With employeeship in focus
We at Mentor are super proud to have been given the opportunity to recruit Anna-Karin Danielsson. An experienced, structured and committed leadership trainer with several years of experience in employee development and engagement creation. Before her start at Mentor and for you to get to know Anna-Karin better, we have asked you a few questions!
Hello Anna-Karin and welcome to Mentor! How do you feel?
Hey, I'm not going to do that. Oh, it's so exciting! I have been keeping track of the company since 2015 and have always believed in Mentor as a tool to achieve hard key figures through a structured way of coaching with soft values in focus. To finally be "onboard" and have the opportunity to offer Mentor to different types of companies feels absolutely fantastic!
How did you get into the leadership segment?
"It all started a lot of years ago with a leadership training I went to IKEA, when I was going to work as a manager myself. It was during this training that my interest in good leadership and employeeship began.
Ikea focuses on employeeship. They think both business idea and personnel idea, which I think is healthy. It is very much about taking responsibility for your own development with support and coaching from your manager. Just what Mentor offers! 10 years ago I started training managers in leadership in the ICA Group where a lot of focus has also been on the employees and how important it is to lift these in the organization.
Exciting! What reflects good leadership?
–That you are present and genuinely interested in your employees and that you want to help others develop.
What's the problem managers face today?
- The time to be the boss! That is by far the most common problem, I would say. I feel that many managers today work so much operationally that they do not have time to coach their employees. It's more about firefighting than human resources management. Leadership takes place with the left hand.
What is the most common question you have been asked by managers when you have been out training?
" "How do you get those who don't want to?". There is, of course, no patent solution to this. What I would say, however, is that you need to see each individual and be curious about what they think is fun about their job. Mentor is a fantastic tool there. Partly to make the employee feel seen, but also because those who do not want to be given the opportunity to get in at their own pace.
What do you hope to help companies with in your role at Mentor?
"I hope to give companies a key to work with coaching leadership in everyday life. I also know how important reflection is and what it can contribute in organisations – an increased result to name one thing. Then I hope to get more people to understand that soft values create the conditions for achieving strategic goals. By that I do not mean buns and hugs as soft values, but actual empirical studies that show how clear goals, feeling seen, being able to reflect and work with follow-up are keys to a strong organization.