Building the pipeline of global-ready Singaporean leaders 

The recent launch of a new specialised work pass to attract top global talent sent a strong signal that Singapore is open for business, with renewed efforts to maintain and expand its prominence as an international business hub. As the world emerges from the lull of the pandemic into a period of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, the strategic imperative to stay open and connected to the world was clearly outlined as Deputy Prime Minster Lawrence Wong addressed the Singapore Economic Policy Forum with the twin strategy of “stay open; develop local”.

Similar to other successful global talent hubs, the right approaches to foreign talent recruitment have been a key success factor that has enabled Singapore to tap wider networks, learn from the top experts, and ultimately create job opportunities that would have otherwise not been possible. The thriving biomedical sciences industry is an excellent testament to this.

The right approaches to local talent development are equally important to continue and increase long-term international investment in Singapore, and ensure that future generations of Singaporean are fully equipped to capitalise on the career opportunities that are created along the way and to ultimately take on the top local and international jobs.

As we face unprecedented global challenges that require the best global thinking, there is also a greater need to bring the Asian perspective to the forefront of the global discussion. Increasingly, companies and countries need more global Asian leaders, not only to win in Asia, but to be positioned to survive and thrive on the global stage.

What progress has been made?  

The 2022 American Chamber of Commerce Manpower survey recently highlighted some positive progress with substantial increases in the number of Singaporeans and Permanent Residents in the workforce, as foreign companies have actively hired and promoted local talent. In fact, 60 per cent reported that Singaporeans make up more than half of their total current senior level (manager or above) Singapore-based workforce, up 12 per cent from the previous year.

However, that is unfortunately not translating into more Singaporean leaders in regional roles, with the percentage of Singaporean workforce holding regional leadership roles remaining stagnant over the last year. And even fewer are taking a regional leadership role in a South-east Asia office outside of Singapore.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Likewise, our latest global Asian leader research found that Asian representation in executive teams has fallen over the past five years. Among the US-headquartered organisations in the top 200 biggest corporations (by revenue), leaders of Asian ethnicity represent only 4 per cent of the executive leadership team – a decline from 8 per cent in 2017. Asian leaders continue to hit what we call a “bamboo ceiling” at some stage in their career, often as they are at the cusp of graduating from country roles to regional or global positions.

So what is getting in the way?

There are several obstacles at the country, company and individual levels that get in the way and have been further compounded by the pandemic. Not surprising, as the pandemic decreased mobility and exposure, and created more separation than connection. Over the past two years, we’ve seen more silos in organisations, more racism and more nationalistic sentiment across and between countries. All of this gets in the way of developing international strength and collaboration.

As countries reopen and the walls come down, now is the time to quickly rebuild the connections, restore the exposure and tackle some of the obstacles.

Spanning culture boundaries

Cultural hardwiring is one of the key blockers that many leaders face along the way when they aspire to move into regional and international roles, especially if they have had limited exposure to working and living outside their home country. For Asian leaders for example, high value attached to hierarchy, collectivism, harmony and personal relationships can clash with values that are dominant in many multi-national organisations.

Breaking out of this cultural hardwiring requires leaders to make a mindset “jump” to undo years of cultural influence during formative years at home, at school, and in their early professional lives. These shifts in perspective are no small feat. Global exposure continues to be one of the key experiences that can push young leaders to overcome cultural blockers early on. Being in an unfamiliar environment pushes leaders to interact, discuss, and iron out differences with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Ultimately, this is key to preparing them for the complexity and uncertainty that comes with a multi-cultural, multi-geography role.

In the last couple years, we’ve seen an increase in “virtual pat” opportunities, where Asian leaders can take on regional and global roles from their home base. These roles provide more opportunities to practise cultural boundary spanning and certainly increase visibility. For organisations, this has also eased the need to resolve visa and relocation issues. While these opportunities are proving to be an excellent stepping stone to boost global leadership capability, they can not fully replace overseas experience.

Overseas experience is a critical attribute that two in five respondents in the Amcham Manpower Survey felt was difficult to find among senior Singaporean professionals, which in turn led to companies falling back on hiring foreigners for the role. To expose Asian talent to diverse cultures and different departments and business functions, progressive companies curate multi-axis global rotations or backpacker assignments – early career nine to 12-month rotations that help leaders become more comfortable with the discomfort of operating in a different country, function, and business.

Wearing a global “hat” while making decisions and resolving conflicts can help Singaporeans stand out from the crowd and bring the unique strengths that we often find in Asian leaders, like humility and openness to diversity, to the forefront.

Systematic changes to accelerate the pipeline of global-ready Singaporean leaders 

In addition to individual leader-level challenges, company-level obstacles must also to be addressed for more significant progress to be made. There are a number of biases that stall Asian leader growth, including “insider bias”, favouring people viewed as “in group”. The lack of proximity of Asian leaders to global managers and the popular belief of peer groups about the abilities of Asian talent are a couple of the factors that promote this type of bias.

Deliberate organisational action from the top team in the global headquarters is needed to minimise the impact that biases may have on the development of Asian leaders. Global sponsors in executive teams must hold global HR and regional presidents accountable for building a more inclusive culture and a more robust global-ready Asian leaders pipeline. Recently, we’ve seen more companies hardwiring diversity of nationalities in global roles and setting up committees, such as an “Asian Talent Council”, to track the development of Asian leaders and develop a recurring fund to finance overseas rotations.

Dedicated Asian talent programmes can also help organisations take a more systematic approach towards a diverse leadership pipeline. Structured onboarding, enabling non-obvious career paths, structuring multi-level development of Asian leaders and establishing “Shadow Councils” where Asian talent can partake in global decision-making processes are a few of the latest approaches that companies have introduced to set Singaporean leaders up for success.

Now is the time for organisations and aspiring global leaders to accelerate efforts that will make up ground for some of the lost progress during the pandemic. New country-level-initiatives such as the Singapore Global Executive Programme to help local enterprises build a pipeline of young local talent will also support that acceleration. Building on decades of progress to be a truly global business hub with a world-class talent pool, there is more to be done to move to the next stage of having more Singaporean leaders and businesses go global.

The writer is managing director and vice-president, Apac at Center for Creative Leadership