Leadership is a strategic prerequisite for business success in the global era. The globalised nature of competitiveness is placing more pressure on organizations to employ those leaders who are capable to develop a global vision for organizations. Leaders need to think globally yet act locally because local strategies need to be realigned with the global economic integration and for individual countries. There is a global need to investigate leadership to accomplish sustainable competitiveness in the global era. A new leadership style may be necessary as the global era demands are increasingly difficult to adapt and sustain profitability and performance. The emergence of global business environments drives companies to become world-class. Leaders within companies can play a crucial role in achieving a high level of effectiveness and world class efficiency and effectiveness.
Commitment, flexibility, and innovation are necessary attributes to evaluate the success of organizations in the global era. The global era represents cross cultural settings and requires executives who can adapt to various environments successfully. The major tasks of leaders in the global era include empowering employees, generating a shared vision, and creating fundamental changes at the organizational level. Furthermore, sustained performance in the global era is dependent on continuous learning. Leaders may be able to build a learning workplace through empowering employees. Leaders can improve knowledge sharing and enhance organization performance through empowering human resources and enabling organizational change. One way that leadership may be valuable in the global era is because leaders shed light on the critical role of employee’s attitudes and values in implementing change. Thus, leadership should be embraced at the senior level of organizations to enable performance through implementing organizational change and developing a shared vision for future expansion into global business environment.
Therefore, business success in the global era can be achieved when leadership is applied to change attitudes and assumptions at the individual level and creating collective-interests for cultural adaptation. When leaders can generate a shared and inspiring vision for the future expansion into global business environment, they will secure a foothold in the ever-expansive global marketplace.
Leaders can also inspire followers to rethink problems and challenge their current personal attitudes and values. Most importantly, leaders can effectively transform organizations by attempting to change the basic values, beliefs, and attitudes of followers so that they are willing to perform beyond their previous or originally level specified by the organization in their job description. Therefore, each leader plays a critical role in shifting organizations toward the creation of new services and products. Leaders can contribute to new products and services to meet dynamic market needs, through higher expectations and stimulation for new and strategic opportunities to meet the needs of customers in the global era.
In conclusion, I suggest that the way for managers and executives across the globe, to make the effective changes that are posited in effective leadership. Furthermore, the recommendations of effective leadership are to focus on developing a strategic vision for their future strategic initiatives and organizational innovation. By accepting the challenge of effective leadership, executives may be capable to overcome their deficiencies and lead better in our hypercompetitive global business environment.
Mostafa Sayyadi, CAHRI, AFAIM, CPMgr, works with senior business leaders to effectively develop innovation in companies, and helps companies—from start-ups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders. He is a business book author and a long-time contributor to HR.com and Consulting Magazine and his work has been featured in these top-flight business publications.
