Indisputably, sooner rather than later, Asia with its giant economies including China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea will grow much larger than it is today, accounting for more than one third of the total global output. Asian gross domestic product (GDP) will even exceed that of the Group of Seven major industrial economies, according to the research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Given this substantial growth, it is critical for Asian leaders to transform their traditional Asian leadership concepts. They need to find something that is more suitable and effective in a more complex economy featuring a highly dynamic workforce environment if they want to fully reap the benefits from the region’s economic advancement.
To further emphasise this point, I’d stress that businesses operating in a hyper-competitive region such as Asia need effective leaders if they are to continue to grow in the next decade and to remain relevant in the global market.
In reality, however, Asian companies continue to struggle with the leadership conundrum. Developing effective leadership remains the key concern of many HR practitioners and executives alike, with organisational redesign becoming one of the most urgent issues employers face today.
Furthermore, for leaders to successfully lead in Asia, they cannot simply implement Western leadership practices without taking uniquely Asian cultural issues and management styles into account; thus, we need to ask what are the best practices for managing culturally diverse workforces in this region. Let’s take a look at some good ideas to get you started:
Cultural agility and awareness are key differentiators. As Asia is known to be culturally diverse, Asian leaders must behave differently. They must have tremendous cultural agility and communication awareness in tune with their surroundings to avoid possible acute leadership gaps.
The good news is, the next generation of leaders are the most culturally agile which means that the differences in leadership culture are getting smaller as more young people enter the leadership ranks.
Trust and relationship building is one of the most important leadership skills. It is a fundamental tool that most Asian leaders use to drive their organisations. Trust is the groundwork for all successful interpersonal relationships and is vital for long-lasting, satisfying, rewarding and successful personal and business relationships. Once a relationship is built, influence and persuasion become possible.
On the contrary, without effective relationships, leadership is futile and weak and without trust; employees often feel worried and insecure. In this sense, no bonding relationship — personal or business — can exist for even a short period of time if some element of trust is not present.
Here, it is critical to emphasise that such relationships are beneficial for building influence, not power. This is because power is much easier as it comes with the titles or positions whereas influence is built from relationships.
The pace of change drives leaders to become focused, agile and business-oriented. As today's business world is highly competitive, Asia’s top executives must accept the changing of cultures when interacting with Western organisations. Moreover, rapid advancement of technology means they need to become very driven, tech-savvy and innovative or even disruptive in their thinking in order to keep up with the pace of change.
Successful companies need leaders to be flexible and constantly ready to change in order to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. Effective leaders who promote a culture of change can certainly leverage change into a competitive advantage.
The above ideas are just a few good examples of the critical skills needed to successfully lead in this region. The bottom line is that although the common critical “capabilities” of leadership are consistent, styles must be adapted to local conditions.
Last but not least, while a confident business outlook overall holds much promise for growth across Asia, a number of critical challenges remain. I believe leadership capability development will be even more crucial for the region if it wants to continue growing.
Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand's leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
For daily updates, visit https://www.facebook.com/apmgroupthai