Capabilities needed to be successful in Global Organizations

 Mr. John Wyatt , the president of Wyatt consulting , a firm that specializes in providing consulting services to senior management on leadership, organization design and change management,  was here at DoMS to interact with the students and enlighten us on some of the essential skills we should possess to attain leadership roles in MNC’s.  During the past 13 years, John’s consulting practice has been focused on working with CEO’s and other senior executives in Fortune 200 organizations to design and lead major organization changes. John’s recent CEO or business unit head clients include: HP, Motorola, Fannie Mae, Lyondell Chemical, ITT, Kimberly Clark and Mercer Human Resources Consulting.

According to him, for a person to reach leadership role in any MNC, behavioural skills are more important than technical skills. Here he quotes six behaviour skills/ capabilities or the essential building blocks. They are: Self-awareness and self-management, reaching out to collaborate, Confident but not arrogant, Able to deal with ambiguity, to be culturally sensitive and able to sell ideas.

‘Self-awareness and self- management’ means that one should be able to do self-monitoring and possess a social radar. ‘Reaching out to collaborate’ means that one should foresee how one’s actions would impact others, and should take the initiative to communicate. ‘Confident but not arrogant’ entails that one should present themselves as positive and assertive but at the same time should avoid acting arrogant and should avoid looking at others condescendingly. ‘Can deal with ambiguity’ means that in corporate world, often we are faced with decisions involving right vs. bright. It means certain solutions are right but other solutions which might not be right may seem bright or attractive. We should be able to deal with decisions of right vs bright, accept responsibility without full authority and constructively work through conflict. ‘To be culturally sensitive’ means that we should be sensitive to values and behaviour of other people’s culture. We should be able to adjust our own behaviour accordingly. ‘Can sell ideas’ means that we should understand the stake holder’s needs and implement ideas so that their needs are met.

These skills need to be possessed to develop new capabilities in any organization. Mr. Wyatt also emphasized that we as students should start developing these skills right from now. Also, he mentioned that certain undesirable behaviour like Challenging but not listening, not being a team player, being not able to manage emotions and ‘me first’ orientation should be avoided.

He gave us insights regarding subtle cultural differences present among different nations and that which should to be taken care of while working in that country. With around 25 years of experience in consulting, Mr. Wyatt recollected examples from his own experiences and motivated students to develop essential skills required to reach leadership roles in MNC’s.  

Courtesy
Praveena
Class of 2014

Photo Courtesy:
Arun Tilak

Class of 2014