Nordic Leaders podcast

36:45

In this episode of Nordic Leaders: Fail Smart , we welcome back Jarmo Suominen, CEO of Rejlers Abu Dhabi, marking his second appearance on the podcast—our first returning guest! We explore leadership lessons from one of the UAE's fastest-growing professional services firms, diving into resilience, growth, and adapting to an ever-changing business landscape. Key Takeaways: 1. Focus and Learning from Failure: 🎙️ Focus on the task at hand and avoid over-planning. 🎙️ "When you’re somewhere, focus on what you’re doing. When you’ve had enough, start looking for something else." 2. Leading Through Crisis: 🎙️ COVID-19 Strategy: Despite the market shutdown, Jarmo kept his team intact by cutting salaries across the board instead of laying off staff. This decision helped preserve the company’s core talent. 🎙️ Rejlers Abu Dhabi emerged stronger post-pandemic, growing from 45 employees to 300 and becoming the most profitable unit in the global Rejlers group. 3. Building Trust in a Diverse Organization: 🎙️ "What we’re selling in consulting is trust." 🎙️ How to Build Trust: Be genuinely interested in people. Lead by example—be present, listen, and engage. Avoid imposing personal ideologies or assumptions on others. 4. Leadership Evolution: 🎙️ From Manager to Coach: Jarmo’s leadership style evolved from directive management to coaching through listening and asking the right questions. 🎙️ "If the house is on fire, it’s not time to discuss what’s for dinner." Coaching works best in non-emergency scenarios. 5. Cultural Intelligence: 🎙️ Leading a team of 24 nationalities requires cultural sensitivity, curiosity, and genuine interest. 🎙️ Advice for Leaders Moving Abroad: "Drop the idea that everyone thinks like you." Memorable Quotes: "Don’t plan too far ahead—you’ll be disappointed." "Be honest, but remember that most people say they want the truth—until they hear it." "Let people discover solutions themselves; nothing works better than a self-made realization." Podcast Team Reflections: David: "The best time to leave a party is when you’re enjoying yourself the most." Nick: "Focus and adaptability stood out as essential leadership traits." Stefano: "Selling trust defines good consulting—a guiding principle for any leader." Closing Thought: Jarmo’s enduring lesson resonates beyond business: Success isn’t about imposing one way of thinking but about fostering trust, enabling growth, and embracing diverse perspectives. His journey through challenge and transformation exemplifies leadership resilience and the power of learning minds. Thank you for tuning in to Nordic Leaders: Fail Smart . Stay curious, keep learning, and see you next time!…

Nordic Leaders

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66 - The Essence of Leadership: Lessons from Asko Känsälä 35:56

22 weeks ago35:56

35:56

In this insightful episode of Fail Smart , we sit down with Asko Känsälä, former Deputy CEO of Elisa, a leading telecommunications company in Finland. Known for his sharp thinking and profound insights, Asko shares the experiences, philosophies, and failures that have shaped his leadership journey. Together with Asko we explore what it means to lead with empathy, balance, and impactful simplicity. Key Takeaways from the Episode : Failures and Successes Don’t Define Us : Asko discusses his belief that failures and successes, while part of business, don’t shape identity. Instead, it’s about experimenting, learning, and not clinging to events. “Whatever the mistake, you can always fix it. Whatever the success, don’t be too proud—it’s often a collective achievement.” Leadership as Lifelong Learning : Self-leadership is the foundation of effective leadership. It requires constant reflection and an openness to feedback from peers, subordinates, and even customers. Asko highlights the importance of developing impactful, "dense" leadership—focusing on what truly matters. Impact Through Simplicity : Inspired by art, Asko emphasizes the power of distillation: finding the essential and stripping away the unnecessary. Memorable example: Introducing Elisa’s customer-first strategy with the phrase “Frontline First.” Empathy in Leadership : Asko advocates for understanding people as whole individuals, not just roles within an organization. This means noticing the small things, engaging in “small encounters,” and creating a culture of trust and care. His empathetic leadership was deeply influenced by personal experiences, including caring for his daughter during a difficult illness. Challenging Urgency : A key leadership “superpower” Asko discusses is “stopping the time” to challenge assumptions and find clarity. This approach often reveals that urgency is an illusion, allowing teams to focus on essential actions. Cultural Insights and Creative Thinking : Asko shares how his experiences in Japan and at Columbia Business School shaped his approach to leadership, creativity, and problem-solving. Key lesson: Understand the assumptions and meanings behind people’s words and actions to gain a new perspective. Memorable Quotes : “Leadership is not about perfection; it’s about impact.” “Stop the time, challenge assumptions, and focus on the behaviors and actions that truly matter.” “Good leadership makes itself unnecessary—it’s about empowering others to lead.” About the Guest : Asko Känsälä is a seasoned leader and former Deputy CEO of Elisa. With a career spanning decades, Asko is known for his empathetic yet results-driven approach to leadership. He has authored a book "Johtajasta mestariksi" ("From Leader to Master") on his leadership philosophy, focusing on self-leadership, team dynamics, and the art of impactful simplicity. Resources & Mentions : Asko Känsälä’s Book : ( Currently available in Finnish ) English edition coming soon! Inspirations Discussed : Artworks by Eva Ryynänen , Japanese cultural insights, and Olli Jokinen’s coaching philosophy. Host Team : David Goddard - Chief Quote Officer Nick Vertigans - Chief Summarizer Officer Stefano Mosconi - Insights Facilitator…

