HR is going agile- I am a certified Agile HR practitioner

I am excited to have obtained a Certification as Agile HR practitioner by the Agile HR community . An agile way of working has always been at the core of my way of working. Now I have the formal certificate, which enables me to takes this way of working to a new level with my clients. The way HR is adding value to the business needs to change from a traditional waterfall approach to an approach which is more agile and meeting the rapidly changing business environment we are living in. Working in an means that you adopt flexible approach of how you create value to business. It means working in a customer centric way, being responsive, fast & innovative in the work approach adopting an experimental approach. Work is prioritized and stake holders engaged. Depending on the client’s mindset and culture, the way how the work is designed will be tailor made to fit that organisations operational model and maturity. Hence traditional and agile methods are combined to suit the client’s needs. If you are interested to know more, please do not hesitate to contact me at Christel Berghäll

I am joining the 4×4 movement by offering free coaching to support 4 individuals impacted by Covid-19 consequences

I have been thrilled to see how much caring and support is in the air in these exceptional times caused by Covid-19. We still have a bumpy road ahead of us and we are not sure where this road will lead us to. In these times it is very important that we take good care of ourselves and focus on what we can influence and make the most out of it.  Coaching is a powerful method that can help us navigate through tough times and unlock unknown potential in us.  In the spirit of solidarity, giving back and expressing my support, I have decided to join the movement #4×4 and extend it to #4x4x4. This means I am offering free of charge 4 coaching processes, each consisting of 4 sessions (1 hour per session) and to 4 selected individuals. The coaching sessions will be held over zoom and you can be based in any country. The coaching sessions will extend over a period of 3-4 months.  My coaching languages are Finnish, Swedish and English. If you,  or anyone you know have a need of coaching, please write me a personal message @christel.berghall@stepbeyond.eu  by April 21st.  Please write a few words about yourself, your challenge and why you would need coaching right now.  I will give some priority to individuals: 1. who are working in the front line of Covid-19 fight (doctors and nurses, ER or in the ward or in the intensive care unit) or  2. Leaders and entrepreneurs who are under pressure to save businesses and jobs due to the Covid-19 consequences or 3. Individuals who have lost their jobs or are temporarily laid off because of Covid-19 consequences and are in need of career or job transition coaching.  I have informed about this coaching opportunity also on sites for above mentioned target groups. I will on April 22nd be in touch personally with the persons I will select to join in on this personal development journey. Thank you to the European Mentoring and Coaching Council for launching this initiative.  #4×4 #coaching #solidarity #support #together #emcc #stayconnected

Continued Chairmanship of EMCC Finland

I am excited to have been elected to continue as the Chairman of the Board for European Mentoring and Coaching Council Finland for the term 2019-2021. EMCC Finland is part of the Europe-wide European Mentoring & Coaching Council, which exists to promote good practice and the expectation of good practice in mentoring and coaching across Europe. For more information about EMCC, please visit www.emcouncil.org 

Radio Vega interviews me about ” Does a leader need to know about his/her team members’ private life?”

How  much does a leader need to know about his/her team members’ private life? This is an interesting question. I certainly believe  a leader needs to see people as a whole but it is not easy to draw the line.  I was today interviewed by Radio Vega together with CEO of KSF Media, Mr. Jens Berg about this topic.  You can listen to my perspectives on the topic (in Swedish language only) under the following link (interview starts at 18.00 min. and ends at 43.50 min).

http://arenan.yle.fi/1-3559707

What are the perfect ingredients for C-suite?

There has been a lot of research done on teams and management teams during the past 20 years. There is, however, not one single truth or outcome from all of this research other than Diversity is the key for successful team. I came across one recent study that was particularly focused on what is required at the C-suite which I found interesting .The global executive search and advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates Center for Leadership Insight analysed the leadership and behavioural styles of over 7,000 executives in the firm’s proprietary database, with a focus on six key roles: CEO, CFO, CMO, CHRO, CIO/CTO and general counsel. The research discovered that optimal C-suite involves a balance of diverse personalities and perspectives, along four dimensions:

  1. Orientation toward process and structure: Some executives are highly organised in their thinking, focused on clear processes and approaches; others are more intuitive, preferring to make decisions “in the moment”.
  2. Sociability: Some in the C-suite are extroverted, persuasive and dynamic in their communication style, while others tend to be more introverted, allowing the extroverts to do the persuading for them.
  3. Worldview: Some executives tend towards an optimistic worldview, while others are more sceptical.
  4. Creativity: Some are more imaginative and innovative; others are more realistic, and build on the ideas of others.
The research concluded that a well-balanced C-suite on the other hand produces ‘harmonious dissonance’ – continual and dynamic back-and-forth debate and resolution that leads to effective problem solving. I think this is  so true in my experience. The point is not to have an average of these qualities represented on a team but rather leaders who represent the polarities of the dimensions. That means that the team will need to learn to be comfortable with continuous debating and challenging. I work with a lot of team where that is unfortunately not the case. There is a discomfort with what many people perceive as conflicts. That may be one of the reasons why many executives feel tempted to surround themselves with individuals who strongly resemble them, whether strategically, psychologically or even physically.

Can you “fix” the company culture?

A lot of senior leaders are concerned about whether they have the culture to support achieving their company targets. I discuss leadership culture much more often than before with company CEO’s which is great. I thought it was pretty refreshing to read the HBR article on “You can’t fix the company culture” published in the April magazine by Jay W. Lorsch and Emily McTague. The bottom line of the article is, that by just focusing on your business, the rest will follow. I do agree with this in a sense, that sometimes, not enough discussion is held around the business model and the new processes and structures that need to be in place to tackle the business challenges. The conversation turns to the culture and the lack of it pretty easily before there is clarity around those” hard” topics.  However, having clarity on those hard topics makes it is so much easier to have a dialogue about what are the values and  behaviours needed to implement the strategy. Ultimately the values in action form the company culture. What was not covered in the article, is the importance to be explicit about the culture you want to create and being as down to earth as possible. Personally, I think that is really important. Don’t just count on the fact that people will know what is expected of them on a behavioural level. I meet with many organizations who have really nice statements about their desired culture. However, many of them are not concrete enough and remain pretty  distant to people’s daily work.