It was due to a misunderstanding about the start time, probably arising from me and the organiser being in different time zones. We didn鈥檛 use a calendar invitation (always use one), I just received a Zoom link and the schedule for the multi-speaker event, and I failed to notice that the slot allocated to me was not the one I鈥檇 proposed in our email correspondence. We were two hours out of sync.

Consequently, at 9:00 on a Monday morning when I was comfortably lining up the day鈥檚 tasks at my desk, dressed in my gym gear for the virtual physiotherapy session I was due to have at 9:30, an email popped up in my inbox asking if I had trouble logging into the Zoom meeting. Even then, the penny didn鈥檛 drop. I logged in to the event, saw the audience nicely in attendance, and thought 鈥測es, sure I can log in, I鈥檓 ready for when my time comes鈥�. As it turns out, it had already come.

Fast forward past the eureka moment, a quick dash back to the event programme and a short period of frantic scrambling, and my potential no-show turned into a 60-min slide deck being presented at break-neck speed in 45 minutes. I had to skip some content and present off camera which I consider a real faux pas for online speaking. Furthermore, my phone rang in the middle of the talk with the physiotherapist chasing me for the missed appointment and the overloaded washing machine kept drumming in the next room with an ear-shattering spin cycle (always do the laundry outside of online meetings).

Not my proudest moment. I don鈥檛 take kindly to professionals winging public speaking, even when we are essentially making a voluntary goodwill contribution. You prepare, out of respect for the audience for whom you want to provide value, but also because your reputation matters.

Speaking in a professional peer context is quite an art form. I was reminded of this last week at the virtual event. At the language industry events, our knowledge sharing is always member-generated, and at times I wonder what motivates someone to spend hours to prepare a free online webinar, publish an article on an association platform, give a talk at a special interest group or do an interview with a podcast host, knowing that the audience may consist of knowledgeable peers and interested business partners but also of competitors? Perhaps it鈥檚 about staking a claim. Spreading ideas. Making a difference. Eradicating problems. Benchmarking self.

With virtual meeting opportunities multiplying in the past two years, we鈥檝e been challenged to re-evaluate and rethink our major language industry events. Many old-timers seem more attracted to intimate, organic and egalitarian ways of sharing views (just look at Clubhouse). It鈥檚 easy to glance at a speaker event programme and think 鈥渨hat鈥檚 new, I鈥檝e heard it all before鈥�. And it鈥檚 true, not every presentation is original.

However, it was evident from the talks at GALA Connected 2021 that the language services sector today covers so many evolving services, fast-moving technologies, diverse talent pools, interested stakeholders and hugely different client industries, that we all feel there are corners of our own industry we don鈥檛 know enough about.

Originality may be a bit overrated. Not everyone is original in business either. You don鈥檛 need a聽unique business idea to run a successful language services business. In fact, knowing that clients have paid for a similar service before is reassuring. It means that there is demand for your offering and if clients are buying it from others, they may buy it from you too. Most language service companies run their operations on the principle of giving their clients what they want and competing on being either

But we must differentiate on other kind of value too. It鈥檚 essential for enabling localisation buyers to make informed choices. The way to differentiate here is to explain how we create value added, over and above the baseline value the client can get from any LSP. That value added needs to match at least one of the localisation buyers鈥� pain points, whether it鈥檚 to give them everything they need as a one-stop vendor, be a specialist partner who knows their vertical and becomes part of their community, be a regional expert who helps them enter a specific market, or to transform the efficiency of their localisation operation with technology.

Here in the UK, the Association of Translation Companies is organising a 鈥樷�� competition that celebrates the language service companies that specialise 鈥� and who, as specialists, provide services to their industry partners. We at Sandberg are proud sponsors of the competition, having helped LSPs around the globe for 25 years with localisation into聽the Nordic languages and English.聽It was befitting that our Operations Manager Susan Hoare was on the judging panel, since adding outstanding value is something her own teams have been praised for. Their production excellence has repeatedly earned them high client feedback scores like聽鈥榓dded value provided by this team:聽5/5鈥�.

