Discussions on global leadership can sometimes get limited to points around culture sensitivity and appreciation for local customs and practices. While these are important, focusing exclusively on them is to miss the point. Being a glocal leader is about not being judgmental, but being open, having a willingness to listen and learn, training oneself to look beyond the surface.

I recall times in my own career, when on global conference calls — with people from over 20 different nationalities taking part — I would time how much we Indian leaders spent talking. It was a lot! Very often we mistook silence from a colleague in China or the Philippines as agreement, when actually he or she had quite a different view. But we did not take the time to really ask and listen. It isn’t just about being nice — it’s about avoiding real business problems. Stalled projects, misunderstandings on deadlines, teams working at cross-purposes.

Sometimes, the lack of glocal leadership can lead to companies getting entire product and market strategies wrong. For example, Hyundai showed good glocal sense when it launched the Santro in India, by fulfilling real needs and marketing it right. Some of their American and European counterparts took years of failure and different models to get the glocal piece right. Logan, for example, was a roaring success in Eastern Europe but flopped in India.

So, try a thought experiment: Assume when you walk into your classroom tomorrow and discover that it has suddenly become an all-Indonesian classroom. Everyone is talking in Bahasa. What are your reactions: Do you sit down, do you walk out, are you shocked into silence, do you try to pick up a conversation with the professor, with other students? The answers could give you clues about how ready you are to set out on the path to being a glocal leader.