When I first landed in Scandinavia (Denmark), I was reeling through a painful time in my personal life. Work, the amazing Danish people and Denmark at large kept me going through those rough times.
There is something about the Danes that I instantly fell in love with. To be more accurate, it was my first Danish manager. He is a super amazing, super humble, inclusive and caring individual with loads of competence and skills. And he became my Danish family from the day I landed at the super-little airport in that quaint Danish town at Jylland, the southern island in Denmark.
The love around me and the peace around me was exactly what I had needed. I started to meditate and got my feet wet with Nichiren Buddhism in that tough time, and magically life started to change.
Fast forward 8 years, I have continued to live in Scandinavia with my absolutely amazing life partner, having achieved the dream of doing an MBA from a top university and working in an area that I love. I did change my country of residence and work - moved to Sweden five years ago. Nonetheless have always stayed connected to Denmark in all these years.
When I came to Sweden five years ago, almost naively I expected people to be the same. I believed that people would still have the same habits, the same or at least similar culture and certainly they must understand Danish. Boy! I was so wrong. I still vividly remember the blank faces of my Swedish colleagues when I tried to say something in Danish. Initially I thought it was my low competence in Danish, but soon enough I discovered that Danish and Swedish are quite different despite many similarities. The same was true about the people. In my five years at my Swedish company, I came across a plethora of people. I was almost spoilt by the love I received in Denmark, and thought that it would be the same in Sweden. It was different.
Some of my colleagues in Sweden have always loved and cared for me, are super humble and super competent people. I tend to believe that people who are confident and are comfortable in their own skin are also inclusive. The first group of my colleagues fall in this category. Then there were the dire opposities. I came across some colleagues who seemed to elbow hard from day one. It felt strange, given it was Scandinavia and given my expectations from this land. Nonetheless, life kept moving with the good ones being by my side always.
Over the years though, a new kind of thought started to breed in my head. A thought that many non-Swedes actually say out aloud. It said, "If you are not a Swede yourself, it is very difficult to climb up the responsibility in a deeply Swedish-managed organisation".
Somewhere I started to believe this. Until one day we got a new manager for our team followed by a new manager for our business unit. Put the two together, these two new managers have set such an exemplary example of leadership for me. I simply adore their style of leadership and work. And I felt so privileged when I was given and almost handpicked for new and challenging assignments within the department.
And that is all it took to break the old perceptions that had started to grow like a mould in my little head. It is a cliche, but truly good leadership can do wonders.
Good leaders promote inclusiveness, trust people, and build condusive learning-environment around teams such that every single individual can grow and develop new skills and competence. That is all it took - Good leaders.
Good leaders I love to work with, and am super grateful for.
There is something about the Danes that I instantly fell in love with. To be more accurate, it was my first Danish manager. He is a super amazing, super humble, inclusive and caring individual with loads of competence and skills. And he became my Danish family from the day I landed at the super-little airport in that quaint Danish town at Jylland, the southern island in Denmark.
The love around me and the peace around me was exactly what I had needed. I started to meditate and got my feet wet with Nichiren Buddhism in that tough time, and magically life started to change.
Fast forward 8 years, I have continued to live in Scandinavia with my absolutely amazing life partner, having achieved the dream of doing an MBA from a top university and working in an area that I love. I did change my country of residence and work - moved to Sweden five years ago. Nonetheless have always stayed connected to Denmark in all these years.
When I came to Sweden five years ago, almost naively I expected people to be the same. I believed that people would still have the same habits, the same or at least similar culture and certainly they must understand Danish. Boy! I was so wrong. I still vividly remember the blank faces of my Swedish colleagues when I tried to say something in Danish. Initially I thought it was my low competence in Danish, but soon enough I discovered that Danish and Swedish are quite different despite many similarities. The same was true about the people. In my five years at my Swedish company, I came across a plethora of people. I was almost spoilt by the love I received in Denmark, and thought that it would be the same in Sweden. It was different.
Some of my colleagues in Sweden have always loved and cared for me, are super humble and super competent people. I tend to believe that people who are confident and are comfortable in their own skin are also inclusive. The first group of my colleagues fall in this category. Then there were the dire opposities. I came across some colleagues who seemed to elbow hard from day one. It felt strange, given it was Scandinavia and given my expectations from this land. Nonetheless, life kept moving with the good ones being by my side always.
Over the years though, a new kind of thought started to breed in my head. A thought that many non-Swedes actually say out aloud. It said, "If you are not a Swede yourself, it is very difficult to climb up the responsibility in a deeply Swedish-managed organisation".
Somewhere I started to believe this. Until one day we got a new manager for our team followed by a new manager for our business unit. Put the two together, these two new managers have set such an exemplary example of leadership for me. I simply adore their style of leadership and work. And I felt so privileged when I was given and almost handpicked for new and challenging assignments within the department.
And that is all it took to break the old perceptions that had started to grow like a mould in my little head. It is a cliche, but truly good leadership can do wonders.
Good leaders promote inclusiveness, trust people, and build condusive learning-environment around teams such that every single individual can grow and develop new skills and competence. That is all it took - Good leaders.
Good leaders I love to work with, and am super grateful for.
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