260 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
which derives a person ’ s ambition, achievement, and self - confi dence.
Successful narcissistic development is what determines an individual ’ s
later capacity for empathy — the ability to put oneself in the psychological
frame of reference of another so that the other person ’ s thinking, feeling,
and acting are understood. Such a capacity is clearly essential when
trying to experience and understand another culture. Extreme narcis-
sists, however, lack this capacity because they are preoccupied with
themselves.
So, what kind of management development and training enhances
cultural empathy and adaptability? What can companies do to facilitate
this process?Training, transfer, teamwork, and travel
International executive training courses have become almost a require-
ment for future global leaders. Many organizations send promising
young executives to an international MBA program outside their home
country — fertile ground for developing cultural relativity. For example,
at INSEAD, the international business school located in France, Singa-
pore, and Abu Dhabi, students work in mixed - nationality teams over
their 10 - month program. For those executives who continue working
in their organization, there are Executive MBA programs available.
Much of the work in all these programs is done in study groups that are
composed of people of many different nationalities. A typical group
might include an American, a Belgian, a Russian, a Japanese, a Swede,
and a Brazilian. Participants must work closely together on a variety of
projects; to succeed, they must develop a cross - cultural mindset. This
process effectively minimizes ethnocentricity.
On - the - job training offers education of another sort, and is no less
vital. Exposure early in one ’ s career to international leadership experi-
ences — that is, concrete project responsibilities in other countries — is
important. These experiences should include working in multicultural
teams. Experiences of this nature hone a person ’ s capacity to cope with
diffi cult leadership challenges later in the career cycle. Travel for pleasure
or business is also essential. This kind of early international experience
is a good test of a young executive ’ s global leadership potential.
Transfers stretch young executives in new ways, especially if they
occur in conjunction with an organizational support system conducive
to the long - term management of global careers. Unfortunately, I still
see far too many leading global fi rms using their foreign subsidiaries as