Trait Theory on Danish Leadership

Based on previous findings posted on the blog, we will try to find the connection between Danish leadership and 9 traits of effective leaders (Power Point, 2017, p 12) and discuss the different perceptions. 

Dominance

In the Danish culture, a leader will often be perceived as person skilled to dominate. However other cultures associate Danish leadership style with lack of ambition and authority. Danes in general are raised to participate not to lead, which make their leadership style seem less dominant to other cultures. Danish leaders delegate and empower their employees, which reflects decentralized organizations as they value equality and high team performance rather than individual performance. This does not necessarily mean that they are less dominant, but it can be perceived as lack of dominance for foreigners from cultures with more centralized organizations. 

High Energy

Danish leaders are very personal engaged in general and have a natural desire to lead and inspire. The high energy is reflected in the focus on involving their employees and the personal engagement is the drive. By their high drive they try to affect their employees by encouraging a high energy level.

When trying to master the English language, Danes sound very robotic, which make them seem dispassionate and low on energy.

Self-confidence

The fact that Danish leaders delegate a lot of work can be perceived as low self-confidence. I might seem like they don’t have the confidence to do it themselves, and therefor ask their employees to do it. But in fact, Danes view this as self-confidence leaders, because they have trust and confidence in their own employees.

Danes don’t show a lot of ambition, because they don’t like to disappoint. This can be interpreted as a lack of self-confidence. However, in Denmark it’s a social norm not to show to much ambition, because it makes you seem arrogant.

Locus of Control

As mentioned, delegating and empowering are well known in Denmark. Danish leaders might think that delegating work to employees is the same as taking control of the future. They hire their staff for a reason, and by giving them proper work, they secure the future within their organization. Some cultures, though, see it differently. By delegating work tasks some will say that you lose control of the organization’s future.

Stability

Within our findings there aren’t any signs of emotional instability, so we argue that this trait is perceived in the positive way from both Danish and foreign leaders.

Thinking of social norms in general, Danes are very proper and constraint in their mannerism compared to Italians for example, who are very much in touch with their emotions. Discussions can get heated, which can be perceived as being unstable. Danes tend to make discussion based on rational arguments.     

Integrity

Danes are very direct and honest in their interactions. In Denmark it’s a sign of trust, but in other contexts it might seem rude and too straight forward. Depending on the eyes that see, the directness can be seen as either rude or a respectful way of telling the truth. Danish leaders are very transparent and the open communication in general engenders trust. By showing trust in your employees, they are more likely to see you as trustworthy leader with integrity.

The use of irony and sarcasm, though, can maybe change people’s perception of your words and appearance. Danish leaders often lose their integrity in foreigners’ eyes, when using this type of humour.

Intelligence

The fact that Danes in general master English very well show a prominent level of education and skills, which lead to an understanding of intelligence. In a Danish organization all employees are equal, which make the leaders seem like they are on the same intelligence level as their employees. In some cultures, it might be expected that leader’s intelligence should be on a higher level.

Flexibility

One of the highly noticeable skills of Danish leaders are the ability to adjust quickly in different situations. They don’t accept status quo, but instead prefer change, creativity and innovation, which show flexibility within the organization.

Danish leaders encourage the need for separating personal life from work, which both allows more flexibility for the employees and the leaders. If an employee has a personal issue, Danish leaders are likely to make a compromise to accommodate their personal needs and thereby show flexibility.

Sensitivity

An important part of sensitivity is effective communication. For some cultures, the informal way of communicating may have an implicit outcome, which often create misunderstandings. This issue can be common for Danish leaders.

Sensitivity also includes understanding of group members, which come natural for Danish leaders, as tasks are often developed in groups. To do that, you need to be cooperative and understand your group members.

In general, Danish leaders are very people centered and sensitive to other people’s feelings. 

Reference: Forsyth, Deborah (09.21.2017). "Leadership & Management cont'd". 9 Traits of Effective Leaders. Power Point Presentation in Class. P 12-15.