Nordic leadership
Nordic leadership development, mentoring and board work
I help leaders master the art of being disliked.
Clear leaders get decisions that hold, teams that deliver and the confidence to say what needs to be said. I have advised leaders and boards for more than 30 years. Based in Norway, working across Europe.
Photo: Siri Wolland
A selection of clients I have worked with
Sound familiar?
Most leaders believe they are clear. Most of the people they lead disagree. The gap between the two costs more than most will admit.
Decisions keep coming back
What the leadership team agreed on is debated again in the corridor. Nothing is ever quite finished.
The team pulls in different directions
Capable people who work side by side and seldom together. The meetings are polite, and little changes.
You hold back to be liked
You know what needs to be said, so you soften it. Then you wonder why it does not get through.
Flat structures, high trust and decisions made together. The Nordic way of leading has a strong reputation, and much of it is deserved. Its weak spot is consensus that turns into avoidance: decisions that never quite get made, and leaders who wait for everyone to agree.
I help leaders keep what works in the Nordic model and still make the hard call. For Nordic organisations, and for international owners and leaders who work with Nordic teams.
Read about the Nordic leadership modelWhat I help with
For leaders, leadership teams and boards in mid-sized organisations: private, public and family-owned.
Leadership development and leadership teams
Training the leadership team where the work happens, in the decisions that matter. For teams that are tired of pulling in different directions.
Mentoring for leaders
A confidential sounding board for chief executives, board chairs and second-line leaders. By the hour, or as a programme of six or twelve sessions.
Assessment in mergers and acquisitions
When two leadership teams are to become one. An objective basis for deciding who sits where, and a plan for succession.
The board
Board evaluation, board recruitment and support for the nomination committee. In person or online, scaled to the size of the organisation.
How we work together
No long programmes until we know what the problem is. We start with a conversation.
1
What frustrates you today?
A conversation of 20 minutes. You talk, I listen and ask the questions that show what is really in the way.
2
How we solve it
You get a concrete proposal: mentoring, work with the leadership team, an assessment or a talk. Never more than what is needed.
3
Your new everyday
Decisions that hold. A leadership team that delivers. And a confidence in the role that makes it easier to be clear.
“Thank you for your committed and inspiring involvement, your professional skill, and your generosity and care for each of us as individuals and as a group. You have had a lasting impact.”
Talks and seminars
A talk should change something in the working day of the people listening. I use concrete examples, humour where it fits, and say what needs to be said. Participants leave with something they can use on Monday morning.
Keynote · about one hour
The Art of Being Disliked
A talk about the gap between how clear leaders think they are and how clear they are seen to be. About the fear of not being liked, and what happens to your impact once you dare to be clear. For leadership gatherings and conferences.
Delivered for clients including Kartverket and Fafo.
Keynote · about one hour
Leading GenZ: Generations Working Together
They ask why about almost everything, value flexibility and want to be part of something bigger. They are direct, yet wary of conflict, and they need to grow alongside older colleagues. The talk combines examples of leadership under pressure with today's generational mix, and shows how the generations can bring out the best in each other.
Delivered for clients including Gjensidige and Mowi.
Keynote · about one hour
The Conversation You Keep Putting Off
The conversation you would rather put off is often the one that matters most. A simple structure for preparing, holding and following up conversations about performance, behaviour and change, with examples from real life. For leaders at every level.
Delivered for clients including Kartverket and Umoe RG.
Full-day seminar
Becoming a Leader: The Art of Being Disliked
A full day on clarity in practice. Participants work on their own situations: the decision that meets resistance, the feedback that has to be given, the conversation that has waited too long. They leave with concrete tools to use the next day. For leadership teams and leadership programmes.
Delivered for clients including Kartverket.
Full-day seminar
Communication and Collaboration: A Team Workshop
A day for leadership teams and teams that want to work better together. We look at how each person communicates, what creates friction, and how the group can turn its differences into a strength. The team leaves with shared ground rules and tools for working together and running productive meetings.
Delivered for clients including Amedia and Sykehusapotekene.
Full-day seminar
Interviewing: Spot the Talent, Uncover the Lie
Interviewing is a discipline of its own. Practical tools for HR and hiring managers: the job specification, the structured interview and behavioural technique. Learn to look behind the CV, map personality and avoid the wrong hire. More than 2,000 leaders, HR professionals and recruiters have taken part.
Delivered for clients including Opera Software, Capus and DSB.
All talks and seminars are delivered in English or Norwegian, in person anywhere in Europe or online.
The book
Leading GenZ. With Empathy and Resilience
How do you lead a generation that asks why about almost everything and wants to be part of something bigger? The book draws on leadership we know from film, literature and real life: Marge Gunderson in Fargo, Atticus Finch, Jens Stoltenberg and the Nordic leadership model. It rests on research and includes a section of exercises you can use with your own leaders and teams.
Lessons from Leadership in Pop Culture, book 1. Baard I.S.T. Løtvedt. 79 Degrees South AS, 2024. About 100 pages.
The book pairs well with the keynote Leading GenZ.
Photo: Johanne Nyborg
About Baard
A sounding board for leaders and boards for 30 years.
Chief executives, board chairs and owners have called on me when the decisions were hard: the appointment that could not go wrong, the merger where two leadership teams had to become one, the board that needed renewing.
I began as an officer, trained at the Norwegian Military Academy, with eight years in operational leadership roles. Since 1996 I have led consultancy teams and specialised in leadership selection, leadership development and strategic advice. My work draws on transactional analysis and organisational psychology. I have advised the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries on board composition in state-owned companies, and mentored women leadership talents at BI Norwegian Business School.
My advice is direct, and it works. I say what I see, with respect for the person I am saying it to.
30 yearsas adviser and sounding board to leaders and boards
1,000+senior appointments made and assessed
Tens of thousandsof interviews and confidential conversations with leaders
Boardsin listed, family-owned and state-owned companies
Owner of Nordic Leadership Academy, Partner Leadership Consulting at Boyden.
Connect on LinkedIn
Partner
In partnership with Boyden
I am Partner Leadership Consulting at Boyden, and Nordic Leadership Academy works in full partnership with Boyden in Norway. We share offices in Oslo.
Boyden was founded in 1946 and today has more than 75 offices in over 45 countries. The firm works with executive search, interim management and leadership consulting, including leadership assessment, leadership development, coaching and succession planning.
For you as a client, this means two things. You have one adviser who knows your case from the first conversation. And when an assignment calls for it, you have an international team behind you. Assignments we deliver together with the wider Boyden team are carried out under Boyden's name and methodology.
Read more about BoydenGet in touch
Tell me briefly about your situation or the occasion, and I will reply within 24 hours. The first conversation is free.
Working across Europe
Assignments, talks and seminars in person anywhere in Europe, or online.
Offices
Wergelandsveien 7
0167 Oslo, Norway
Vestre Strandvei 39
3482 Tofte, Norway
Privacy
Nordic Leadership Academy (Lederskapsakademiet), represented by Baard I. Storsveen Tofting Løtvedt, is the data controller for personal data collected on this website.
When you send a message through the form, we store your name, contact details and the content of your message. We use them only to reply to you and follow up the conversation, based on your enquiry and our legitimate interest in answering it. The data is stored in Microsoft 365, is not shared with others unless needed to deliver a service you have asked for, and is deleted when it is no longer needed. This website does not use cookies.
You have the right to access, correct and delete data about you, and to complain to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet). Use the form above to contact us about your data.