Nordic Leaders

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65 - Upgrade your thinking and make better decisions. Agile HR with Natal Dank. 45:59

35 weeks ago45:59

45:59

Natal Dank is the Co-founder of PXO Culture, Chief Trendwatcher at the HR Trend Institute and named one of the Most Influential HR Thinkers of 2022 by HR Magazine. Recognized as a pioneer of Agile in the people profession, Natal hosted the first London-based Agile HR Meetup in 2016, which has since grown into a global movement reshaping the L&D and people profession. Helping to make workplaces the kind of places people want to be a part of. She is co-author of; Agile HR: Deliver Value in a Changing World of Work & author of recently released; Agile L&D: A Toolkit to Improve Organizational Learning and Drive Performance. In this energetic, insightful episode, the discussion delves into the core elements of Agile HR, the importance of experimentation in a complex, modern business environment, and the challenges of integrating agility into HR and business practices. Natal shares examples and insights, emphasizing the value of continuous learning, evidence-based approaches, and human-centric solutions. A valuable listen for anyone interested in performance and continuous improvement, in modernising business and HR practices and in fostering a more adaptable, collaborative and inclusive work environment. Learning and Failure – Natal recalls the importance of testing and avoiding going too big, too fast at times in her career. She offers a practical question for all of us, "How could I have tested or experimented first?" By establishing guardrails and gathering sufficient data, organisations can mitigate risks and make more informed decisions. Agile HR Explained in 3 steps - In brief, understand your customer; add value incrementally; manage risk and test understand of the business environment The best way to talk about Agile to the business, ‘ for me, it's never about going Agile’. Experimentation and Prototyping in HR and a valuable example of building a leadership development programme applying Agile principles. Asking the question, what are ‘the reasons why you might want to work differently?’ What politicians could learn from taking an Agile approach! Learning and adapting together. Natal touches on the concept of the "squiggly career" and the implications of living longer, referring to "The 100-Year Life." Managing transitions through different careers is becoming increasingly important. In order to adapt and evolve skill sets, Agile methodologies can play a pivotal role in facilitating these transitions by promoting a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability. Enjoy this excellent episode!…

Nordic Leaders

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64 - Samstag: The Intersection of Psychology and Leadership 39:41

