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CEO Q: How do you develop future leaders?
Klingborg: Great companies are eager to make
choices about how to act today and in the future.
They develop leadership behavior and company
architecture to better fit with technological
development opportunities and new behaviors that
our environment is challenging us to find. Every
generation’s needs are different. Each wants to find
their unique style, way of thinking, communicating
and acting. Leadership is about creating and
facilitating the common thinking process of the
people in the loop, it’s about them, it’s a living thing
and it’s about today and the future.
CEO Q: Can you share with us some of your key
leadership concepts?
Klingborg: Understanding and participation are
two key concepts when we first involve everyone.
By providing insight and including them, each
team member becomes an empowered part of
the decision making process. Then they will make
individual choices connected to the common
direction of the team. There are choices behind
every developmental step. Building “Our Tomorrow”
will happen when we establish a learningdevelopment
process better and faster than the
competition. Team members look for individual
discussions/coaching about their contributions, their
competences, their role and how to follow the plan.
They feel empowerment when leaders nurture their
“We-spirit”; they want cohesion, diversity, hope and
an environment filled with energy and constructive
ideas.
CEO Q: What is the best way to achieve a unified
direction?
Klingborg: The team will get needed perspectives
when their leaders regularly take the initiative to
look from the outside in: Where are they currently
in their process? How do they feel, think and act?
They receive crucial help to analyze, package and
learn from the past. They grow in understanding
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and will be even more united about the next step
in their progress. We are on the right track when
our foundation increases cooperation and builds
up cohesive teams and team members’ selfconfidence.
Feeling strong, safe and secure in
their working situation. The co-workers’ ambition of
connecting with the market edge will grow. We are
always on our way from yesterday toward tomorrow,
somewhere between the old and the new! We know
our direction!
CEO Q: How best to train the leaders?
Klingborg: Co-workers want their leaders trained
for:
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Continually growing team members’ and teams’
brainpower in their niche.
Developing the emotional strength needed to be
proactive in various situations.
Growing social capacity within the team, building
and developing relationships in every important
field and direction.
Increasing individuals’ and teams’ understanding
how to stay fair, building trust and credibility in
the market.
About Klingborg
Klingborg Consulting serves companies that have
highly complex and challenging development
processes. Klingborg’s experience comes from
cooperating with more than 20,000 leaders. The
founder, Leif Klingborg, known as the “leader of
leaders”, has successfully supported executives,
leaders and world-class coaches. He is also the
creator of the K-concept, a successful method of
mentoring leaders to accelerate the movement
toward their organization’s goals. Since 2000, Leif
has been deeply involved in two renewable energy
projects, seabased.com and verticalwind.se.
Klingborg was awarded finalist honor in the 2010
International Book Awards. Klingborg lives and work
out of Stockholm, Sweden. He can be reached at
www.klingborg.com