Three things I’ve learned as a new leader

There are many paths into your career and working life. How will you ever know whether decisions are right? And how do you best use yourself and your experience when guiding and coaching others? I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of inspiring women at Female Leadership during the first workshop in the autumn of 2024 – and here are my key takeaways on leadership.

By Anne Cathrine Hoegh Toft
Manager & Career Coach, CFO Services at Basico

I became a Basico employee after having had various cross-border financial roles at Ecco Shoes, and my career path has been far from linear. I've lived and worked in several different countries, and much of the learning has involved adapting to different cultures and work environments. It was never something I planned along the way, but in retrospect everything has made sense.

I've always followed my gut feeling – both when making decisions about moving abroad and changing jobs. That's why I've lived and worked in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Thailand as a graduate at Ecco Shoes, and later in Dubai and Switzerland. This has made me adaptable – a quality that I use as a consultant.

I started as a senior consultant in CFO Services, and today I am a manager. I've also been a career coach for younger Basico employees since the summer of 2023, which is largely about supporting their journey and discovering where their interests lie and where they wish to develop.

The time as a career coach and new leader has challenged and developed me – and it has given rise to valuable reflections. These reflections are about communication, about not knowing everything, and about creating room for diversity. I’ll share these insights here.

Better to communicate too much than too little

My first year as a career coach has made me even more aware of my own preferences
and personality and how they influence my leadership style and my potential to
develop as a leader. One of the first things I realised as a leader was the importance of
clear and frequent communication.

In practice, communication is also about taking a step backwards and agreeing on
what is to happen, instead of immediately moving on to our deliverables. So, I know
that I need to communicate 20 per cent more – across everything: to people I lead or
to those who lead me. I know this is something I need to actively work on.

It’s really about being clear and transparent – two qualities I value in a leader and am
practising to embody.

Find peace in not always knowing everything

As a new leader, I've realised that you can’t possibly know everything, and that's
perfectly fine. It requires accepting that I can support and guide without necessarily
knowing all the details. By nature, I like to delve into everything, but that's just not
possible.

Previously, I've only experienced being very close as a leader and having insight into
everything, so being more of a career coach – but not necessarily a daily task leader –
is new to me.

And it's challenging, but also fun.

So, it’s about finding peace in not always knowing everything and finding a way to
balance it so that you can provide the best possible support based on the skills you
have. Leadership isn't necessarily about having all the right answers, but rather about
asking the right questions and guiding the employee's development as best as
possible.

Create room for diversity

In my new role, I've also realised that it's really important to create room to get to
know each other. Therefore, I actively strive to understand the strengths and
challenges of those I coach.

It's so important to create an environment embracing different approaches to tasks –
this has been an eye-opener for me. Because it's not certain that the person I'm sitting
across from wants to be led the way I do.

This also involves recognising that it takes time. It takes time to get to know each
other and understand how the person you lead thinks and perceives the world: How
they want feedback, how they want constructive criticism, and how to create a good
dialogue about it. And it's different for everyone. So, I constantly grapple with this, and
sometimes it’s difficult.

In this way, you also challenge your own perspective. And I think that's healthy.