At first glance, global leaders and marginalized biculturals seem like polar opposites. Global leaders have been described as cosmopolitan, well-adjusted, and adept at managing relationships. In contrast, marginalized biculturals — individuals who belong to more than one culture, yet do not identify strongly with any of them — have been described as poorly adapted to their environments, psychologically overwhelmed, and socially weak. Individuals can belong to more than one cultural group through immigration (themselves or parents) or sometimes through marriage or other long-term international relocation. T.E. Lawrence (an Englishman known as Lawrence of Arabia because of his extensive travels in the Middle East in the early 1900s) described his experience of trying to live with both his English and Arab identities as close to madness:
Sometimes these selves would converge in the void, and then madness was very near, as I could believe it would be near the man who could see things through the veils at once of two customs, two educations, two environments. (Lawrence, 1966)
Based on the above descriptions, marginals might seem like poor candidates for global leadership positions. However, researchers have found consistent evidence supporting the opposite conclusion. In particular, marginals tend to spend more time thinking deeply about how culture influences themselves and those around them, and as a consequence, some marginal can develop higher levels of cross-cultural skills, compared to monoculturals and biculturals who identify strongly with one of their cultures.
Global leaders can be selected, or they can be trained. Current research tends to focus on training global leaders. However, these programs are usually costly, lengthy and yield uncertain success rates, in part because the key characteristics – such as cultural mindfulness - are difficult to train. Organizations should invest just as much time – if not more – into finding people who already have these skills; the often hidden skills of marginalized biculturals are a good place to start looking. When organizations start with the right people, their training programs will be more successful at developing truly effective global leaders.
