With increased complexity, glob­al­iza­tion and inter­con­nect­ed­ness compa­nies are forced to adapt to constant change faster than ever. New tech­nolo­gies disrupt indus­tries overnight. The high demand for skilled special­ists has changed the power balance for the benefit of the employee. And glob­al­iza­tion enriches our work­places with a broad mix of cultural influences. 

This new land­scape of complexity puts completely new levels of demand on global leaders oper­ating in this envi­ron­ment. And global leaders are a scarce resource. According to A Case Study of Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment Best Prac­tice, only 16% of the multi-national compa­nies plan­ning to glob­ally expand their oper­a­tions reported having enough Global Leaders to fill the crit­ical roles. 

There­fore, compa­nies should make it a busi­ness priority to provide their leaders with adequate training to fill the exper­tise gap. Luckily, a variety of different Global Lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tions provide a port­folio of services to meet the demand. Here are four of them worth checking out. 

The order they’re presented in doesn’t signify a rating — it all depends on what you as a global leader are looking for in a global lead­er­ship program.

1. Gain the Right Tools with Wharton Exec­u­tive Education

“The only constant in life is change.” Famously said by Greek philoso­pher Hera­clitus, change manage­ment experts know that this still holds true today — except that the speed of change has picked up enor­mously since the pinnacle of Greek society. 

The rapid changes reshaping busi­ness today require leaders who stay ahead of that speed of change. Whar­ton’s Global Strategic Lead­er­ship program helps exec­u­tives under­stand global lead­er­ship dynamics and gain a new mindset and tools to create a clear global busi­ness strategy.

The Wharton faculty support partic­i­pants in antic­i­pating future changes and staying ahead of economic forces shaping global busi­ness. The program helps global leaders to iden­tify the early signals of change in their orga­ni­za­tion, industry, and geog­raphy, and under­stand how they’re linked. This enables leaders to gain greater agility to trans­form their inter­na­tional busi­ness strate­gies and visions to inspire growth and successful, inten­tional and desired change. 

Wharton espe­cially focuses on strategic thinking, vision, and global context — the intrinsic factors of global busi­ness exper­tise, one of the four main compe­ten­cies a global leader needs to be successful. 

2. Polit­ical Leaders Access Confi­den­tial Support through Global Lead­er­ship Foundation

Global lead­er­ship doesn’t have to be all about busi­ness — these days, politi­cians must also learn the ins and outs of being a successful global leader. The Global Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion is a not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tion oper­ating discreetly and in confi­dence to support polit­ical leaders across the world. Their mission is to nurture good gover­nance in the world by providing today’s national leaders with the expe­ri­ence of yesterday’s leaders. 

Increased polar­i­sa­tion, populism, and economic crises put even higher demands on today’s leaders to foster open and free soci­eties. Faced with this chal­lenge you can feel alone at the polit­ical top. Thanks to this orga­ni­za­tion, you don’t have to be. 

3. Foster Cultural Agility and Inclu­sivity with Aperian Global

The right corpo­rate culture can fast-forward the neces­sary busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion. Culture is becoming increas­ingly impor­tant for the success of compa­nies, and it is impor­tant to foster an agile, inclu­sive and adapt­able culture to succeed in a global context. 

An orga­ni­za­tion that can help orga­ni­za­tions foster cultural agility and create an inclu­sive work­place is Aperian Global. Aperian Global is laser-focused on the global lead­er­ship aspect of providing a program in which they support expats to become successful in their new inter­na­tional assign­ments. Sending employees abroad is more than just buying a flight ticket, and Aperian Global helps orga­ni­za­tions estab­lish successful expat programs. 

Global lead­er­ship isn’t just a fancy word you can learn during a one-off training session. It requires dedi­ca­tion, a never-ending curiosity to learn, and a will­ing­ness to adapt and change. 

Fostering global lead­er­ship requires a port­folio of lead­er­ship training, coaching, network support, culture, and busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion. We think the three mentioned global lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tions marry beau­ti­fully with what we do. So how can we help your orga­ni­za­tion secure the busi­ness-crit­ical global leaders of tomorrow? 

4. Develop Multi-National Leaders with eurac’s Global Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment Program

Tradi­tional leaders are strug­gling with the increase in complexity, cultural change, disrup­tion in tech­nology and glob­al­iza­tion. According to World Economic Forum, securing Global Lead­er­ship “remains the biggest chal­lenge of all for 2013 and beyond”.

According to McKinsey, global lead­er­ship is of the highest priority for orga­ni­za­tions to enable global success. The increased expec­ta­tions on leaders today can be rather daunting for tradi­tion­ally educated leaders, however, you are not alone. According to Deloitte (2015), only one out of three leaders reported being effec­tive across markets. 

We’re here to equip leaders with all the neces­sary skills to become an effec­tive global leader, incor­po­rating all aspects of global busi­ness exper­tise, like change manage­ment, as well as the neces­sary inter-/intra-personal and multi-cultural competencies. 

eurac Global Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment Program — What You’ll Learn

The two most impor­tant skills required of a global leader can be divided mainly into two domains: 

1. Tech­nical / profes­sional compe­ten­cies and skills
2. Compe­ten­cies asso­ci­ated with connecting and relating with people who differ cultur­ally from the leader

As compa­nies are gener­ally expe­ri­enced in equip­ping leaders with the neces­sary tech­nical and profes­sional compe­tences, we focus on devel­oping leaders within the second domain. Based on Allan Bird’s “A Frame­work of Nested Global Lead­er­ship Compe­ten­cies”, we develop leaders within four main skills:

By devel­oping these four key compe­ten­cies of global leaders, you set a solid foun­da­tion for true global lead­er­ship. It requires dedi­ca­tion and a strong drive to learn and adapt, however it is our belief that all leaders with the right atti­tude can learn this scarce skill. Get started here. 

To learn more about eurac’s Global Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment Program or global lead­er­ship in general, sign up for our weekly newsletter and get our weekly arti­cles deliv­ered straight to your inbox: