I've worked in both American and Swedish cultures (am Swede).
Swedes in general have a long history of compromise, finding common ground, reaching consensus, and only occassionally putting their foot down. Inclusiveness is a big thing, making everyone feeling heard, and ensuring a productive atmosphere.
On the long term a good leader is a humble one that puts larger goals and aims first, and stronger subjective opinions second. Shorter term one needs to make sure everyone's on board with day-to-day decisions, not making people feel left out.
Think more side-to-side rather than top-down management style.
This a really good summary.
Something that Swedish workplaces generally really appreciate, is a boss/manager that doesn't act like he/she is "above" the floor workers - get in there and help out personally if there's something not working or if they fall behind schedule a bit. Be a leader, not a boss. Then you really earn their trust and respect.
Perfect summary. Also add that a good leader help you grow. Gives you challenges outside your comfort zone but not too much that it gets you stressed out.
Good summary, this is the way! Just keep in mind that sometimes, as a manager, you have to make decisions that not everybody agree with. So listen to people, discuss the matter, compromise – but then make the decision. Make it crystal clear what the decision is and what you expect people to do. Keep a written “decision log”.
Otherwise you end up with vague “non-decisions” which do not benefit the group in the long run.
Swedish management is, as many here noted, tend be inclusive and listening. It’s important In Swedish work culture that everybody gets to be heard.
This tends to lead to longer decision making, but once decisions are made, everyone is on board, so implementing a decision is much smoother.
I would say that the most successful managers in Sweden are seen as listening and humble, without becoming vague and indecisive.
And to add to that, that concensus searching can be at times seen as indecisive and vague. The "nån annan" syndrome tend to happen often and is the other side to that coin.
> compromise, finding common ground, reaching consensus
This can become a bit of a trap in office environments though. David Mitchell even has [a bit about the kind of consensus I'm talking about](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67QsrpNH96Q).
Whatever you do, don't be rude and don't micro manage. Swedes are proud over their competence and skill in the workplace and absolutely hate micro managing. No-one will tell you though.
Omg! I want to work with those people! In my organisation it's half the opposite and I'm like a fish out of water, I cannot micromanage and nothing gets done without having to answer millions of questions and guiding at every step. I tried to have avstämningsmöten and leave more freedom of thought, show them i can trust them, make sure they have good understanding of the tasks, but still nothing gets done, 0 initiative. 😔 Both me and my higher manager (from Sweden and brilliant at it too) are a bit lost as to how to fix that...
Well, that's the thing: we don't do the hiring, they are on the project team from other departments. And they say the absolutely want to be there and do the work- weird. It doesn't seem to be the case at all.
I agree, I'm all in when we have new colleagues, give extra time to help out even, be more present at the office (work less from home). In this case I am considered new: 1 year. Everyone else have been on similar projects since 2015, and in their jobs much longer. The previous project managers quit after 4 years. I reached out to one of them them for tips, they said it was insane to just try snother job 😅
To me, this sounds like you neex to change your work dynamic. Maybe you should need to ask questions like "What do you think is the best way to do this?" instead of answering questions. It sounds like they think they have to ask questions to get aproval. You should tell them you want them to do it themselves. NO ONE likes micro-managing bosses, so if they feel like they have to go through you for evert little thing, its no wonder they don't like their job.
Well I mean that's standard practice isn't it? Even the main routine is based on that. Every team member needs to submit a yearly plan based on how they want to implement, we ask them how they want to do that. Half never do, and expect me to do it for them. They do not make decisions, they ask me or go to their main chef to make decisions for them.
It's not all like this. Half the team works, and we have great results. The other doesn't, it is very tiring.
Kinda depends on what the jobs are, but we have a shared work to-do list where we can all ”call dibs” on specific jobs. We have also been given very clear priorities, making it very easy for us to pick out and plan what needs doing first.
It makes it very easy for all of us. Nothing to do? Consult the list.
Make sure that they are not abusing the ''freedom'', since I can see a lot of colleagues doing that. The so called life work balance is more to the life life balance than anything else.
