In my younger days I took various educations starting with engineering then management and after that an MBA where my focus was on marketing strategy and consumer behaviour. After that I also studied sports psychology. I studied out of curiosity. I wanted to see the bigger picture and how different areas worked, in the hope of becoming a good manager and leader one day. After finishing my engineering studies I got a job as a planning engineer responsible for purchasing and setting up production lines. The plans were based on the plans handed to me by my marketing colleagues. My experience was that I did not understand my marketing colleagues and they definitely did not understand how their constant last minute changing of plans affected our production flow and thus the costs.

When I started out studying I hoped to get greater insight and a better understanding of people, business and leadership. But it was not until after my studies of marketing I came to the realization of how little I actually new and how complex everything is. So instead of feeling I was becoming wiser with more education I felt a great sense of humility.
The lesson I learned, and which took me quite some time, was that a leader and manager can never know everything, no matter how much he or she studies and that it is wise and appropriate to ask your employees for advice and help and to involve them in the decision-making process. To help and coach your people so they can live up to they’re full potential. The opposite behaviour is arrogance and unwise and has no place in modern leadership.