The disruptive events of our times, the market shifts and global crises, bring new challenges that require fresh thinking and multifaceted solutions. In this context, it will be crucial for organisations that seek to thrive, remain resilient, adaptive and innovative to ensure great team collaboration. Being able to bring together diverse skills, knowledge, and perspectives that allow the organisation to tackle complex problems more creatively will be a key factor for success. But achieving great collaboration is a complex challenge. Why does it so often fail and what can you as a leader do to promote collaborative culture in your organisation?

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Where before we saw a clear challenge in attracting private sector leaders to the not-for-profit or public sector, these days at Alumni we see more and more examples of leadership skills being transferred between the sectors. Historically, the cross-over movement has been one way: from private to not-for-profit. Finally, we now see a more equal cross-over trend. So, what are some of the main differences and ideals? How can we maintain and encourage this interchange and cross-over between sectors?

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Victor Reis at Alumni, in this serie of short articles, provides a brief overview of some of the most common and influential theories within leadership.. This time on Servant Leadership.

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Clovis Rondineli, Leadership Development expert, discusses how enabling a genuine two-way communication between managers and their teams can bring benefits to both. With hybrid working and a tsunami of data, it can be hard for leaders to hear and act on the voices of their employees. Leaders and their organisations must improve their skills around hearing, as well as seeing the value in, the individual voice above this background noise.

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How taking a rounded, hybridised approach to sourcing new leadership skills can help HR deliver the best support to their businesses’ strategic goals.

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We recently interviewed Sarah McPhee, professional non-executive board director.

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We recently interviewed Hélène Barnekow, CEO at Microsoft Sweden.

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Thomas Hietto, deputy CEO at Caverion, is navigating the megatrends of sustainability and digitalisation of the buildings we live and work in, but also the whirlpool of a global pandemic. Thanks to decisive action and active leadership, Caverion has been able to manage the situation at hand remarkably well. In managing what Thomas calls the first phase of the pandemic and its effects, three distinct practices, all part of a longer-term development of Caverion leadership have played a crucial role.

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The Coronavirus has had a huge impact on all organizations – big and small, international and domestic. Some are struggling seriously while some are continuing with their business pretty much as before. The key issue now is what makes companies operating in an open, global market successful. What gives them fuel to reinvent themselves? What gives them energy to evolve continuously?

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In a time when some businesses are forced into pivoting their models and processes, reorganising personnel and restructuring their organisations there is a need for solid advice and competent guidance to get things right. Åsa Lögdberg, Head of Interim at Alumni sees many companies turn to interim managers for help and expertise.

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Not too long ago I had a chat with board professional and several times nominated most influential woman in Finland Maija-Liisa Friman. She shared her thoughts, experiences and advice for board work during COVID-19.

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It’s not hard to imagine a future where virtual working will dramatically increase and where leaders are faced with the complexity of managing remote working teams. Leading teams with very little, if any, traditional face-to-face interactions is surely a skill that leaders quickly need to grasp in these times. Who is successful today and to where do we look to quickly get up to speed? Our colleague Heikki Otsolampi shares his thoughts in this first of a series of articles, on why it’s important to look for insights and experience in places you might not have looked before.

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At Alumni we pride ourselves in being on the pulse. Lately we had a talk with Juha Väre, CFO at Paulig Group. He shared his positive takeaways in these tough times. As a CFO Juha has had to get much closer to the operative business due to the current circumstances including an increased focus on detailed, up-to-date operational data.

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Will the COVID pandemic be a crisis that forces some fundamental development in digitalisation of service delivery, marketing and sales to compensate for a near complete lack of face to face sales, marketing and in some industries the very consumption of the product or service?

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In the wake of the Corona pandemic leaders are keen to see concrete examples of what works and what doesn’t to lessen the impact of this crisis. Alumni Consultant and Manager Malin Samuelsson recently caught up with Christian Carlsson, SVP HR at Gunnebo to find out more about how they are tackling this multifaceted crisis.

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