48 weeks ago39:41

39:41

Dr. Nicholas Samstag is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist based in New York City. With a diverse background spanning theater to ancient Greek and Latin studies, his journey into psychology and psychoanalysis has been influenced by a range of experiences. In this episode, Nicholas discusses how his varied path shaped his approach to psychoanalysis and leadership, and offers elegant insights into human nature and leadership, reflecting on: 🎙️parallels between theater and therapy, emphasizing the importance of feeling secure and playful in both settings, as well as in the work environment; 🎙️the intersection of psychology and leadership, highlighting the importance of recognizing one's humanity in a professional setting; 🎙️how leaders should prioritize understanding their own psychology and their own stories and experiences, and how they can impact the dynamics within their teams; 🎙️how fostering a culture of curiosity and psychological awareness can create environments where people feel valued and secure, ultimately leading to better collaboration and innovation; 🎙️how leaders can develop the power to notice more, be present, and be aware of their own and others' dynamics in the workplace. Overall, a great conversation packed with valuable insights into the connection between psychology, leadership, and creating supportive work environments.…

Nordic Leaders

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63 - Paradoxical Leadership with Ivo Brughmans 43:40

1 year ago43:40

43:40

Immerse yourself on a journey of discovery in this conversation about Paradoxical Thinking and Leadership with author and philosopher, Ivo Brughmans. Get ready to challenge your own assumptions and self-perception. Ivo delivers an insightful message about embracing the ‘power of both sides’ of our personalities. Reaching out for the side of our personality that we don’t see or use, or even like that much is truly challenging. As a ‘very serious person at work’, Ivo describes how he managed to combine both professional and playful, in order to reach more people and be more effective. He also focuses on the paradoxical challenge for organisations who struggle to live up to their values and how to be more authentic and effective in that regard. For example, how can a company ‘double the profit and halve the footprint’ at the same time? Ivo introduces his 8 step approach to understanding our paradoxes more deeply and offers personal examples from his own life and career, including; 🎙️ The Courage to trust our intuition in difficult times. Using our fundamental beliefs and our mission as a ‘compass’. 🎙️ The Paradoxical Challenge. Using the power of both sides to reach more people with our message and our work. 🎙️ Accepting our shadow sides. For every characteristic, we also have the opposite in us. Despite their negative appearance, what is their positive intention? 🎙️ Reshaping corporate values in terms of polarities How to innovate and create stability? Double the profit, halve the footprint? Ivo identifies how companies can do both at the same time. 🎙️ AW & AI How to AW (Ancient Wisdom) to manage and master one of our current big question marks, AI ? Discover more about Paradoxical Leadership and about Ivo, here: https://paradoxical-leadership.com Enjoy the episode!…

Nordic Leaders

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62 - Transforming leadership with Taneli Rantala 42:10

1 year ago42:10

42:10

🗨️" Create habits that create a good life. " In this episode we catch up with Taneli Rantala, CEO of Lifted , and dip in to highlights of Taneli's journey from a strategy consultant to a visionary entrepreneur. Taneli´s philosophy emphasizes the importance of leadership style, organizational culture, personal development, and taking hard decisions to create successful, resilient leaders. Listen in to get insights into 🎧Enhancing organizational culture and productivity. 🎧Creating a consistent, coherent leadership approach. 🎧Developing team "coffee and success" practices for a positive growth culture. 🎧Facing business challenges and adapting strategies. 🎧Learning from failures 🎧Balancing professional identity with personal life. 🎧Being the architect of one's life and the power of habits in shaping a fulfilling life. 🗨️" We have this habit in our company... We write two positive things about my actions and two feedbacks about how I could improve... It's so great. People share things that they don't necessarily have time or space to share in normal working life ." 🗨️" I go through this practice [thinking about something I'm excited about today] and I become more excited about the day... I create habits that create a good life for me because those are pretty easy ." 🗨️ " I realise that my life is in a good place. And I don't have to identify myself through this company... I have other things in my life as good cornerstones... understanding that yes I also have to keep them strong. "…

Nordic Leaders

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61 - Connecting Opposites; a blueprint for a world of dilemmas, with Fons Trompenaars. 43:09