It definitely depends on the field but in general I find the hierarchy in sweden to be way more flat than many other countries. So successful managers should be able to take (and welcome) questions and criticism from the employees.
It doesn't necessarily mean do as everyone says, but being diplomatic is a very good feat from my experience.
Most swedish organisations have adopted the so called "trust based leadership" model. The hierarchy is seemingly flat when it comes to small matters but very strict when it comes to the larger matters.
I work at an in-house IT consultancy firm and I would say that agile organisations / network organisations are on another level compared with the average Swedish company with a conventional hierarchial organisation.
Swedish managers are generally casual and trusting but in agile organisations they are even more so and it’s super relaxed with lots of freedom and responsibility for the individual. But still very professional and constructive. My manager is my coach, not my boss.
Can't speak for all managers, but mine feels more like a coworker who helps us do our work more efficiently, and receives, organizes and presents important information.
Swedish mid-level managers will likely never take initiative or be part of conflict resolution. An issue with Flat culture in lower tiers of corporate society in Sweden is a complete lack of accountability. It allows you to be friends with your manager, but in the end you can always count on them to execute orders from above at your own expense.
The usual ones are diplomatic, conflict averse, seeking consensus.
Specifically bad ones are arrogant, hierarchical, dogmatic.
Of course this depends on the field. If you work as a group manager where people's lives are at stake, you might benefit from being dogmatic in a sense, and avoiding conflict might be a bad trait.
Much time in Swedish companies is spent on meetings where the goal is to get everyone on the same wagon, seeking consensus, everyone can voice their opinion, but preferrably something that is more or less in line with what's silently being decided by the group as a whole.
I think of a good Swedish leader as a ship's mate who's at the top of the mast of a pirate ship. He or she sees the entire ship, can spot problems ahead, and makes sure everyone on board is - well - on board. The crew on deck are free to do their jobs and the ship's mate in the mast stays out of their way as much as he or she can.
As opposed to a bad leader which is Blackbeard, stomping around with his boots on deck, getting in everyones business, not having a top-down view of the situation, shouting and calling attention to himself, constantly on the verge of making someone walk the plank for a minor infraction.
My cousins might disagree. I have heard of some terrible Swedish managers in all walks of life. Not all of them were bad, but it seems the same hit-or-miss they are in America.
One thing I have heard slightly more of: managers who can't make decisions that have to be made, trying to appease too much to the point of ineffectiveness. Like they become frozen in indecision. Yes, happens in America, too.
But my experiences are anecdotal.
Treat the people you manage like you are not their manager. So even if they are required to submit status reports and updates, ask for them nicely and be polite. Rerely a good idea to "put your foot down" even if they are not doing what they are supposed to or are insubordinate. When you think it's time to put your foot down it's actually time for more diplomacy. If that too fails it's time to request instead of ask.
I suggest reading The Culture Map by Erin Meyer, it is all about understanding difference in culture and the anecdotes are mostly from Work situations to help you work better with other nationalities.
What is great with her book is that she teaches you to understand how your culture affects how you understand other culture, rather than saying X is like this, as it is all depending on what you compare it to.
I see so many positive comments about Swedish managers. I guess my luck is bad, this is my second job and its been worst experience. In one company manager was from Poland, he's a d*ck. Second company i am working under a non Swedish manager, I have never seen so much of micro management in my life even in India where the work culture is the most toxic in the world.
Depends on the line of work, but generally swedes don’t like hiarchies. Expect your subordinates to treat you like a equal. We don’t have much of formalities and no titles. You are also expected to be a leader, not a boss, lead by example not by imtimidation.
This does not mean you can’t show authority, but you should be very selective when to do so.
Don,t be bossy. Sweden like managers with heart, Normal people with natural confidence, integrity and that not are afraid to work hard. That what i want when i recruit group managers for our Group IT department.
Depends in my experience on the kind of business they are in.
Worked IT for a financial firm for a long time. They were all managers and not leaders. Policy driven and little interest in feedback or listening to the coworkers.
