Global Asian Leader – from Asia, for the World

So what are the opportunities and challenges?

Talent in Asia brings some unique strengths to the table, with a particular stand out area being more VUCA-friendly (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) and therefore more adept at dealing with uncertainties. They generally embrace diversity, and show strong attributes in empathy and humility. They typically demonstrate strong work ethics and are quite agile in decision makings.

However,to become successful global leaders, they also need to demonstrate strong attributes in curiosity, courage, influence, trust, strategic thinking, and aspiration. And these are the areas Asian leaders tend to be perceived as having gaps. Culture is a reason for a lot of these, but not an excuse. To bridge the gap and step up, Asian leaders need to develop growth mindset and ability to deal with dilemmas; build capabilities and demonstrate must-have global leadership attributes. To accomplish this they will need to seek experiences to develop comfort with discomfort and span cultural boundaries and take proactive action to access and succeed in global roles.

From an organisation perspective, our panellists and participants shared best practices in how to promote access and success factors for Asian leaders:

• Provide early-career opportunities to stretch talent out of their comfort zone.
• Provide exposure to young talent in shadowing senior leaders on strategic planning
• Encourage and enable mobility with the systematic talent programs
• Provide role models, mentors, and more importantly, sponsors to talent with aspirations.

Global sponsors at the executive level must take the lead in advancing Asian leadership development initiatives. This implies that efforts to promote diversity in leadership without top-level support and commitment might not gain sufficient traction or resources. With this support, regional leadership teams and HR leaders are called upon to facilitate access for Asian leaders to global succession pipelines. This means creating pathways and opportunities for Asian professionals to advance and take on higher leadership roles globally.

With Asia fast becoming the world’s driving force, organisations must have Asian leaders who can take on vital roles in their global strategy. These global Asian leaders need to effectively direct local and regional businesses and contribute to and execute the joint global growth plans.

While talent must identify their key gap areas, organisations, leaders, and the HR team must help them close the gaps by putting them through the most appropriate leadership development interventions. Collectively, we can nurture stronger global Asian leaders – from Asia, for the World.

• HR Networking
• Leadership Development
• Asian Talent