2 years ago43:09

43:09

A warm and polished performance from Dutch organizational theorist Fons Trompenaars, recognized around the world for his work as a motivational speaker, consultant, and author of several books on culture and business. He spent over 30 years helping Fortune 500 leaders build meaningful connections to manage and solve business and cultural dilemmas to increase global effectiveness and performance. Recognized by Thinkers 50 as one of the most influential management thinkers in the world, Fons was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017 alongside Peter Drucker. Don’t miss this action, learning and wisdom -packed episode, we discuss; •Connecting opposite perspectives to understand and master cultural and political difference - ‘Integrity is creating wholeness through the integration of opposites.’ •The four ‘R’ s of culture; a model for navigating the world of diversity gracefully. But how do you, 'Recognize, Respect, Reconcile, and Realize'? •‘Killed by our own values’, how companies can be their own worst enemies, and what they can do about it •'human beings all have the same dilemmas, but it's our culture that guides us one side or the other’. Fons describes exactly how this plays out in the ‘pedestrian dilemma’ He talks candidly about humour, failure, learning moments and much more!…

Nordic Leaders

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60 - Environments in which Everyone Can Thrive with Celine Pasula 38:15

2 years ago38:15

38:15

Celine Pasula has over a decade of leadership experience in top mobile gaming companies including startups and bigger companies. Today, as the Managing Director of Ubisoft RedLynx, she's working with experiences on all platforms, mobile, PC, and console. Celine is not only an expert in leadership, finance, legal and business development but also in building a great company culture. She is a fast-thinking leader with a big heart for game development. When it comes to gaming itself, she is one of the most competitive players you are ever going to meet! This episode revolves around the need for organizations and individuals to be adaptable and forward-thinking in order to achieve and sustain high performance. Celine speaks about how Ubisoft RedLynx, as an organization, thrives through creating a supportive, flexible, and innovative work environment where individuals feel psychologically safe and motivated to perform at their best. Psychological Safety : Creating an environment where employees feel secure and unthreatened is crucial. This allows them to share ideas, question norms, and suggest improvements without fear of retribution. It cultivates a culture of innovation and performance. Time Management and Thoughtful Planning : Celine emphasizes the importance of deliberate time management, such as setting aside slots for thinking and having clear goals for meetings. These strategies ensure that employees are not overwhelmed and can focus on tasks effectively. Role Modelling and Leadership : Leaders play a vital role in high performance environments. They not only guide and inspire employees, but they also model the behaviours and values that lead to success. Alignment of Personal and Organizational Values : High performance is achieved when there is alignment between an individual's values and those of the organization. When employees believe in the mission of the organization and feel that their work contributes to that mission, their performance levels rise. Work-Life Balance : Finally, maintaining a balance between work and personal life is crucial for sustained high performance. By integrating games and other personal interests into their routines, individuals can stay motivated and avoid burnout.…

Nordic Leaders

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59 - Nitin Sawhney on the power of letting go 47:18

2 years ago47:18

47:18

"Music attracts luck" - Nitin Sawhney In this episode we have a warm and uplifting chat with Nitin Sawhney, musician, producer and composer, known around the world for his albums, film scores, DJ skills, and collaborations with Paul McCartney, Sting, Jeff Beck, Ellie Golding, Annie Lennox, Will Young, Bob Geldof, Andy Serkis, Mira Nair, Anushka Shankar, Nora Jones, Herby Hancock and David Gilmore. In a wide ranging conversation on music, intuition, collaboration, leadership and learning, Nitin references Beethoven, Pythagoras, Johannes Kepler, Einstein, Michelangelo and Nelson Mandela. This episode is fascinating, packed with positivity and downright good fun. We were thrilled to have such a lovely chap on our show, thank you Nitin! Below some tasters: Changing your attitude to change your fortunes When I let go and stopped fighting, and stopped being angry and frustrated, and instead looked at what I could do to positively to change things, then everything shifted. And it shifted really fast. Within a matter of weeks, I got a new record deal and went from playing to 100 people at the Jazz Cafe, to filling the Royal Albert Hall and playing to 5,000 people, and then touring with Sting. It was a change of attitude. I focused on what I could positively do rather than what I could retain from the past. I just went what can I do? What are the things that I'm capable of? What are the things that I could do to change my situation? What do I have control of? Intuition If you follow your intuition, the universe has a habit of taking care of you. You have to train your intuition and work on it to the point where you feel able to trust it. The more you follow your intuition, the more you end up in a place where you are able to be a medium for possibility . Collaboration John Coltrane said that improvisation was like a bird that you catch in the air … that lends itself to the idea of discovering rather than creating music; it's what Michelangelo famously said, that the statues were hidden in the stone. Listening is a prerequisite of finding a collaborative voice with anyone. It comes through discovering each other's thoughts and processes and of what goals we might have, or whether we want to just simply explore a possibility rather than focus on the specific goal. So, it's just kind it's about seeing how people want to work and being open to that . Leadership and learning You can always learn. There is always something that you can find. And so, the idea that you are thinking of leadership in the fluid way in your interactions, I think is also really important. Anyone can be a leader at any time. I've spent my whole life playing the guitar, but I might meet a guitarist who's actually only played for a short time, but they could teach me something. It's very important that you can give way to them and allow them to lead a situation so that you can learn from it. And here is a link to artists, musicians, composers, who have worked with Nitin talking about how he has enabled them to be more than what they imagined themselves to be. To go a little bit further. To let go. Nitin Sawhney…