Whether in service provision or public speaking, value added is closely linked with authenticity. It鈥檚 not enough to talk the talk 鈥� the talk must be substantiated with stellar evidence. Speaking of which, GALA Connected 2021 showcased dozens of language industry professionals who had clearly distilled months and years of personal experience into their inspiring bite-size presentations. Here are a couple of quotes from what they said that I find both insightful and actionable:

鈥淚ntroverts can be immensely drained by being constantly in video calls. They are not used to looking at their own reflection all the time, it makes them feel they are always on stage.鈥�

鈥淟anguage service buyers want agility, accessibility, engagement, quality 鈥� in this order.

Language service providers offer quality, process, price, agility 鈥� in this order.鈥�

鈥淎 flat discount for MTPE does not work. And the parameters based on edit distance are even worse, because they introduce unpredictability and still don鈥檛 correlate with the time spent by the post-editor.鈥�

鈥淒ata services are the shining new thing that can transform our lives and give us purpose for the next ten years. Maybe.鈥�

I for one treasure the curated content that language industry associations and organisations make available to us. Maybe it鈥檚 because I鈥檓 old enough to remember the days when all the knowledge sharing we had was anecdotal. I continue to enjoy that kind of confidential sharing within my personal networks, but I鈥檒l also persist in contributing to and engaging with the industry鈥檚 flagship events.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 28: Speaking of which appeared first on sa国际传媒.

Dear Santa,

I was looking forward to coming home to see you, but as the Finnish borders remain closed to non-resident foreign nationals聽(e.g. husbands) and visiting ex-pats would have to spend most of their time in quarantine, I鈥檝e given up on that plan. With your low numbers of COVID-19 cases, I understand why you wouldn鈥檛 welcome people home this Christmas.

How are you coping with the travel restrictions yourself? I bet you鈥檙e anxious to toe the line and set a good example鈥� but some jobs simply have to be done. I guess your sleigh rides qualify as work-related travel, so on those grounds maybe the authorities will let you fly.

Here at Sandberg, we decided not to post out our usual Christmas hampers but have opted to send our staff virtual gifts instead. We hope to minimise spreading the virus and save the shops鈥� delivery slots for those who are self-isolating. In doing so, we鈥檝e also reduced international air traffic which should leave you more space in the skies when you set off on your big night.

How has it been at your workshop this year? Have you had to redesign, to accommodate the two-metre rule? We closed our offices nine months ago and moved everyone to work from home . But we have continued to recruit new staff throughout the year, which has made learning how to train colleagues without being next to them in the office an interesting challenge! I鈥檓 proud to say our teams have done extremely well.

It鈥檚 been such a grumpy year here in the UK. I expected our main struggle to be in preparing for business with the EU from 1 January 2021, but now I know better. Whilst there鈥檚 still no clear guidance on what will happen in just over a fortnight, the country battles with disunity and distrust around many other important decisions too. And we have lost more lives to COVID-19 than virtually any other European country, whilst the government鈥檚 borrowing has reached unprecedented levels.

However, I鈥檓 mindful of those who鈥檝e had an even tougher year. This month, we are once again fundraising as a company for Translators without Borders鈥� Christmas campaign. Have you seen the goodies my Nordic workmates have baked for that project!? Please distribute some holiday cheer to everyone who has helped by donating on our .

Santa, your elves always seem so chirpy and happy, what鈥檚 your secret? My colleagues sometimes get disheartened and I鈥檇 like to be better at supporting them. I try to impart direction, inspiration and training through Teams, webinars and video, but it鈥檚 not always easy to gauge how it鈥檚 received and whether it鈥檚 enough. I appreciate every opportunity to hear from the teams beyond what I get to see in numbers and reports.

You know what I鈥檇 like for Christmas 2020? To have your powers. I鈥檇 like to be able to see my colleagues where they are. Not to see who鈥檚 naughty or nice, but to know their mood and how they are. Throughout the year I know they will have skipped lunch to make sure a translation project kicks off promptly or stayed up late to sort out our virtual infrastructure. I鈥檇 love to hear what they think at those times, and what their longsuffering spouses think too!

