Abstract: More and more companies need more global leaders to develop their global business. The article reviews the studies and relational studies on the global leaders’ characteristics .For the success of their companies in the global complex competitive circumstance, the global leaders should not only have general characteristics but also idiosyncratic (especially the culture specific ones ) ones. And this leads to the differences between the training of global leaders and the general managers: training on culture acumen and global ideas. At last, the questions that need to be resolved in the future are also put forward.

Key words: global leaders, competency model, strategic leadership, mental map