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Global leadership competencies
In reality, knowledge and experience may vary greatly between individuals, 
but we can improve our intercultural competence as leaders as we acquire 
greater understanding of people from other cultures and experience their 
different value systems and beliefs.
There has also been increased emphasis on global leadership training 
with the introduction of specialist MBAs in business schools of universities, 
as well as by leading multinational companies and specialist leadership 
courses. Examples of these are organised by the Harvard Business School, 
the London Business School, the Henley Leadership Programme, the World 
Economic Forum Leadership Team based in Geneva, the International 
Institute for Global Leadership and many others. Much of this training 
consists of simulation and role playing, with the emphasis on experiential 
learning, involving managers from many cultures working together.
Brake (1997: 67–8) proposes the following three competency clusters 
required by global business leaders: business acumen, relationship manage-
ment and personal effectiveness. In the relationship management cluster, 
he includes the importance of effective cross- cultural communication in a 
complex and diverse global business environment.
Edwards and Rees (2006) consider the myth of the international manager 
and question whether a select cadre of people who specialize in interna-
tional management is being created, with the emphasis on selection less 
for their technical skills and more ‘for such things as intercultural ability 
and global awareness’. If this is the case, they suggest that international 
human resource managers should place the emphasis on recruitment and 
selection, ‘less on the particular national interest of the assignment and 
more on the international development of the manager’ (Edwards and Rees, 
2006: 212–13).