At our online catchup meeting last week, my management team opened the virtual doors to their private lives and shared photos of how they鈥檝e decorated their homes this Christmas. We had pictures of inventive 3D advent calendars, fully decked trees, stockings, Christmas cakes, home-made paper stars鈥� and I was even introduced to the concept of Christmas-themed Japanese bento lunchboxes (pictured right, as fashioned by Tomomi, the sister-in-law of Sandberg鈥檚 Operations Manager).

Wow, it felt great to peep past our professional lives and share private interests and aspirations!

Santa, I know that you rely on your teams, and I do too.聽 Many of my colleagues and fellow localisation industry members live a long way from home and are not able to visit their native lands this Christmas. It鈥檚 always a hard time of year to be away from family, but they will likely feel it more this year than ever before. It would be lovely if you could remember them specifically and drop extra goodies down their chimneys as you do your rounds this year.

Thanks and see you around,

Anu

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 27: Home for Christmas appeared first on sa国际传媒.

These words come out of my mouth quite frequently to certain people.聽I鈥檝e found that humility can be my greatest friend when I鈥檓 faced with difficult decisions.聽Let鈥檚 be frank about it 鈥� most times the decisions are difficult because we don鈥檛 know which way to go.

If you鈥檝e lost direction or need help with progressing in the right direction, you could do worse than turn to coaching or mentoring. There鈥檚 a range of support opportunities available, which my friend , a qualified relationship coach and strategy consultant, pictures as a continuum:

鈥淎t one end there is Counselling 鈥� empathetically listening and gently helping the individual to find their own voice. This is often non-directional and non-outcome focussed.

At the other end of the spectrum we have Consultancy 鈥� telling the individual what they should do.

In between these extremes, there is Coaching 鈥� helping the individual through open questioning to find their own solutions to achieve their own goals.鈥�

What Neil describes as coaching, I鈥檝e also heard being referred to as mentoring. To me, the difference between coaching and mentoring is so academic that I鈥檒l use the two terms interchangeably, although it鈥檚 probably just as vexing as people assuming that translation and interpreting are two words for the same thing.

Mentoring can be formal or informal, often to do with career growth and skills development. Sometimes it can be so informal that you鈥檙e not even sure whether you have a mentor or not. What鈥檚 most energising about the process is its purpose: to help you explore what may be holding you back from fulfilling your true potential. After all, the world doesn鈥檛 need a dulled shadow of you; it needs the most fully alive version of yourself you are able to give.

Being mentored

I have benefitted from coaching/mentoring twice in my professional life: most recently five years ago when I took on the role of CEO. My key question at the time was 鈥榓m I cut out for this?鈥�. Mentoring helped me examine the ideas that were limiting me or blocking me from achieving what I wanted to achieve. My biggest takeaway was that 鈥業 can do it鈥�, and that in the areas where I鈥檓 not able to attain the highest level of mastery, I should build a team around me who are. That鈥檚 what I鈥檝e been working towards ever since and I鈥檓 very grateful to have such an adroit management team running Sandberg with me.

Being a mentor

Can any leader who wants to 鈥榞ive back鈥� become a mentor? You need good listening skills and the ability to delve into problems, options and solutions with your mentee, for sure. And a structured plan wouldn鈥檛 go amiss either.

A few years back, I joined Women in Localization鈥檚 , which pairs established localisation industry professionals with those seeking guidance for their careers in the field.

One of my mentees was Marta (not her real name), a thirty-something translator who was questioning whether she wanted to translate any more. Having travelled extensively 鈥� which freelance translating suited excellently 鈥� she鈥檇 settled down and now lived permanently abroad. With no intention of returning to her native country, she felt her language and cultural skills would eventually fade, and she wanted a job that didn鈥檛 rely on her native language.

Marta had tried her hand at content creation, but felt it was not for her. She鈥檇 worked for a while as a data analyst and concluded the same. She had enrolled on a master鈥檚 degree programme in localisation hoping that it would lead to an in-house position at a language services company. But studying just wasn鈥檛 as inspiring as it had been on her bachelor鈥檚 course.

