The attributes needed by a manager/coach seem to be built into Norwegian genes – except for the phonetics
If coaching is like gardening, culture is the soil. Most learning grows out of suppositions and traditions compounded in the social entity where we live. But is one soil better than another? And are some cultures preconditioned for coaching? In Norway, just as in other countries, the press tends to focus on a small celebrity group of executives. Their financial affairs are among the favourite topics. Are these people really worth their salaries, bonuses and optional shares? Norway’s remuneration and benefits are modest compared with the rest of Europe, so one might have thought that such issues wouldn’t matter, but the headlines reveal otherwise.
One of the most obvious explanations for this exaggerated and critical public attitude towards high-earning bosses is the Norwegian concept of equality. Norwegians believe – to the bottom of their souls – that no individual is worth more than another. A symptom of this that often surprises foreigners is that top managers are relatively low paid in Norway. Consequently, it is usually impossible to recruit a CEO from the international circuit. Although businesses run well, they will not risk the negative public attention they would get from offering internationally competitive salaries.
Norway has always had a lack of hierarchy and minimal social differences, partly because there is no genuine royal tradition and because its population is spread out in small remote communities. This makes it much easier for coaching to take place, as mutual trust and openness between managers and employees is more readily found. The nature of the manager/coach seems to be in our cultural genes. I like the old management training films with John Cleese. In one of them he ends up saying: “And remember: the hardest thing of all is to avoid the authority trap.” When it comes to Norwegian leaders, very few will be trapped. Employees would not give a leader the kind of automatic authority that comes from having a higher hierarchical position. Also, most leaders will avoid the trap simply because it feels unnatural to adopt artificial authority. Consequently, managers have few problems motivating staff. A hallmark of Norwegian working life is the level of arbeidsglede, or joy of work. Research indicates that job satisfaction in Norway is higher that in most other countries in the world.
Are some cultures preconditioned for coaching? Someone who enjoys their job is likely to be easier to coach, as there will be fewer tensions to resolve before learning can begin. And motivation to improve on all levels will probably be higher. This could explain the national aptitude for coaching. That doesn’t mean that the industry here is static. We are seeing more and more companies running programmes with external coaches, and more people with business experience are becoming coaches. Just a few months ago, Norway hosted a major international coaching event: the annual European conference of the International Coaching Federation. More than 400 participants from 20 different countries attended various workshops across a whole range of areas, but relatively little attention was paid to internal coaching. With all this, it might seem that coaching is a “no-brainer” for Norwegians, but there is one fundamental problem. The word “coaching” is a strange fruit, phonetically troublesome for the Norwegian tongue – and try as we might, we just can’t get to grips with it!
Jan H.E. Wiese is responsible for mentoring and coaching at HR Norge, a membership organisation offering training, conferences and networking facilities to around 1,500 individual and organisational members, including courses for coaching managers. Wiese also offers one-to-one coaching to executive leaders and professionals in Norway and elsewhere.