Leading by Example

I don't post here so often anymore, as somehow much of my development seems to be stuck somewhere inside of me. Not sure if this year I can really point to the path of development I am on. I am sure, however, that I am learning a lot. There is something extremely tangibly about combining strategic potential with day-to-day living.

On AIESEC International, in theory, you can do anything. The question I always ask when confronted about one thing or another is: "If you were in my place, what would you do?"

I think this is one of the most powerful and empowering questions in the world. At the same time it is a really hard question to ask people, as it disarms them completely. But I truly wonder, tonight, as I am talking to my roommate D. what that VP F in the parallel universe across the galaxy is doing tonight. To myself, the disarming question has become, "What would he do?:"

My self image is that he is currently doing better than me. That his leadership is stronger, that he is performing better. I guess that comes from high ambitions - or perhaps just poor self assessment. Right now I am pushing a lot - pushing myself to "perform". But what does performance right now look like?

I have already laid down some main building blocks and goals in my life for the next 2-3 years, which is very interesting. Never before have I been so certain and decided on my immediate future is . Yet, doubts always creep in. Are the choices right? Am I seeing the full picture? Am I judging too much? Assessing the right things?

This path to leadership is long. Longer than I initially thought, I guess. I always described leadership as a journey, and I guess that is what it is. It means you need to have both a map and a compass. If you don't know where you are going, it's certain you won't get there.

I choose to look to Robert Frost again:


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Kyoto

Took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto today. Exploring Japan and discovering a new world here. Wonderful

Blogging from my ipad

I am now blogging from my ipad. Lets see if this will make any sense

journaling...

It's a strange feeling as I am sitting in my room in Rotterdam. It's on the 11th floor, and since I washed the windows this morning, I can actually see the view it provides. This made me think I should write down some of all my thoughts. This post is just a journal of my those, as they come to me..

--

It's been one of the toughest week of my life, our lives, in many ways. Last Friday, 22nd of July 2011, is a date that no Norwegian alive will ever forget. It was the day when a very different reality was imposed on our dear little country than what we are used to. I have been quite reflective since then, especially about the politicians in my country, who I often criticize. What has struck me more than anything is that they have led the country. Emotionally, rationally, steadily. In fact, I have felt very blessed. Every political party has shown why Norway, in the bottom of things, is a wonderful country to be from, even though it's easy to complain about. It has been particularly difficult being away from Norway in these days. I felt, more than once, that I should just go back, just to be with my people, with my family. However, I chose to stay here, and rather use the wonders of modern technology to stream Norwegian television 5-6 hours a day at home to feel like being in my Oslo.

Often, when talking about Norway, people from abroad speak about oil-money and an "easy life". Of course, this has its merits. But in the end "being Norwegian" has nothing to do with wealth, nor with material goods at all. It's an approach to life. A way of being. A way of seeing the worl. Nothing to do with "having it easy".

This strip of land in the very North of the world has always been one of the toughest places on Earth to survive. Hard. Weathered. Cold. Windy. Stormy. Dark. Bad soil. It is not where the great civilizations of the past came to build their cities. It is not where people chose to settle out of comfort. Norwegians have learnt how to live on this little piece of the planet. Always in peace. Always quietly going about our business. Working hard in order to live well. Taking care of each other. With absolute transparency. Valuing modesty. Personal sacrifice. Family.

This week, Norway has been just about the greatest country on Earth. How do we face terrorism? "With more Democracy. With more Humanity"

I feel more Norwegian than ever.

-------

on a different note completely.........

One thing that just struck me is that I have settled here now. Two weeks after moving into what will presumably be my room for the next two years, I feel comfortable. And it's very interesting, because I compare it to my life the last 10 years - since I moved away from home, and actually, I have never lived as comfortably as I am right now.