Over the months, we explored Marta鈥檚 interest in taking up a managerial role. I was able to assure her it wasn鈥檛 unrealistic to consider a career change in her thirties 鈥� I鈥檇 done the same. We spent time figuring out who she was as a person, and she finally concluded that although she was capable of performing as a part of a team or company, what she really wanted was to do her own thing.

When I last spoke with Marta, she was thinking of becoming an author in a field that really interested her, perhaps getting a book published one day. She said the mentorship had definitely been worth it, and even though I鈥檇 often lamented our lack of structure and milestones, for her just being able to talk to someone from the same industry but at a different stage in their career had been valuable.

Reversing the roles

Reverse mentoring is the opposite of traditional mentoring. Instead of a senior staff member imparting their wisdom to a junior recruit, the senior colleague listens and learns from the junior one. The primary objective is to enable senior managers to stay in touch with their organisation and the outside world, which often means educating them about something like technology or diversity. But the advantages go both ways, as more junior co-workers have an opportunity to understand and be heard by their senior colleagues.

I remember bringing the idea up at our management meeting a few years ago, and the first response from my peers was: 鈥楽o Anu, are you admitting you can鈥檛 keep up?鈥�. There lies the rub: reverse mentoring cannot be implemented in an organisation without humility.

A while back, I chatted to Texan coach and team-builder . Having seen her in action, I know what an awesome mentor she can be. We were comparing notes and discovered that our respective experiences with structured coaching programmes had sometimes left us flat. Shelly surmised that perhaps the best mentoring right now happens organically.

With that in mind, I encourage you to go and seek out a mentorship for yourself. Right now.

Seven months ago, we were all facing the global pandemic together, bracing ourselves for the challenge of saving lives. Now our experiences have diverged: different countries and regions are at different stages of the fight, battling with varying degrees of restrictions and sacrifice. We encounter discord and seemingly impossible asks, and we need to get through them without ending up exhausted and burnt out. A powerful mentorship won鈥檛 erase the trouble and chaos, but can help us find our own path amidst that chaos.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 26: Going from good to great with mentoring appeared first on sa国际传媒.

It was only a tender, the size of a large rowing boat, and we were coming down the Hamble in Hampshire having moored our yacht further up in the river. But we were still hundreds of metres away from our home harbour and it was dark. The leak started small and first we continued at full throttle, pumping the water out manually. But then the pump stopped working. The boat was filling up fast and we knew we wouldn鈥檛 make it to the jetty. The options were to aim for one of the moored yachts we were passing, clamber onto it, call for help, sit and wait and watch the tender sink. Or turn to the shore which was further away and try to reach the muddy riverbank before hitting the bottom. The Hamble is a tidal river and it was low tide. The sun had set and there were no other people in sight.

We decided to try for the bank. I gathered the possessions I most wanted to save in my arms, ready to swim if need be, trying to think of a way to keep my phone dry. I was wearing too many layers of clothing to be comfortable with the prospect of getting in the dark water. We couldn鈥檛 move in the boat as the smallest movement threatened to tip one of the sides under the water. I didn鈥檛 fear for my life but was stressed about losing what we had with us, including the outboard engine and the tender itself. And I worried about causing trouble and possible danger to other river users in the morning.

Maybe your business feels like a sinking ship right now. The cold water may have been seeping in for a while but suddenly you find yourself in a situation where it鈥檚 rising fast. Your life is not in danger but if the business were to go down, there would certainly be serious collateral damage.

What do you do? You may have the option of turning to a larger vessel and piggyback on them for a while; you can borrow or you may be able to get an investor to inject cash into the business. There鈥檚 also the option of abandoning the ship and leaving it to sink. But if you decide to keep fighting for the best possible outcome, you have to get the boat to the shore where it can potentially be fixed or at least disposed of properly. And you want to achieve it whilst minimising damage to the crew and assets you carry onboard with you.

