Global Leadership Competencies and Development

This assignment delves into the crucial concept of global leadership competencies. It analyzes various theories and models that underpin effective leadership in an international context, highlighting key skills and attributes required for navigating diverse cultures and environments. The assignment also explores strategies for developing these competencies, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and adaptation in the dynamic landscape of global business.

Running Head: AUSTRALIAN CEOS LEADERSHIP 1
Australian CEOs Leadership
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

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Australian CEOs Leadership
Leadership is a process that requires the executive to direct, organize, control, and plan
activities with an objective to influence a group to achieve a certain goal (Nahavandi, 2016).
Leadership also involves persuading groups of people to achieve a certain goal through
bolstering their zeal, confidence, and spirit so that they can entirely focus on a certain direction.
In the corporate world, this leadership can be termed as organizational leadership, where
managers make decisions to influence employees so that they can work towards accomplishing
the organization's goals (Trivisonno & Barling, 2016). In this paper, the discussion will focus on
the leadership of three Australian CEOs. The paper would focus on CEOs Allan Joyce, Laura
McBain, and Kate Carnell.
Construction of the CEOs
Chief Executive Officer: Allan Joyce
In November 2008, Allan Joyce became the CEO and MD of Qantas Group with the
objective of transforming the group and led its employees to some substantive progress. Qantas
group had taken a nosedive since its privatization in 1995, and when Allan Joyce assumed the
position of the CEO at the company, there was hope that he would completely transform the
company (Sinha, et, al. 2012). He came at a time when Qantas international needed fresh
leadership that would turn around its performance for the better. Also, the investors had got
worried that if the company shall continue treading on losses then it would be bad for them. But
with the coming of Allan Joyce there was some significant hoped and indeed Allan was on the
path to drive the company to success.

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Reason for selecting Mr. Allan Joyce
The motivation behind the selection of Mr. Allan Joyce is due to the radical surgery he
carried out when he took over leadership at Qantas Airway and that is what presents him as a
transformational leader. At the helm of the Qantas Airway leadership, he expanded Qantas
across Asia and diversified the company with some new ventures to propel the company to faster
growth. He quickly transformed the fleet of Qantas Group and after some time the company had
acquired 150 new aircrafts (Sinha, et, al. 2012). Also, witnessed at the organization when he took
leadership fundamental investments in training, technology, and lounges. It is reported that with
his transformational agenda customer satisfaction was achieved, employees worked
synergistically and felt that they had a role to play in transforming the company (Sarina, &
Lansbury, 2013). Most importantly, the point is that Allan Joyce, presents himself as a
transformational leader, and it is transformational leadership that motivated me to select him
(Sarina, & Lansbury, 2013).
Chief Executive Officer: Laura McBain
Laura McBain was the CEO of Ballemy. To start with she was an accountant and she is
recognized as a CEO that led a baby formula company to a capital value of $ 1.5 billion. As a
CEO of a small company, she strove to make some good returns for its investors. Indeed, it was
her leadership at this small company that made it profitable (Smith, 2017). Unfortunately, her
leadership is at risk as calls for resignation are gaining momentum. The profit slump in the
Chinese market that made the shareholders furious and her missteps were blamed for the profit
drop. The shareholder value is said to have dropped by $770 million and that indeed rubbed the

