A CEO’s instinct for change

Even from the early years of his career, Flemming Horn Nielsen has been motivated by driving change, within the organisation and within himself.

He is now CEO of ReSource Denmark, one of Denmark’s largest sorting facilities for plastic waste, and was previously CEO of the Danish utility Lyngby-Taarbaek Forsyning.

We talked with Flemming about his personal motivation for change and why he believes that corporate culture is key to a high-performance organisation.

The courage to make change happen

Flemming Horn Nielsen has made a healthy organisational culture a priority in his leadership career. Experience has taught him that only teams that have trust in each other and honest dialogues about challenges, personal and professional, have the capacity to perform at their best, even when there is upheaval.

But how does he recognise when change is needed?

‘I feel it physically. You walk into a room, and you can sense whether people are holding back or fully engaged. You hear it in the way people talk to each other and see it in how decisions are made or avoided. It’s in the way problems are surfaced or buried,’ Flemming explains.

For him, acting on those signals is essential. His experience as a leader has taught him how essential trust is for a team’s performance.

‘I want to get to the core of what really makes an organisation thrive. A strong culture isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’- it’s the foundation of high performance. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if the culture doesn’t support it, execution will suffer.’

He adds: ‘You need to make sure that people feel safe in asking for help and admitting when they don’t have all the answers. And that includes yourself as well.’

Learning through leadership

Throughout his career, Flemming has pushed himself to evolve.

‘I did use to think leadership was about having all the answers. But I have realised it’s about helping others find them.’

His natural instinct to ask questions - sometimes to the point where it feels like an exam - has become a tool for empowerment.

‘I’ve learned that I need to balance curiosity with guidance. My role isn’t to test people or to know everything; it’s to create the space for them to uncover their own best thinking.’

But these realisations have not necessarily come easily. ‘As part of identifying our existing team dynamics in the leadership team, our personal behavioural patterns and preferences were identified, and several colleagues were interviewed anonymously about how they perceived my behaviour in different interactions.’

‘It was a bit of an eye opener to learn that my instinct for learning as much as possible about a situation was interpreted as a lack of trust in people and sometimes made them feel as if they were being examined,’ Flemming admits.

‘It can be painful to realise that your best intentions are misunderstood. I thought I was helping my employees, and it was only when I got the feedback that I realised how my behaviour was interpreted.’

‘It is certainly not easy to change a behaviour that you may have had for decades. But it can be done, and I hope I have become a better leader for it. I am very grateful to have received this honest feedback that made me aware of my own blind angles.’

‘I’ve also learnt that people have to feel ownership in order for something to take root. If I want to foster new ways of working together and new ways to talk about our challenges and experiences, I need to facilitate the tools and the space for this and then to let my leadership team become ambassadors of these new ways of working. This way, the new way of working as a team and talking with each other will trickle down into the organisation.’

Flemming has also learnt that you cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. The tools, ways of learning and new ways of thinking need to fit the team in question. ‘What will resonate with a leadership team may not necessarily resonate with other teams further out in the organisation,’ he explains.

‘The end goal is a shared way of thinking, talking with each other and working together, but the way we get there may look different from team to team.’

A leadership legacy

What does he want to be known for as a leader? He answers without hesitation. ‘I want to facilitate the way forward. I want to be the leader who clears the path—not the one who walks it alone.’

That philosophy is what makes his present approach to cultural transformation different from past initiatives.

‘This isn’t about top-down mandates or abstract theories. It’s about ownership. It’s about making culture real, relevant and something we all take responsibility for.’

This, he states, only happens when you act as a role model as leader.

‘I cannot expect my colleagues and employees to take ownership if I’m not ready to show them trust. And I cannot expect them to admit to challenges and vulnerability if I’m not willing to be the first to do so.’

‘I need to be open in a constructive way about how I feel about a certain situation without being afraid that I’m seen as judgmental or that my feelings are getting in my way of thinking clearly. It can be daunting at times, but the reward of trust and true collaboration is worth it.’

Flemming reflects on his personal development goals. ‘I want to keep challenging myself, keep learning. I still have a lot of blind angles, and that is why honest feedback from employees is essential. I will continue to create space for this kind of feedback so I can continue to learn to be a better leader.’

‘Leadership isn’t static - it’s a practice. And just like with culture, the work is never really done simply because the world around you is constantly changing – and you have to adapt and see this change as an opportunity.’

Flemming may ask a lot of questions. But as he’s learnt, the right ones have the power to change everything.

Flemming Horn Nielsen,
CEO of ReSource Denmark

(photo credit: ReSource Denmark)