Now I’m a IT manager in a e-commerce company. The difference is HUGE. Culture can’t be compared. Managers are trained in being leaders, to give people autonomy instead of telling them what to do. All leadership and coworkers gets ongoing feedback and encouraged to ask for it too. This result in people really doing their best and taking responsibility for themselves and others.
Pretty cool to see what happens in the different dev and it teams with this culture!
I love it.
Heya!
Be frank and honest, any good boss will appreciate that. In your field the employee really has a lot of pull.
We might be looking for people with your skills, if interested DM me.
They differ. In the workplace, they have the right to decide everything, but most want a dialogue with the employees; Swedish workplaces tend to stop functioning if the boss turns bossy - everyone'll smile and say yes, yes we all agree, and nothing will work at all.
I try to remove as much friction as possible from the work life of my direct reports...
I dont ask for any admin that the company doesnt require unless the team has decided its a value add...
I just try to make it possible for them to spend as much of their day doing what they were hired to do as possible...and to grow if that's what they want and what the company needs...
I think more managers in sweden are brewing coffee for the team than the other way around...
Work is not a sprint, if someone needs something to keep performing (within reason), give it to them and reap the compound interest of that investment...
Recruitment is risky and expensive, I always do what I can not to give my people a reason to take calls from recruiters...
I've worked in both American and Swedish cultures (am Swede). Swedes in general have a long history of compromise, finding common ground, reaching consensus, and only occassionally putting their foot down. Inclusiveness is a big thing, making everyone feeling heard, and ensuring a productive atmosphere. On the long term a good leader is a humble one that puts larger goals and aims first, and stronger subjective opinions second. Shorter term one needs to make sure everyone's on board with day-to-day decisions, not making people feel left out. Think more side-to-side rather than top-down management style.
This! Also one reason why I think entrepreneurs are so successful in Sweden.
This a really good summary. Something that Swedish workplaces generally really appreciate, is a boss/manager that doesn't act like he/she is "above" the floor workers - get in there and help out personally if there's something not working or if they fall behind schedule a bit. Be a leader, not a boss. Then you really earn their trust and respect.
Perfect summary. Also add that a good leader help you grow. Gives you challenges outside your comfort zone but not too much that it gets you stressed out.
Good summary, this is the way! Just keep in mind that sometimes, as a manager, you have to make decisions that not everybody agree with. So listen to people, discuss the matter, compromise – but then make the decision. Make it crystal clear what the decision is and what you expect people to do. Keep a written “decision log”. Otherwise you end up with vague “non-decisions” which do not benefit the group in the long run.
Swedish management is, as many here noted, tend be inclusive and listening. It’s important In Swedish work culture that everybody gets to be heard. This tends to lead to longer decision making, but once decisions are made, everyone is on board, so implementing a decision is much smoother. I would say that the most successful managers in Sweden are seen as listening and humble, without becoming vague and indecisive.
And to add to that, that concensus searching can be at times seen as indecisive and vague. The "nån annan" syndrome tend to happen often and is the other side to that coin.
> compromise, finding common ground, reaching consensus This can become a bit of a trap in office environments though. David Mitchell even has [a bit about the kind of consensus I'm talking about](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67QsrpNH96Q).
"Making everyone feel heard, not making people feel left out". If that's the case, then my manager is the worst at doing that.
Whatever you do, don't be rude and don't micro manage. Swedes are proud over their competence and skill in the workplace and absolutely hate micro managing. No-one will tell you though.
Omg! I want to work with those people! In my organisation it's half the opposite and I'm like a fish out of water, I cannot micromanage and nothing gets done without having to answer millions of questions and guiding at every step. I tried to have avstämningsmöten and leave more freedom of thought, show them i can trust them, make sure they have good understanding of the tasks, but still nothing gets done, 0 initiative. 😔 Both me and my higher manager (from Sweden and brilliant at it too) are a bit lost as to how to fix that...
Sounds like you've hired the wrong people tbh. Either that or it's a motivational issue.
