Niklas Delmar, co-founder at 4Potentials is a true explorative entrepreneur and visionary leader who are on a journey to do what he enjoy the most, leading up his new venture Hej Engagemang- being on stage meeting new people nearly every single day.
Niklas tells me that he had quite a few changes in his life where he completely changed direction and track starting from scratch more than once. Through the years he has developed a deep trust in people who he believe will do the right thing if they are genuinely motivated.
Learning Styles
Niklas learning style is mainly based on what people recommend to him to read or share with him online. He’s claim he’s not a bookworm. So much that he is currently hard at work writing his own book. More on that when it’s published.
His main source for learning is live conversations with people and visitors from the events that Hej Engagemang hosts weekly. He says he rarely read much press.
Listening to podcasts is something that Niklas is trying to find more time to do, since it’s a great way to listen and learn while doing something else at the same time. His main focus is however on producing his own podcasts.
Listen to a sample - Note: Only in Swedish - from Engagmangspodden where Niklas is talking about co-worker engagement.
I myself have to admit that I don’t often listen to podcasts, only occasionally. Though for Swedish native listeners i do recommend this particular podcast series, mainly because of the moderator Beata Wickbom’s unique ability to ask clever questions.
Surprisingly as it might seem, the web is not a main learning source for Niklas. Instead he is keen on participating IRL in courses and different educational programs on a regular basis.
Lack of Mental Bandwidth
One reason for leaving out the digital stream as a main learning source is simply that the mental bandwidth for engaging with content online easily end up being pure information overload, mainly because of all the physical engagements, constant meetings, talks and seminars that Niklas do.
Instead he like to dive deep and become somewhat of a nerd, putting his single attention and focus on one primary topic and learn everything he can about what the particular subject has to offer.
“Losing your focus make you a much worse leader” according to Niklas.
He has his own mantra to keep everything irrelevant out: “Focus God Damn”. It sounds a lot more fun in Swedish: “Fokus För Fan”(FFF).
Today he sees himself simply as a ‘practitioner’ in his trade as an organizational consultant. He looks at physical training as his form of retreat where he can relax and restore his mind and regain balance again.
Unknown Future
What the professional scene has to offer in terms of professional challenges and adventures, where he will be and do in 3 years, Niklas cannot clearly state. He claims that he has simply no clue.
He also emphasizes a great need of peace and quiet to let the constant information flow dim down in the background. Niklas says he would prefer to spend more time in nature. I do believe that this is a quite common wish for urban professionals and entrepreneurs.
Science continuously showcase how humans benefit tremendously from spending more time in nature to gain a more balanced and healthy lifestyle. I for one certainly would wish that Niklas decides to listen to his own advice more sincerely.
Growing People
As someone who is mainly self taught in his professional career, Niklas puts his foremost expertise in the field of ‘understanding’ and truly ‘see people’. His leadership abilities are rooted in understanding how people behave in a group.
“In order to lead others you need to be able lead yourself”.
Jokingly Niklas uses the term ‘Organism Consultant’ utilizing the term ‘generativity’ as a guide. This is a term we will investigate further more deeply during our Lead to Learn learning journey.
At the moment Niklas focus his learning efforts on how humans go from a simple thought process to concrete action and how we are able to carry through challenging change efforts.
The Power of Small Steps
Something we spend a bit of time on in our conversation was Niklas genuine belief in the power of small steps and its importance on how iterative practices can increase a person’s ability to transform and adapt to change.
This is also something that you will hear Niklas talk with great passion about in his lectures and talks.
How does he practice the power of small steps himself, I ask at the end of our interview;
“Well I mainly focus on 3 areas to make life work better for me and my family.
No. 1 - Good Health, through simple and short daily routines.
No. 2 - Good Relations, which starts with a short morning meditationNo. 3 - Good Economy, mainly from practicing the traditional meaning of the word, to economize, i.e spend resources wisely.
“At the end of the day I ask myself if what I have achieved has generated more time, more money and energy”. Niklas explains; “Energy being the key word, for without energy the other two will fall short”.
To round off and sum up our talk I curiously ask Niklas to rate himself on a scale 0-10 where he sees himself in terms of managing continuous learning practises online utilizing the web, its myriad of applications and platforms - He carefully gives himself a 4. He says that it’s not his forte - and that it might never be.
Next up
Our next guest in our interview series is Peder Söderlind, CEO at Glykol AB. We’ll dive in to a shared passion - how we learn and co-learn together.
Stay tuned for that one!