Which, weirdly, brings me to the topic of corporate governance. You might be a company director who accepted that position without knowing exactly what you signed up for. Or you may have set up a company recently and are wondering how to organise its governance. If you don鈥檛 have a commercial background, you might not even realise that corporate governance is not the same as company management.

The role of the board of directors in a company is to provide vision and direction, to decide the strategy and structure, to delegate authority to the CEO who heads the operational management of the business, and to be accountable to shareholders and other relevant stakeholders.

In the UK, a private limited company must have at least one director. When initially registering the company, the incorporation documents must name the first director(s). The way in which subsequent appointments are made is governed by the company鈥檚 articles of association.

In family companies, what usually happens is that one or two of the shareholders also become the directors of the company. In the SME private sector, they may even be employed by the company. One person can thus simultaneously be a shareholder, director and manager 鈥� three roles that have separate responsibilities and interests regarding the company. When a company allows for such combined roles, it is very tempting to take pragmatic shortcuts in board procedures and decision making. This really obfuscates things for the onlookers 鈥� everyone recognises the company has a power cluster, but no one quite understands how the roles in that cluster relate to each other. Hence even the staff end up referring to the governing group imprecisely as 鈥榖osses鈥�, 鈥榦wners鈥� or 鈥榣eadership鈥�.

Many start-ups have an all-executive board where every director also has a managerial or employee position in the company. A potential problem of this structure is that the executive directors can be perceived to be monitoring and supervising their own performance. They may also find it difficult to separate operational perspectives from strategic ones.

If your organisation is small and it doesn鈥檛 seem prudent to appoint several directors, an advisory board is an excellent option. Its structure is more flexible and its advice non-binding. Consequently, its members don鈥檛 have legal fiduciary responsibilities either. The company, CEO and shareholders benefit from the wise counsel of these non-executive experts and can compensate for their contribution by mutual agreement. When setting up an advisory board, I recommend you approach people who have been successful in areas where you feel less confident. Aim high. You will be surprised by how many of them say yes.

Back in the boat, we made it to the shore, but with no time to spare. I gashed my leg scrambling out and we spent ages trying to bail out the water and haul the vessel higher on the mud so that we could tie it to something until the morning. I openly admit that the hardest physical endeavour that night was not mine. I was lucky to share the boat with someone stronger and more experienced than myself.

Running into difficulties in business is not always your fault. Our boat had been fine when we last used it, and there was no sign of water when we started the journey home from the yacht. A business can be hit hard by external factors that are out of your control 鈥� we鈥檝e all learnt that in the past six months. It鈥檚 important to know that as soon as a company becomes insolvent, the director鈥檚 responsibilities are extended to others beyond the company; in addition to the regulators and the shareholders, the director becomes accountable to the creditors as well.

One thing holds true for both business and sailing: the smaller the boat, the more it matters who鈥檚 with you in it. If you are in the position to choose, choose wisely who you have on (your) board. When you get into a tight spot, they can make the difference between life and death.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 25: Who鈥檚 on board? appeared first on sa国际传媒.

There are many parallels to our COVID-19 world: in the Wonderland, walking away from something brought you towards it. In our world, we keep those we love at a distance as a sign of caring. For Alice, running helped her remain stationary. For businesses, even the most vigorous running may this year result in merely staying stationary (and many would in fact be grateful for that). And the government decision-making on coronavirus containment, e.g. the rules of the current UK , has at times been reminiscent of the incomprehensible mind puzzles of the Red and White Queens of the Wonderland.

If we have indeed stepped through the looking glass into a new story, what鈥檚 the plot going to be like from here on? No one seems interested in dwelling on what has been. As businesses, we are encouraged to author the story of what happens next. But the challenge in real-life storytelling is that, in order to be useful, our stories need to be true. And, by definition, true stories will always be about what has been.

This means that before sketching the next chapter, each of us might benefit from a little reflection. You may think that humans automatically learn from experience, but that鈥檚 not true. We only learn if we reflect on our experiences. Ergo, instead of peering through the looking glass, I decided to have a little peek into it. I am not in a position to see what the mirror might reflect back to you, but here are a few things it reflects back to me.

