Leader’s Digest | September 2024

Welcome to the September 2024 edition of the Leader’s Digest, your monthly compass for navigating the world of business leadership. In this issue, we’ll discover the topic of (surprise, surprise) leadership.

Contents

• Why Leadership Teams Fail (And What to Do About It)
• Management is NOT Leadership
• NBF Spotlight
• Inspirational Quote by Richard Branson

New Leadership Insights

Why Leadership Teams Fail (And What to Do About It)

Many CEOs overlook the health of their leadership teams, which can lead to dysfunction that drags down company performance. Research on over 100 CEOs revealed recurring team issues like poor communication and political infighting. The authors of a recent HBR article, Thomas Keil and Marianna Zangrillo, describe three common dysfunctions:

⚠️ Shark Tank: Overly competitive teams focus on personal agendas, resulting in infighting and power struggles. This hampers collaboration and strategic execution.

⚠️ Petting Zoo: Teams that prioritize harmony over debate avoid challenging ideas. This stifles innovation and avoids critical discussions.

⚠️ Mediocracy: Teams become complacent, focusing on past successes rather than future growth. Siloed operations and lack of collaboration further weaken performance.

To address these issues, leaders must diagnose their team’s dysfunction and implement targeted solutions, such as fostering trust, encouraging healthy conflict, and clearly defining roles and expectations.

Learn more on how to identify and address leadership team dysfunctions in this HBR article.

Management is NOT Leadership

“When the world changes, management always fails because we don’t understand how to go forward. We are going to have to lead. And leadership is not the same as management.” – Seth Godin

You might have already heard this keynote by the world-renowned author Seth Godin (maybe you were even in the audience listening). But with everything that’s going on, we felt his words serve the moment we are in.

At Nordic Business Forum Sweden 2018, Seth shared powerful insights on the distinction between leadership and management—and why this rapidly changing world needs more leaders than ever. A few highlights from his talk:

• While management is effective for driving economic efficiency and productivity, leadership is what helps us navigate times of unprecedented change. Now, leadership is crucial.
• Striving for excellence is more important than ever. As automation, AI, and low-cost labor take care of routine tasks, producing something truly remarkable is the key to staying competitive.
• Leaders should take a focus on “soft skills,” which Seth reframes as “real skills.” These are the human qualities that set us apart from robots and are more valuable than ever in the modern workplace.
• Strong leadership helps companies face challenges, learn from failures, and ultimately discover new paths to success.

Seth’s message, though delivered in 2018, offers timeless guidance for leaders navigating all the complexities. We highly recommend you to sit down and check it out!

NBF Spotlight

Join us behind the scenes as we introduce our speakers, share event updates, and more!

Who You Want to See at NBF 2025

Last time in our Leader’s Digest, we asked you who we should bring on our stage next year. We asked you to pick your three favorites from a selection of speakers, and the results show that the top 3 were:

• Michelle Obama
• Simon Sinek
• Shaquille O’Neal

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts!

…and if you want to see who actually will step on stage, stay tuned on the 26th of September, when we’ll launch the dates, themes, and first speakers for Nordic Business Forum 2025 🤩

NBF 2024 Taking Place in a Couple of Weeks

The best business days of the year are soon here! On 25-26 September, we’ll gather with 12 brilliant speakers and 6,500 business leaders to Helsinki for our annual Nordic Business Forum conference.

🙌 If you are joining us in person or online: get ready—it’s showtime soon and we have plenty of good stuff cooking!

👊 If you are planning to join but don’t yet have tickets, make sure to get yours by 18th of September—that’s when ticket sales closes. (Online tickets are available until the event begins.)

🤝 If you can’t join us this year for the event, you can follow the action on social media through our channels and with the hashtag #nbforum2024. Also, you can tune in for the HS Visio Live Studio sessions for free on Youtube and LinkedIn.

In the next Leader’s Digest in October, we will be sharing the event highlights such as keynote summaries. Stay tuned!

Stop and Think

“Running a business is about making a difference in people’s lives.”

– Richard Branson