precise about what needs to bedone. Leaders who solicit opinionsinstead of issuing directions areseen as weak. But in some parts ofAsia, such leaders may actually bethe most effective.

People in the West sometimesrefer to an Asian leadership style, butthere is no single model. In Japan,for instance, a superficial look mightfind that a consensus-driven styleappears to dominate. On diggingdeeper, however, one would usually

find a leader who is orchestratingevents from behind the scenes. Notunderstanding this, many Westerncompanies never get to the key deci-sion makers and thus find it hard towork with Japanese firms. InSingapore, in contrast, the leadershipstyle tends to be very directive.Nonetheless, people are given a highdegree of leeway to deliver set objec-tives. In other words, the manage-ment ethos may be characterized assaying: “I want you to do this. Howyou do it is up to you, but I want youto exhibit flair, creativity, and entre-preneurial spirit.”

MICHAEL JENKINSJenkins is managing director of theCCL-Asia campus in Singapore. Heholds a postgraduate degree inJapanese language, economics, andpolitics from Nanzan University inJapan.

Given Asia’s new interest in leader-ship, there is a growing demand forhigh-impact and ongoing leadershipdevelopment programs in the region.However, leadership educationproviders need to be extremely care-ful not to impose a Western view ofleadership on Asia. Although manyinternational executive-educationproviders and business schools pridethemselves on their students’ diver-sity and their openness to learningfrom a variety of cultures, many lead-ership programs are still heavilypredicated on an Anglo-Saxon-American view of the world.

If you don’t come from the Westernworld, the name of the game is toadapt your culture to suit that world.Thus many M.B.A. graduates end upjunking their own cultural values andoveremphasizing a set of values theythink are necessary for success in aninternational business environment.

Western leadership styles maynot necessarily bring corporate suc-cess in Asia, however; and Westernbusiness schools need to take thisinto account. For example, formerGE CEO Jack Welch’s adage thatleaders should always cull the bot-tom 10 percent from any organiza-tion would probably be anathema tomany Asian organizations. In Spain,leaders are often expected to be very

A Q U E S T I O Nof

LEADERSHIP

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Asian business leader Lin Lin Seais surprised by the directness of somemembers of the new generation ofmanagers in China and Vietnam. Shefinds this “un-Asian” but surmises that“a new kind of internationalism isemerging. Not, as some believe, thatWestern pop culture is ravaging meekminds in the developing world. Rather,there is a new Asian business elite,which combines Western charismawith Eastern pride. Everything is soexperimental and exciting. In terms ofentrepreneurial leadership, it meansthat everything is possible.”

Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEOof Creative Technologies, the firstSingapore-based company to be listedon the NASDAQ stock exchange, is agood example of an entrepreneurialleader. When Sim came up with theconcept of the Sound Blaster PCaudiocard in 1981, he had a vision thatcomputers could be used for entertain-ment. Unable to get anyone else to buyinto this idea, he founded his owncompany, which now employs fourthousand people. Comparing himselfto his classmates, he says: “I wasn’tthe strongest technically. But I couldarticulate and implement the ideas thatothers had. Together we did very well.”

It is certainly true that there is anenormous amount of untappedknowledge concerning leadership inAsian societies. However, one funda-mental principle applies in Asia andelsewhere: leadership is not one sizefits all. Most important, it is not theexclusive right of a rarefied club. Allpeople, at all levels of an organiza-tion, have the capacity to improveand enhance their leadership skills.

Western leadership

styles may not neces-

sarily bring corporate

success in Asia.

China, for example, you may nothave a high opinion of someone, butyou would not tell the person thatbecause respect for face is muchmore important. According to busi-ness leaders in the region, however,things are changing.

One shift in Asia today involvesprivatization. Governments areattempting to redeploy some civil ser-vice scholars as entrepreneurs, amove that has many skeptics.However, given the right attributes, a

leader can lead any organization—governmental or business.

In Asia, as in many other parts ofthe world, the current trend is towardthe discreet rather than the flashyCEO—one who does not overstatehis or her personality and whose per-sonal life can safely be examinedunder a microscope. There is also lessof the romantic idea of a single domi-nating leader and a growing recogni-tion that successful organizations arebuilt by a strong group of connectedleaders.

Each leader brings a different setof competencies. For example, someleaders are great at standing up infront of hundreds of people and giv-ing an impassioned speech. But they

CAROLYN CHANChan is client-relations director ofthe CCL-Asia campus in Singapore.She holds an M.B.A. degree from theUniversity of Chicago.

In Asia today, companies devote con-siderable attention to attempting tounderstand how charismatic leadersare born, how to identify the top lead-ership traits, and how to ensure thatthose with these traits lead everyoneelse.

As CCL has learned from its morethan thirty years of research in thisfield, leadership is a set of activitiesthat can be learned rather than a setof things a person needs to be.Leadership is a matter of settingdirection, being clear about whereyou want to go, creating alignment,getting and keeping everyone onboard, and facing the adaptive chal-lenges that arise.

Leadership styles in individualAsian countries are changing.Singapore, for instance, is currentlyat a junction. Until recently it had avery data-driven and fairly risk-aversecorporate culture, but it now realizesthe need to loosen up. And followingcurrent worldwide trends, a preoccu-pation with IQ is giving way to agreater emphasis on EQ—emotionalquotient.

Many young Asian executives,trained in Western business schools,end up being very direct, mistakeaggressiveness for assertiveness, andlose powerful qualities such as theability to maintain harmony in rela-tionships, which is a cultural hall-mark in many Asian countries. In

Is there such a thing as an Asian, asopposed to a Western, style of leadership?

often find themselves less articulateand informed when they are cross-examined on details. To compensatefor this weakness, it is sometimesnecessary for them to delegate tosomeone who is strong in strategicplanning. The interesting thing aboutAsia is that you can find the micro-managing style of leadership along-side the big-picture, charismatic style,which doesn’t concern itself withmuch detail.

Despite cross-cultural differences,there are universal leadership attri-butes, such as trustworthiness,although different cultures may havedifferent ways of developing trust.Besides trustworthiness, other univer-sal attributes that people from all cul-tures warm to are honesty, integrity,intelligence, and optimism.

Geeta Kirpalani, who has workedin leadership roles in India, Europe,and Australia, is a strong believer inthe value of combining modernWestern and traditional Asian atti-tudes and techniques for successfulleadership. Drawing on mainstreamorganizational behavior, yoga, andscientific concepts, she runs work-shops for executive teams.“Confident, positive leaders definecorporate energy, enabling others byexample,” says Kirpalani.“Successful organizations are ableto create a cultural spirit that allowsemployees’ talents to be nurturedand flourish in harmony with theirenvironment. Leaders who enabletheir teams to create resonancewithin the corporate culture willfind that all stakeholders achievepositive results.”

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Leadership styles in

individual Asian coun-

tries are changing.