There鈥檚 now

I believe that pride in who we are defines our present and our future. Consequently, I set it as my goal to be able to look back with pride on how we at Sandberg responded to the COVID-19 challenge. Three months down the line, I am viewing the European lockdown months as a period when we continued to trade professionally and treat our colleagues, clients and suppliers with exactly the same dignity as before. I am pleased with that.

There were also days when I got too emotionally attached to the performance of the company. I felt I was only a good leader when everything was going well. Those days taught me that my mood as a leader casts a longer shadow than I think. I must learn not to disconnect from the team when I feel low and not to change things erratically for them when I feel impelled to action.

In March 2020, I told my colleagues that I know I ask them every day to trust my ability to steer the company. Furthermore, I ask them to trust that I鈥檓 doing it with integrity and benevolence. In order to nurture that trust, I started a corona vlog for the (by then 100% remote-working) Sandberg staff where I talked to them weekly about what was happening in the world, how the company was doing and what I was basing my decisions on. Here are a few clips from those videos.

Then there鈥檚 next

With the easing of lockdown measures, we are entering a聽period of unpredictable and possibly muted economic recovery that gives rise to new threats and opportunities. But I have every bit of faith in Sandberg鈥檚 future. That is why you see us going ahead with our in-house recruitment plans and why we鈥檝e had five interns join us for the summer. The next group of new colleagues starts in July.

Then we face the question of how to bring people out of isolation and back into our offices. We鈥檝e started by asking whether we even want to bring people back to the office and what the purpose of the office is for a company that can clearly operate without one. We have always maintained we need offices for training and supporting new staff. But having to maintain a metre-plus human distance on the premises would negate many of the reasons why we prefer onsite support to virtual support.

Cabin fever is of course a terrible thing and for many of us having even one colleague in the same room is better for our mental health than working totally alone from home. Some colleagues are restricted in what kind of a home office setup they can have, and going to the office 鈥� even if it was them alone in there 鈥� would be a better option than working from their bedroom or kitchen table.

There鈥檚 no normal

The image at the beginning of this article referring to life in lockdown as being in prison may seem in poor taste. The only allusion I want to make is to the feeling of not being in control and to having limited decision-making power concerning the future.

The notion of 鈥榥ormality鈥� is built on the assumption of steadiness. Without steadiness, there is no normal and the only thing we can rely on is our agility to adapt. With that in mind, we鈥檇 be wise to invest in planning for what we should do differently if there was a second wave of COVID-19 with further lockdowns in the next 12 months. We should only learn the hard lessons once.

Earlier this summer, I was discussing furloughing staff with a colleague. He noted that although I seemed to be concerned about the circumstances of individuals, I would obviously invariably put the company鈥檚 interests first. That is true, I would. It is my duty, as a director (for corporate governance) and as the head of the management team (for operations). Whilst my job has taught me to treat the company as a legal entity that has a life separate from the lives of its stakeholders, I鈥檝e also learnt that in serving the former I serve the latter. The stakeholders 鈥� clients, employees, collaboration partners, shareholders and the community 鈥� are always at liberty to engage with Sandberg or to walk away from it, but if they engage, it鈥檚 in their best interests that I keep the company healthy, purposeful and attractively transparent.

The world we see through the looking glass is characterised by fast-changing shifts in cultural norms, societal values and behaviours. There鈥檚 an increasing demand for responsible business practices, and many companies, including us, are working on a renewed brand purpose. This should benefit employees as well as clients. At the risk of sounding insensitive at a time when so many jobs are being lost, I surmise that work could now become the place where we feel more like ourselves than anywhere else. In an unpredictable world, having a job that aligns with our values can have a key role in helping us live out who we are.

The post Director鈥檚 Cut, take 24: Through the looking glass appeared first on sa国际传媒.

Yet not all peer groups are about beating addiction. Business people make good use of various forms of counselling and coaching in their professional lives. The common denominator in peer communities, however, is that the source of support is usually a similar person with relevant experience.

