When you meet Shawn Liu, the first impression of him is that he is totally chill. But as soon as you shake his hand, you can feel his energy and passion. When he starts speaking, your expectations are met. His career path is as diverse and colorful as he is. He’s one of only a handful of Chinese HR executives to hold a global leadership role in a leading multinational company. How did he achieve this? And what does it take for more Chinese leaders to become global leaders?

 晓光说他从来没有规划过自己的职业路径，但如果你看过他的领英档案和成就，你会觉得这听起来简直不可思议。他的第一份工作是在中国最大的航运公司之一担任销售代表，几个月后，他得到了一个进入人力资源部的机会，很快，他意识到他喜欢和人打交道，喜欢研究组织的心理情况。所以当公司有机会让他去英国学习人力资源管理和组织发展时，他毫不犹豫的去了。

Shawn says he’s never planned his career, which sounds unbelievable if you view his LinkedIn profile and see what he’s achieved. He started his first job as a sales rep in one of the biggest shipping companies in China, and only after a couple of months in that role, he got the chance to rotate into the HR department and soon realized that he liked dealing with people and the psychological aspect of the organization. When his company offered him the chance to study Human Resource Management and Organizational Development in the UK, he didn’t think twice about it. Off he went.

留学归来后，他决定周游全国来寻找新的机会。没想到的是，刚到上海的第一周，埃森哲就为他提供了一份学习发展顾问的工作。以此为起点，他攻克了许多挑战，这也为他带来了许多优异的机会，直到他成为了勃林格·英格翰公司的人力资源战略与转型的全球主管。如今，他成立了自己的咨询公司，万杵企业管理咨询中心，为顾客提供真正有附加价值的管理咨询服务，将挑战转换为高管发展和社会创新机遇。

Upon his return from studying abroad, he decided to travel around China to find new opportunities. Unexpectedly, during his very first stop and first week in Shanghai, Accenture quickly offered him a job as a learning & development consultant. From this new start, he took on many challenges that led to other attractive opportunities, until he became the Global Head of HR Strategy and Transformation at Boehringer Ingelheim. Today, he runs his own consulting firm, Wan Chu Management Consulting, whose mission is to provide true value-added management consulting services to clients and to turn social challenges into executive development and social innovation opportunities.

What Chinese leaders should pay more attention to

 那么，刘晓光到底发掘了哪些关键技能来吸引和胜任全球领袖的角色呢？中国领袖们需要做些什么来缩小差距呢？他主要强调了三个方面。

So, what critical skills did Shawn developed to be able to attract and handle a global leadership role? And what gaps do Chinese leaders need to improve to do the same? Shawn highlights three main ones.

1)    True self-confidence 真正的自信

“老实说，在全球领袖这个角色身上，你并不能太过于敏感或者缺乏安全感。工作很艰难，同事们都有自己的议程和观点，你不能把事情搞得太私人化，”晓光说。“如果你很容易生气，那你就输了。如果你很容易动气或者心烦，就无法用应有的方式去管理和影响他人。真正自信的人知道自己的极限，也知道如何超越极限。”

“In a global leadership role, to be honest, you have little room for being overly sensitive and self-insecure. The business is tough, and people have their agenda and perspectives, you cannot take things too personally,” says Shawn. “If you easily get irritated, you lose. If you get offended or upset easily, then you can’t manage and influence others in the way that you need to. Truly confident people know their limits and how to go beyond them.”

对于全球领袖而言，晓光也表示，自信也意味着要直言不讳。“你需要告诉团队成员他们必须知道的事情，特别是那些批判又消极的事，”他说。“不要拒绝说那些你认为是真实有用的，但别人也许难以接受的话。”

For global leaders, Shawn also says that being self-confident also means speaking out and being straightforward. “You need to tell your team members what they need to know, particularly when it’s critical or negative,” he says. “You can’t hold back from saying things that you believe are true and helpful but are hard for others to take.”

晓光提到，在一个军人家庭中长大对他影响很大。“我学会了如何直截了当地说到点上。”他说到。“我父亲就是一个很直率的人。‘儿子，说太多了。直接说你想说的。’他经常这样告诉我。所以，我的说话方式是直接又准确。”

Shawn says growing up in a military family helped him. “I learned how to get to the point and speak frankly,” says Shawn. “My dad was a very direct person. ‘Too many words, son. Just say what you need to say,’ he’d always tell me. So, I developed a way of speaking, which is being quite straightforward and precise.” 

晓光回忆起他第一次在德国担任勃林格•英格翰公司的全球领导力发展高管时的情景。他发现有一位女性团队成员也在做同样的工作。他们见面时，她告诉他，他能得到这份工作只是因为他是中国人，因为中国的市场很大，但她对中国区的表现并不满意。晓光告诉她，他很欣赏她的坦诚，对于她的说法也不予争辩。相反，他邀请她一起建立了一个优秀的团队，让公司真正变得与众不同。经过这次直接公开的谈话之后，他们相处地很好并取得了成功的结果，这段友谊也一直持续至今。

Shawn recalls his first arrival to Germany for Boehringer Ingelheim as the Global Head of Leadership Development. He discovered one of his team members was a lady who was also in line for the same job. When they met, she told him that he got the job only because he was Chinese, and because China was a big market, and she wasn’t happy about that. He told her that he appreciated her candidness and would not like to argue with her over her assumptions. Instead, he offered her the chance to build an excellent team together and make real differences to the company. After this open conversation, they got along and were able to achieve successful results and remained as friends till today.

