Name: Mads Munch Pedersen

Title: Chief Commercial Officer

Organisation: Club La Santa

With over 6 years of executive leadership experience in the travel and tourism industry, I am the Chief Commercial Officer at Club La Santa, the world's leading active holiday resort. As the head of the commercial department, I have the global responsibility for sales, marketing, revenue management, customer service, and retail operations, as well as the P&L accountability.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Mads's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

Most leaders - myself included - are often very certain that our own ideas are the best. They might very well be - but as a leader you will need to take a backseat sometimes and let your team members run with their ideas - even if you are certain they will fail. It is part of their journey - and my role as their leader is develop them - even from failures (but hopefully mostly from success).

I work a lot with trying to qualify my teams ideas to avoid failures, but it is important (and also very challenging) not trying to convince them that their idea is not going to work (or that I have a better idea).

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I first became a manager and thought I was going to manage, make important decisions and be in charge - but I had a brilliant leader that made me see the light in leading (and not managing). Over time he made realise that I would grow much more from leading - and so would my team. Managers tend to seek power - leaders seek influence

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I always start my day with a reflection on decisions made the day before (and the day in general). That is - for me - a perfect starting point for a new day and new learnings.

As a family man I spend my morning with my family - before heading to work.

In a busy schedule, I make sure that I set aside time for preparing for important meetings - and I make sure that meetings finish on time (or before). I try to communicate as much directly (in person) or via phone as possible, as email creates distance.

Evenings are usually spent being "logistics manager" in a busy household with children going to sports, myself training and also trying to catch up on some reading (often selfdevelopment litterature). I always go to bed to allow 8 hrs of sleep as lack of sleep leeds to poor performance

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

That I can only succeed if my team succeeds - sometimes leaders think they have to create everything, influence everything and decide everything. That's just wrong - leaders need to facilitate and support the success of the team - and that will create personal success.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - this book gave me some real insights into what dynamics are at play in any team, how they can dysfunction and identifying tools on how to mend the situation.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Never forget that you work for your team - your team does not work for you

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

I have recently led mid managers that have been used to a different culture. A culture where decision making was done at the top of the organization - and even mid managers were essentially without decision making power.

By delegating the decision making power I have seen these people grow both professionally and privately. More certain of themselves, higher performance and better well-being all together.

It took some time for them to feel safe in making decisions - well knowingly that it could turn out to be the wrong one. I needed to create a safe environment failure IS an option - because failure is part of growing and learning. If noone fails - it simply means that they're standing still - and that is even worse that making wrong decisions.