China to the Rescue?

China suffers from all these maladies. But there’s a case to be made that a new generation of leaders in China is getting equipped to make progress on these issues—not only for their own country, but for the entire globe.

I know, that assertion seems ludicrous on its face. To start with, Chinese government leaders remain authoritarian—hardly the kind of leadership I would want to live under. In addition, my reporting on China over the past few months is full of anecdotes about immature managers and ethical foibles. Chinese leaders have a reputation for nose-to-the-grindstone operational savvy, not strategic thinking or people management.

In a recent Korn/Ferry survey about leadership in Asia, nearly half the worldwide executives polled doubted local talent in China will reach global standards within five to 10 years. The Conference Board says teamwork skills and leadership ability are not yet taught well in most of China’s universities and graduate programs.

But over the past decade especially, Chinese professionals have been picking up Western business and leadership skills from the multinational firms that are investing so heavily in the country. Better education is on the government’s agenda. And perhaps most important, a debate is brewing about how to marry the best of Chinese values with those of the West when it comes to leadership.

I asked Angel Yu, vice president for human resources and administration at clothing firm Adidas for mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, for her thoughts about how Western and Chinese principles can be combined in leaders. She boiled it down to a simple phrase: "Balance performance culture and family-oriented culture."

Performance and family. Taken seriously, that pairing amounts to a kind of holy grail not only for China, but for the world. It would mean economic progress that expands opportunities and standards of living—the best of the West, as it were. But also the Eastern attention to harmony and personal relationships that ideally would entail leaving no one behind, preserving the Earth for future "family" members and making room for philosophical or religious differences.

Beijing-based consultant Teresa Woodland sees positive signs in both the country’s business and political leadership. China’s most recent five-year national plan emphasizes blending economic growth with social harmony, notes Woodland, who worked for about a decade at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in China before starting her own firm recently. In her view, the roiling mix that is China today could well produce leaders capable of tackling some of the world’s most vexing problems, including climate change and social inequality.