26 June 2015 Developing leadership skills by Birgit Pichat

26 June 2015 Developing leadership skills Short about my "theoretical" background What are "leadership skills" Developing leadership skills – from a specialist role: –Specialist role – relevant characteristics –Quitting the specialist role – why – the choice –Leveraging on an MBA –The importance of developing personal skills Last words

26 June 2015 Birgit Pichat – background (1) Childhood: oldest of 3 girls, education a key value 1983: Graduated from high school in Holstebro, Denmark, science major 1989: Law degree, University of Aarhus, Denmark : Law firm, law clerk and associate 1992: Member of the Danish Bar Association, moved to France, first daughter Caroline

26 June 2015 Birgit Pichat – background (2) 1994: MBA, Grenoble School of Business, second daughter Mathilde 1994 – 2001: EHPT, joint venture between Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard –Business Manager ( ) –General Legal Counsel ( ) –Manager Sales Training ( ) –Vice President Corporate Legal (1999 – 2000) –President EHPT North America (1999 – 2000) –Executive Vice President, Finance and Legal (2000 – 2001) today: Moved to Denmark, ALTA COO/CFO

26 June 2015 What are "leadership skills"? Ability to create BUSINESS RESULTS by motivating others to create adequate results - empowerment Helicopter view – understanding of customers, competitors, market evolution, the company Setting short and long term direction, objectives Capability to get the utmost out of people and teams Good representative for the company – externally and internally Dare to take decisions

26 June 2015 Jim Collins: "From good to great" Level 1: Qualified employee - creating results through knowledge and expertise Level 2: Contributing team member – contributes to creating team results through expertise and collaboration Level 3: Competent manager – organizes people, resources to reach defined objectives Level 4: Effective leader – engagement and catalyst for vision stimulating better results Level 5: Level 5-leader - fantastic and lasting results, personal modesty and professional strength

26 June 2015 Leadership skills – from a specialist role Specialist role – relevant characteristics Quitting the specialist role –Why –The choice Leveraging on an MBA The importance of developing personal skills

26 June 2015 Specialist role – relevant characteristics Your expertise provides you with: –Recognition –Power –Identification Your main development objective is to constantly update and enforce your expertise You maybe believe your area of expertise is the most important to the company – you focus solely on that.

26 June 2015 Quitting the specialist role – why? Dare to reframe - refocus –What am I really interested in? –What am I really good at? –What is really important to me? –What success stories do I like the most? –Where do I really have fun? –If my life was a film, would anybody see it? My own answers – there must be something bigger

26 June 2015 Quitting the specialist role – the choice You cannot be both a General Manager and a specialist – one day you have to choose The choice means giving up something – power, an identity, a recognition – and replace Not everybody will understand –The lawyer who became an administrator –Don't you miss legal

26 June 2015 Leveraging on an MBA Good overview perspective Provides new general competences – strategy, sales, marketing, finance, HR, legal – so you know what you are talking about! Gives you a reason to move on Gives your company a reason to let you move on Possible replacement of the power, the identity and recognition you are loosing

26 June 2015 The importance of developing personal skills Leadership is very much about personal skills – so you have to recognize personal skills as competencies How to develop your personal skills –Training – e.g. management, NLP –Coaching –Mentor –International assignments –Evaluate your own experiences

26 June 2015 Last words Leadership skills is very much about being practical – implementing theory Theoretical background is not a handicap To develop leadership skills means a decision to focus and to take the opportunities Get out of the comfort zone!

26 June 2015 Very last words Leadership Quotes: "Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.“ (James Bryant Conant) "Well behaved women rarely make history." (Seen on a bumper sticker in Colorado) Thank you for your attention Office: Mobile: