Identity and Influence: The Role of Culture in Shaping Global Leaders in a Complex World

Section 1:

Introduction

The role of global leader is highly complex than local and regional leaders. In order to be an effective leader in the global environment, it is important for the individuals to be able to work amid myriad complexity and challenges. It is because the business leaders in the contemporary global environment are faced with several challenges and these challenges are inevitable, which cannot be ignored but needs to be addressed strategically and tactically to eliminate or minimise the risks emanating from the challenges (Jokinen, 2005).

Notably, the global leaders in the current business environment are encountered with multiple cultural groups where they may face with situations in which values may conflict. In certain circumstances the cultural conflict can be glaring, which may create greater requirement for variety of leadership skills for its effective management (Gelfand et al., 2012). In the similar context, it can be argued that cultural assumptions and beliefs often play a crucial role in shaping the leaders identity in the global environment. However, it is important for the global leader to acknowledge the influence of culture on their thinking and behaviour. Often, leaders are carried away by their own culture that they began to place little importance to other culture. Correspondingly, global leaders should not limit their action and behaviour to own culture but needs to develop skills to accurately red people as well as situation in different culture and adjust their behaviour based on the situation. Another main challenge faced by the business leaders in the global environment is related with the communication. It is extremely important to engage in effective communication when functioning from a distance. However, operating the global environment makes the communication more complex due to geographic, culture and language barriers (Henson, 2016).

Key Global Business Challenges

The current global business environment is characterised by numbers of challenges and it is not easy for the leaders to function smoothly in such challenging environment. Although there are numerous challenges the two most important challenges associated with the current global business environment are related with the management of external environmental forces and management of human resources. Accordingly, the current external environment is highly dynamic and complex which is constantly changing whether it is economic, social or legal environmental forces and are mainly beyond the control of the businesses. On the other hand, human resources in the current global business environment represent valuable assets but they are also challenge for the global business (Dewhurst et al., 2012). In this regard, operating in international market particularly in emerging markets, businesses often are faced with the challenges of identifying and selecting skilled workforce which in turn has the capacity to negatively influence the productivity and performance of the business (Miller et al., 2000).

In such circumstances, the leadership theory and practices can have significant impact on dealing with these challenges faced by the global business and ensuring improved performance of the business. In this regard, the leadership theory and practices can help the global leaders to foster essential skills and competencies which can help them prepare to effectively understand and manage the external environmental forces as well as develop understanding about the people and culture towards driving the improved performance of the business.

Importance of Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Leadership in a Contemporary Global Context

In the recent times the scholars and business practitioners have stressed on the role and importance of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial leadership in ensuring improved performance of the business and dealing with the potential challenges in the global context. Accordingly, entrepreneurial leadership is defined as “having and communicating the vision to engage teams to identify, develop and take advantage of opportunity in order to gain competitive advantage” (Roomi & Harrison, 2011, p. 2). The global business is changing at swift pace and these changes have create greater demand for the leaders to demonstrate the agility, creativity and innovative ideas in order ensure success of the business in the global context. Correspondingly, entrepreneurial leadership include the characteristics and skills of successful entrepreneurs such as problem, solving risk taking and ability to make decisions quickly. Besides, they also promote creativity and innovation (Fernald et al., 2005). Hence, these characteristics and skills of entrepreneurial leadership is argued to help the business to effectively deal with the challenges associated with the global business environment and ensure smooth operation of the business. On the other hand, intrapreneurs are the managers and employees who are already existing companies and are actively engaged in identification and exploitation of business ideas for the success of the organisation in which they work (Mohedano-Suanes & Bentez, 2018).

The current global business environment is becoming more competitive, demanding and challenging for the business operating in the global context. In this related, it has been argued that entrepreneurial leadership can help the business to ensure in faster product development, higher quality and stability in prices. At the same time, it is argued that innovation is a key to success of the business in the global context, intrapreneurial leadership is thus claimed to provide environment essential for fostering innovation and create organisational culture for managing change effectively (Foley, 2013).

