GREAT LEADER
Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen
Ambassador of Denmark to Indonesia
When is someone’s leadership seen as success or as a
failure? For Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, it is not when
the leader is still leading with his or her strategy and
telling people what to do to create results. Instead, the
Ambassador of Denmark to Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua
New Guinea, and ASEAN believes that it is only after he or
she leaves the position that it is possible to see whether the
organization is still working or not.
Understanding how successful or unsuccessful
is someone’s leadership depends on various
aspects, including the leadership style. On the
occasion of the Danish Ambassador’s visit to
ISS Indonesia’s Head Office in June, the senior
diplomat spoke at ISS Indonesia’s Managers
Communication Meeting and shared his
inspiring personal experience and insights into
management and leadership styles. His insights
came from his perspective as a diplomat
working in diplomacy, and the Danish and
Nordic leadership characteristics, and how these
fit with the Indonesian values.
The Danish leadership style was known
stereotypically known as being very hierarchical,
where no mistakes were tolerated. But then
over the years, it has changed considerably as
the nature of work has also changed. Giving
examples from a book titled Tear Down
the Pyramids, the 44-year old Ambassador
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Vol. 4 - No. 14 | Agustus 2019 | GREAT ISS
considers this famous book published in 1987
and written by Jan Carlzon is still relevant today.
Carlzon explained his leadership lessons after
spending numerous years as the President and
CEO of SAS, the major Scandinavian airline.
From the book, Rasmus highlights the necessity
of flattening the hierarchy and empower
people if a leader wants to create results. “I
think in many ways, it captures nicely what is
the essence of a Nordic or Danish leadership
style. And I think what you realize, it doesn’t
really matter how smart you are, how smart the
plan you have if your team cannot execute it,
and if the team is not encouraged to do it. So
that’s the key,” he says.
Besides pushing down decision-making
downwards to make an authoritarian
organization into a flat hierarchy nurturing
empowerment, Rasmus who has worked
many years for the Danish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs also mentioned the high tolerance in
dissent, conflict, and uncertainty in the Danish
workplace culture. He argues, “This is something
that is considered very normal in Denmark that
you have a workplace environment with a very
flat hierarchy. So, there is not a long distance
from most junior staff in an office and the boss.
And everybody is allowed and encouraged
to speak their minds, we have a lot of open
discussions, and people will also openly disagree
with things, and so on. And then, I think that’s
really culturally how we work.”
Though the Danish culture workplace has high
tolerance, Rasmus, who has been posted for four
years at the Danish Embassy in Beijiing, China,
also underlined the importance of bringing
emancipation, taking initiatives and not being
afraid of making mistakes to provide options and
solve problems, and most importantly, be honest.
Mistakes could have been avoided if people use
what he calls the principle of deliberate actions.
“What that mean is that it’s very healthy that
people, sometimes when they are about to
do something, just stop for one second. And
then they think about what they are about to
do. It’s not something I totally invented on my
own. I know that there are certain parts of,
for example, the Danish military. They use this
principle especially if you are working in a context
where what you do, if you push the button, can
have credibility implications. So that’s like a safety
principle,” he explains.