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Leadership development: A Scandinavian Model
By Inger Buus, MA, MBA, former Director of Mannaz, UK
There is a new wind blowing in the arena of leadership development. The definition of ‘leadership’ seems to be changing again and this creates interesting new perspectives for the world of executive education – for corporates, business schools and consultancies, qualification programmes like the MBA as well as for customised, in-company development initiatives.
As a leadership and learning practitioner working closely with our corporate partners to co-design leadership development for their executives, I have noticed that people take an increased interest in the Scandinavian leadership model and in this article, I explore what the Scandinavian model of leadership and learning might have to offer in the context of an emerging new type of leadership.
A new definition of leadership?
No single, commonly accepted definition of leadership has ever existed. However, there are trends in the focus of research and practice. We are just coming out of a decade of interesting new developments and thinking in the ‘softer’ areas of leadership ). Many executives and organisations now seem to readily accept the positive impact on the business of developing people and leaders and have stopped attempting to measure ‘return on investment’ (ROI) on management or leadership development in isolation. ‘It’s a ‘no brainer’ as a corporate client of mine recently said.
This does not necessarily mean that the values of emotional intelligence have been firmly anchored in organisations nor that the behaviours of all managers have changed accordingly. But executives are now looking for the next generation of leadership development, for a holistic approach which will fully integrate the ‘hard’ and the ‘soft’ sides of leadership and include the whole area of business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
Mannaz has recently carried out a major study into challenges and best practices in leadership development in European organisations (Read more about the results of this study). One study participant from a major global organisation has cancelled all their classic leadership development programmes in which hundreds of managers were sent away in cohorts to external programmes. The new generation of leadership development in this organisation will not take place in ‘programme format’ but will consist of just-in-time and highly-tailored consultancy and interventions which support development and deployment of vision, mission and strategy as well as the creation of an enabling, motivating and inspiring workplace. Interestingly, this new approach is driven as much by the line management as by the Human Resources and Organisational development functions.
At Mannaz, a holistic approach to leadership development has emerged over the past 30 years through our cooperation with our network of clients, partners and suppliers. It is by no means a prescriptive model – in fact this would be entirely counterintuitive given the paradigm within which this model has evolved – that of Scandinavian leadership (1).
The Scandinavian leadership model as a source of inspiration
In keeping with their cultural preferences, Scandinavians themselves have shied away from promoting or branding their definition of leadership (with some obvious exceptions such as Jan Carlzon (2) ). Management books on the subject do not take up much shelf space in the airports. However, having recently interviewed a number of graduates from leading business schools, I realise that the Scandinavian model has become a hot topic and subject of numerous case studies.
A group of Swedish and Danish business leaders and academics recently set out to describe the – by definition – vague leadership model and in particular to explore the competitive advantages which it might offer at a national and corporate level . According to this research, the cornerstones of Scandinavian leadership are:
- Respect for the individual
- A holistic, humanistic and value based approach with a multiple stakeholder focus (e.g. the public/private/voluntary sectors, activist movements, trade unions and employee representatives)
- Flat and non-bureaucratic organisations with a high degree of devolved responsibility and accountability – an empowering and enabling environment which stimulates creativity, innovation and collaboration
- Trust, care and concern as key values
The report concludes that the Scandinavian leadership style is particularly suited for a post-industrial knowledge economy where success is dependent on collaboration across the value chain, networks and partnerships and the ability to innovate in an environment of high levels of ambiguity and change. Scandinavian countries already come high on the leadership related elements in international rankings, e.g. Sweden, Denmark and Finland are the three highest ranking countries on ‘willingness to delegate responsibility’ in the Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum.
An obvious question is ‘how well does the model travel’? In a book on leadership and management published in 2002, Julian Birkinshaw and Stuart Crainer, state that the success of Scandinavian corporates globally is indicative of the ‘transferability’ of the model, as is the fact that the most well-known and successful individual exponents of this model operated outside Scandinavia for most of their corporate career .
According to Stephen Covey, the traditional hierarchical leadership structure may have been useful in the industrial age, but the model is hopelessly outmoded today. Instead, Covey says that the flat, democratic, open model preferred by Denmark and its Nordic neighbours are the wave of the future (3).
