levels. “We do 360-degree
assessments and learning types testing,” he says. “There
are pre-works, then the workshops. Most programs
also have a post-workshop activity to enable us to see if
participants are applying the learning in their work life.”
Because of the nature of the function’s operations—with
trials running worldwide and major stakeholders in many
countries—global skills training emphasizes effective
collaboration within the virtual environment. Says
Saifuddin: “Sitting in Hyderabad and serving stakeholders
who are outside of India requires a lot of a Novartis
associate. We address communication considerations
like the pitch and tone of voice and good listening skills.
Obviously phones and email don’t have a face-to-face
component so you must be aware of how you modulate
your voice, how you write and modify your emails.
Associates must work on their influencing skills, and we
spend a lot of time on cross-cultural training, focusing
on diversity and inclusion and on understanding cultures
and boundaries.”
Saifuddin points out an important aspect of development.
“I believe that it is very important for people I am trying
to develop to stretch, to go beyond their comfort level.
But I have to be careful. I have to understand how
much they can take and how much they are willing to go
beyond those comfort zones. I also have to be aware of
their personalities—people may not always speak openly,
especially in Indian culture where people don’t open up
or speak up often. I need to be very conscious of body
language and other cues to know when a manager has
had enough.”
“Associates must work on
their influencing skills, and we
spend a lot of time on cross-
cultural training, focusing on
diversity and inclusion and on
understanding cultures and
boundaries.”
Khalid SaifuddinHead of Global Central Monitoring
L
L
Electronic learning is a game changer for some HPOsElectronic delivery of learning offers a convenient and cost-
effective means of reaching globally dispersed leadership
candidates, and both self-paced e-learning and virtual
classroom instruction are being leveraged by high-
performance organizations at a rate as much as 6x that
of lower-performers. Even at that, fewer than one in three
HPOs reported use of those electronic formats, meaning
the methods may offer opportunities for differentiation for
organizations able to quickly and effectively implement them.
Lear Corporation’s Lear Leadership Library (see feature on
pg. 17) affords worldwide online access to development
materials for leaders across the organization. The cost-effective
electronic delivery medium makes learning convenient for
leaders in any time zone and at any hour of the day.
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 15
FINDING 3
Experiential learning is a powerful teacherThe more traditional approaches to learning—instructor-
led classroom training and externally provided academic
or development programs—topped the list of effective
methods of developing global leaders, according to most
survey respondents. Indeed, these well-established best
practices provide environments away from the workspace
where leaders can gather to focus on learning and
collaboration.
At the same time, the Study highlights the importance
and impact of experiential or action learning (such as
simulations, games, role plays, and case studies). These
methods introduce and reinforce desired behaviors by
preparing leaders for situations they’ll encounter on the
job. As such, the experiential approach can help reduce
job-related risk, increase on-the-job effectiveness, and
support greater knowledge transfer in the classroom.
External academic or leadership development programs
Traditional instructor-led classroom training
Experiential or action learning
Self-paced e-learning
Online instructor-led training
48% 47% 43%31%31%
Source: i4cp
HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONS APPLY MULTIPLE LEARNING METHODS IN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Both self-paced e-learning
and virtual classroom
instruction are being
leveraged by
high-performance
organizations at
a rate as much as 6x
that of lower-performers.
16 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Content uncertainty can hobble effective global leadership developmentWhen it came to factors posing obstacles to global
leadership development, survey respondents were most
likely to cite such usual culprits as limited time available
for candidates’ participation and budget constraints.
Inadequate post-training follow-up, lack of non-financial
resources, and lack of senior management participation
also ranked at the top of Study participants’ lists of
barriers inhibiting their GLD programs.
But perhaps the most potentially damaging barrier
involves organizations’ inability to identify content
appropriate for their global leadership development
programs. Of more than a dozen obstacles noted in the
Study, content was the only barrier that emerged as a
greater problem for HPOs than for lower-performers.
Further, issues over content also reflected the highest
negative correlations to market performance, global
performance, and GLD effectiveness, meaning that
the companies reporting difficulty with GLD content
also were likely to report lower performance and
development effectiveness.
Determining the appropriate content for global
leadership development programs can hinge on multiple
factors, such as organizational strategies and business
objectives (current and future), company structure,
corporate culture, locations of operations, key markets,
and more. Aligning leadership development to support
the factors unique to the organization is critical. An
example is Ford’s design of its global development
program content to support the company’s goals for
growth in world markets.
The most potentially damaging
barrier involves organizations’
inability to identify content
appropriate for their global
leadership development programs.
L
L
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 17
APPLYING THE RESEARCH
Lear Corporation’s business goals and culture drive GLD content
Lear Corporation, a Fortune 200 manufacturer and
distributor of automotive seating and electrical
distribution systems, has closely tied its global leadership
development to business goals and bases program
content on 18 behaviors detailed in the company’s Lear
Leadership Model.
“We specifically chose behaviors and not attributes
because behaviors are what people see,” explains Noelle
Gill, vice president of global leadership development.
Gill and her team created the model over the course of a
full year. She calls the lengthy design process “time well
spent because once you arrive at that model and have
collective buy-in, you can cascade those behaviors down
very swiftly through the organization."
