navigating our leadership journey

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© 2012 Tieto Corporation those who believe in the beauty of their Dreams” [Eleanor Roosevelt] NAVIGATING OUR LEADERSHIP JOURNEY Matti Vesala Tieto Young Professionals community

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My presentation in a knowledge sharing session of Tieto Young Professionals in August 2013. I was asked to open the conversation by sharing my thoughts about leadership. Tough assignment. I decided to share something really personal. I revealed my biggest mistakes and failures as a leader. And of course lessons learned and what impact these mistakes have had on me.

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Page 1: Navigating our leadership journey

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“The Future belongs to

those who believe in the

beauty of their

Dreams”

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

NAVIGATING OURLEADERSHIP JOURNEY

Matti VesalaTieto Young Professionals community

Leadership workshop 23.8.2012

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Presentation for Tieto Young Professionals community. I shared selected moments from my own leadership journey to reflect the themes I consider to be most important for me as a leader. Most of them are small daily moments and some more dramatic. All of them are very emotional experiences having a lifetime impact on me. I think hearing and sharing stories is important for our growth. Storytelling, anyway, is one of the most ancient learning methods.

The stories I decided to share are my biggest failures as a leader. I tried to describe what I learned by doing those mistakes and how they worked as roadsigns for me while I have navigated my leadership journey.

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MANAGER

OR

LEADER?

Profession and positiongiven by other managers

No leader without followers

I started with this: this is how I see the difference between a Manager and a Leader.

Manager is a profession and position. When you work as a manager you learn and apply a certain toolbox and skillset to administrate and manage things. Methology and processes.

Leader, instead, is a person who is followed. Leader also creates more leaders. The leader as a person is rarely followed because of his or her personality. Usually it is the purpose and passion that the leader carries in his heart that is followed and that also acts as a starting point for new leaders.

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MANAGEMENT

OR

LEADERSHIP?

Organizing people’s skills toenable a sequence of activitiesin order to meet the targets.

Amplifying peoples emotions tostart action in order to make adream come true.

Management is a job. It is quite much fact based decision making. It includes methodologies and processes to organize and administrate things to get the results. Management focuses on people’s skills and productivity.

Leadership is a way of being that creates passion and purpose to be followed. It focuses on people’s emotions and passion and aims at making dreams come true.

There are 1M definitions for management and leadership if you search Google. These are my own.

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VALUESFirst stories I shared were about making a decision or acting in a way that is against your own values. I’ve done this twice, big time, as a manager and in my private life. It hurted me and other people especially. Result was a lifetime nightmare for me and theser people. Failing like this I learned that:

1)never make a decision against your own values even if you need to violate the rules2)if you need to break the rules constantly it shows an evidence that company values are not aligned with yours3)”Values” are #1 on leader’s priority list

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PEOPLE,PRESENCE

Then I shared another mistake I’ve done several times: not being (emotionally) present in people’s daily life. Sometimes I’ve failed to be there, as a leader, for people working in another location. Back then, it really felt bad for those people. Luckily they shared their thoughts and feelings with me after a while. So I learned

1)Keep your focus on the people who are not physically close to you, communicate, be with them every day2)Further they were, more you need to focus on them3)”Presence” is #2 on leader’s priority list

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EQUALITY,DIVERSITY

Another failure. I once led a team where I thought one person didn’t fit into our team. As a manager I did something really stupid. I started to exclude the person from everything we did. Worst thing is that that person was obviously very skilled, more skilled in that environment than me or other people in the team. I just didn’t like the person and I thought others felt the same on their behalf. I acted ugly. That person never shared his thoughts or feelings but that didn’t prevent me from re-learning what Jack Welch has said:

1)”Diversity is the source of all success”2)”Equality” AND ”Diversity” are #3 on the priority list

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KICK UP,KISS DOWN

Once, in a development discussion, I got a feedback from one of my people: ”Matti, your job is to be here with us and for us – your team – not for your boss and other managers!” Yes. I had failed to focus on my team and had started to use my time and energy to please my boss. That feedback was an eyeopener and I learned

1) Give 99.9 % from your energy to your followers and use 0.1 % to educate your boss (educate not please)

2) Pleasing your boss might boost your career short term but one day you realize that you are in an executive position but you do not have any real followers

3) #4 in priority list is to use your energy for the benefit of your followers

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BEING ALPHA

It took me years to accept that I’m not the brightest guy in the room. It took me even longer to realize that I don’t have to be. When I got a management position I immediately started to act as if I automatically was the alpha of any group. I sought role models from the managers who were acting like alpha males and I tried desperately to copy their style. I disliked the ”shy” leaders who did not rule their empires in a fashionable manner. This is my most long lasting failure as a leader. Only recently, supported by my coach and other people I have discovered that

1) Leadership doesn’t require that you are the alpha male in the room, sometimes you are sometimes you’re not

2) Great leaders are followed and they can lead even if someone else is acting as an alpha in the group

3) Priority #5 is to fight your own ego to give room for true empathy

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PERMISSION

I couldn’t find any particular story about this. It is more like a phenomenon I have learned to fight against: culture that is based on asking permission. Letting that flourish is a real innovation and motivation killer in any company.

1) Leadership (right there, on the spot) doesn’t require that you go and ask for a permission to act

2) Followership (right there, on the spot) doesn’t require that you go and ask for a permission to act

3) #6 in the priority list is constant empowerment and delegation of power

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LOVE,PURPOSE,PASSION

Love... is fiery passion, intimate mental and physical proximityembracing the two without any kind of obstacles in between. It is about

ultimate joy of taking care of someone, giving protection and shelteras well as encouragement and endless inspiration. It is about respecting

and forgiving. Love... is the ultimate force that no other force,not even death, can subdue.

At this point of my leadership journey I have discovered these 3 cornerstones that lay the foundations of my leadership.

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LOVE,PURPOSE,PASSION

Leadership... is fiery passion, intimate mental, emotional and physical proximity embracing us without any kind of obstacles in between.

It is about ultimate joy of taking care of people, giving protectionand support as well as encouragement and endless mutual inspiration.

It is about dreaming of and acting towards a shared purpose.Leadership... is the ultimate way of focusing our energy to a purpose

with such an intensity that no other force can stop us.

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The most precious but also the most heart-breaking moment in my life as a leaderis when I sense that my leadership is no longer needed.

My job is done. For now.

Source www.tumblr.com

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THE END

NO.

TO BE

CONTINUED...Matti [email protected]

Twitter: @mkvesala