Pekka recently  had the opportunity to give his two cent about leadership  on  HBR’s Blog. As a part of the HBRInsight Center, The Next Generation of Global Leaders.

Find the full post on HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Blog Network here

There was a certain point in his career that Pekka found his leadership style  was really falling short. Given a letter grade by his employees, Pekka would’ve recieved a big fat “F´´.  Troubled by the short comings in the opinions of his team he set out ( physically traveling around the world) to see what the problem was. Pekka described how by addressing his team on the frontline and literally asked them what was wrong with his leadership styles he found insight on the best ways to fix it.

Though the answers varied, in both content and how they were given, he did find some common themes. Here are the ones he found to be most important :

1. Influence. They said they expected to have influence on company leadership. They wanted somebody who owns the game, but they wanted influence, too.

2. Equality. They really expected that everybody in the company would be treated equally. Of course there will be salary differences, but the way people have impact should be same everywhere — and the opportunity to share in the value of that impact should be the same, too.

3. Understanding. One thing they said that was surprising to me was that they expected the board to be really on the ball as to what was going on in the company. They couldn’t understand how somebody could decide on a strategy without knowing specifically what to do.

After getting this keen insight, Pekka tackled how to implement these changes into his own leadership practices. Long story short( for more details check out the blog post), by actively changing his practices and harnessing the power of today’s digital communication tools, Pekka got his leadership report card back to straight A’s.

” I had learned that leading a global team of what I call “digital cowboys” is not about command and control but about listening and communicating — and about learning, which I am still trying to do.”- Pekka Viljakainen

While Pekka’s insights are great, we at the NO FEAR Community believe that stronger and more diverse ideas are formed when given from different perspectives. So to get a better idea of what tools and concepts other leaders are using to improve and strengthen their leadership skills watch some of our EXECUTIVE VIDEO INTERVIEWS.

Peter Sondergaard- Senior Vice President Global Research GARTNER states in his interview- “INNOVATION happens anywhere and you have to be prepared to grab it, accept, evolve it and assume that it changes constantly!”


Malin Person CEO of Volvo Technology describes how she has “Adapted to the new reality –  having a global mindset to get new experiences and to see new people developing is a true asset to me.´´

Vincent Chen  CEO of the Institute for Leadership Excellence similarly agrees that ”Instead of keeping all the POWER in their own hands LEADER’s should release some of it to there teams, and work in close cooperation at the FRONT LINES.”