Global-leadership competency models often emphasise a one-size-fits-all view of global leadership that is inconsistent with the reality of globalization and the diversity of work performed by global leaders, especially when considering the socio-economic and political landscape across Asia vs the West. A company may therefore find it useful to focus on a smaller set of key competencies across all of its global leaders, whilst allowing for customization to support the diversity of roles that fall under the broad category of global leadership. Generally global leaders need to be comfortable dealing with complexity and demonstrate stress & change tolerance, risk taking, openness & adaptability, catalytic learning agility and cultural awareness.
Cultural adaptability is a key competency, including the need to understand your own culture and lens and how you compare on a comparative cultural scale of competencies with other cultures impacting your workplace. Traditional Asian cultural values can often conflict with a dominant corporate culture, resulting in gaps on many levels that the employee and the company need to bridge.