Exploring the Effect of Global Mindset on Leadership Behavior

As globalization continues to impact the environment of leaders, organizations increasingly seek global mindset skills. The author examines demographic and organizational factors that may increase the leader's global mindset and explores how global mindset affects leadership behavior. The mixed-method study operationalizes global mindset as a composite score of the leader’s intellectual intelligence (comprised of the ability to differentiate and integrate, manage uncertainty, pattern recognition, and thinking globally), and cultural intelligence (comprised of openness to learning, emotional sensitivity, behavioral flexibility, and cross-cultural understanding). The findings indicate that global mindset significantly improves five leadership behavior dimensions including planning, coordinating, motivating, communicating, and collaborating. According to the study, intellectual intelligence and the ability to differentiate and integrate are the most significant predictors of leadership behavior. Recommendations are provided with implications for practitioners and researchers.