Section 2:

My Leadership Philosophy

In developing my idea for leadership, I examined what is most important for me as a leader. I tried to find answer to questions such as who I am as leader, what shapes the vision of leader and what comprise leader. I engaged in thoughtful reflection to find the answers to this question in developing my idea for leadership. Correspondingly, based on the reflection I found that leadership is not about title or following certain important principles. Rather it is complex but at its core it involves making right choices and decision; guiding and engaging other to realise the common vision, and empowering the followers and subordinates to achieve shared purpose and goals.

As a Leader: Knowledge about Self

Recently I was involved in volunteering activity which offered me with an opportunity to serve as a team leader. The activity included fundraising for orphans and I was assigned with leadership role to monitor the activities 20 volunteers or followers who were responsible for fundraising directly from the field. The leadership role assigned to me was challenging yet it offered me with a great opportunity to interact with different individuals and test my leadership skills. Though the fundraising activity was conducted for a short period of one month but it offered me with valuable knowledge and understanding about the leader and the leadership. Interestingly, it was my first of such experience that I was responsible for leading the group. It helped me to closely experience what leadership is and what constitute to leadership. My involvement in volunteering activity has significant impact on my personal leadership philosophy.

In this regard, an important factor that has influenced my leadership philosophy is knowledge about the self. When I was performing the role of leadership, I realised that an individual cannot be an effective leader unless he is aware of self and have an in depth knowledge about self. Initially, I was more concerned about the followers and I tried to regularly motivate them in order to achieve enhanced performance. However, despite my considerable efforts our group did not perform well and the find collection was lowest in the first ten days of the volunteering activity. I was unsure what was strong in my leadership practice while other group were performing extremely well. I was frustrated initially with the group performance. However, I then reflected upon my own strengths and weaknesses. It helped me understand that I had low motivation and lacked self-confidence. It was then I was able to make out why the individuals in my group had low motivation and not performing well. I then began to self-motivate and view things positive manner. Soon I feel change in my behaviour and my approach towards managing the group. The changes in my behaviour also correlated with the performance of my group members. Thus based on my personal experience, I strongly believe that that until one have knowledge about self or self-awareness, it is difficult for any individual to perform the role of leadership effectively (Tekleab et al., 2008). I believe that self-awareness has the potential to enhance the leadership performance as well as increase the leadership effectiveness (Bratton et al., 2011)

Leadership is about developing effective relationship with other. If an individual is unable to build strong relationship with the followers and subordinates, it becomes more challenging to perform the leadership task. An effective relationship can be built if a leader is self-aware and has the knowledge about the followers. The relationship between leader and the follower can mutually benefit both the parties and help businesses to deal with the emerging challenges jointly and efficiently (van de Valk, 2008). It was evident from my involvement in the volunteering activity. While performing the role of leadership, I also asked for feedback from the followers and listen to their suggestions. The feedback obtained from the followers not only help me to acquire knowledge about the self but it also helped me gain the trust of the followers and build strong relationship with them. The improved leader-follower relationship further improved the performance of the group members as our group was on the top after the 20 days of volunteering activity.

Another important factor which has contributed in shaping my leadership philosophy can be related with the core values. In fact, I believe that core values are the most important factors for becoming an effective leader. Hence, in my opinion, leadership performance needs to be driven by core values. Many of the core values embedded in me has been developed from childhood but I strongly feel that leaders needs to discover core values constantly in order to deal with the changing scenario. In another words, I believe that the core values should be dynamic rather than static because the leaders are often encountered with different situations which may demand leaders to demonstrate different behaviours and attitude in order to act in accordance to the situation. I believe that one of the most important core values that the leader should demonstrate while performing the role of effective leader is authenticity. Accordingly, I believe an effective leader needs to stay authentic which means he should be true not only to self but others as well. Accordingly, leaders need to demonstrate consistency in his behaviour in dealing and interacting with the followers. It is because trust is important factor that influences how followers view the leaders. If the leader is authentic and true, followers are more likely to develop more trust on leader and show greater willingness to follow the leader. When performing the role of leader during my participation in the volunteering activity, tried to stay authentic and true, which helped me gain the trust of the followers and drive their efforts to achieve desire outcome (Leroy et al., 2012).

