OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH
Personal learning and development will lead to greater rewards in your professional life since the key to effective leadership is to always be growing, expanding the set of skills and competencies at your disposal, as Ben Nothnagel relates here
to self-development. They then focus on identifying their own development needs and address these by activating new behaviours and changing their current mindsets. Throughout, they are encouraged to support each other by making use of their ‘sparring partner’. This is someone they can bounce ideas o and share practical advice with, ideally at regular monthly meetings. Sometimes, they form groups of multiple sparring partners. Either way, this teamwork is an integral part of the process. According to Lange: “Whether structured in teams, units, departments or larger organisations, people are part of a system and the system is part of the society at large. This requires mastering team dynamics and interaction, as well as understanding the dierence between leading a team versus leading the individuals on a team – context matters.” Creating a thriving culture Indeed, often it is leaders who set the culture in a workplace. Those who are able to take a constructively critical view of themselves can better understand how their words and actions come across to employees. As a result, they are better able to create atmospheres conducive to high performance, profitability and the wellbeing of all workers.
Successful leadership requires self-awareness. Great leaders know their strengths and weaknesses, while resisting the temptation to rest on their laurels and stagnate. They appreciate that solutions to tomorrow’s challenges will not be found within their current mindset. According to research by organisational psychologist Dr Tasha Eurich, leaders who display a high level of self-awareness are more confident, make better decisions, create and maintain successful collaborations, are less likely to allow stress to aect their performance and experience more joy in their personal lives. For these and other reasons, it is widely accepted that self-awareness is a valuable predictor of future success as a leader. While there are some people who enter higher education already equipped with a healthy sense of self-awareness, it is a skill and it can be grown. In my capacity as senior advisor for Aalto University Executive Education, I have worked with senior executive coach Ira Lange to create the personal development process that is now built into the Aalto MBA and executive MBA programmes. The process spans the entire study period, structured around four guiding principles. First, participants develop an awareness of the important concepts and terminology related
Ben Nothnagel is senior advisor for Aalto University Executive Education.
He is one of the designers of the
personal development process on the Aalto MBA and executive MBA programmes. Nothnagel also has extensive experience as a global lecturer, coach and self-development specialist, working with numerous global companies including ABB, Cargotec, Daimler, Danfoss, GE, HP, L’Oréal, Michelin, Peugeot and Vaisala
32 | Ambition APRIL 2023
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