Can you be a successful global leader without having “people skills”? 

This ques­tion is actu­ally easily answered: No. You defi­nitely need people skills, also known as inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies, to be a successful global leader. And good ones at that.

We know this is tricky. Some people are born with an innate inter­per­sonal compe­tence that allows them to easily make friends and influ­ence people, while others struggle to build and main­tain mean­ingful rela­tion­ships. So perhaps the more intriguing ques­tion is: Can you develop inter­per­sonal skills to become a successful global leader? 

To that, we say yes — as long as you’re willing to work on your­self. So let’s dive into the details of inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies, why they’re so impor­tant, and how you can assess and develop them to become a successful global leader.

Inter­per­sonal Compe­ten­cies of Global Leaders

First off, let’s be clear on the defi­n­i­tion of inter­per­sonal skills, also known as social compe­ten­cies or more collo­qui­ally as people skills. For most people, inter­per­sonal compe­tence means the following: 

Inter­per­sonal compe­tence is the ability to interact with others and with the commu­nity. This includes the ability to build and main­tain healthy rela­tion­ships that are mutu­ally bene­fi­cial, and the capacity for inter­de­pen­dence and collaboration. 

This is the basic set of skills any leader needs to success­fully interact and commu­ni­cate with their team. They include: 

• Active listening
• Team­work
• Respon­si­bility
• Depend­ability
• Patience
• Flex­i­bility
• Moti­va­tion
• Empathy

Global leaders must go beyond this basic level of inter­per­sonal skills to effec­tively lead their team. Because global lead­er­ship goes beyond domestic, expa­triate, and compar­a­tive lead­er­ship, as well as global manage­ment or simply a global title, and becomes “extreme lead­er­ship”.

Yes, kind of like extreme sports. And like an extreme athlete who needs that higher level of resilience, endurance, willpower, fitness and courage to push them­selves to the absolute limit, so must global leaders take their compe­ten­cies — whether inter­per­sonal or other­wise — to a higher level. 

So let’s take a look at what further skills a global leader needs to demon­strate all neces­sary inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies for successful global leadership.

Emotional Intel­li­gence (EI)

Emotional intel­li­gence is success factor number one for global leaders — and the foun­da­tion of anyone’s inter­per­sonal skills. 

Emotional intel­li­gence allows you to

• self-regu­late, 
• make posi­tive choices about how you interact with others, 
• think before you act,
• increase empathy and altruism, and
• build high-quality connections.

Without the ability to accu­rately perceive your own and other’s emotions, under­stand the signals emotions commu­ni­cate between people, and manage your own and others’ emotions, your people skills will be sorely lacking, and the following neces­sary compe­ten­cies for global leaders non-exis­tent. See how skilled you are by taking the Emotional Intel­li­gence Test:

Valuing People

No man is an island.

John Donne

Whether you’re leading a company, a charity orga­ni­za­tion, or a polit­ical move­ment — people are your most valu­able asset. Without people, there is nobody to lead. And people who don’t feel valued by their leaders won’t want to be lead by them.

Successful global leaders value and respect people and their opin­ions. Not just team members or their followers; a good global leader also values people with opposing views and opin­ions. They offer a chance to learn and grow, and under­standing them brings global leaders closer to winning them over to their side. 

So how do global leaders show that they value the people around them? 

Being respectful 

Global leaders show respect to everyone they interact with. They under­stand that everyone has their own life expe­ri­ences, their own battles to fight, their own valid opin­ions, even if they differ from others. Global leaders aren’t afraid of “different”, but rather intrigued by it, and are able to see it as a worthy chal­lenge or food for thought. This mindset allows good global leaders to treat everyone, even the oppo­si­tion, with respect — thereby earning other people’s respect in return. 

Expressing appre­ci­a­tion and recognition

Few things are more moti­vating than the person you look up to, the person leading you, expressing their appre­ci­a­tion and grat­i­tude for a job well done. Global leaders know this and are happy and eager to show recog­ni­tion on a personal and specific level. 

Being honest and transparent

Truthful and trans­parent feed­back and open commu­ni­ca­tion can be diffi­cult at times, but global leaders under­stand that talking about bad news is a better policy than burying it. In the end, honest and open conver­sa­tions gain respect and garner the best possible results. 

Empow­ering Others

Empow­ering people goes hand in hand with valuing them, but takes that value one step further. Global leaders don’t simply respect others, are not just open about their appre­ci­a­tion for them, and don’t stop at honesty and transparency. 

Rather, global leaders under­stand that dele­gating tasks, handing over the project reins, and actively supporting people in their personal- and career devel­op­ment, moti­vates and inspires them to step out of their comfort zones and grow. 

Showing trust

Like respect, trust goes both ways. People are more inclined to trust someone who trusts them first. Global leaders take that leap by trusting people until proven other­wise, which sends an impor­tant message: You’ve got this, you don’t need me looking over your shoulder, but I know you’ve got my back, too. 

Mentoring

Global leaders also act as mentors for people around them. Of course they don’t have the time or oppor­tu­nity to mentor everyone they cross paths with; but they gener­ally want people to grow and succeed, and are happy to share the knowl­edge and wisdom they’ve gained where they can.

Creating oppor­tu­ni­ties

Good global leaders create oppor­tu­ni­ties for the people around them to grow and succeed. They might, for example, let them take on new chal­lenges and give them owner­ship in the form of a high-visi­bility project or lead­er­ship role, pay for work­shops and confer­ences, or intro­duce them to other leaders and influencers. 

