You may have notices how Sweden’s export successes and leadership style are increasingly being singled out for praise in the international arena. One explanation may be the phenomenon of leadership the ‘lagom’ way. This is a less hierarchical way of leading an organization, where you involve your co-workers, support them and have faith in the whole team. Not laying down the law from the top down can take up a little extra time, but you gain new insights along the way. Not to mention the fact that you get your co-workers pulling in the same direction, whatever their area of responsibility.
We got thinking about what Christmas lagom style would look like following the five principles of lagom outlined by Anders Richtnér, Associate Professor and CEO of SSE Executive Education (Full article here).
- Trust keeps pace with global development – relying on others is the only way to keep up with the pre-Christmas madness, which means remembering that preparing for the holidays should involve the whole family
- Curiosity drives innovation – making contacts all over the world lets you question your own habitual forms of behavior which is crucial to moving forward – what if we all integrated a holiday tradition from another culture into our celebrations? Or established holiday traditions unique to you, your friends and family
- Inclusion makes decisions more effective – nothing beats a handwritten Christmas list to make sure everybody gets what they want and even sweeter – make Christmas cookies together!
- Sustainability creates long term companies – this involves looking at things holistically and not just financially. Give the gift of love instead of only packages bought in a store, pare down your décor, buy gifts for needy children and learn how to say “no” to holiday events you don’t really want to attend
- Ideas and openness keep the ball rolling – do things differently every day. We just learned about the Christmas pickle – a pickle you hang somewhere on the tree and the first person to find it on Christmas eve gets an extra gift. We’d love to hear about your somewhat “different” holiday traditions
Regardless of how you decide to spend your holidays, we thank you for your trust and your partnership throughout the last year and wish you happy holidays, good health, happiness and lots of success in the New Year.
Merry Christmas from the Zobito Team