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shareholders in the wrong way. According to the stakeholders, her leadership was no longer
strategic (Hyatt, 2017).
Problem
Her failure to coordinate the employees and plan properly in a changing market to some
extent is blamed for the cause of the profit drop. Fundamentally, the leadership of Laura McBain
failed to motivate, coordinate and strengthen the business operations in the Chinese market. As a
reaction, shareholders or investors would always seek the replacement of a leader that they think
is no longer satisfying their interests ("Executive Series 28 Sep 15: Bellamy’s Australia (BAL)
CEO Laura McBain", 2015). The point is that the shareholder’s interest must always be taken
into account and failure to do that, in all probability would lead to an exit of a leader.
Motivation to selection of Laura McBain
In essence, what motivated me to pick up on Laura McBain is the resilience she showed
during her reign at the Ballemy as early as this year. Leadership ideally, requires that a person in
position of leadership is able to handle various challenges that come their way and sometimes
when the situation becomes worse, as a leader one should be ready to step down self-reinvention.
Chief Executive Officer: Kate Carnell
Background History and Leadership
Kate Carnell also is known as Ann Katherine is generally identified as a businesswoman
in Australia. At some point, she was a leader a Chief Minister of ACT for five years, that is,
between 1995 and 2000. In the corporate world, she has served as the CEO of beyondblue and
later became the CEO of ACCI (Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) ("beyondblue",
2014). As the CEO of beyondblue, she worked towards directing the company towards the right

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path that aimed at helping the company get on course in terms of profit-making. She has focused
her leadership on research, and some roadshow campaigns to enhance the mental health of the
Australians.
Motivation for the selection of CEO Kate Carnell
It is experience and her strategic problem solving skills that have motivated me to select
CEO Kate Carnell. It is reported that before becoming the CEO of beyondblue, she had served in
the position of a deputy chair and that means she had gathered enough experience to solve
problems facing leaders. Basically, CEO Kate Carnell had known the problems facing the
company and the solutions were with her. Therefore, after assuming the position of the CEO she
went ahead to implement her solutions to the problems the company was facing. After a three
stint at the company, Ms. Carnell is said to have left beyondblue with the right strategic
direction. When she joined ACCI as the CEO, it was again another opportunity for her to steer
the organization to the right direction as she did at beyondblue. In a nutshell, CEO Kate Carnell
is a strategic leader, with a strong passion to plan and solve problems strategically to put an
organization in a strong position (O’Neill, 2016).

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Conceptualisation of Leadership
CEO Allan Joyce
Interview
In his Monday Interview with the Financial Times, Mr. Allan was a person that was
talked in the political, media and trade union spheres, and the description of him was bad. The
trade union defined him as derided, politicians called him devious and the media is also reported
to have described as a leprechaun. His response to such description, he says that as the CEO of
an iconic brand, definitely the mentions about him are expected to be abundant. What is explicit
in the interview that Mr. Allan is a leader who believes doing what he believes is right (Batool,
2013).He is someone who is not moved by some criticisms provided he understands that he is
doing the right thing (Kollenscher, et.al, 2016).
Current Problem at Qantas
As of now, Qantas Airway is making losses, and that is why the Australian government
had in early 2016 bailed out the airline. Even as the CEO, remains focused to steer Qantas
Airways to profitability and the company is not making some significant profits and that is why
politicians are calling for his resignation. However, the dwindling Qantas Airways popular star is
reported to be dwindling due to high costs of fuel and also stiff competition. But, politicians are
not hearing anything of the sort and calls his resignation are renting the air, but Mr. Allan is
adamant that he can still change things for the better. Amidst some criticism, Mr. Allan stays put,
resilient, achievement-driven and tenacious and by surprise and that is why as today despite
criticism Qantas is making a turnaround. Early this year, the airway is said to have posted a
profit of a$206 million after tax.

