Be an international leader in fast-developing, or complex markets, or among very different culture is accepting instinctively to re-engineer restlessly yourself first !

How many times I had been asked what is for you an international leader without stopping to run in my day to day job, and getting ideas clear. Act local, think global ? Which comes along with listen, make it simple, rely on your colleagues ? Where in fact the how matters as much as the deliver results words which are not that easy to spit out even when you have been facing very opposite culture for more than 15 years. The learning is perpetual !

Year on year, I had to develop businesses in early-stage markets for Corporate to build strong and highly-anticipated competitive advantage position, and to do so, the human factor comes first: chase early competencies and believe in them, look outside the country also to temporarily support the growth and transfer knowledge, envision what should be the skills to develop in order to have the tuned and experienced human organization to support the ambition in 3 to 5 years.

Show the route, adapt and listen (yourself) to tune the right organization and do not copy-paste, carry your colleagues upwards...

So what could be the main components of being an international leader? I saw 5 of them relevant not to ignore.

1-Having a wide scope of experience living in different parts of the world, ... and for sure this does not mean for example, having spent only years in South European countries such as Italy, SpainBetter consider truly different countries and cultures such as the U K, Eastern countries, Asia, USA

This will allow you not to underestimate or overestimate just how complex it can be to structure business internationally, not to copycat an already-made solution, not to think you can change culture. My best guess is to identify in each culture how to make it work, and this mean also understand ethics and behavioral codes to adapt your own speech, your way of expressing goals and sense. In Russia for example, young colleagues are waiting from you to be extremely clear in your speaches, vision, meanings, expectations from them; they prefer short and clear explanation rather than long explanation.

2- Being able to challenge from time to time and overcome the dominant thinking from Corporate and headquarters. Your leadership tends to carve out non-dominant thinking, which requires a high level of intercultural empathy, and a full interest and acceptation for differences in life experiences. A restless need to learn from other cultures, and try to find the fit between Corporate culture and local culture. When you live abroad, key is to try to share time with people not from your community (Nationals, Expatriate), but from different social classes (and not yours)

Do not oppose autonomy and centralization, as well as dynamism in local mission and easy-tounderstand strategy and orientations : my experience in Russia is that you cannot manage ambivalence like it is done elsewhere Again as an example, our colleagues ask for clear statements in strategy which does not mean they are not waiting after for free space to implement the strategy So Corporate culture should adapt to local to find the right tune to make strategies implemented and effective: people will understand precisely and will take the role, adapt in day-to-day operations.

3- A natural fit for cross-boundary collaboration. You need to feel comfortable engaging a team, and giving them as much power as a team in a mature market. This is a proven maturity - and leave your fear behind you - which involves in having the respect to pull the best out of every colleagues of an organization. Even though you do not have all the skills and know-how around you, do not look at what you dont have but focus on what you have: people eager to learn and outperform, ready to do well if you are clear in your mind too, and have simplicity in your way to share vision.

4- The need to be flexible in learning from and empowering others. There is no standard of talents in fast-developing countries (as we are accustomated to have in mature countries, where we like to employ different human analysis methods such as NLP- just to convince ourselves). Fast-developing markets where know-how has been building itself recently People with curiosity, eager to learn, hard-worker, however not-ever smiling will challenge you and will accept to be restlessly challenged. Be prepared to give a damned lot

Personality is a complex mix between relationship abilities, strong in-depth motivation, and capabilities. Most of the time, in-depth motivation is the key one: as it is always undergrounded (not immediately visible), but its ups and downs will impact the personality and what you see first !

As the idiom and the culture is some kind of a bridge to gap for you, do not discard someone as a potential because he apparently shows no flame in his speech or his behaviour or seems distant . Struggling colleagues have a ton of upside to deliver, through spending time and empowering them. On the opposite, remarkable colleagues dont need so much time and you can get from them a percentage higher. The difficulty is to give your time where it is the most challenging rather than where or with the most pleasant for you!

5- The ability to develop networks that are internal and external to your organization. This is a vital shift from vertical to horizontal collaboration. Your title and role are far less important than the capacity to get things done. You have then to understand where and how you can give to the others, to help them in their own jobs. External networks are necessary to give you a mirror exposure as to keep your critical mind always alert... Don't look for external network to help you feel comfortable but for challenging your steps...

Thus being an international leader is related to be comfortable operating anywhere, have left your beliefs and truth behind you, and... Most of all... treat people as if they were what they could beto help them become what they are able to be !