No doubt there are many challenges for international leaders. I mean, there's a constant risk of misunderstandings and misinterpretations, misattributions that you're trying to manage, and there's a lot of complexity as you're managing across cultural divides there's, a lot of personal challenge. It can be intellectually taxing and emotionally taxing. If you're working in a cross cultural team or if you're working abroad, it essentially means that you're working, even living, outside of your warm and cozy cultural home base. But there are bright sides, of course, to international leadership. If there weren't this would be a cautionary course and we'd be saying don't do international leadership; but that's not what we're saying. We're saying embrace it as an opportunity, because it is an opportunity for learning, for personal development, and an opportunity to make a unique contribution to your organizations. The advantages are that we all learn a lot from experience. You are in category. You have a certain problem. You try to resolve it. You make some mistakes. You learn a few lessons. Then then you go into another category and you try to reapply and build some new learnings and new experiences. The advantage of the international experience is that you don't draw from one book, but you draw lessons from twenty books because every country's in a different stage, every country has different competition, different authorities and regulations. You fill in your your bottle of experiences much faster than when you are focused on one country or one category only. P&G also has the advantage of being a multi-category company so we play in many different categories, from baby care, to detergents where I am now, to some parts of beauty care, and fem care, and many others. That also multiplies, so when you get the categories times the countries you multiply your sources of learnings. Another advantage of the international experience together with the one of the learning from more places, is diversity. You get to know thousands of people with different styles, different cultures, different strengths, and if you are able to learn from all of that, you become a much more agile leader. Since I’ve moved abroad I was always interested in getting global in my mind. I don’t know where I got that from. It was some sort of interest I have had all my life. I grew up in Norway and I stayed there until I was an adult; but still, it's always been an old Viking dream of going out on the sea. but still, it's always been an old Viking dream of going out on the sea. I like that. Certainly there are advantages in learning and then suddenly you can get the whole world. You read the news, and you know someone. Oh, my friend in Egypt, she told me this and this happened; while in the newspaper I read this thing. Or you can start understanding news differently because actually you work with a person from there for four years and who brought you some food from there or something so you can start getting the picture of the world in a different way. So there are huge, huge advantages simply because you learn, you grow; it's interesting. So, ironically when you are always on the road and find different people, you learn not to pay attention to styles. You can be in Japan and everything seems very quiet and very smooth and everyone seems to agree. Then you go to Brazil and everyone is making jokes and disagreeing and the meetings are much louder and all of that. But you learn to put all of that aside. It becomes neutral to you. And you really pay more attention to what people say no matter which style they use. And you really pay more attention to what people say no matter which style they use. So it's a great opportunity to really stay focused on what matters and let go of all the noise that is in the background. My own experiences really mirror what our alumni have described, these enormous opportunities for personal growth and for learning. I think it's worthwhile to remind yourself that these opportunities exist, that you can really seize them to the fullest. In my mind, there are really three directions that you, that you can focus on In my mind, there are really three directions that you, that you can focus on as you have this experience as an international leader. The first one is to gain, to broaden your perspective, to get an understanding The first one is to gain, to broaden your perspective, to get an understanding of and the respect for the many different ways in which people approach work around the world. That you recognize the inherent strength that these approaches have that you distance yourself from the belief that your culture's way of doing things is the only and the best way. So you respect the local particularities but also the local complexities of the culture. And at the same time, of course, you get a global perspective. You understand what barriers there are of collaboration because of cultural and language differences, of course. But you also learn to appreciate the interdependencies that exist, and that really provide opportunities to come together and to collaborate. As an international leader you'll also gain relationships as you encounter people in cross-cultural teams or as you work abroad you form work relationships, mentorships, and in some cases friendships. And those can really change your outlook profoundly in some cases either because you're discovering that you find a kindred spirit despite all apparent differences maybe half a world away from your home. And in some cases, because you discover how relationships that start out as really challenging and tension-filled ultimately end up being enlightening and enriching for everybody involved. And clearly, you also develop your leadership capacity. As you do so in a context that is particularly challenging because you can't count on common ground as much as you could as a domestic leader. You have to work harder to develop trust with followers. So in that sense you really have to earn your leadership position with your followers. And it also gives you an opportunity to actually reflect on your assumptions about what makes good and bad leadership as you encounter the reactions of others to your leadership practices and as you see others' leadership approaches. All these things together: the prospective, the relationships, and leadership capacity that you gain from the experience give you what some people call a transnational approach to leadership. It's not ethnocentric, so it doesn’t focus only on your own culture, and it's not ethno-relative either. So you're not just taking every culture by itself on its own merits. The transnational or transcultural orientation really emphasizes the opportunities for global connection. And for global collaboration that individuals and teams have a chance to share their unique perspectives, and their unique skills, that they also have a chance to learn from others and learn from their insights. So enforcing this kind of global connection is a big agenda to pursue. So enforcing this kind of global connection is a big agenda to pursue. One of the best examples probably today in the business community, at least of this trans-national, trans-cultural orientation is Carlos Ghosn. The CEO of Nissan and of Renault and he has a multi-cultural background. He's French-Lebanese-Brazilian. So clearly he has a good starting point for intercultural sensitivities. But he is a great example of someone who has managed to gain enormous respect and enormous recognition as a leader in a context that was completely alien to that kind of influence. enormous recognition as a leader in a context that was completely alien to that kind of influence. He was the first foreigner the first non-Japanese to lead Nissan. He did so to great appeal. He's one of the few leaders who can claim that they that they have a manga comic book actually designed to chronicle his achievements. they have a manga comic book actually designed to chronicle his achievements. And with the alliance that he forged between the French carmaker, Renault, and the Japanese car maker, Nissan, he really shaped the attitude of the organizations to embrace this global collaboration, to leverage unique strengths that everybody has around the world. So combining the local strength and uniqueness, and this global perspective, supporting and paying respect to the local characteristics while at the same time challenging people to go beyond that; that's the hallmark of a great international, transnational leader if you will. The example of Carlos Ghosn also illustrates the unique contributions a global leader, a transnational leader can make. That is because of the perspectives that they have gained, and the relationships, and the leadership capacity they have, they can also give back to their organizations. They can actually give perspective to the organization, that combines appreciation for local uniqueness, and local strength and a clear orientation towards a global vision. They can also help foster relationships across national and cultural boundaries. And they can actually build capacity in the organization towards that transnational approach, towards embracing global connections and global collaboration. that transnational approach, towards embracing global connections and global collaboration. And this is ultimately what we are working towards in this course. We are taking small steps to enable you to make those contributions as an international leader. And we will start by talking about developing intercultural and cultural sensitivities, and a degree of cultural intelligence if you will develop communication skills that allow you to be effective despite language barriers and culture barriers as you lead others, as you try to inspire others and direct them, and elicit contributions from them. We will talk about how you actually motivate others, how you forge social connections amongst them, social networks if you will, professional networks. And how you manage conflicts in an intercultural, setting, all small steps toward enabling you to make a unique contribution an international leader.
