Meet Malene rydahl
HOW TO LEAD A HAPPY TEAM
Malene Rydahl is a Danish wellbeing and performance expert. Her book, Happy as a Dane: 10 Secrets of the Happiest People in the World, explores why Danish people are some of the happiest in world and how the Danish leadership style directly impacts positively on the performance and wellbeing of everybody. She joined this year’s Moving Ahead Gender Balance Summit to discussed what the Danes do differently, and what impact it can have on society and industry.
She began by reminding us that in 2012, the World Happiness Report revealed that Denmark was the happiest country in the world and it was then that she started wondering why. In reading the report, she began carrying out extensive research about the factors that made a country or group of people live well together and actually declare themselves to be happy. In her discussion, she identified three main reasons.
The first one, Malene told the Moving Ahead Summit, was trust: “Denmark has the highest level of trust in the world.” Denmark’s trust level is at 78%, in comparison’s to Europe which averages 25%, and most African countries, which is at 5%. And, as an example, she cited the noted phenomenon of parents leaving babies and strollers parked outside restaurants, while the parents have lunch inside. Eight out of 10 Danes feel they can trust somebody they don't know and this level is even higher when it comes to government and institutions, at 84%. “This has a huge influence on wellbeing and also on performance. When individuals within companies and organisations trust one another, it leads to more innovation, better performance, and better creativity,” she says.
The second factor she identified is linked to education: the main purpose of the egalitarian Danish educational system is to develop the personality of the child. “So, we focus on teaching children all kinds of skills in schools, and we don't value intellectual skills over creativity skills or manual skills or technical skills. You won't hear a teacher tell a seven or eight-year-old that they're a failure because they're not good at math or languages. This is really important to build self-confidence, and also to give the feeling to a child that no matter what they're good at, it's needed and it's valued. This builds up self-confidence and allows them to trust in other people.”
At age six, Danish children are also introduced to empathy classes.“We teach children to identify their emotions and talk about them, and to also understand the emotions of other people. So, at a very early age we educate children in human relations. And this is fundamental to building good quality relations.” When projected onto corporations, it inculcates what Rydahl describes as “psychological safety… feeling safe in an environment to ask a question, or to talk about a difficult period you might be going through.” Essentially, “about the freedom to be you”.
The third pillar of happiness Malene identifies is “about feeling an individual engagement or responsibility for a common project with purpose. Basically feeling that you're part of something that's bigger than yourself.” And in the case of Denmark, it's the welfare state. “This is going to sound strange to many of you,” she laughs, “but the Danes are very happy to pay taxes because they feel they're participating in something that has meaning or purpose.”
Malene then explained to the enrapt virtual Summit audience how she began to apply these pillars to organisational structures. “You can have an organisation with trust and empathy, where people feel free to be themselves and ask questions and what have you. But if they don't know why they get up in the morning, they might still leave the company in the end, if they don't feel there's a sense of purpose.”
She also accepts that companies have generally not been conditioned this way: “It's not what we've been asked to do. We were educated to take roles. So we had business cards with titles on them and then become that person. That really doesn’t work anymore, especially for Millennials and Generation Z.” If organisations don't update their cultures, she says, they won't attract and retain talent, “because the younger generations simply do not want to work under those circumstances”.
Malene acknowledges that change is difficult. “Changing a person requires focus and discipline and it requires that the person wants to change.” Similarly, cultural transformation from companies needs to be authentic and come from the heart.
It’s the younger generation who will be the ones pushing for change from below, she thinks; changes that are already happening in Scandinavia, particularly in the area of gender equality. “In Danish society we've actually spent a lot of time and years freeing men – meaning they’re free to incarnate these feminine values of trust or empathy; to talk about their feelings and to show emotion. It is normal in Denmark for the mother and father to share the picking up of children from school, for example.”
She gives the example of a former Danish Prime Minister, who cancelled a pressing meeting with ambassadors from all over the world because his daughter was ill. “It escalated, and he ended up making a press conference saying, ‘While I'm extremely honoured to have been elected by you, and do anything in my power to live up to your expectations as a Prime Minister, I always know that this role is not a permanent one. But my role as a father is. And in this particular situation, I decided it was more important.’” As Rydahl says, “The interesting thing was that, because he said it, he allowed generations of people to also think that way, not all the time, but for important moments.”
Change takes time, says Rydahl. And it takes courage to be the one starting it. “You have to plant the seed, but you also have to keep watering it. To be patient with yourself, but also with other people. Ultimately, in cultivating trust, empathy, and a sense of purpose, “I personally think the world will become a better place.”