Leadership development based on the Scandinavian leadership model
How does this leadership paradigm convert into meaningful and effective leadership development practices? At Mannaz, we have defined a number of learning principles as guidelines for more effective executive learning:
| Reality | all development should be focussed on real time challenges and opportunities. |
| Reflection | learning happens when actions, experiences and reactions are put into perspective by a process of reflection. In our experience, guided reflection is by far the most powerful tool which you can offer busy, action orientated executives. |
| Challenges | whilst any leadership development has to provide the right level of support and show respect for the individual, it will have more impact if there is an element of risk because the executive has something at stake. |
| Dialogue | leadership development should seek to tease out the existing and/or tacit knowledge and capabilities of the executives involved in an interactive format. The authority of leadership experts is no longer based on their intellectual knowledge alone but as much on the way it is delivered or transferred. Lecturing professors are dinosaurs in executive learning. |
| Action | reflection without action leads nowhere. Any leadership development should be firmly focussed on delivering value to the business. |
| Variation | the format of learning should be varied and adaptable to different learning styles and needs. The responsibility for the learning process is handed over to the executives who are asked to intervene at any time if the leadership development does not meet their objectives. |
Underpinning the above principles are the expert knowledge, competency and integrity of the facilitators or consultants.
The learning principles take our client partners from passive to active learning through guided reflection and experimentation. In other words, we aim to achieve ‘deep smart transfers’ .
High impact through ‘Real Life Leadership Labs’
The ‘Real Life Leadership Labs’ are an example of how our learning principles are applied in practice. The Labs are based on a blend of experiential and action learning techniques, reflective and dialogue practices including peer feedback and coaching, as well as Socratic questioning techniques which have their roots in the thinking of the Danish early existentialist philosopher Soeren Kierkegaard. The Real Life Leadership Labs include intensive work in groups of 5-6 executives guided by an experienced facilitator, typically a business psychologist. The Lab facilitators provide a framework for reflection and experimentation whilst the executives bring the contents - their own real life challenges and opportunities.
The executives determine the level of intimacy and disclosure as well as the balance between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ leadership issues, but these sessions almost invariably include the full holistic spectrum – the entire complex of self-awareness, business challenges, strategic visioning, interpersonal relationships etc.
The learning experience is maximised when the real stakeholders (e.g. customers, suppliers, board members etc.) are invited to participate in the learning process. We have seen a single hour of this type of reality-based learning create extraordinary business opportunities.
The Real Life Leadership Labs is an example of complete integration of the business and the people aspects of leadership. The method demonstrates how the Scandinavian leadership and learning model might offer new inspiration for high impact, holistic learning and support the emerging new definition of leadership. It will obviously never lay claim to be ‘the new model’.
The holistic model of leadership requires much higher levels of customisation and much closer cooperation (in academia between functional departments and in companies between the internal and external stakeholders) and will result in new organisational models and consulting methods.
Further information
If you have any questions or comments, please send a mail.
About the Author
Inger Buus is director of Mannaz London office. She designs and manages large international projects and is responsible for all UK operations. Ingers qualifications include an MA in French and an MBA specialising in HR from Cranfield School of Management.
1.
As a Scandinavian I will take the liberty of describing the common traits of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish – and Finnish – leadership whilst acknowledging that there are obviously national differences. Held up against other cultural leadership models such as the American model, these countries have more in common than they differ.
2.
Jan Carlzon was head of Scandinavian Airlines in the 1980s. Carlzon reversed the normal pyramid view of organisations that shows the boss at the top and the people who actually meet customers at the bottom. In Carlzon's view, the only justification for management is that it should enable and facilitate the people in customer contact to do their jobs well. Thus, he drew the chart with himself at the bottom, the customer at the top and the customer contact people just below them - a reverse pyramid. (In English, his book was called "Moments of Truth.")
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3.
Steven Covey, interview in Berlingske Tidende, March 2003. In the same interview: “This is the way forward. In a knowledge-based economy with a society of networks, openness, transparency, and responsibility will be dominant. I call this moral authority. And I can see that big businesses are already beginning to change. They're talking about things like quality in human relations, people's own distinct character and authority--and that's not something you can fake. You need the kind of flat corporate structure to make it possible so that rules and regulations don't take the place of human judgment.”
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