Becoming a truly global company includes the effective development of global talent. Assignments should be viewed as cycles, starting with candidate selection and completing at the end of repatriation. As global markets constantly change, the skills people need to be successful must keep pace with the demand.
Combining the efforts of HR, diversity, global talent management, and learning and development will result in global leaders. This may be easier said than done, but building a talent management strategy lays important groundwork for the future.
How do global leaders learn and grow? Many see an expatriate assignment as a perfect developmental opportunity. Living in another culture, the length of the assignment, immersion in the business culture, and necessary resourcefulness all contribute to the growth of a global leader. Other ways to develop global leaders are short-term assignments, frequent business travel, global teams, and global projects.
Global leaders must be able to build by collaboration and creative innovative solutions. Through training and education, global leaders can be change agents for the organization. How can global leaders learn these skills, especially while working in another country, often without organizational support?
Learning opportunities on the job are excellent ways to develop a global mindset. When the organization supports those experiences, knowledge transfer and organizational development occurs.
However, formal training should not be neglected. Learning on the job can often be unpredictable. Formal training provides key support, and this has a positive effect on people and their organizations.
Living Abroad helps train global leaders. We support formal training by giving them good foundations on their destination countries. Since all of our information is online, it’s easy to learn about the business culture, housing, and schools from a link on your intranet. You can support your short- and long-term assignments, frequent business travelers, global teams, and global projects with this information, too.