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Uniqueness of CEO Allan Joyce’s Leadership
Mr. Allan is a transformational leader, who sees leadership first as challenging, but
amidst challenges resilience is critical. A transformational leader is someone who fully
acknowledges that an organization can take a downturn and at that time the most important thing
is to remain resilient and focus not on criticism, but on transformation. Financial Times asserts
that defines the leadership at Qantas as one that is focused on gaining “hard-won turnaround
(Smyth, 2015).” This is a clear demonstration that the leadership at Qantas believes in change,
and indeed it is only through change that an organization can recognize success. Also, he is a
leader who has some superior task-related personality traits. With several calls demand his
resignation, he kept numb and concentrated on improving his performance. He showed courage,
high emotional intelligence, passion to work with right-minded and supportive people and he
was also flexible in nature. Ideally, a leader should be someone with high emotional intelligence
and that is the only way they can withstand criticism coming from different corners or people
(Smyth, 2015). Also, CEO Allan presented himself as an assertive leader, who believes that
when a decision is taken it must be pursued to the point he realizes a turnaround is required.
Assertiveness is essential for any leader who wants to succeed and Mr. Allan has proved that. If
he were not assertive, then achieving his transformative agenda at the company would be
completely difficult. Leadership authors assert that a leader should be assertive in some of the
decisions they make if they are seeking success (Smyth, 2015).From a general standpoint, the
attitudes, beliefs, and skills of CEO Allan Joyce were transformed into behavior. He acts
assertively, courageously, resiliently and boldly, provided his agenda is achieved (Aarons, et. al
2016). In summary, CEO Allan Joyce is a person with a strong work ethic who cannot fall prey
into any trap that he believes can make him veers off from his course (Prakasam, 2014). He aims

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at doing what he firmly believes is right and he influences his employees or subordinates to
follow his determined way and in the end, they succeed not as an individual but as an
organization (Gordon, 2017).
CEO Laura McBain
Laura McBain presents herself as a strategic leader, and her leadership has equivalently
hade failures. As an ex- Ballemy Organic CEO, she admits that it was tumultuous and terrible on
her side after the company’s profits downgraded (LaFrenz & Evans, 2017). In an interview with
the Financial Review, she admitted that mistakes were made, and she alludes that a company that
when a firm starts makes losses or profit downgrades, as a leader one would always be held
responsible. However, she does not believe that failure is the end of her corporate leadership; she
believes that as leader one must be resilient and in the event, mistakes are made it is
indispensable to go to the drawing board to see how the situation can be rectified.
Strategic Leadership
A strategic leader is goal-oriented and also process-oriented, and they are informed that a
strategy can fail, and as a result, one should not lose hope for the loss. Basically, the point she
drives is that leadership is a challenge, and sometimes one requires to have some time for
reinvention, perhaps to develop another approach to success their strategic leadership. That is
why, after her dramatic exit at Ballemy, she had to take some free time for self-assessment and
later she sought professional advice on leadership in Barcelona and that saw her bounce into
organizational leadership in the capacity of an MD of ASX Minnow (Evans, 2017).
Interview

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Financial Review says that after going through an experience of adversity as a CEO at
Ballemy, it became apparently clear that she was ready to mend her ways to avoid future failures
in her leadership. However, from the perspective of leadership, McBain presented herself as a
leader that can be trusted to propel an organization to success (McBain, 2016). It was her service
at the helm of Ballemy that landed her another job at ASX Minnow because before her failure
she was a leader whom employees could trust, work with and due to her approachable nature. In
terms of traits, she is a leader who is persistent, task-oriented, result-oriented, and process-
oriented. She seems to believe that even in the face of a stormy situation, she would always
emerge victoriously, and hence she is a courageous leader.
Chief Executive Officer: Kate Carnell
Leadership
Kate Carnell conceptualization of leadership is almost similar to that of Allan Joyce and
Laura Carnell. However, Carnell presents herself not only as a business leader but as a political
leader as well. She has served in different capacities in the Australian government, however, as a
CEO of beyondblue and ACCI, it has come out that she is a strategic leader (Boswell, 2016).She
comes with vast experience in politics, and business and indeed this kind of experience is of
importance to a strategic leader. Having served in politics and business altogether, Carnell
presents herself as a strategic leader whose leadership can be applied in different fields. She is a
leader who is focused on results, and that is why when she quit beyondblue to serve as a CEO at
ACCI, she left the organization stable and her strategies were still applicable. Nonetheless, she
approaches leadership with courage, charisma, team-building spirit and this can even be justified
in positions of leadership she has held. She is also a leader who is keen on details, and that

