Due to the impact of increased globalization on business and the factors that lead to successful global leadership, firms need to embrace emotional and cultural intelligences as part of their global leadership development programs. Those that do so will most certainly be rewarded with improved levels of global performance.
The implications for the training and development units of HRM departments are clear. However, outcomes for other parts of the organization are also substantial. Since studies of EQ skill levels and managerial performance show them to be positively correlated, companies should think in terms of selecting employment candidates with high EQs, especially for leadership positions. Certainly, developing EQ is both possible but advisable, and leadership screening for those with high EQs gives the company a leg up on the competition. Similarly, when tests are developed that can accurately determine CQ, these could also be used in the employee selection process. Since only a few CQ tests are currently in development, companies could create their own based on construct validity, until scientifically valid instruments are available.
Increasing globalization will make EQ and CQ skills more relevant throughout entire organizations, and virtually everyone in management and global business situations will need to focus on possessing these two skills. The implications for mentoring, coaching, performance management, and other leader/manager activities are obvious. Compensation programs will need to reflect these skills, possibly through a skill-based pay approach, but more likely through the incorporation of success criteria into the performance review reward system.
As we have discussed in this article, there are a number of vehicles available to assist businesses as they transform their managers into cross-culturally skilled leaders. Ultimately, companies that ignore this challenge will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage; individuals who fail to develop their EQ and CQ will likewise suffer. Individuals must go through the stages of awareness, motivation, and action/reaction in order to become cross-culturally skillful, and so must each company.
We acknowledge that successful global leadership is a function not only of leadership behaviors, but also of multiple intelligences: analytical intelligence (measured by IQ), emotional intelligence (measured by EQ), and cultural intelligence (measured by CQ). In this work, we have focused on the latter two. To be successful, global leaders must not only understand but also be able to work within the local culture and display high IQ, EQ, and CQ. Fig. 1 portrays a conceptualization that links all of the concepts we have presented. To be a successful leader in the domestic environment requires IQ, EI, organizational CI, and motivation. Motivation includes the elements of motivation (its direction, intensity, and persistence) and the types of motivation such as the need for achievement, goal motivation, or the ability to overcome adversity. These motivation issues are discussed in a sidebar. The 12 leadership behaviors that are classified into the three major groupings mentioned in Box 1 are then used to achieve results, but the success levels of these behaviors are affected by the sets of factors on the left side of the model: that is, IQ, EQ, organizational CQ, and other motivation. Accomplished appropriately, domestic leadership success occurs. In summary, at the domestic level of competition, IQ or analytical intelligence, EQ or emotional intelligence, organizational cultural intelligence, motivation and leadership behaviors contribute to successful leadership. But these factors do not immediately translate into global leadership success. Rather, CQ (cultural intelligence) is a moderating variable (Box 1).
A company seeking to have its leaders succeed globally must either select leaders with the appropriate skills or develop its existing leaders in those skills, particularly as they relate to emotional and cultural intelligences. Furthermore, it must either choose those who possess high levels of motivation to be successful leaders or develop those motivations in them. The abilities to persist in the face of adversity, endure in frustrating, confusing, and lonely foreign environments, adapt to different ways of thinking, and elicit the right responses in cross-cultural interpersonal relationships are prerequisites to successful global leadership. Learning from experiences, as well as failures, goes a long way in developing cultural and emotional intelligences. Understanding why a positive or a negative outcome occurred and how to repeat or avoid this outcome in the future is part of a life-long learning process. From an organizational perspective, developing successful global leaders is not just the task of the human resources department; rather, the entire organization must be involved in areas such as mentoring, coaching, role modeling, assessment, education, and providing experience. Only then can the organization expect to derive the maximum impact from a global business strategy.