Additionally, another important core values which I believe every leader should follow in all situations is related with the ethics. In this regard, the leader needs to maintain highest standard of ethics in dealing with customers, team members and other stakeholders. Accordingly, an effective leader should honest and engage in open communication. The leader needs to be accountable for the action performed not only by him but also by his team member. More importantly, I feel leaders avoid any sort of actual or perceived conflict of interest. Apart from the above stated core values, another important core value which I feel are extremely important particularly for the global leader is respect for diversity. The group of followers involves in the volunteering activity for fundraising represented individuals from different culture and background. Managing the differences among the group member was challenging but I strongly, feel that leaders have the obligation to respect differences among the team members and individual communities. Leaders support diversity and leverage it to gain competitive advantage (Dean 2008). It is worth to state that all these values are interrelated and leaders who are able to incorporate these values are in a position to deal with any challenges that the leader may face while fulfilling his commitment as a leader.

As a Follower: Knowledge about Others

As a follower I have been a part of a sales team in an insurance company. Even though it was a part time job, the key purpose of my involvement in the job was to gain first-hand experience about working in a company so that it can help be becoming an effective leader or a manager in my future career. Undoubtedly, my involvement in the job helped me developed variety of skills such as communication skills and analytical thinking skills, but it also offered me opportunity to experience what it is being a follower and closely understand the expectations that a followers have from their leader. While being a part of the sales team, I realise that knowledge about self does not provide sufficient criteria to be effective leader. In fact the knowledge about self should be coupled with the knowledge about the followers in order to be effective leader. An effective leader should lay considerable attention on understanding the follower’s views and perspective without considerable understanding about the followers, leading group can be frightening and leader may face significant challenges in seeking their cooperation. In this regard, I firmly believe that one cannot be a leader if there is no follower. As a follower I feel that followers withhold their support if the leader is not competent and weight behind those who are competent and acknowledge the importance of followers (Kellerman, 2007). At the same time, I observed that there are different types of followers such as some may not bother about leaders and may continue to support leader regardless the leader is competent or not. On the other hand some followers like me are more concerned about the behaviours and actions of the leader and may also disapprove their leader.

As a follower, I believe that followers invest their time and energy to achieve the shared purpose and vision. Correspondingly, leaders have the obligation to ensure that his followers are rewarded and appreciated for their commitment and dedication. In this regard, the leaders should treat every followers and subordinates with respect and ensure fair treatment. I strongly feel that more often the leader say ‘good job’, more good jobs can be achieved. In circumstances where leaders began to show bias or favouritism towards one particular follower, other followers are more likely to feel isolated and their trust for the leaders began to decline.

Moreover, as a follower, I firmly believe leaders should empower followers to make decisions. However, it is important for the leader to ensure that followers are delegated with decision making according to their abilities and asking something to do from the followers beyond their abilities can reduce the confidence level of the followers which may have adverse impact on the individual performance of the follower as well as on the performance of the group (Michael Ba, 2015). Additionally, apart from directing the efforts of the followers, I firmly believe that leaders should encourage creativity and innovation.

As an Observer – Self belief

I have also observed the leadership of a global leader named Richard Branson. I joined Virgin group as operational executive and learned about the leadership style of Branson. I have observed that Richardson has wonderful dedication and commitment towards the organisation and the employees. Observing his leadership helped me to understand different leadership theories such as motivation theory. In order to motivate the employees, a leader must understand the needs of the employees as different employees have different requirements. There are diverse factors apart from monetary rewards that can motivate and demotivate the employees. Richard has efficiently comprehended the needs and sentiments of the employees and hence become effective in maintaining a good work culture and organisational structure at Virgin. My first contact with Virgin yielded a coaching strategy. Branson’s first move was to put decision in my hand, which inspired me and enhanced my confidence. There was no one to give me any guidance and I found new methods of doing things, which suited my individual performance. This illustrates Branson hardly within any situations tell the employees what to do. He believed that the best person to take decision regarding the work is the one who is doing the work, because that person will know more about the present condition of market and the background of the decision to be made, rather than one who has previous knowledge in diverse settings at diverse time and at diverse situations. Being provided such a high level of responsibility made me super careful to examine, research and to improve my decisions. In this way he generates self belief within employees (Prewitt & et. al., 2011).