Lear’s CEO set the tone, says Gill. “When Matthew
Simoncini became CEO in 2011, he laid out ambitious
goals for profitable business growth and unified the
company under a message of One Lear, working together
and winning together to tear down silos and eliminate
silo-thinking across operating divisions.” Achieving
those goals required strong leadership and a shared
understanding of expectations. The Lear Leadership
Model provided the organization’s means to achieve
those ends.
Very specific multi-part definitions for each of the 18
behaviors in the model include “what a behavior looks
like when it’s well done and what it looks like when it’s
poorly done or not done.” The model has been translated
into more than 20 languages, shared with every
employee, and is prominently displayed at every location
where the company operates worldwide.
HOW LEAR CORPORATION BUILDS RELEVANT GLD CONTENT 1. Make content organization-specific.
The CEO’s One Lear imperative drove definition of
a detailed leadership model. GLD content is based
on the model, and training is uniform worldwide
(with cultural adjustments if needed).
2. Simplify content for clear understanding.
Lear invested a year in detailing its leadership
behaviors and clarifying how each is correctly put
in practice.
3. Develop one critical behavior at a time.
The One Lear Leadership Series trains on one
key leadership behavior until the entire roster of
VPs and directors has participated. Subsequent
iterations will address different behaviors.
4. Involve senior leaders.
Lear’s senior leadership team actively participates
in every GLD workshop, ensuring alignment
with business goals, and emphasizing GLD’s
importance.
5. Use action/experiential learning.
Participative learning makes training more
memorable and provides participants a safe
environment to practice new skills. Peer
interactions expand leaders’ networks across the
organization.
6. Sustain and share the learning.
The Lear Learning Library supports GLD by making
behavior-specific resources accessible online
anytime. Materials reinforce learning and aid
leaders in cascading development to their teams.
18 | Institute for Corporate Productivity
Next, learning becomes active. A demonstration of
effective coaching showcases best practices, then leaders
pair to practice coaching one another. Says Gill: “We
want to show that peers can coach peers and that peer
coaching can mirror coaching with direct reports. It’s all
to hit home the notion that leaders are responsible for
developing other leaders and the talent on their teams.”
More experiential learning follows: “We borrow from
the concept of speed dating for an exercise where
participants provide peer coaching to one another in two
minutes and then move on to the next person. Though
these leaders know little about each other, they tell us
their peers quickly grasp their issues and give them
coaching that is awesome. The activity emphasizes that
leaders need to coach their teams but also affirms that
they can look to one another for support and counsel.”
To sustain learning beyond the workshop, Mahoney
created a Lear Leadership Library. Available online
globally, the library uses some pre-packaged Skillsoft
content, but was carefully chosen and organized by
Mahoney to afford easy access to materials closely
aligned with the Lear model. She says, “We did a very
tight integration with the library and our internal Intranet
so a leader can go online and quickly get to videos,
executive book summaries and learning tracks that help
him or her focus on the behaviors they need to develop.”
One-page learning guides aid that focus while also
providing fodder for staff-meeting discussions that help
take leadership development down to the team level.
Basing GLD on the Lear Leadership Model is driving
success, according to Gill, who reports that the operating
performance of the company has tremendously
increased. “Even our board of directors believes that a lot
of it has to do with prescribing and codifying leadership
behaviors so that everyone understands what is expected
of a leader.”
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
The One Lear Leadership Series pairs consistent content and action learningGill, along with Marian Mahoney, global director of
learning, tools and systems, uses the leadership model to
drive consistent content in Lear’s GLD program—the One
Lear Leadership Series. The program delivers that content
worldwide through intensive two-day workshops for
audiences of 70-to-80 directors and vice presidents.
The GLD program begins pre-workshop with an
assessment of participating leaders by the teams that
report to them. Feedback is provided anonymously
through an outside partner. Says Gill, “Through this
assessment, the leader gets a bottom-up look at what
their team thinks about them, their strengths, and areas
in which they have opportunities to grow. All based on
the Lear Leadership Model behaviors.” A week before the
workshop, leaders receive a customized report on their
assessments. Gill and her team host a call and webcast
to help recipients understand and process the feedback
constructively.
At the live workshop, Lear’s senior leadership team plays
active roles. CEO Simoncini opens the session with an
overview of the business—“where it’s been, where it is
today, where it’s going—and provides strategy insight.
Beginning with the business focus emphasizes the close
ties between business results and leadership,” says Gill.
Day two features a video chronicling the company’s
emergence from financial difficulties in 2009. “Our CEO
is an incredible, inspiring, transformational leader,”
Gill observes. “He follows the video with a talk on
the leadership assessment and shares his personal
experiences and insights on leadership.” The presentation
provides a bridge to discuss common themes identified in
the assessments.
Developing Global-Minded Leaders to Drive High Performance
Institute for Corporate Productivity | 19
FINDING 4
A global mindset integrates diverse perspectivesWithin organizations, leaders must motivate and
collaborate with employees and groups with whom they
may not have previously worked. Beyond enterprise
walls, leaders must build awareness of and effectively
address disparate vendors, suppliers and stakeholders;