Introducing Vårda Creative Leadership
In the last few years, I have had amazing opportunities to spread my wings into areas well outside my media, entertainment and technology career expertise. So, it is time to bring all this together with the launch of Vårda Creative Leadership.
The purpose of the business is simple:
“Be the change agent to support you in imagining the possibilities and crafting the practical to succeed in life.”
Our services include consulting, teaching, coaching, and business change. These can connect people, skills, ideas and technology to drive the actions, attitudes and skills needed to thrive in the Advanced Digital Economy.
Why do I see a need for practical Creative Leadership skills?
We all understand the world of work is changing and the old “command and serve” ideas are becoming very rare indeed. Collaboration, team work, influencing and creative thinking have, in my view, shifted from nice-to-have soft skills, to essential must-haves in order to thrive in our new consumer-centric digital and social world.
For kids born today, 50% will live to be over a hundred years of age, and for many in mid-career total retirement is a pipe dream not to be enjoyed until well into their 60s! With Artificial Intelligence taking hold and the prospect of multi-careers in your working life, flexibility, creative thinking and people skills are key. From my perspective there are good reasons why this is vital.
How can Varda help you to succeed?
My passion for people plus my practical leadership and operational experience has become the basis of my training, coaching and consulting in this arena.
I have had a great opportunity to share my practical experience on a number of courses, with more coming soon in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
I have teamed up with Asheley Jones (who is the Director and Senior Consultant at Zena Consulting) to be our educational and training advisor.
What does Vårda mean?
Vårda is the Swedish word that means nourish and care for, whilst Varda is the old Swedish way of saying to become.
Vårda and Varda are simply the core themes behind our business purpose. Vårda Creative Leadership is all about nurturing the actions, skills and attitudes to help you become good creative leaders. By adopting these ways, you, your team and your organisation can become more people-centric in decision-making. This will translate to simple and practical ways to get the most out of the Advanced Digital Economy.
As part of our nurturing philosophy, we have also taken onboard another Swedish word: fika. In Sweden in many companies it is common for workers to have a designated time each working day to sit down and fika.
Fika is a time where people get together to chat, have a coffee or tea and even eat sweet treats. It is a practice that is deeply ingrained in the culture and working environment.
Ikea even has this message on their website “fika – a little Swedish word with a lot of meaning. It is a treasured Swedish tradition of taking moments together over coffee and baked treats.”
For us the essence of fika flows through our Creative Leadership approach. The art of stopping what you are doing, listening to your colleagues, sharing conversations and caring about how you do things we believe leads to better business efficiency and a more fun, collaborative and cohesive environment.
I look forward to applying fika as much as I can with Vårda Creative Leadership.