2)    Logic sense 逻辑思维

“首先，你必须对你的工作有深刻的理解，对要做的正确之事有一定的直觉，”晓光强调到。“在做展示时，你不能只是传递大量的信息。你需要让人们感觉到你对你做的事情非常熟悉，有自己的见解，让人们知道你自己的判断是什么。你要让别人知道你是一个可以把各种复杂情况联系在一起的人。”

“First and foremost, you must understand the business well, and be intuitive about the right things to do,” Shawn emphasizes. “When presenting something, you can’t just deliver lots of information. You need to show people that you’re very familiar with the situation you’re dealing with, giving your insights, and let people know what your judgements are. You need to show others that you’re someone who can connect the dots out of complex situations.”

因此，另外一个重要品质就是抛开假设。“到了全球领袖这个级别，如果你不能下定决心并作出自己的决定，你会被认为是个平庸的人，”晓光说。“你需要像海绵一样吸收各种信息，并向别人证明你的批判性思维。”他指出，在埃森哲接受咨询顾问培训时，他学会了如何看人和场合，进而影响他人以获得商业利益。

As a result, another key quality is not relying on assumptions. “At a global level, if you can’t make up your mind and draw your own conclusions, you’ll be tagged as mediocre,” says Shawn. “Like a sponge, you need to absorb information and demonstrate to others your critical thinking.” Shawn points to his training as an Accenture consultant, which taught him how to read people and situations in order to influence others for the benefit of business.

3)    Be an interesting person 做一个有趣的人

“一个无聊的人怎么会变成一个不无聊的领导呢？”晓光笑着说。“没人愿意和沉闷的人一起工作。”你的个性和魅力越强，别人就对你越感兴趣，所以去享受生活吧。这也能帮助你更好地处理人际关系和各种情况。比如，幽默的领导更懂得如何让员工团结在一起，并在需要时帮助大家解压。“永远不要低估人性化和幽默的力量，这是你要拥有的最好的两个品质，”他说。

“How can a boring person become a leader who’s not boring?” Shawn says with a laugh. “Nobody wants to work with someone who is dull.” The more personality and charisma you have, the more others are interested in being around you, so go having a life. It also helps you deal with people and situations better. For instance, leaders who have a sense of humor know how to bring people together and are able to reduce the tension when needed. “Never underestimate the power of humanity and humor. These are two of the best qualities you can have,” he says.

“当然，强大的沟通能力对于成为全球领袖者至关重要，”晓光补充道。“你需要在各种各样的情况下进行沟通，同时基于所交谈的不同利益相关对象来进行不同的对话管理。你不能跟所有人都用同一种方式说话。所以，你要成为一个对新事物充满好奇心、能轻松地和人打交道的人。这将帮助你更好地理解新环境，也有利于更好地与他人沟通。”

 “Of course, strong communication skills are essential to becoming a global leader,” Shawn adds. “you need to communicate in a very diverse range of situations and manage many different kinds of conversations based on the diverse range of stakeholders you’re talking to. You can’t talk to everyone in the same way. So, you want to be someone who is curious about knowing new things, and who is able to engage others comfortably. This will help you to understand new situations better to communicate with others better.”

What Chinese leaders have to offer 

晓光也很快指出了中国领袖的主要优势。“中国的领袖都非常谦虚，”他说。“他们都很谦逊，而且往往也不会夸大自己的成就。因为从文化上来说，这并不是我们的习惯。”

Shawn is also quick to point out the key strengths of Chinese Leaders. “Chinese leaders are humble,” says Shawn. “They have humility and tend not to overstate their achievements. Culturally, it’s not our way.”

他强调了中国领导们的技术和分析能力，以及他们的可靠和毅力。但中国领导们通常就只是把事情做完而已。最后，晓光强调，并没有多少中国领导会关心团队成员的个人生活，也不会对他们的家庭和工作之外的生活感兴趣。

He highlights their technical and analytical skills, and their reliability and persistence as well. Chinese leaders just get things done. Finally, Shawn highlights how many Chinese leaders care about the personal lives of their team members, and show an interest in their families and life outside of work.

“当然，认可和尊重文化差异很重要，”晓光说。“但是在全球商业环境下，更重要的你的好奇心以及对他人的尊重，这是普遍的价值观。”归根结底，你需要的是优秀的品质。经验可以帮你培养这些品质并应用到全球商业环境中。所以，他建议所有渴望成为未来领袖的人，去寻找新的多元化的环境。

“Of course, recognizing and respecting cultural differences is important,” says Shawn. “But in a global business environment, what matters more is your curiosity and respect for others, which are universal values.” Ultimately, you need good people instincts. Experience is what helps you develop these qualities and apply them to global business situations. So, his advice to anyone who aspires to be a global leader is to seek out new and diverse situations.

“尽可能多地拥有不同的经历，与不同类型的人一起工作，并真正地去理解对方。这将帮助你做好准备，早日成为全球领袖。”

Have diverse experience as much as you can, work with different kind of people, and really read a lot. These will all help prepare you to be ready for a global leadership role.”