It's strange to express why that is, because for sure my position as AI VP Finance is as demanding and challenging as I wanted it to be. And for sure every day, from the second I walk into the office early morning - often an hour or two before the others, until the time I leave, always as one of the last, I am working hard. Of course, to a certain extent I get stressed and challenged, but I have come to a point where I appreciate that. Of course, my project and to-do lists are long as life. The demands from the AIESEC network and internally in the team, and especially from myself are sky high. Yet.... I am comfortable.

I think it's related to logistics somehow. Living a 5 minute walk from the office, having a nice place to live, having enough to support oneself, having joined a gym and having a great team around you - does that kind of thing. It makes you comfortable. And not the kind of comfort where people should say "get out of your comfort zone". Rather the kind of comfort that allows you to be everything you can be. To find energy to be the best you can be.

As August, my favorite month of the year approaches, I feel ready. To be my best. To do my best.

My little country - Norway

Mitt lille land
Et lite sted, en håndfull fred
slengt ut blant vidder og fjord

Mitt lille land
Der høye fjell står plantet
mellom hus og mennesker og ord
Og der stillhet og drømmer gror
Som et ekko i karrig jord

Mitt lille land
Der havet stryker mildt og mykt
som kjærtegn fra kyst til kyst

Mitt lille land
Der stjerner glir forbi
og blir et landskap når det blir lyst
mens natten står blek og tyst

Mitt lille land
Et lite sted en håndfull fred
slengt ut blant vidder og fjord

Mitt lille land
Der høye fjell står plantet
mellom hus og mennesker og ord
Og der stillhet og drømmer gror
Som et ekko i karrig jord

----

My little country
A little place, a handful of peace
thrown out among mountain plateau and fjords

My little country
Where high mountains are planted
among houses, people and words
Where silence and dreams grow
Like an echo in barren earth

My little country
Where the sea pats mild and soft
like it's caressing from coast to coast

My little country
Where stars glide by
and becomes landscapes when it gets lighter
while the night stands there - bleak and silent

My little country
A little place, a handful of peace
thrown out among mountain plateau and fjords

My little country
Where high mountains are planted
among houses, people and words
Where silence and dreams grow
Like an echo in barren earth

Who am I?

you are an independent leader.

personalDNA

about you

you are a leader

Your solid grounding in the practicalities of life, along with your self-assuredness and your willingness to appreciate new things make you a LEADER.

You're in touch with what is going on around you and adept at remaining down-to-earth and logical.

Although you're detail-oriented, this doesn't mean that you lose the big picture.

You tend to find beauty in form and efficiency, as opposed to finding it in broad-based, abstract concepts.

Never one to pass on an adventure, you're consistently seeking and finding new things, even in your immediate surroundings.

Because of this eagerness to pursue new experiences, you've learned a lot; your attention to detail means that you gain a great deal from your adventures.

The intellectual curiosity that drives you leads you to seek out causes of and reasons behind things.

Your confidence gives you the potential to take your general awareness and channel it into leadership.

You're not set on one way of doing things, and you often have the skills and persistence to find innovative ways of facing challenges.

You are well-attuned to your talents, and can deal with most problems that you face.

Your independent streak and masculine nature allow you to make decisions efficiently and to trust your instincts

You approach problems in an analytical way, not getting caught up in your own emotions. You are an independent thinker, not wedded to the preferences of others.

You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people's notions of style.

The control you feel over your life is empowering to you-- you believe in your abilities and acknowledge your shortcomings. Explanations of the world that focus on destiny or fate don't really interest you. You take responsibility for what goes wrong in your life, and also for what goes well.

If you want to be different:

There's more to life than the practical - take some time to daydream and explore the aesthetic sides of things.

how you relate to others

you are independent

Your inward focus, trusting nature, and sharp sense of right and wrong make you INDEPENDENT.

Your thoughts and actions are not reliant on what others think about you; you have a clearly defined moral structure.

When it comes to others, you are very practical, expecting people to take care of themselves.

You generally believe the best about people, but you hold them to high standards.

Similarly, you believe in maintaining integrity, honor, and a sense of respect for those who have earned their success.

