Mats Kallmyr - Kallmyr Leading Innovation & Change

Why am I passionate about new modern leadership? “Why not?” as my good friend and mentor Roger Lindberg would probably have said! I have always been interested in human behaviour and love to accomplish goals and work in a team.

In this website and, e.g. my blogs on “Share It Leadership,” I will try to increase the discussion about the leadership we have today and why we still have a leadership from the 1920s that works poorly. Why hasn’t it evolved all these years when everything else has gone at breakneck speed? The questions are many, and I hope we can reflect together and maybe even, in small ways, make it better.

I studied for a Master of Arts (2012–2017) in “Leading Innovation & Change (MALIC).” I also researched leadership and wrote my dissertation on Transformational Leadership, or Developmental Leadership (UL), as we would probably translate it into Swedish.

I read a very interesting article, “Leadership for a New Era”, by Anders Jansson. He writes about a new book by Folke Hasselmark: “Follow Me! – A Leadership Journey through Time”. It’s about the traditional leadership with managers who lead and workers who follow a structure that lives on. But how effective is it? In the book, we meet the past and the present.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they did an exercise with a few students called the Sloan Fellow Program. The task was to create a company that would produce short texts for greeting cards. According to Professor Edgar Schein, all the groups created multi-level organisations with managers and a few copywriters. They would have automatically created the company as it usually is.

We have left the industrial society and entered the world of IT, ICT, and space technology, but we still live in the leadership mindset of the past. The workers are seen as military soldiers who are kept under the supervision of officers. It is believed that a few have the expertise, some have some knowledge, and the rest are governed and should follow the job description. We still draw organisational charts hierarchically, and the status is how many you have under you. The company is seen as a machine where everyone is a cog.

Transactional leadership.

The image from the 1900s is that the leader is strong and knowledgeable, while the followers are weak, passive and dependent on the leader. So, the followers need to be instructed, shaped, controlled, and motivated. The capable became the leaders, and the others were really the losers. The problem is that this theory is outdated and no longer works. Today, people do not want to be disciplined soldiers in the service of society or corporations. The leadership that existed in the era of industry does not work on intellectual or innovative work. Today, employees are well-educated and self-aware. Companies or the state cannot guarantee either employment or pensions. In times like this, we need to move towards more modern leadership.

Companies send their managers for leadership development, but it’s hard to see any major change with the new insights the managers have gained. Why? Both their managers and the business are stuck in an old way of thinking where the leader is expected to take all responsibility, and those at the bottom of the hierarchy do not see it as obvious to collaborate. Therefore, it will not be a winning organisation. It also means that much money is wasted unnecessarily on various leadership trainings.

All researchers agree that we can’t learn anything about leadership if we don’t study those we follow. But following someone is a free choice today to an ever-increasing extent than before. For us to see a change in leadership, leaders need to be clearer and “walk the talk” to a much greater degree where the shared responsibility is clear. It is not the leader’s responsibility that everything should happen, but everyone’s responsibility to do their part.

In a world of constant technological development, faster communication channels and globalisation, an old-fashioned top-down organisation is both slow and inefficient. Big Boss is a dinosaur today.

Transformational leadership.

We may not often work with or maintain relationships today, but it is crucial for building functioning organisations. Relationships are based on mutual respect and tolerance and cannot be forced on anyone. All relationships need to be maintained for them to be good. If not, it is followed by disappointment, resentment, and then apathy and the relationship is destroyed. The problem with underperforming groups often lies in the fact that it’s not just about educating the manager but everyone in the group and with the same thing.

For example, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia, which exploded on 1 February 2003, was due to 2 things. One was a technical fault with a piece of insulation that had come loose and shattered parts that led to the explosion. The reason for this was an organisational problem in the form of communication problems between the groups that did not listen to each other’s views and concerns. Therefore, the Leadership Academy Program was started based on the conclusions drawn from this event.

The first two were that leaders must lead by example and allow dissent in their organisation. The third need was that leadership must be developed at all levels of the organisation (self-leadership). And they said, “Everyone can and should be a leader, regardless of whether they supervise others.” When needed, everyone must be able to take a step forward and be a leader. Tre Kronor’s team captain, Staffan Kronwall, explained why Sweden won the ice hockey World Championship gold in 2013; -We were 25 leaders in the locker room!

In addition, with increasingly well-educated employees, the leader finds that the new hires have more formal education than they do. This is, of course, a challenge for a transactional manager but a no-brainer for a transformational leader as it provides fantastic opportunities for the development of the business.

So, what does good leadership look like that should work today and in the future?

Developmental Leadership (sw. Utvecklande Ledarskap)

The answer, in my opinion, is Developmental Leadership! That’s why I’m trying to do my part through blogs, vlogs, and other social media groups on LinkedIn and Facebook called “Share It Leadership” in Swedish and English. The idea is to give tips on good articles, videos and information about good leadership to anyone who wants to become a modern leader. Starting to talk about the problem of outdated leadership is crucial for the country’s future success. We have the conditions, and so far, for example, the Indians don’t even have this on the map yet…

Sweden has begun to understand that something needs to be done, but now for the hardest part! We need to think more often about Nike’s slogan, i.e. “Just do it!”

Share It Leadership

So why a management network and share experiences?

Maintain a high level of leadership competence.
Increase your network!
Keeping your energy up
Discuss job search/sounding board.
Got a job/assignment -> The group is a unique network.
Leadership Issues that are solved by the modern way of leading.
Leadership storytelling. To reflect and discuss around to learn.
Gained a unique experience/opportunity in connection with the current situation.

Based on extensive research in leadership, Chief Spiritual Officer Ken Blanchard firmly believes that you will never have a high-performing team unless “leadership and power” are shared. Sharing leadership and power motivates and engages the team. But how do you do that? Yes, that was the reason why I started “Share It Leadership”.

I think there is a great need to develop our leadership much more because leadership has not kept up with the developments that have taken place in other areas. So, I want to help both leaders and team members (future managers?) to share both knowledge and experiences in terms of modern and good leadership.