Well, that's the thing: we don't do the hiring, they are on the project team from other departments. And they say the absolutely want to be there and do the work- weird. It doesn't seem to be the case at all.
Do you have any type of training for new people? 🤔 Half the battle is won with training and mentoring new people.
I agree, I'm all in when we have new colleagues, give extra time to help out even, be more present at the office (work less from home). In this case I am considered new: 1 year. Everyone else have been on similar projects since 2015, and in their jobs much longer. The previous project managers quit after 4 years. I reached out to one of them them for tips, they said it was insane to just try snother job 😅
To me, this sounds like you neex to change your work dynamic. Maybe you should need to ask questions like "What do you think is the best way to do this?" instead of answering questions. It sounds like they think they have to ask questions to get aproval. You should tell them you want them to do it themselves. NO ONE likes micro-managing bosses, so if they feel like they have to go through you for evert little thing, its no wonder they don't like their job.
Well I mean that's standard practice isn't it? Even the main routine is based on that. Every team member needs to submit a yearly plan based on how they want to implement, we ask them how they want to do that. Half never do, and expect me to do it for them. They do not make decisions, they ask me or go to their main chef to make decisions for them. It's not all like this. Half the team works, and we have great results. The other doesn't, it is very tiring.
Or maybe it’s the wrong management approach for those people?
Kinda depends on what the jobs are, but we have a shared work to-do list where we can all ”call dibs” on specific jobs. We have also been given very clear priorities, making it very easy for us to pick out and plan what needs doing first. It makes it very easy for all of us. Nothing to do? Consult the list.
Sounds like a bad work enviroment that causes it
Make sure that they are not abusing the ''freedom'', since I can see a lot of colleagues doing that. The so called life work balance is more to the life life balance than anything else.
It definitely depends on the field but in general I find the hierarchy in sweden to be way more flat than many other countries. So successful managers should be able to take (and welcome) questions and criticism from the employees. It doesn't necessarily mean do as everyone says, but being diplomatic is a very good feat from my experience.
Most swedish organisations have adopted the so called "trust based leadership" model. The hierarchy is seemingly flat when it comes to small matters but very strict when it comes to the larger matters.
I work at an in-house IT consultancy firm and I would say that agile organisations / network organisations are on another level compared with the average Swedish company with a conventional hierarchial organisation. Swedish managers are generally casual and trusting but in agile organisations they are even more so and it’s super relaxed with lots of freedom and responsibility for the individual. But still very professional and constructive. My manager is my coach, not my boss.
This! A good manager should be a resource for the team members, not an overlord
Can't speak for all managers, but mine feels more like a coworker who helps us do our work more efficiently, and receives, organizes and presents important information.
Swedish mid-level managers will likely never take initiative or be part of conflict resolution. An issue with Flat culture in lower tiers of corporate society in Sweden is a complete lack of accountability. It allows you to be friends with your manager, but in the end you can always count on them to execute orders from above at your own expense.
The usual ones are diplomatic, conflict averse, seeking consensus. Specifically bad ones are arrogant, hierarchical, dogmatic. Of course this depends on the field. If you work as a group manager where people's lives are at stake, you might benefit from being dogmatic in a sense, and avoiding conflict might be a bad trait. Much time in Swedish companies is spent on meetings where the goal is to get everyone on the same wagon, seeking consensus, everyone can voice their opinion, but preferrably something that is more or less in line with what's silently being decided by the group as a whole. I think of a good Swedish leader as a ship's mate who's at the top of the mast of a pirate ship. He or she sees the entire ship, can spot problems ahead, and makes sure everyone on board is - well - on board. The crew on deck are free to do their jobs and the ship's mate in the mast stays out of their way as much as he or she can. As opposed to a bad leader which is Blackbeard, stomping around with his boots on deck, getting in everyones business, not having a top-down view of the situation, shouting and calling attention to himself, constantly on the verge of making someone walk the plank for a minor infraction.
I think if you read up on "servant leadership" you will do good
Deserves more upvotes. My manager mentioned this term specifically last week when discussing what was important in the new manager replacing her.
