by Allan Schweyer

Linda Sharkey, Ph.D, is an internationally renowned executive who for decades led in the selection and development of leaders for global organizations, including General Electric and Hewlett Packard. Dr. Sharkey and her co-authors, Nazneen Razi, Robert Cooke and Peter Barge have nearly a century of collective global talent management experience. Their new book, “Winning with Transglobal Leadership,” is based on a meta-analysis of past research and original research, including a survey and interviews with approximately 150 proven global leaders. The book offers new insights, a few surprises and a potentially break-through construct for identifying and developing great global leaders.

The authors remind us of the importance of leaders throughout organizations but quickly zero in on that very small cadre of "transglobal leaders". They are the stars that more and more organizations of all sizes – including government − need even if they don't yet know it. Good global leaders are rare because the requirements are extraordinary and take years if not decades to develop. The authors have long and impressive track records building global organizations and have tapped that knowledge as well as data from the extensive primary research they did for the book. The result is a very engaging read, laced with real examples. It is a useful, practical and sometimes surprising guide to identifying, nurturing, developing and deploying global leaders. The tools, including the authors' framework for assessing global talent are worth many times the cost of the book.

While this is a book for several government audiences, the obvious ones are those, like DoD, the State Department, the Intelligence Community, the VA, and others that operate globally.  Agency leadership and learning executives − really, any SES in an agency that does business internationally − ought to be interested. The book is also an excellent guide for anyone who aspires to a global leadership position, and the sooner in their career they read it, the better.

We are fortunate to have Dr. Linda Sharkey on the HCLU faculty. She will be hosting her first learning webinar on April 9 at 2pm ET. We hope you will join us, it’s free, it’s for credit, and is guaranteed to give you new ideas about who should be representing your agency abroad.