Rethinking GCC Leadership Series (3)-Empowering Indian Teams to Shape the Global Narrative

Leadership capability must be built before the title arrives.

In most Indian GCCs, the talent pipeline starts with technically strong hires, typically engineers or subject matter experts. Their mindset is often shaped by deep expertise in technology, science, or task execution.

But here’s the challenge, when these high performers are promoted into managerial or leadership roles, they often lack the foundational communication, people management, influencing, and intercultural skills needed to succeed in a global environment. Emotional intelligence isn’t something many have had a chance to develop early in their careers.

Most GCCs recognize this gap, but too late. By the time someone becomes a manager, the need for these capabilities is urgent, and the learning curve is steep.

My recommendation? Start earlier. Invest in communication, influence, intercultural fluency, and leadership development before the promotion. Prepare your future leaders while they are still individual contributors. Early investment helps close the global-local gap more sustainably, and builds a more agile, globally fluent GCC.

How are you equipping your future leaders to thrive in a global, multicultural context? I’d love to hear your perspective.