- "Norway must be seen as a world leader in good leadership," said Mats Kristensen of FRONT Leadership from the stage, to great applause from the audience at Norway's largest leadership development conference. All tickets were sold out when the first TAKE LEAD conference in history took place at Barcode in Oslo.
Written by: Hedda Kise
The TAKE LEAD conference also impressed the audience, who rated the first TAKE LEAD conference as a whole 8.25 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Visionary
One of those who had made the trip was Henrik Lervold, Marketing and Communications Director at the consultancy firm KPMG.
- "What a professional event with great speakers, visionary ideas and exciting, relevant topics on execution, culture building and willingness to learn. A big thumbs up for this event; it's great fun to be here," said an enthusiastic Lervold during a mingle break.
Henrik Lervold
Marketing and Communications Director
KPMG
Never been more important
Leadership development has never been more important than it is today. The amount of knowledge available in the world doubles every twelve hours. The proportion of knowledge workers has grown enormously. At the same time, leadership has not made much progress. Surveys measuring transformational leadership - an inspiring form of leadership that engages employees to perform better than they otherwise would - show that the level has been stagnant for decades. Workplaces have major challenges. There are 209,000 managers in Norway. The relationship with the immediate manager is the most common reason why employees choose to change jobs, and every time a knowledge worker leaves their job and needs to be replaced, it costs the company 1.5 years' salary.
Get better
In his lecture, Professor Anders Dysvik from BI Norwegian Business School highlighted a number of dysfunctional consequences of turnover and poor leadership. He says that it is very positive that FRONT Leadership facilitates an annual meeting place between top managers, HR and leadership developers - and researchers in leadership and leadership development, so that Norway can become better at leadership and leadership development.
"It is important that senior managers understand the importance of leadership development and that it must be evidence-based leadership development that research shows pays off financially for the companies," says Dysvik.
Want to join TAKE LEAD next year?
Research-based
-"This will be a major annual conference for sharing knowledge, experience and networking," said Kristensen, who initiated the event, "so that we can all improve.
He believes that Norway is best placed to take the lead on leadership, because we have a trust-based culture, a high level of education, well-functioning tripartite cooperation and the resources to invest in development.
Participants were served the latest research results on management and leadership development, concrete experiences from Norwegian companies, practical advice and tools for managers at all levels in everyday work life and a presentation of the most innovative solutions for leadership development, with and without technology.
Mats Kristensen
Managing Partner, Co-Founder
Looking forward to
And it was clear that the research presented at the conference gave the attendees new impetus and useful input that they can use in their own everyday work.
-"I arrive a little tired after lunch and then I come in here and just get lots of refills, lots of tools and thoughts to take home to the workplace tomorrow, so I'm really looking forward to that," said Marie Otterbeck Gravråk, organizational advisor at the Norwegian Childhood Cancer Society.
Ole Gaare, Researcher at Wicklund-Hansen highlighted that it was useful to learn how to get through the camera in a video meeting to have a greater impact.
- "It was fun to learn how to make the other person really see you and feel close," he said.
Marie Otterbeck Gravråk
Organizational advisor at the Norwegian Childhood Cancer Society
Ole Gaare
Researcher, Wicklund-Hansen
Up next year
-"It's an incredibly good start with an audience score of 8.25 out of 10 the very first time TAKE LEAD is held," says a relieved Kristensen of FRONT Leadership, who aims to exceed an average of 9 out of 10 next year.
At next year's conference, more CEOs will also be invited, because it is important that they are on the ball in terms of leadership skills in their business.
-"If there's one meeting that the leadership developer and CEO should attend together next year, it's TAKE LEAD 2023!" says Kristensen.
Early bird
-"We are already starting to create a program that will be very interesting for both leadership developers and senior managers, so that leadership development is brought closer to strategy and business," says Eva Berge Tenorio of FRONT Leadership, who is the project manager for TAKE LEAD 2023.
It is already clear that there will be several key note speakers and that the main theme will be leadership as a strategic competitive advantage. Norway will really take the lead on leadership.
Click here for a great earlybird offer on next year's conference, set for March 16, 2023
Take Lead 2022
Ingrid Nomme, Project Manager,
Eva Berge Tenorio, Sales Director,
Sandra Blichner, Customer Success Manager
Larger network
And it can pay off to register early for next year's conference. Because this year's audience wants to come back next year.
-In addition to good speakers and professional weight, it was also very fun with the involvement of us as an audience and incredibly good for networking, says Suzanne Lie, Advisor/Associate Partner at Kingbird Executive Search
Suzanne Lie
Advisor/Associate Partner in Kingbird Executive Search
I front
- "Take Lead inspired me to really take the lead in the management profession," said Live Leer, Head of Leadership and Learning at Storebrand.
-"Not least, it was an engaging and great way to chair a conference," said another participant.
Common to all participants was the desire to improve and to never stop learning more. Several of the participants in the audience emphasized that the conference gave them new awareness of their own leadership.
Live Empty
Head of Leadership and Learning in Storebrand
Raising awareness
- "It was very exciting with the role-playing of the actors, who were deadly accurate on very specific leadership challenges," said one man.
-"The fact that it's presented in such a humorous way makes it even more exciting," said Angelika Wichmann Sørensen, CEO of Poolia.
-"We've been able to highlight the importance of active listening and see how it can be done. It has given me a lot of value," said Aslak Fjeld Skorpen, manager at Solibo.
Angelika Wichmann Sørensen
CEO of Poolia
Aslak Fjeld Skorpen
Manager in Solibo
Line Isegran
Also Line Isegran, at Norwegian Church Aid also recognized herself in the role play, which no one knew was an act until some time had passed.
-"I think it was great fun, and they took the leaders to task," concludes Isegran.
The next TAKE LEAD conference will be March 16, 2023
Click here for a great earlybird offer