I have also understood about the charismatic leadership style by observing Richardson. Richardson has certain charisma which assisted to motivate the employees. Mullins (2007) stated that charismatic leaders effectively develop relationships by which they can influence the activities of others. Richardson uses its charismatic personality to influence the works of others. Mintzberg (2009) also stated that good leadership is based on earning the admiration of the employees. Such admiration is mirrored in the leadership of Richardson. He earns the respect of employees by demonstrating his sense of neutrality and fair-mindedness about treating every employee respectfully and equally. He has also encouraged a flat organisational structure with low level of hierarchy, which help to ensure better communication between upper and lower level employees. He has the ability to comprehend the feeling and assessing the attitudes of employees. He also has wonderful talent to change the leadership style on the basis of situation. I observed that Richardson demonstrates compassion to the needs of others. He provides attention and encourages others, which helped him to obtain support from his subordinates.

Another important incident which helped me to learn about a global leader is Elon Mask. I first learned regarding Elon from a website, while discussing a subject during university class. I observed how he struggled with the ups and downs of the organisations. As a visionary by heart, I become captivated to understand more about Elon that I researched and read about him. I observed what made him a good leader in current days and his capability in different skills. The amazing thing about Elon I learned is his persistent desire to get things done. I acknowledged that some of his individual abilities are his passion for finishing things, his desire to innovate and his capability to cast vision to the people. He also has charisma as a strong leader (Sobratee & Bodhanya, 2018).

I learned that Elon is a visionary leader and strictly has self confidence on the business he puts in his mind. Due to his strong vision he is confident to face challenges and to overcome them. One thing I have understood about Mask is he is able to tackle hindrances straight on. Whenever there is problem in the organisation, he is able to use hand on strategy in order to develop a solution. He also demonstrates adaptive leadership style. He empowers every employee to tackle hindrances and in this way he not only enhanced the success of the company, but also created an involved and satisfied workforce simultaneously (Saee, 2005). One thing I have understood from Mask is that he has dedication for constant development. For example, he identifies feedback as a key method to become a good leader. Therefore he invites individuals to provide him constructive feedback and also inspired his team members to do the same. He is a strong supporter of honest feedback for enhancement of both employees and organisational performance. Mask also prioritises learning. As an adaptive leader, he creates a culture of constant learning and development. He empowers the employees to always observe for ways to improve. His leadership style is regarding breaking through the hindrances and encouraging new methods of solving problems. He also demonstrates emotional intellect in order to bring the best from the employees. Ultimately, best leaders put their effort into empowering their subordinates to become better and to drive the success of organisation (Steers & et. al., 2012).

Section 3:

Conclusion

In conclusion, I need to state that effective leadership starts with being self conscious. This simply signifies that one need to perform hard to understand the personal strengths and weakness and also about the employees’ strengths and weaknesses and model methods in which the personal values are consistent with the behaviours. A good leader should give value to the employees for their strengths, rather than criticised for their weaknesses. Good leader require developing a culture of admiration for himself and for others. Finally, as a leader, it is important to give consideration to self belief. Increasing the performance and faith of the subordinates begins with self belief. Therefore it is important to comprehend the personal limits, identify the tasks which can be achieved and allocate others responsibilities in such a way that can involve the team members and encourage their improvement. In present days global trends are directing to growing degree of complexity, enthusiasm and confusion within companies. The present economy is uncertain, where organisations requires good leaders, who can develop proper strategies that will empower the companies to thrive in the market. Traditional leadership approaches have condensed inadequate by quick changes in the knowledge based economy. Through this reflective assignment, I have developed a sense and practical application of leadership in different contexts. It has added a whole dimension where I reflected not only my own leadership, but also others leadership style. By considering my experience and reflection, I understood the significance of developing a cooperative environment and to foster mutual respect in order to become a good reflective leader and to exploit the opportunities to better engage with people.

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