Nordic Leaders

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58 - Questions are the Answer with Hal Gregersen 52:48

2 years ago52:48

52:48

You’ve probably heard of Hal Gregersen… A global name in leadership and academia. An author and senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at MIT's Sloan School of Management, a former executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, and ranked in the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers in 2021. His latest book, Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life is based on 200+ interviews with catalytic questioners such as Elon Musk and Orit Gadiesh. Hal begins by talking about his lifelong passion of photography and a significant moment of failure with the camera. Hal knows about questions! And in this episode we find out what are the most important questions in our lives and how to create a culture of fearless inquiry, including: The power of Inquisitive Creativity Fearless Questions and Hal’s work with the no 1 ranked Thinkers 50 Amy Edmondson, pioneer and champion of psychological safety The Question Burst Process – a game-changing tool to help us tackle our own most challenging projects and dilemmas. What questions give you energy what questions take it away, key stone and shadow questions Many leaders are only asking, ‘What do we do?’ ‘How do we do it?’ They might be missing something ‘ Call-to-Action' questions and the power of ' What if' questions. Hal gets us thinking about our relationship with questions, for example the role of authority figures in our childhood (at home, school, first job) and how they responded to our tough, challenging questions, and how that shapes us; right through to how we use questions in the workplace. We hope you enjoy this warm and engaging conversation as much as we did: please consider smiling, following us, and perhaps a 5 star rating! 🙂…

Nordic Leaders

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57 - Johanna Småros; ‘an introvert engineer who gets stuff done on time’. 47:22

3 years ago47:22

47:22

Now here’s a conversation we can all relate to, on the nature of working life today and how to navigate people, tech, and change, gracefully. Johanna is co-founder of RELEX Solutions, a huge success story and the world's coolest provider of retail planning solutions! Johanna describes what it’s like navigating the ‘hard skills’ world of engineering, data and tech, and at the same time sharing her experiences of collaboration and leading people and teams through change. In our experience it’s rare to talk to somebody who is equally skilled at both the so called ‘hard and soft’ side of working life. Enjoy a warm-hearted conversation from someone ‘on top of their game’. Topics include 1. How to work with humans, ‘ the enigma for everyone’ . You can never know other people fully and perhaps not even yourself completely’ 2. How to: apply your Intuition to identify what’s urgent/ important, and ‘fake emergencies’ think about things, (‘thinking is so underrated’) use notification s effectively 3. Defining success for yourself , without peer pressure. When you get an impulse to do something, step back and ask, ‘Is this something I really want to do? & how is this gonna make me happier?’ 4. In a world that’s never done, Johanna describes how she creates ‘progress’ everyday 5. Competing is ‘kind of irrelevant’, ‘ but I am ambitious’ 6. On leading people , ‘you should never fall into that trap of assuming that you kind of understand things. It's better to be explicit and ask. That's one lesson I've learned. 7. Confidence and public speaking, ‘ A big change for me was finding an area where what I'm saying actually adds to the knowledge of the world.’ Enjoy this conversation with Johanna! J…

