When you are immersed in the day-to-day work, it’s easy to focus solely on leading, getting things done and managing the business. Taking time for self-development often falls by the wayside. However, stepping away from work to focus on personal growth is immensely valuable.
Based in Netherlands, Jorne Korzelius has built up quite a wide range of skills during his career, working at renowned companies such as Nespresso and Samsung, prior to joining Fitbit as Head of Marketing where he looks after all the marketing activities for the Nordics, Benelux, and France. For the past two and a half years however, Jorne’s work had an additional complexity from Google’s acquisition and integration of Fitbit into its hardware division.
Working through an acquisition
When Jorne first joined Fitbit, it was a growing organisation having completed several acquisitions and successful partnerships over the years. He defines his main business scope then was to scale up the business and build his region, an exciting time to be leading the marketing activities in Northern Europe.
From managing the changes brought by COVID19 to the workforce reductions affecting the technology industry earlier this year, the acquisition and integration by Google was the biggest challenge for Jorne where he saw his role change to not only managing day-to-day but to also to lead, engage and motivate his team through challenging times.
Leaders & their impact during uncertain times
Jorne has had the privilege of working and learning from inspiring leaders throughout his career Within Fitbit, while it was considered a small company with a relatively flat hierarchy, he cites the founder, James Park, as well as Des Power, who led the international organisation, as role models.
Motivation and trust are core values for Jorne, and he experienced their importance first-hand in his early days at Fitbit. He was given the freedom to build up his local market with a free rein, which instilled in him the confidence to take risks and experiment.
He was particularly inspired by the way James Park and Des Power were able to keep their teams motivated through a range of challenges, from COVID-19 to the ongoing acquisition. This helped create a sense of stability and security for the team, even in the midst of change and uncertainty. Jorne believes that motivation and trust are essential for building a high-performing team. He strives to create a culture of motivation and trust in his own leadership style.
Since joining Google, Jorne has been impressed by the leadership of Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet as well as Lorraine Twohill, the CMO at Google whom he met in Dublin. He has seen how they have handled the challenges of the past few years, including the tech layoffs and the ongoing uncertainty in the global economy.
Making the decision to join INSEAD
Jorne quotes Marshall Goldsmith in saying: “What got you here, won’t get you there” - A quote that resonates with him as he grew into his management position due to being a high performer, he realised that he hadn’t dedicated enough time to work on growing his leadership capacity. A leadership feedback report conducted by his organisation confirmed this realisation, making him aware that he needed to increase his leadership skills in preparation for the next step in his career, which would involve leading bigger teams.
Having heard great things about INSEAD and being at an inflection point of his career with the acquisition, he decided that enrolling in a leadership programme at INSEAD was the right decision at the right time. This was further reinforced by the recommendation of Des Power, who had also benefited from INSEAD’s executive education programmes. Des would also be returning to INSEAD this year to take part in the world-class International Board Directors Programme to further his own journey.
Experience at INSEAD
Having done several programmes at different institutes before, coupled with the recommendation from a leader he looked up to, Jorne arrived at INSEAD with high expectations!
The first week, he shared, was the most magical. The first module of the Leadership Transition programme focuses on learning on theoretical and practical application levels from the programme director, Jennifer Petriglieri, and her experienced team of coaches. With the heavy focus on understanding his own leadership styles and to drive effective behaviour and results; he had to admit it was rewarding but exhausting – he jokes that if the programme was any longer, he might have just struggled to complete the work!
Joining a diverse cohort from different nationalities and industries, but with the same goal to make the most of the week to learn, grow and develop; the programme truly brought him great insights and different perspectives. Every programme at INSEAD is designed to provide a safe space for participants to share their challenges and experiences, allowing Jorne to gain eye-opening insights from fresh outside perspectives. In building this network with like-minded peers, Jorne also felt a sense of camaraderie in knowing that leaders faced the same leadership challenges regardless of background, country, or industry. It was surprising to see how fast connections could be built and how they broke the ice to have deep conversations in just one week.
In 2023, INSEAD added some new topics into The Leadership Transition content, such as resilience, managing an inclusive workplace and more – topics which have become increasingly important in the current world situation. Indeed, not every company would put focus on such topics, something which Jorne notes that he is fortunate in as both Fitbit and Google do stress the importance of being resilient and having good mental and physical health. He particularly enjoyed the topics of inclusivity and working in a hybrid workplace as having started his role at Fitbit with a remote arrangement, Jorne had to adapt to the complexity of leading a team with different working arrangements and learn how to conduct inclusive meetings to drive his team's efficiency.
With the date pencilled down to return for the second module in a few months, the programme held a moment in time for him to look forward to after testing his newly gained techniques and tools in real world challenges. While it was not possible to go into the same depth during the second module, it provided a good checkpoint with everyone’s personal leadership challenges as well as a short but sweet reunion.
Positive effects of The Leadership Transition
Often as we get busier, people find that they might struggle with maintaining a sense of presence– the practice of being in the moment and being a better listener. And it happens to everyone! As we gain more responsibility in our careers, it is easy to get distracted with emails and phone calls taking our attention away from a person or situation happening right in front of us. This was something that Jorne found himself admiring with the leaders he looked up to, as with the best leaders they are always able to make you feel seen and heard.
Setting this as a personal leadership challenge as part of this programme, Jorne found that focusing on being more present in the moment allowed him to learn a lot more from the people around him and become a more effective leader, all from a simple change in his behaviour. And this technique is something that he found spills over into his personal life as well. As a father with three children, being actively present in the time he spends with them as they grow and learn is extremely valuable – they are only children for a short period of time after all.
The importance of a growth mindset
It is not often that people dedicate time to develop their own skills and capacity – having a ‘growth mindset’ and continuously developing yourself, Jorne learnt is crucial to success.
“When you are immersed in the day-to-day work, it’s easy to focus solely on leading, getting things done and managing the business. Taking time for self-development often falls by the wayside. However, stepping away from work to focus on personal growth is immensely valuable; it allows you to truly understand where you are and where you are going in your career. In fact, it can be very liberating." he shares of his experience.
So don't be afraid and "go for it!" Dedicate the time to develop your own skills and capacity. You won't regret it.
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