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perhaps can be justified by the position she held as ombudsman ("Inside Canberra interview with
Kate Carnell AO, CEO of the Australian Chamber - Australian Chamber", 2017).
In summary, CEOs Allan, Kate Carnell and Laura McBain, view leadership as a
challenge, but with the right mind, people, and motivation it is possible to lead and succeed.
However, McBain experience is the bitterest one in this situation because at one point she had to
be sacked as a CEO and this one of the bitter experiences corporate go through. When things are
bad the organizational stakeholders like owners or shareholders would demand an immediate
resignation so that another leader takes over. But, McBain and Allan present themselves as
leaders that are able to maneuver even in their worst situations and still make a remarkable
comeback that surprises. Hence, they present themselves as leaders capable to change their worst
to their best and this is a spirit of winner’s attitude that corporate leaders need to have (Gaddis &
Foster, 2015).
Conceptualizing leadership through success
Effective organizational leadership
The effectiveness of any organization relies on the management and that is why the buck
stops with the top leadership. It is the top management that influences of all the activities at an
organization, therefore organizational success is a reflection of a leadership at an organization.
Therefore, all the organizational behaviors are hinged on leadership and if the leadership is
effective, the organization would succeed (Berson, et. al, 2015).
CEOs’ effective leadership
From the conceptualization of CEOs Allan Joyce, Kate Carnell, and Laura Carnell, they
believe that success is only possible when the leadership is effective. However, their leadership

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styles are different, but the common goal is that they both seek to succeed in their leadership. It
is the understanding that it is organizational leadership that decides the success of an
organization that the three CEOs in their different companies strove to steer their companies to
success. Most importantly, an effective leader is one that does self-assessment to discover
themselves and perhaps correct their wrongs and get to the right track (Răducan, 2014).The ex-
Ballemy Organic CEO showed effective leadership when she decided to carry out self-
assessment after her tragic exit at Ballemy. It is true that profits at the company had dropped, and
the shareholder value was significantly affected, hence demands for her resignation gained
traction (Mendenhall, et, al, 2017). This was a moment of tumult as a leader to her, and she
knows that it was her failure to maintain the profit-making trend that cost her position. But,
because she is an effective leader by nature she goes ahead to seek professional advice and that is
why she comes back as a managing director at ASX Minnow. Furthermore, Allan Joyce and
Kate Carnell are did self-assessment and that is why their leadership bears fruits. Kate Carnell
moves from beyondblue as a CEO to ACCI again as a CEO. This is a demonstration that people
believe that her leadership is strategic and would always result in positive results. Similarly,
Allan Joyce is live to the fact that his Qantas Airways is losing but goes to the drawing board and
he bounces back with a$ 206 million taxed profits at the surprise of his critics.
Effective Leaders
An effective leader must have a sharp perception, which allows them to understand how
they are perceived. CEO Allan Joyce in his interview with Financial Times is informed about the
perception people have about him and being described as someone who is derided and devious,
makes him work hard to challenge such a notion by improving the profitability of Qantas

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Airways. Being responsive to the needs of stakeholders is an indication that one is an effective
leader (Karanika-Murray,et, al, 2017). As a business leader, one must be able to plan properly
and make decisions that would yield to organizational success that benefit all stakeholders
(Ewen, et al, 2014). Kate Carnell is an effective leader and her success in business and politics
make her an effective leader. Furthermore, Laura McBain is responsive, and that is why after
learning that her performance was bad and the stakeholders, she had to resign so as to give
someone else an opportunity. Additionally, CEO Allan Joyce, return Qantas Airways to the
profit-making era in response to the demands of its stakeholders.
Conclusion
In conclusion, organizational leadership is defined effective is all stakeholders are
satisfied with the company’s performance. Effective leadership also entails a leader admits their
wrongs and quickly correct their weaknesses (Goetsch, & Davis, 2014). As seen in ex-Ballemy
CEO, Laura McBain she did not see her failure at the company as the end of her leadership but
she carried out self-assessment to improve her performance. Also, organizational leadership
requires one to be resilient, influential and a team builder, because for success to be achieved
then stakeholder interest must be taken into account. Finally, effective leadership determines the
success of a company, and if the leadership is poor definitely a business would collapse.

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