Modern leadership in a growth organisation

It is said that expert organisations in Finland are "overmanaged but underled". We know how to manage with engineering-like precision, but when it comes to managing people, we scrabble around. However, in growth companies, inspiring people to grow and implement a shared vision is a key cornerstone of success.

Leadership, as well as sales situations and various negotiation situations, eventually become condensed into people-to-people encounters. Success depends on the parties being able to put themselves in each other's shoes and understand what is important to the other party and why. In an interactive situation, different emotions also come and go, and understanding them helps in managing the situation. 

An important tool for good leadership is the leader's own personality and self-awareness: a good leader is able to call on the different facets of their personality when confronted with different people, situations and motives. The hidden, unconscious emotions of a good leader don't get in the way of an interactive situation. 

Relevance, Values and Psychological Safety

In order to achieve these goals, why this goal is genuinely relevant must be understood. The leader must be able to justify to himself why he wants to motivate people to take a certain kind of action: only then is it possible to inspire the listener to become enthusiastic. It is also good to have values made clear at both a personal and organisational level, and values should never be a commodity. 

The basic need of every human being is to be accepted as themselves and to belong. Because of this, people are afraid to make mistakes and are careful about revealing their true selves. In a psychologically safe environment, people rely on being accepted for who they are, and this creates true well-being. Thus people dare to express themselves and even put forward differing opinions, which is a sign of a healthy and developing organisation.

Leaders must put themselves on the line and start with themselves: leading by example and daring to be themselves without feigned roles. Under no circumstances should a leader take advantage of other people's vulnerabilities.

Coaching leader

A good leader succeeds when they can contribute to the success of others. Sometimes this means removing obstacles to work and facilitating work, sometimes inspiring leading from the front. The leader must be humble and set their own ego aside so that others have the opportunity to shine.

In an expert organisation, the tools of coaching leadership are invaluable. The coaching leader helps the person to work out what kind of development they want, and what measures can be taken to achieve it. The responsibility lies with the individual, but the manager challenges and helps, sets sub-objectives and helps in generating ideas for and scheduling methods.

Let's be ourselves in the workplace too

It is in everyone's interest if people are allowed to be their whole selves, also in working life. The feeling of being unconditionally accepted as a member of the team creates a sense of well-being and contributes to happiness at work. It's great to create real relationships in the workplace! So, I am prepared to replace the concept of 'Work-Life Balance' with the concept 'Work-Soul Integration': when we get whole people involved in the well-being of the organisation in a healthy, value-based and sustainable way, we contribute to the potential for real, sustainable success for both the organisation and individuals.