Four ways to become a global manager

In an increasingly competitive global market, the pressure is on senior executives to implement strong and strategic leadership across their global teams.

For managers who look after geographically diverse teams, encouraging cohesion and collaboration can be a difficult task. Here are four fundamental modes of business management to help you develop a cohesive global network across your operations.

Business management and global efficacy

With an ever-evolving international marketplace, business managers need to ensure the local arms of their company are kept operational and consistent with the core values of head office.

As the architect who initiates and determines where assets are placed and which programs are implemented, the business manager’s responsibility is to achieve global-scale efficiency and competitiveness. The distribution of crucial assets and resources is closely tied to shaping an integrated economic strategy, which the business leader must align with the expectations of head office.

Team leadership and local responsiveness

Cross-cultural communication across multiple teams requires a significant degree of soft-skill talent, the ability to cohesively work well with others and to ensure outcomes and targets reach business expectations.

This can be particularly challenging given differences in language, geography and culture. Team managers, or ‘country managers’, play a pivotal role in meeting local customer needs and adhering to domestic regulatory requirements.

The legal, economic and regulatory landscapes of new and emerging markets can change rapidly and often without warning. Businesses expanding in these regions need the right team leaders, with the right business management style, to quickly adapt to local market demands.

Investing in functional managers

Effective functional leaders have the capacity to create and spread innovation, transferring specialised knowledge, while also connecting resources and capabilities across domestic borders.

For effective functional leadership in local markets of global organisations, communication with head office must be transparent and seamless so as to obtain the necessary information to make decisions efficiently. Integration is paramount, and successful multinational organisations continue to invest time and resources into the development of functional leaders and their management style.

Personal leadership and talent development

Global managers understand the importance of nurturing their own personal growth and talent development, despite the pressures and demands of working across multiple time zones. This takes a significant degree of personal discipline and independent leadership, as well as external support through the relevant mentoring, coaching and career consulting.

Senior executives have the fundamental duty to nurture global leadership, coordinating their efforts with a strong structure and clear understanding of the local, regional and global demands placed on their business.

Success in today’s ever-evolving international landscape demands highly specialised and closely linked managers with a transnational focus, seamlessly integrating assets, resources and diverse teams.