Global Business Leadership Research Paper

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Global Business Leadership

When I first registered for the global leadership class, I thought "isn't all business the same?" In the sense that I really wasn't sure what distinguished global leadership from any other type of leadership. Having never held a management position in the workplace, I was perhaps at a disadvantage to understand the nuances of the question of global business leadership. The course has broadened my understanding of leadership on a global scale.

I see leadership as the process of leading people. The latter point is specific to understanding what leadership is -- people. A manager is someone who manages resources, and directs them to tasks, but these resources are not necessarily people -- they can be capital, or equipment. Thus, a manager is someone who determines who and what will perform the different tasks that will bring the organization closer to its stated objectives. Leadership is somewhat different, relating to specifically to people, and specifically to more psychological aspects of managing people. Anyone with sufficient formal authority can determine tasks for people, given a culture such as the military where formal authority trumps all, but leadership is a softer skill. The leader inspires people, and guides them. The types of verbs that are associated with leadership are different from those associated with management, for example a leader motivates, energizes, inspires, influences…in essence a leader is someone who doesn't just tell people what to do, but who engages people, and transforms how they view their role within the organization. A good leader should be able to do this in a way that allows for superior results relative to someone who does not engage in leadership, but merely directs resources. By influencing behaviors and mindsets, a leader performs a critical role that is distinct from managing (Rost, 1998).

Global leadership is a distinct form of leadership, pertaining to a modern business environment where the leadership has to translate across countries and cultures. This is a tricky element of leadership, because leadership is inherently about the way that the leader interacts with the followers -- cultural context can be quite important.

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In some countries, leadership is uncommon due to high deference for formal authority. In other situations, people from different cultures are motivated by entirely different values. Global leadership is the process of leading in a global environment, something that requires tremendous skill in navigating through different cultures, and seeks to build a common culture where the leader's effectiveness is high throughout the entire organization. Leading in a global context can be quite challenging for someone with limited intercultural experience.

The power of leadership was in evidence when I studied Elon Musk, leader of SpaceX and Tesla. Musk's leadership style is inspirational, in that he has a strong vision of the future, and communicates this well. These two companies in particular are driven by a set of ideals, but also by Musk's vision. There is a tremendous amount of hard work involved, so people who work for these companies need to buy into the vision, in order to be willing to commit themselves to pursuing success on Musk's terms. So Musk works with teams of people, who come from all over the world -- Musk himself being an immigrant -- and gets everybody in these companies to buy into his vision wholly and completely. Thus, a common culture has developed at these companies. At SpaceX when a rocket failed to launch, everybody was as eager to figure out the cause of the crash as Musk was, because that is part of the culture to which everybody has bought into at SpaceX, and that culture reflects Musk's leadership.

Section 2

Leaders very much influence the future, because they are the visionaries. The leader has the vision of where the organization needs to go for the future, then communicates that vision and gets buy-in from everybody else. In that way, leaders guide an….....

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