Cross function experience: there are different function experiences with acceptable good performance

4. Cross site experience: it is defined as different locations, i.e. different countries are preferable.

What should leadership competencies be for leaders and their organizational performance?

The possession of effective leadership is recognized by most organizations as the most powerful competitive advantage an organization can possess (Collins, 2001). What are the leadership competencies that should be included in leadership development programs for high potentials (HiPos) which can be incubated on a full range of leadership capability so that they can perform well in their positions as expected? Based on the N company’s situation, its leaders are asked to face and perform the following challenges. As a result, leadership competencies should be equipped accordingly.

How to compete globally when competition is not restricted within a small area, but all over the world? Globalization has raised the importance of strategic leadership; it is

“multifunctional, involving managing through others and helping organizations to cope with change in today’s globalized environment” (Roddy, 2004). Strategic leadership is the leader’s ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility and empower others to create strategic change as necessary. These provide us with direction that some competencies - i.e. inspiring commitment, strategy deployment, and readiness to learn and to adapt - are needed to compete all over the world.

Johnson & Richard (2001) noticed that the recent business globalization increased heterogeneous groups and turned the interest of management teams to demographic differences. For example, managing diversity is a long-run investment, and an organization faces a level of adaptation and transformation equivalent to that encountered during deregulation or a major technological change. Globalization means there are many market opportunities, but a crisis could be encountered as well. For example, Box & Darling (1999) point out that the serious economic problems in Esat Asia in 1997 led to the possibility of a worldwide economic crisis. A company must have risk management capability and a proper strategy to survive in such an environment.

Diversity is increasingly recognized as one of the most significant challenges faced by all organizations today due to globalization. Leaders who are unable to maximize opportunities because of their limited cross-cultural skills, drive change to cope with uncertainty, integrate resources and manage conflict, and have a readiness to learn and to adapt will prevent their company from successfully fulfilling its strategic goals.

How to survive in a complex and rapidly changing environment? Highly developed Internet technology leads to a more complex and fast changing environment. The situation becomes such that the fast will beat the slow rather than the larger taking advantage of the smaller. Change is inevitable, as Metz (1998) highlights that competition drives changes in an organization’s processes and systems. The challenge is for a leader to proactively anticipate and be responsive to new competitive realities in order to assure that the organization will compete and survive in a changing environment.

In response to increasingly complex environments, organizations seek new models and structures to navigate under environmental uncertainty. In order to reach higher levels of organizational performance, Kirkman et al. (1999) explains that those models lead to structural changes (ex: organization of the team) and also process changes (ex: manufacturing systems type).

The fundamentals of competition have changed. Baird et al. (1994) show the evolution of viewing quality from a point of differentiation to a cost of entry. While advances in quality provide some competitive advantage in the short run, long-run superiority comes from the human element and managerial expertise. Continuous change is a way of life for companies and their employees in today’s fast-paced, competitive business world. Stronhmeier (1999) says that in order to make their organizations evolve, leaders have to face different challenges such as eliminating the superficial layers of management, streamlining processes, rebalance the power of every employee, creating autonomous work teams, etc.

How to build a learning organization to enhance a company’s competitiveness? A continuous changing environment, uncertain business conditions, and competitors exist everywhere in today’s business world. These situations oblige organizations to change their business model rather than use a stable or a single way to cope with today’s business environment. Senge’s seminal book “The Fifth Discipline” gave the principles and basics of the learning organization (Senge, 1997). He points out that organizations need to adapt to their changing environments. Similarly to a human being, the organization has to learn continuously for its growth so as to compete and survive in its changing environment which includes the changed concept of work. Bass (2000) compares being replaced by the unbundling of the tasks to that of a traditional job. Instead of an organization member having one permanent bundle of tasks to complete, the member will need to work alone or in teams on temporary tasks and in temporary teams. In other words, change will coincide with change in an organization’s needs. Some tasks may be outsourced and some may be shifted within the organization. The organization has to learn how to adapt to changes in the diversity of its work force and continuously accommodate to changing demands for social responsibility.

Innovation is the key for competitiveness. The subject of Senge (1997) latest book is the importance of innovation in organization. Hornsby & Kuratko (1999) explains that the need of innovation is becoming more and more important, due to more and more urging problems essentially because of a more and more intense competition. Flexibility shows readiness to learn and to adapt. Companies ask for more and more flexibility and readiness to face evolutions and changes so they need to give a particular attention to non specific tasks competencies because they can really influence the efficiency, competitiveness and career mobility. This attention is paramount if the focus is to shift from needs for a static fit in organizations to needs for a dynamic adjustment to frequently changing external conditions.

Others who address how to develop leaders include the following. . Cheloha & Stringer (2003) noticed that the development action which has the most influence on a person is how much decision-making authority he received. Anna et al. (2001) argues that the biggest companies and also the most dispersed ones geographically should use in-house resources to implement comprehensive coaching. Executive coaching is a management development tool that has the potential to combine personal career development with organizational strategy and goals. Leadership gives motivation and a purposeful direction to people, therefore this influence makes them succeed in their mission and improve the organization (Campbell &

Dardis, 2004). The 21^st century brings a huge diversity among the workers and managers have to try to manage this workforce and lead them (Hopkins & Hopkins, 1999). To develop diverse leaders, they must successfully lead a diverse workforce. Stavrou et al. (2005) studied succession planning through leaders who leave the office and the ones who replace them and concluded that their personality was of great interest. Hunt (2002) compared and analyzed the differences of leadership profiles of managers of different nationalities. He concluded that there is corroboration between nationality and leadership style; American and Australian managers place higher priorities on interpersonal and team-leadership competencies and had competencies in negotiation and motivation whereas German managers emphasize problem-solving ability.

One leader should possess the capability of strategy deployment, inspiring commitment, flexibility, managing diversity, risk management, and leading change so that to lead the organization to compete globally. To survive in a complex and rapid changing environment, the ability of leading change, cost management, organizing, problem solving and decision making, and demand top performance are essential for one leader to lead his organization.

The ability of creative thinking, readiness to learn and to adapt, managing conflict, and leading change are key factors to build one learning organization to enhance firm’s competitiveness. In summary, there are then fifteen leadership competencies, such as leading change, inspiring commitment, managing diversity, cost management, risk management, strategy deployment, creative thinking, demand top performance, flexibility, organizing, problem solving, decision making, project management, language skill, managing conflict, and negotiation are crucial for N company to be a competitive organization. At the same time, there are five leadership competencies which recognized widely at the N company.

Discussing and agreeing with top management at the N company, both groups of leadership competencies are integrated vis-à-vis as follows.