ABO Energy

I have been involved in the company throughout its roughly ten-year history. In practice, I have built everything and been involved in everything. In recent years, our company has grown quite rapidly. At the same time, my own energy was being stretched, which affected our results and meant that the company was not heading in the right direction. Following last year’s employee survey, we decided to arrange leadership development training.

We wanted to reach a point where everything no longer required my input, so that I could focus on what mattered as CEO. Our ambition was to work and lead better as a team in which everyone’s contribution mattered. We had also noticed that steering group meetings had become reporting sessions: different departments described what they had done, but we were not looking ahead. We wanted to change that too.

In the autumn, Mellu spoke about precisely these leadership challenges at a Junior Chamber International Finland event in Seinäjoki. Both the subject and Mellu’s style resonated with me, so I caught her for a conversation. I explained our situation, which was quite complicated, and she immediately proposed clear steps and approaches to resolving it.

In the first coaching session in the spring, we developed a success index for our steering group. We considered our biggest areas for improvement and changed the way our ten-person steering group worked. In the second session in the autumn, we examined our leadership principles. Many members of our steering group were managing people for the first time, and not everyone was clear about what leadership involved. We began to practise it. We developed a leadership compass: four headings defining the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers. We also recognised that leadership is the responsibility of every manager, not just mine. Everyone has a responsibility to lead fairly and equitably, and to explain their decisions. It felt as though that idea clicked into place.

The approach was inspiring and helped us reach our own insights. It mattered that the group could ‘discover’ these things for themselves. Mellu’s style is relaxed and pleasant, yet firm and lively enough to challenge us. Everyone seemed to enjoy it a great deal. People threw themselves into the exercises, and we dared to think bigger. The group came away feeling strongly positive and confident in our ability to solve problems well.

The most important contribution of the coaching was understanding the role of managers. The steering group’s work has also changed enormously, very much for the better. We now plan meeting agendas in advance and look ahead, which also saves time. We created two steering groups in place of one: an operational group and a strategic group. The operational group looks weeks or a month ahead; the strategic group looks a year or even five years ahead. That division has worked very well.

I believe the change will show up in the figures in our next employee survey. Leadership, like anything else, is never completely finished. There are still years of work ahead, but I am certain that we are now heading in the right direction. The coaching was extremely useful for us. We found solutions to our problems, and everyone enjoyed it. What more could you ask for?

Another small but important outcome was a clear visual reminder, our leadership compass, which reminds us every day of what we agreed. It brings the things that matter to us and realistic expectations of people vividly to life.

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