Trust needs to be earned with you; you're slow to forgive when people have violated your trust.

Spending time alone means a lot to you, as does keeping certain things private.

You quietly observe a lot about the world, giving you a keen sense of both how things are and how things should be.

You've learned that you need to prioritize your own feelings, as opposed to always considering others' feelings first.

If you want to be different:

Let your trust in others allow you to consider that interpersonal situations can be complex, and that people's feelings in those situations can take many forms.

Accordingly, in working harder to understand people's perspectives, you might find that their insights can help you make better decisions.

your personal dna maps

Here are personalDNA maps that uniquely represent your personality. Mouse over any part of the box or strip to learn more about the traits that the colors represent.

Independent Leader

To add this map to your website or blog, copy/paste this HTML into the body of a blog post or web page:

Independent Leader

To add this map to your website or blog, copy/paste this HTML into the body of a blog post or web page:

Some sites (LiveJournal, for instance) do not allow 'script' tags. Users of those sites are welcome to the copy full HTML of their personal DNA maps here.

your personality chart

»Glossary of Traits

This chart shows thirteen personality traits. Each bar indicates the percentage of test takers who entered a lower value for that trait than you did. For example, if Confidence is at 80, that means that 80% of people entered lower values for confidence questions than you did. Based on a sample of 30,000 users. Click here to learn more about the traits.

Confidence	LowHigh	88
Openness	LowHigh	90
Extroversion	LowHigh	34
Empathy	LowHigh	18
Trust in others	LowHigh	58
Agency	LowHigh	96
Masculinity	LowHigh	100
Femininity	LowHigh	0
Spontaneity	LowHigh	32
Attention to style	LowHigh	16
Authoritarianism	LowHigh	90
Earthy/Imaginative	ImaginativeEarthy	98
Aesthetic/Functional	FunctionalAesthetic	6

5,5 weeks on AIESEC International - doesn't time fly?

I have been in Rotterdam for almost 6 weeks, and it was gone by very fast. My suspicion is, time will speed up even more, so I thought I better get some thoughts down on paper.

Since I came here on May 1, I have had individual transition within Financial and Legal management for around 4 weeks. By the time the common team transition started 1,5 weeks ago, I already had a number of tasks and projects up and running. I like that, cause it makes me feel accomplished.

Getting everyone else here was really nice. Especially as finally I felt there were people I could talk to, about impressions, thoughts, feelings. I had M. as my roommate for two weeks - truly awesome, and have been living with D. for the last two. Both of them have given me loads of thinking and thoughts, which I really like. The strange thing about everyone else arriving, is both the reality and the perception.

Reality: My stage of discovery is different at any given point of time, as I have been here longer. (3-4 times as long as most).

Perception: Clearly, I am harder to connect to because of this. I "know" some stuff, (which also has to do with my role), which means that others even treat me as if I have been around for ages. They call me Papa Rolf.

It's interesting, and it's not necessarily uncomfortable. However, I realise that I have to make some choices myself to construct the life, as well as network I need, in order to feel good here.

AI life:

People ask: What's it like to be on AI? Answer: It's pretty normal life so far. You get up in the morning, have breakfast and coffee, go to the office. There, you work with loads of cool people on projects varying from the mundane to the super-strategic. Depending on the day it's super-challenging or confusing. AI serves the network. And they key question for me everyday is - how is what I am doing today serving the network. It resembles MC alot in terms of activities and responsibilities. The key difference is that 90% + of the organization you are leading you don't know. Because you never worked in that LC. Because you never were in that MC. Because you are not from that country. Because you didn't live there. Because when you interact with it and visit it, you are blinded by your own perceptions and interpretations.

I once said on this blog that you don't reach any conclusions if you don't jump to them at some point. The challenge of jumping increases, however, when you don't know how far the jump is before you make the leap.

Can you see the bottom? Can you see the other side?

I like it. I am challenged. And I am a bit alone. And I think that's perhaps good for me.