The benefit comes with the owner-manager's courage to be measured and weighed, and not least the willingness to exploit the improvement opportunities identified by the maturity index - this is evidenced by 3 practical Leadmore® cases. "The process with IDDAS and Leadmore® was an eye-opener and gives the executive board and the board a new...

In collaboration with IDDAS, Leadmore® offers tailor-made courses where we together develop solutions for how the company can strengthen its maturity and raise the company's value. The courses are based on IDDAS' SME maturity tool, which provides a status report - a due diligence that shows the company's maturity based on the ISO 17029 standard. A ...

The summer holidays are coming to an end soon, so the time is coming to warm up for a new board season. On the back of the Corona, many talk about "new normal". After the stranglehold of the restrictions, the hardest-hit industries have not yet found their feet - so it is probably too early to say with certainty what the future will bring and what ...

How does the owner-manager get the best out of his professional board?  Thorough, open and honest alignment of expectations creates the most value. The maximal benefit of a professional board stands and falls with the owner manager's willingness to let go of control, and the ability to set the right board team - both in terms of industry exper...

Corona crisis management has most certainly put your leadership to the test. Particularly in times of crisis, leaders can indulge in acting more as a manager, even though the balance between management and leadership can create faster change and more value.

So why not use the Corona situation to reflect on your own balance between your manager and leadership tasks? Maybe you need to adjust your approach right now, where you both must manage the crisis and lead the business towards a "new normal" on the other side of the crisis.

Inspiring leaders create more value

Good leadership is an untapped potential. An example of leadership research below shows that only 25% of managers are good leaders, half are “only managers” and 25% are bad supervisors. Two other studies reveal the challenge of leaders' mistaken self-perception of being inspirational. Thus, 77% of managers find themselves inspiring, while 82% of employees find their managers uninspiring. Recognizing that inspirational leadership correlates positively with commitment (+ 32%), satisfaction (+ 46%) and performance (+ 16%), then there will be reason to believe that better leadership can drive faster change, so your business gets ready to create value when the Corona dust settles.

Figure 1: Good leadership is an untapped potential

The employees create value through the customers, but skilled owner-managers nevertheless find it difficult to get the good plans to actually take place. They are often buried in daily hands-on chores. Here, an active and professional board with wide leadership experience can provide a competency allowance for redemption of employees' full potential - even at reasonable prices. 

Do you want to make sure “Dreams & Details” doesn’t keep you dreaming? Earn the Right to Attack!

"Dreams & Details" is now available in English – a leadership book by Jim Snabe and Mikael Trolle sharing their view on value-creating leadership in a digital and exponential business world. A remarkable and highly inspiring book, easy to access because it creates a highly topical leadership context, spiced with cases and their own experiences from the world of businesses and sports. A wonderful "kick in the pants" to those who have not yet dared to disrupt themselves - on time. And valuable inspiration for those who dare, but have not yet found the leadership formula, which can make things happen.

The authors’ aim is not only to provide advice, but also to facilitate a thought leadership debate among professional networks. For me, the book ignited many reflections and encouraged me to share them – which I based on a chat with Jim Snabe will sum up as "Earn the Right to Attack"!

Private equity governance has for years set the route for management professionalization with industrial advisors on their board teams. As any other business, they however also from time to time experience that even the best plans fail due to lack of execution skills for which leadership is key. Thus, a leadership advisor approach may be maturing as a supplement to their classical industry advisor approach – what do you think?

Clear trend on board professionalization and competent teams

Private equity funds have long been at the forefront when it comes to professionalization and composition of board teams based on business challenges and competence needs, rather than classical networking relationships. With a typical exit horizon of 4-7 years and clear ambitions to maximize value creation during the ownership period, it has been natural to introduce new management paradigms from top to bottom of the management systems.

My own leadership experience tells me that management is about “What” and leadership about “How” - and that the ability to strike the right balance between the two is key to accelerate change and deliver top results. Thus, I am happy that the authors of the well-known book Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, have now also released the more dynamic Blue Ocean Shift – focusing on the transformational process of “how” to actually make it happen. 

It’s an updated repetition of the blue ocean strategy elements wrapped in appreciated research on how some of the best companies have managed to succeed. I can only recommend that you read the full book your-self, but let me share a couple of appetizers spiced with my own reflections.

Results are created by the teams we lead, but many managers experience that it can be hard to make the great plans actually happen. As a corporate leader myself, I have experienced how you can be trapped in the treadmill of KPI-management and new plans, when the first plan hasn’t shown the expected results – thus, why I could not find adequate time to perform my leadership role. Whilst owner-managers typically aren’t burdened by corporate treadmills, they are up to their eyes in daily hands-on tasks and firefighting. In both cases an active board could play a decisive role in unfolding involving and value-adding leadership.

Despite the fact that results are created by the teams we lead, it seems that we are all too focused on Management. A Google search provides 2.7 billion hits on Management, 565 million hits on Leadership, which is close to Physics and Mathematics. This means that Management hits are 5 times more than Leadership, which only counts 17% of all hits on Management and Leadership.

No wonder that we as leaders often are challenged striking the right balance between Management and Leadership, i.e. to lead more and execute plans efficiently.

It is now 1 year ago I launched Leadmore ®. Through the year I have supported clients creating progress and performance improvements within the 5 main services areas:

• Value-adding leadership
• Strategy and business models
• Mentor support and coaching
• Strategic B2B sales
• Board work

The experience base has been increased and can benefit others. External inspiration and sparring is often the strongest driver of change and value growth.

Middelboe Consulting became Leadmore® 11.11.2011

Middelboe Consulting has since 2009 successfully advised many clients within value-adding leadership. It has grown into a business that called for a homepage and new expressive company name.