Pata Degerman
The essence of being a good leader has changed rapidly over the recent years and it is time all of us take a good look at the attributes that create a leader who others want to follow.
In short, leaders should lead by example and through their behavior build a caring and thriving culture in which their teams can prosper. The foundation for this is to understand who you are as a leader and focus on value driven leadership. To inspire and energize their teams, leaders should foster a positive work environment where employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated to contribute their best efforts. In order to understand what leaders should do to achieve this with their teams, we asked Pata Degerman for his insights.
Pata is an explorer who has led teams into unbelievably harsh conditions and is a master of leading teams who actively want to follow him. What are his secrets in getting people to follow him through life threatening situations?
If you are an a**hole, people don’t want to work with you.
How do future leaders inspire and motivate their teams? Especially when the corporate landscape has been transformed into hybrid work, thus changing the setup from before.
Screaming and being unfriendly is not helping at all. It is all about the hearts and minds. If you are an a**hole, people don’t want to work with you. But if you are friendly, polite, diplomatic and you even smile, people want to work with you.
What are some lessons from your expeditions that you feel leaders should know and do?
The optimal number of people in a team is 5 or 7. Avoid 4 or 6 team members. They will divide. If you throw in an eighth person in your team, one can HIDE inside the team, and not do their work. With seven, you can’t hide.
How to inspire others when you are not inspired yourself?
With efficient goal setting, and with a deep level of teamwork, you don’t need to be inspired all the time. BUT if you are not inspired at all, change the work you do.
Patrick “Pata” Degerman, Finland’s sole professional explorer, has led numerous expeditions, from the icy polar regions to the densest jungles, including nine into unexplored terrain. He’s also conquered over 200 mountains, 22 of which were first ascents. Through his leadership experience, Pata emphasizes that trust within a team is earned through actions, not words.
Pata’s do’s and dont’s
Do’s
- If someone is very motivated, pour more gasoline into that fire….even throw in some dynamite!
- ALWAYS give the bigger piece of chocolate to your team member!
- Invent a personal mantra that relates to you – This powerful sentence is a way forward in a tough situation. Say it every day for a few months, this way you will program your brain. When the shit hits the fan, say it, and you will be moving forward faster than everyone else. Mine is: Upwards and onwards!
Dont’s
- Don’t micromanage.
- Teamwork is based on trust. Micromanagement communicates lack of trust in your team, and THAT is not teamwork. Then there are just random people working in silos on the same project.
Do you feel that a leader should be inspiring and motivating to be a good leader?
If leadership wouldn’t need inspiration and motivation, teams could be led by an AI robot.
What is the most important characteristic a leader should have in order to be able to motivate their team?
Three things: 1. Trust 2. Trust 3. Trust
