Whitepaper: Building Global Leaders in Asia – A focus on Singaporean talent

This whitepaper is a synthesis of the perceived strengths and stumbling blocks of Singaporean emerging leaders in multinationals, with many of these insights also applicable to emerging leaders from other Asian countries.

In developing Singaporean emerging leaders towards global leadership roles, they should focus on four major shifts:

1. The typical Singaporean emerging leader is a great administrator in getting tasks delivered to specifications, but can do better in navigating a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Learning how to connect the dots from macro trends to business and personal implications – or across different disciplines – will be important. Making good, timely decisions even with imperfect information will be another critical skill.
    
2. Judicious relationship building helps in engaging external and internal stakeholders. In many instances, the relatively understated style of Singaporean emerging leaders, which tend to speak more to the head than heart, can become a challenge in engaging and influencing stakeholders. A process of self-discovery – in confidence, releasing inhibitions and spurring initiation – seems to be the antidote.
    
3. Diversity, particularly of the cross-cultural kind, will be the norm in the working teams that a global leader has to manage. While Singaporean emerging leaders are familiar with cultural diversity, they need to now be personally invested. Awareness of the cultural differences, together with firsthand experience and frequent reconciliation exercises, will help.
    
4. The first three areas are important, but they are not at the crux of what would derail the Singaporean emerging leader’s development to global leadership. Rather, it is the lack of aspirations and a fear of risks that are the most critical stumbling blocks. Looking within themselves, and looking ahead to the vision and opportunities that they want to strive for, are necessary pre-requisites.

The above-mentioned principles and methods then set the stage for the Global-Asia Leadership Accelerator Programme (GALAP), one of HCLI’s signature offerings. Targeting Singaporean and other Asian emerging leaders, GALAP seeks to translate insight to action, and be the effective platform that accelerates local Asian talent towards their full potential. To find out more about GALAP, visit their website.