My Power
I have agreed to participate in the project because I believe it is important to talk about Power. What is it really, and what does it mean for the individual? It is on the surface individual, we talk about “taking back your Power”, “steeling yourself”, “going out and showing what you are made of”, etc. etc. Through my company Fremtidens LederAKademi, I work with many male leaders. It is therefore a natural place for me to speak from. They often struggle to be what everyone expects of them. They must be the good, attentive partner in the relationship, a present father, a good and listening boss, and live up to the demands of a board of directors or top manager. We are in a time right now where expectations have increased for our leaders. (and hopefully this will soon affect our expectations for political leaders as well) The leaders of the future must be everything that their predecessors were not. They will have to lead 5 generations in the labor market, this has never happened before. This requires a completely different approach to management, which we do not have enough focus on yet. Namely the personal development, the human development of the leader. It is not enough to be empathetic and listen to others. You also need to start by showing yourself empathy and listening to yourself. Otherwise, you do not appear authentic and credible, and therefore do not inspire trust.
The leader of the future is authentic and balanced. We want leaders who are true to themselves, who know their own good and bad sides, who we can relate to, whose presence we can feel, and who radiate inner peace and balance.
Leaders who do not put on a leadership role, but remain themselves in their work. Even the younger generations of men in their 20s and 30s have difficulty expressing their emotions, and see them as something they must suppress in order to fulfill their role. They often have not learned at home to communicate openly. It takes time to change behavior, a culture, and the path to that starts with management. Because once they have taken the responsibility and Power for their own leadership, it affects our entire society because they create space to be who they are. And that gives the rest of us people we can see ourselves in and follow.