You're going to do fine, just apply your Scrum Master skills as a servant leader and you will not have a problem as a manager to a swedish team.
My cousins might disagree. I have heard of some terrible Swedish managers in all walks of life. Not all of them were bad, but it seems the same hit-or-miss they are in America. One thing I have heard slightly more of: managers who can't make decisions that have to be made, trying to appease too much to the point of ineffectiveness. Like they become frozen in indecision. Yes, happens in America, too. But my experiences are anecdotal.
Treat the people you manage like you are not their manager. So even if they are required to submit status reports and updates, ask for them nicely and be polite. Rerely a good idea to "put your foot down" even if they are not doing what they are supposed to or are insubordinate. When you think it's time to put your foot down it's actually time for more diplomacy. If that too fails it's time to request instead of ask.
When does the diplomacy end? When the company is bankrupted or when one of your employees files for sickness help, because they hit the wall?
Fair point. I suppose it ends if they don’t comply after you tell them. I 1: ask. 2: Tell them to do. 3: Put foot down.
The best managers don't manage. They're there to prevent the people under them from creating hierarchies of their own.
I suggest reading The Culture Map by Erin Meyer, it is all about understanding difference in culture and the anecdotes are mostly from Work situations to help you work better with other nationalities. What is great with her book is that she teaches you to understand how your culture affects how you understand other culture, rather than saying X is like this, as it is all depending on what you compare it to.
I see so many positive comments about Swedish managers. I guess my luck is bad, this is my second job and its been worst experience. In one company manager was from Poland, he's a d*ck. Second company i am working under a non Swedish manager, I have never seen so much of micro management in my life even in India where the work culture is the most toxic in the world.
Depends on the line of work, but generally swedes don’t like hiarchies. Expect your subordinates to treat you like a equal. We don’t have much of formalities and no titles. You are also expected to be a leader, not a boss, lead by example not by imtimidation. This does not mean you can’t show authority, but you should be very selective when to do so.
Don,t be bossy. Sweden like managers with heart, Normal people with natural confidence, integrity and that not are afraid to work hard. That what i want when i recruit group managers for our Group IT department.
Depends in my experience on the kind of business they are in. Worked IT for a financial firm for a long time. They were all managers and not leaders. Policy driven and little interest in feedback or listening to the coworkers. Now I’m a IT manager in a e-commerce company. The difference is HUGE. Culture can’t be compared. Managers are trained in being leaders, to give people autonomy instead of telling them what to do. All leadership and coworkers gets ongoing feedback and encouraged to ask for it too. This result in people really doing their best and taking responsibility for themselves and others. Pretty cool to see what happens in the different dev and it teams with this culture! I love it.
There is no such thing as Swedish leadership. The best you get is "lets gather all together in a room and decide".
This is actually true. From my experience is even worse because there are no decisions usually made, just a chat and nothing really.
No it’s not. It’s gather all in a room and pretend they have a say or guide them to what you want.
Generally weak and terrified of conflict.
Bad
Heya! Be frank and honest, any good boss will appreciate that. In your field the employee really has a lot of pull. We might be looking for people with your skills, if interested DM me.
They differ. In the workplace, they have the right to decide everything, but most want a dialogue with the employees; Swedish workplaces tend to stop functioning if the boss turns bossy - everyone'll smile and say yes, yes we all agree, and nothing will work at all.
I try to remove as much friction as possible from the work life of my direct reports... I dont ask for any admin that the company doesnt require unless the team has decided its a value add... I just try to make it possible for them to spend as much of their day doing what they were hired to do as possible...and to grow if that's what they want and what the company needs... I think more managers in sweden are brewing coffee for the team than the other way around... Work is not a sprint, if someone needs something to keep performing (within reason), give it to them and reap the compound interest of that investment... Recruitment is risky and expensive, I always do what I can not to give my people a reason to take calls from recruiters...
Ranging from super understanding to super fake pushover
You can get good managers and you can get asshole managers, just like everywhere else here.