Coaching Abroad: Insights About Assets

Global corporations usually settle on a list of management competencies that they use to select, appraise, and coach managers in all of their locations around the world. When first-time coaching managers are outside of this corporate world, they can be surprised to learn that there are some very different views on the competencies needed to be an effective manager. The asset management model described in this article evolved over several years of experience in coaching managers in underdeveloped nations from Africa through Asia. These coaching cases included government managers who were controlling millions of dollars of foreign aid and essential public services; they also included managers of small businesses who were providing employment and growing the local economy. An asset management model offers a culturally appropriate framework that defines management competency in terms of three core concepts: ambition, asset leverage and innovation. The model has since proven useful as a framework for coaching inexperienced managers in small high-tech and biotech firms in the United States.