Innovating Leadership:
Co-Creating Our Future

Hosted by Maureen Metcalf

Conversations with global thought leaders on leadership, culture, and innovation—designed for executives navigating complexity and building resilient organizations.

Global Leadership – Research, Practice, & Development

Episode Description

Global leadership specialists Allan Bird and Joyce Osland examine what it truly takes to lead across continents and cultures. Their conversation tackles three core questions: how local cultures complicate or enable a unified company culture across borders, what makes international leadership distinctively difficult, and how organizations can develop leaders capable of driving cross-cultural change. Drawing on decades of research and Osland’s 15 years of work across seven countries, they ground practical global leadership advice in rigorous scholarship.

Key Takeaways

Local cultures can both complicate and enable a unified company culture across borders.
International leadership carries distinctive challenges beyond those of domestic contexts.
Developing leaders for cross-cultural and global change requires deliberate, structured methods.
Rigorous research, not just anecdote, should inform how global leadership is practiced.
Real cross-cultural experience deepens a leader’s capacity to manage global complexity.

Why This Episode Matters

Executives leading across borders come away with research-grounded insight into the distinctive challenges of global leadership and how to develop leaders equal to them.

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Featuring

Allan Bird & Joyce Osland

Episode Topics

Culture Change • Measurement & Evidence • Organizational Transformation

Podcast Air Date

March 12, 2019

Episode Duration

37min

Watch the episode

Season 5

Episode Number 9

Episode Content:

It’s hard enough leading a small local team; imagine running a team that stretches across continents!

That’s exactly what global leaders must do. But from what motivates people to varying labor laws, cultures vary wildly around the planet, so leadership styles must adapt with them. How can a global leader do it all?

Guests Allan Bird and Joyce Osland have some answers. They’re specialists in researching global leadership, and their insights may surprise you!

Here’s what Allan, Joyce, and Maureen cover:

How do local cultures make a unified company culture so difficult (or easier)?
What is it about our international world that makes leading globally so challenging? And
How do we develop leaders who are skilled in managing global changes?

Produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

Leading with Care in a Tough World with Bob DeKoch & Phil Clampitt
The Bonobo Sisterhood: Ape Society’s Lessons for Leadership with Diane Rosenfeld
Empowering Women for the Prosperity of Nations with Amanda Ellis & August Lopez-Claros

Resources:

More about Allan and Joyce’s firm, The Kozai Group, is on their website at https://www.kozaigroup.com. Their book, Global Leadership: Research, Practice, & Development is on Amazon (print: https://amzn.to/3wpAOf7, eTextbook: https://amzn.to/3ST6Jfy).

Our host, Maureen Metcalf, posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here.

Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.

Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:

Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane. Hardback (https://amzn.to/48Doh6j) and audiobook (https://amzn.to/48YCRF4)
Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First by Martha Piper & Indira Samarasekera. Paperback (https://amzn.to/3tOtzg4) and audiobook (https://amzn.to/41OYdT5)
Jilly Truit murder mysteries by Beverley McLachlin:
- Full Disclosure – https://amzn.to/46TxW6Q (paperback) https://amzn.to/46VDL3Q (audiobook)
- Denial – https://amzn.to/46YCbhs (paperback) https://amzn.to/3GJc0AA (audiobook)
Women and Leadership: Journey Toward Equity by Sherylle J. Tan & Lisa DeFrank-Cole

NOTE: As an Amazon partner, we may make a small commission from books you buy through these links.

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Self-Awareness: The #1 Predictor of Leadership Success with Belinda Gore
Bridging Research & Practice: The Medical Model You Can Use with William Smoyer
International Leadership: One Size Doesn’t Fit All with Dr. Mansour Javidan

Guest(s):

Allan Bird & Joyce Osland

Guest(s) Bio:

Joyce Osland, Ph. D., is professor emerita, having retired as the Lucas Endowed Professor of Global Leadership and Executive Director of the Global Leadership Advancement Center at San Jose State University — where she co-founded the Global Leadership Passport Program, Certificate in Advanced Global Leadership, and the innovative GLLab (assessment center). Joyce won her field’s highest teaching award based on her contributions to global leadership development and experiential learning. She is also a prolific, award-winning scholar with over 150 publications. Joyce co-edits Advances in Global Leadership and Global Leadership: Research, Practices, and Development. She consults with universities and global organizations and is a senior partner of the Kozai Group, which creates global assessment instruments. Prior to becoming an academic, Joyce lived and worked for 15 years in seven countries, primarily in the field of international development and training.

Allan Bird, PhD., has served as President of The Kozai Group, Inc. since 2001. He is also Senior Professor at the Goa Institute of Management in Goa, India. From 2009 to 2019 he was the Darla and Frederick Brodsky Trustee Professor in Global Business at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern, Dr. Bird was the Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Professor of Japanese Studies and also served as Director of the International Business Institute and Director of the International MBA program in the College of Business at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has previously been a Visiting Professor at Rikkyo University in Japan, Columbia University, Monterey Institute for International Studies, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Finland, Osaka International University and Japan’s National Self Defense Academy. He has also served on the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. He teaches courses in global leadership development, intercultural management, international negotiations, and intercultural and global leadership assessment.

Transcript