The two most important days in your life is the day you were born and the day you find out why. (Mark Twain) I was born and grew up in a small town outside Oslo, Norway. My dad was a doctor and my mom a nurse. One night my parents had friends over for dinner and...
Show me a leader who ignores her company culture, and I will show you a leader who is about to get a big wakeup call. An overwhelming amount of research over the last years have proven the effect strong and engaged cultures have on employee retention, productivity,...
I hadn’t seen Joe for almost two years. Last time we spoke he told me about his soul-sucking job, his controlling boss, the long workdays, and the fact that he, at the age of 28, basically had no life. “Why do you still work there?” I asked, genuinely wondering what...
The most important role of the leader in the new world of work is to build and lead teams; drive change, keep people connected and engaged, and create cultures of innovation, learning, and continuous improvement.
Originally published for Brand Minds Live July 24, 2020. “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better,” the great American writer and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou said decades ago. In the Western world we are currently seeing...
The five building blocks of high-performing team cultures is a science-based model, including purpose, identity, trust, growth mindsets, passion and joy.
Over the last years we have been exposed to an overwhelming amount of studies and evidence of how our mindsets, emotions and habits not only influence our personal well-being, but also the health of our work cultures and the impact it has on business results....
“So that you can have some perspective, allow me to remind you that this last year, transforming TechnoGuard into a company that people are happy and proud to work for, has been one of my biggest priorities. I have chosen this as a strategy because it helps us attract...
Why Men Say “Yes” and Women Say “Not Yet”, when it comes to going for promotions and taking on leadership roles at work.
After the first bottle of wine we got the idea. After the second, we were nearly jumping out of our skins with excitement. On the third, not only had we agreed that this was The Best Idea Ever, we had even sketched the entire plan on the paper cloth of the restaurant...
They had had it all figured out; simple tasks would be automated, information would be digitized, processes would be optimized and the human touch would be minimized. On PowerPoint it looked brilliant, innovative and made perfect sense. In reality; not so much. Two...
Cross-cultural communication Leader Last week I spoke about cross-cultural communication at a big company event in Berlin, Germany. There were 1700 people in the room, from 20 different nationalities. Leader I talked about how we all come from different upbringings,...
Change leaders “Change is the only constant” the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said 500 years BC. Change Leaders Having spent the last 20 years developing corporate cultures, teams and organizations in constantly changing markets and business landscapes, I...
A few years ago I attended a conference about "engagement at work" (or "arbeidsglede" in Norwegian) and presented my theory about the 3 levels of engagement and how each of them impact performance, innovation and business results. First we have "job-satisfaction",...
"Strategies are nothing but a guessing game for a future reality we impossibly can predict. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. With the right kind of culture, we can handle anything” my new boss told me. A Company with Culture as Strategy The year was 2002; I...
