Leading Across New Borders

Leading Across Borders is the leadership guide for the new business environment. The world's economic center of gravity is shifting at a rapid pace – huge emerging economies have already emerged. As businesses operate in an increasingly global context, the most successful leaders are able to see through the eyes of others and to hear the voices of customers and colleagues from around the world. They build their own personal networks, navigate differences, and work effectively across new borders – both the physical borders between countries and the limits of old leadership paradigms.

This book features direct input from people in critical roles around the world, advice based on deep practical experience, and new data that identifies the distinctive challenges of leading in an environment becoming more thoroughly interdependent every day. There is valuable advice for anyone taking on a global leadership role. You'll find strategies and tools for working across cultures, leading inclusively, running a matrix team, innovating, integrating an acquisition, and making tough ethical choices. Each chapter challenges established leadership models and shares hard-won expertise in dealing effectively with a changing reality that includes both fast-growth and slow-growth markets. You will learn how to serve more numerous stakeholders and to achieve your goals in a complex organizational structure without having direct lines of authority. This insightful guide helps you work more effectively at the self, team, and organizational levels, so you can get things done and grow your business.

The increasing importance of China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, and other developing economies has opened the world of business leadership far beyond our own borders. This book gives you a framework for coordinating it all, and being the leader your organization needs.

• Operate insightfully at the personal level in order to better lead others
• Shape, motivate, and drive your global team to exceptional performance
• Navigate differences in culture, language, economics, and more
• Exercise your vision, influence, and expertise to lead your organization forward

The trend toward global leadership has emerged full-blown amidst the rising global economy. Today's leadership must understand how to work effectively and efficiently across a variety of contexts. Leading Across Borders provides a roadmap to the new leadership paradigm, helping you expand your own skillset and create forward momentum.

Chapter 1—The Shifting Center: Emerging Markets Have Emerged 1
What Is Changing and Why This Matters

Chapter 2—Global Talent: Beyond Outsourcing 16
Who “Global Talent” Is, What People Want, and What They Need to Learn

Chapter 3—Global Mindset: Beyond Culture 35
When Cultural Awareness Is Not Enough

Chapter 4—Global Teams: Beyond Facilitation 55
Why Matrix Teams Fail and How to Get Better Results

Chapter 5—Global Inclusion: Beyond Race and Gender 74
Inclusive Leadership for Competitive Advantage

Chapter 6—Global Mergers and Acquisitions: Beyond Diligence 101
The Real Work Needed to Bring People Together and Make Any Deal Worthwhile

Chapter 7—Global Innovation: Beyond Products 123
Agility to Innovate on a Global Scale

Chapter 8—Global Ethics: Beyond Integrity 148
Conscious Choices to Ensure a Sustainable Future

Chapter 9—Leading From Your Own Center 165
Integrating Your Own Heritage, Present Awareness, and a Vision for the Future

Appendix A—Teamlaunch: Foundations 183

Appendix B—Assessments From Aperian Global 194

Appendix C—Recommended Case Studies 195

Notes 197

Bibliography 211

Acknowledgments 221

Index 223

ERNEST GUNDLING is co-founder and managing partner of Aperian Global. Dr. Gundling works with multicultural executive teams, coaches executives with global responsibilities, and is a sought-after keynote speaker. He also teaches at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and has authored four previous books as well as numerous other publications.

CHRISTIE CALDWELL is the Director of Consulting for Asia Pacific at Aperian Global. Ms. Caldwell conducts research and writes regularly on topics related to globalization, with particular focus on leadership development for high potentials in fast-growth markets.

KAREN CVITKOVICH is a Senior Consultant with Aperian Global and assists clients in the areas of global leadership, teams, negotiations, diversity & inclusion, change management, and post-acquisition integration.She has gone through CTI Coach Training and a certificate program in Neuro Leadership, and is certified on various psychometrics.

Praise for Leading Across New Borders

“What makes this book stand out from other books on leadership is that it is so thoroughly global in its approach. It challenges leaders and their organizations to embrace the big shift that is taking place in the world’s center of economic gravity, from advanced to emerging economies.”
—Pankaj Ghemawat, author of Redefining Global Strategy, Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy, IESE Business School, Barcelona and Global Professor of Management and Strategy and Director of the Center for the Globalization of Education and Management, Stern School of Business, New York University

“The authors have captured trends that are moving faster than most of us realize and that are critical for global leaders to know and navigate.”
—Terry Hogan, Director, Global Talent Management, Citi

“There is certainly a lot of chatter in the business community about globalization and its increasing impact on all of us. However, this is the first book I’ve seen that truly dives into how organizations can and should deal with these new dynamics. This is a comprehensive, practical and engaging playbook for operating in the new global environment. Anyone who runs a business with any aspect that crosses borders can benefit from reading this expertly written book.”
—Jeff Rosenthal, CEO, UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education

The world is changing, with a huge economic shift occurring between the developed economies and those that have recently emerged or are on their way. It is vital for leaders everywhere to learn how to navigate this altered landscape skillfully. Leading Across New Borders challenges common assumptions about critical everyday business topics such as global mindset, outsourcing, team facilitation, diversity and inclusion, due diligence, innovation, ethical integrity, and authentic leadership.

This one-of-a-kind resource looks at examples both from current executives and from high-potential future leaders who are all striving to grow their business, make their operations more efficient, and cultivate future talent. Based on pragmatic, real-world examples, the book addresses the question, "What must these leaders do to succeed in global organizations, often while serving many different stakeholders and without direct lines of authority?" It demonstrates how successful leaders integrate voices from customers and colleagues around the world into viable solutions.

Leading Across Borders will help you to:

• Combine cultural awareness with subject matter expertise
• Move from outsourcing to leveraging global talent
• Position a matrix team for high performance
• Lead inclusively across multiple aspects of global diversity
• Integrate a cross-border merger or acquisition
• Innovate by combining superior global products, processes, and marketing
• Make difficult ethical choices for a sustainable future
• Find your own center as a leader with an eye to past, present, and future

Additionally, this book includes a wealth of hands-on tools and web-based such as the GlobeSmart ProfileSM, the GlobeSmart Teaming AssessmentSM, the GlobeSmart Innovation AssessmentSM, and the Global Team Leader Checklist.

Whether you are new to the global workspace or struggling to find solutions to dilemmas many leaders now face on their own journeys, you need knowledge that goes deeper than cultural generalizations or standard leadership competencies. Leading Across New Borders provides first-hand, immediately applicable direction for interacting with your worldwide colleagues, enabling you to lead with insight, confidence, and success.