Nordic Leaders

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56 - How People and Organisations Learn with Charles Jennings 54:02

3 years ago54:02

54:02

Fail Smart: Lessons in Leadership & Life The brilliant Charles Jennings covers everything you need to know about life and learning in way less than an hour: Recognised as one of the world's leading experts on building and implementing learning and organisational performance strategies. He’s led pioneering work with the 70:20:10 model for 20 years + and led learning and performance improvement projects for multinationals, government agencies, not-for-profits, and more, for over 40 years. Included in this sparkling episode: 1. Navigating change; understanding the power of ‘changing minds’ before ‘changing things’ 2. Applying the 70.20.10 Model ; ‘even more important today’ 3. Operational excellence v developing people - ‘not a trade-off, you have to do both’ 4. Three important steps to create true learning organisations: Pyschological Safety is crucial and starts at the top. Think organisational and team-learning first , then individual Move away from competencies towards critical tasks 5. Support learning in 4 steps: Rich Experiences, Opportunities to practice, Networks, and Reflection moments 6. ‘Communityship’ to support and encourage people & teams 7. Reflection Moments & 3 key questions to ask yourself, and the power of reflection in business and in tennis 8. Trust: people only trust you when actions connect with words.…

Nordic Leaders

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55 - Fail Smart with Tendayi Viki 37:53

3 years ago37:53

37:53

Tendayi Viki, Associate Partner at Strategyzer Fail Smart - Lessons in Leadership and Life: The new series from the Nordic Leaders. We couldn’t possibly imagine a better way to start our Fail Smart series than this sparkling conversation with Tendayi Viki. Tendayi advises leaders across the globe on strategy and innovation, helping companies to explore and create the future. He is a speaker, facilitator, advisor, and he’s written three books on innovation, his latest book is Pirates In The Navy: How Innovators Drive Transformation. Bringing great energy, humour and openness to this conversation, Tendayi shares with us: 💡How failing smart kick-started his career 💡Three principles of innovation including: You can't pick the winner on day 1 Make multiple small bets early Go with evidence and ideas that deliver customer value 💡The two questions every leader should ask their team if they want breakthrough innovation: Is that idea crazy enough? What would have to be true for that idea to work? 💡And how he we should design like we’re right and test like we’re wrong. NORDIC LEADERS 2022 - FAIL SMART SERIES Our season 5 series theme is Fail Smart, Lessons in Leadership and Life. We help our clients with leadership development, coaching and communication skills. If you like what you hear, connect with Nick , David and Stefano on LinkedIn to ask our help!…

Nordic Leaders

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54 - Harnessing Informal Power in your Organisation with Dr. Matt Offord 32:25

3 years ago32:25

32:25

In this episode we welcome Dr Matt Offord , esteemed lecturer in Leadership and Management from the Adam Smith Business School, Glasgow University . Matt is a former Naval Officer with extensive experience leading agile 21st-century teams in high tech and data rich environments. Matt shares many fascinating insights which include; · ‘Harnessing informal power is a very healthy thing; the idea that informal networks are not helpful, is not helpful’ · Leadership Lessons from the Royal Navy; you learn how to lead and be led , people are encouraged to challenge leaders as well, it's 'seen as a duty if something is not right' · On the difference between military and private sector, ' people talk a lot about teamwork, but then you go into workplaces and you see that it's not really happening so much' · Leadership starts when you start . Leadership training is given to everyone from day one. ‘It was self evident why everyone was treated as a leader in the navy but in business it's different, you have to justify leadership training’ · On crisis communications and informal influencers, ‘I wanted to see whether they (the ship's company) were listened to, based on their rank or based on some sort of prestige.' · Hierarchies– ’throughout most of human history, we've not really lived in hierarchies' – ’I wonder whether data and technology are changing the game and we're reverting back to what might be more natural perhaps.’ · How to be a data savvy leader and the importance of data-driven leadership Please enjoy the episode! You may also wish to give Matt a well-deserved Five Star rating!…

Nordic Leaders

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53 - How improv principles can help leaders thrive in a changing environment - Patricia Ryan Madson 30:37

3 years ago30:37