An intuitive "sense of the world"?

Political commentators speak of Barak Obama’s “intuitive sense of the world” and that his “personal identity” is more important than “experience and expertise”. This relates to his "global mindset": according to the Boston Globe his biography is extraordinary: “he is the biracial son of a father from Kenya and a mother who had him at 18; that he was raised in the dynamic, multi-ethnic cultures of Hawaii and Indonesia; that he went from being president of the Harvard Law Review to the gritty and often thankless work of community organizing in Chicago; that, at 46, he would be the first post-baby-boom president”. He has engaged in "a search for identity" and taken "a roots pilgrimage to Kenya,"These comments lead me to investigate the extent of Obama’s experience with foreign cultures. Obviously, orchestrated political visits do not always contribute much to knowledge of cultural differences. However, since 2005 Obama seems to have visited the following countries: Moscow, Kiev, Baku, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, South Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Djibouti, and Chad.I am somewhat surprised to see that he has not been to Europe or to Latin America. It seems to me that in order to be a leader on today's world stage one would need the robust quality of "global effectiveness" which unfortunately, is so often lacking in our political leaders.

International Customers

I saw a BNET blog this morning written by Geoffery James. He quotes a list from sales guru Jerry Acuff called “13 fundamental facts about human beings (especially customers).” Geoffery suggests that his edited list pretty much contains everything that you need to know in order to be successful at sales, at least when it comes to customer relationships. I completely agree -and because personal relationships are so important with international customers I have edited the list somewhat and pass it on to you.

• International Customers want to feel that they’re important.
• International Customers want to feel and be appreciated.
• International Customers are interested in you - in most of the world, some personal relationship is the basis for a sale.
• International Customers want the same two things in life as you: success and happiness.
• International Customers want you to truly listen.
• International Customers want to know that you appreciate and respect their culture.
  
• International Customers will only connect if they feel valued by you.
• International Customers buy emotionally and defend both logically and emotionally.
• International Customers’ attention span is very short, most especially when you are not on their cultural wavelength.
• International Customers with common interests have natural rapport.
• International Customers want to feel and be understood.
• International Customers are drawn to those who show genuine interest in them as persons.
• International Customers love to teach you things they know.
• International Customers want to associate with others who can help.

Specific challenges for international HR

Global organizations are focused on human capital issues. There seems to be an almost global consensus that people issues are vital to company success. As the "war for talent" intensifies, the acceptance of the importance of human capital will continue to grow. Among the people challenges, there is a broad consensus, across international regions, on what the important challenges are. They include:

• The development of "global" leaders
• The creation of a high-performance global corporate culture & high-performing teams
• Managing talent (recruitment, retention, training, compensation & incentives)

If HR professionals are to be seen to play a crucial role in strategy and operational results they need to pick up the gauntlet on these people issues and act as "functional leaders". This means more time spent focusing on the business drivers and less on HR "programs and services". Adopting the role of global, functional leadership is the great opportunity for HR professionals. They need to be perceived as being totally committed to improving the business - which they must understand as well as any other leader - by their expertise in "people issues". For many years now, I have believed that the globalization of business presents an incredible opportunity to the HR profession. To succeed they absolutely need a "global mindset". See "Strategic Opportunity for HR Professionals"

Strategic opportunity for HR professionals

It is almost impossible for employees to cultivate a global mindset - or for the organization’s leaders to acquire global skills - unless the culture of the organization itself is imbued with global effectiveness thinking, skills and behaviors.

At a time when business process outsourcing should be liberating us to focus on strategic rather than tactical issues, it is good to remind ourselves that developing organizational global effectiveness may be one of the most important contributions that HR professionals can make, if we are to have, or retain, a “seat at the table” in shaping corporate strategy.

Organizations devoid of a global way of thinking will not fare well in the international arena. Because human capital is the defining competitive differentiator of most organizations, HR's commitment to the task of attracting, retaining and managing the best talent available is its major strategic challenge. Read more...