Teaming Skills

Not to be confused with team­work, teaming is the activity of “actively building and devel­oping teams even as a project is in progress, while real­izing that a team’s compo­si­tion may change any time. Teaming is essen­tial to orga­ni­za­tional learning”. 

Teams aren’t the static group of indi­vid­uals that many models make them out to be (outside of sports teams or musical groups). Teaming requires the devel­op­ment of cogni­tive (thinking) as well as affec­tive (feeling) skills to expand knowl­edge and expertise. 

In this context, global leaders need teaming skills like 

• Flex­i­bility and pres­ence of mind to act quickly upon poten­tial collab­o­ra­tions presenting themselves
• Asking the right ques­tions at the right time
• Gaining trust quickly
• Commu­ni­cating effectively
• Building rela­tion­ships quickly
• Time Manage­ment
• Problem Solving

Successful global leaders under­stand that teaming is a dynamic activity, deter­mined by the mindset and prac­tices of team­work, not by the design and struc­tures of effec­tive teams. Teams must be able to coor­di­nate and collab­o­rate without the benefit of stable team struc­tures, because many organ­i­sa­tions like hospi­tals or power plants require a high level of flex­i­bility that makes stable team struc­tures diffi­cult and rare.

Assessing Inter­per­sonal Compe­ten­cies for Global Leaders

Few things are as diffi­cult to define and assess as inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies. As a soft skill, they are chal­lenging to quan­tify. Eval­u­ating them is a subjec­tive process, which makes them diffi­cult to convert into measur­able devel­op­ment steps. 

Many people also have a hard time being completely honest about their weak­nesses, or might not even be aware of them, which makes under­standing your inter­per­sonal compe­tence (or lack thereof) difficult.

But knowl­edge is half the victory. Once you know which inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies you’re lacking as a global leader, you can work to improve them. 

Here’s an overview of ways to assess your inter­per­sonal competencies: 

• Under­stand your person­ality type by taking person­ality tests like Myers-Briggs. Just the aware­ness of where your person­ality tends to have strengths and weak­nesses can point you in the right direction.
• Take the Global Emotional Intel­li­gence Test (GEIT) to deter­mine your emotional intelligence. 
• Take inter­ac­tive online quizzes and ques­tion­naires like this one or this one to assess your inter­per­sonal skill level. 
• Ask for feed­back specific to your inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies during perfor­mance reviews with your boss and be open to discuss them. 
• Gather honest feed­back about your people skills from as many different people in your life as possible; your colleagues, employees, supe­riors, spouse, friends, rela­tives – any- and every­body who is part of your circle.

Devel­oping Inter­per­sonal Compe­ten­cies for Global Leaders

Once you know what areas need improve­ment, you can start raising your inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies to a higher level. Here are several different ways to start, depending on what you need to improve. 

Improve Commu­ni­ca­tion Skills

As we’ve mentioned before, commu­ni­ca­tion is key to great inter­per­sonal skills. Without commu­ni­ca­tion, all your best inten­tions fall flat and your message won’t be heard. Here’s a list of things to do to improve your commu­ni­ca­tion skills: 

• Assess your audi­ence, choose an appro­priate channel to reach them, and monitor the effec­tive­ness of your message
• Ask the right questions
• Find common ground with your audience
• Use powers of nego­ti­a­tion and persua­sion to present your case
• Use rhetoric to construct a persua­sive argument
• Listen care­fully to the response to your message (Active Listening)

Learn to Manage Differences

Conflict arises in any team. Unre­solved, it can be damaging and disrup­tive, affecting morale and produc­tivity to the point where team members may disen­gage from the team or leave entirely. 

On the other hand, conflict is a good indi­cator of under­lying issues, offering the chance to analyze, under­stand and deal with them, which can prevent similar situ­a­tions from popping up in the future. 

There are several approaches to conflict reso­lu­tion: 

• Bell and Hart’s Eight Causes of Conflict helps iden­tify the source of an issue, the causes of which range from insuf­fi­cient resourcing and confused roles to incom­pat­ible values and unpre­dictable policies. 
• The Interest-Based Rela­tional (IBR) Approach recom­mends sepa­rating prob­lems from people. Issues must be exam­ined and discussed objec­tively to not damage the relationship. 
• The Percep­tual Posi­tions exer­cise helps you see other people’s points of view by picturing the situ­a­tion from different perspectives. 

Main­tain Personal Integrity

A person’s ability to stand up for what they believe in, i.e. their personal integrity, is the foun­da­tion of their inter­per­sonal compe­tence. It allows them to make choices and deci­sions in dealing with others by using their personal values as benchmark. 

Knowing and acting on their core values will always keep them on the right track through all their inter­ac­tions with other people, and serve as a guide in chal­lenging situ­a­tions. Personal integrity is espe­cially impor­tant for leaders of any kind, as people won’t follow someone who doesn’t have it in a fully committed and inspired manner.

Learn More About Inter­per­sonal Compe­ten­cies for Global Leaders with eurac

There are more ways to both assess and develop a global leader’s inter­per­sonal compe­ten­cies — but going into them all is beyond the scope of this article. As part of our global lead­er­ship devel­op­ment program, eurac provides both global lead­er­ship compe­ten­cies assess­ment and analysis, as well as then consulting, coaching and training exec­u­tives to be successful global leaders. 

Click here for more infor­ma­tion on how we develop global leaders for multi-national corpo­ra­tions, or sign up for our weekly newsletter to learn more about global leadership.