The translation industry boasts its fair share of alliances, some more formalised and others based on personal sharing. A few are formed for bidding purposes, to meet the criteria for large national or international contracts. Two weeks ago, for instance, I was delighted to chat with an American colleague whose woman-owned translation agency had been asked to partner with a bigger language service company on a government contract where gender balance at executive level was part of the bidding criteria.

Other fraternities are made up of small company owners in a similar market position in their individual countries. They may be subcontractors to the same multinational client who get together to compare notes and learn from each other. Sometimes these alliances also extend to the executives鈥� social lives. They work hard, so why not play a little as well.

The emergence of the infamous Men鈥檚 Camp a few years ago certainly seemed to occupy a void for something fun and newsworthy in our industry. Even for us outsiders, it provided something to titter about. For the benefit of the blissfully ignorant, Men鈥檚 Camp is an annual gathering of male C-level professionals who meet in a private, social setting in southern Europe. Admission is by invitation only 鈥� and random at best 鈥� but new US-based colleagues are known to have been granted membership for this year鈥檚 event in August.

Last summer, a group of executive ladies answered the unspoken challenge presented by Men鈥檚 Camp and convened for the translation industry鈥檚 first Hens鈥� Camp in sunny France. We were intrigued to discover we all shared the same story: we鈥檇 ended up in the industry not because of our love of languages, but because we had met and married someone from a different country, culture and language.

What was intended as a weekend of professional sharing turned into relationship counselling and tips on how to survive working with your spouse. It served as a great reminder of how life and work are intermingled and how instead of 鈥榖alancing鈥� work and life, you can draw strength from allowing them to flow harmoniously together. What builds you up in your personal life helps you at work, and vice versa.

The value of an outside perspective

My most polished experience of professional peer support to date comes from outside of the translation industry. It started when I joined a group earlier this year, and while I鈥檓 writing this, I鈥檓 still very much on the journey.

Vistage is an international membership organisation for SME owners and executives. Their modus operandi is to build private advisory groups of 10-15 business leaders in a geographical vicinity of one聽another who meet monthly to solve challenges, evaluate opportunities, learn new skills and explore effective strategies.

Members are carefully selected for each purpose-built group 鈥� you need to be invited and cannot simply pay to join. No group contains direct competitors, suppliers or customers, and each is organised and guided by a chairperson who has extensive CEO or profit-and-loss ownership experience. The chair acts as an impartial sounding board and provides access to different perspectives.

The membership includes monthly one-to-one mentoring sessions with the chairperson, as well as monthly group meetings with expert subject-matter speakers. At the group meetings, time is always put aside for the members鈥� personal and professional issues. Everyone brings a challenge to the meeting and the group votes on which ones are discussed, dissected and untangled that day.

The elected members are called to the hot seat and grilled for details of the situation they have presented. Being the focus of such undivided, high-calibre attention can be extremely challenging, invigorating and exhilarating. Tears have also been shed on such occasions. Oddly enough, it鈥檚 not usually embarrassing, as the confidentiality and compassion of the group are guaranteed. The session ends with advice from the peers and a call to action for the member whose issue was dealt with.

Small company owners and leaders often struggle with accountability. We tend to be surrounded by colleagues and associates in our daily work, yet feel isolated and left to our own devices at times of critical decision-making. Hiring a business coach can provide a successful solution to this problem, but a peer support group may serve the same purpose and bring additional benefits of wider networks and fun social events.

A good CEO support聽group can become a place for you to confidentially discuss your confusions or doubts. It can be a pillar for you to lean on when your courage is failing. And, perhaps most useful of all, it can give you an independent perspective on your performance when you鈥檙e not sure how well you鈥檙e doing.

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This inspired me to write down some truths I wish I鈥檇 known at the start of my career. I鈥檓 sharing them here for the benefit of my dear daughters, who are currently pursuing their paths well outside of the translation world, and for any other young women out there in the early stages of their professional life.

My beloved daughters,

Disarmingly similar, yet bewilderingly different. That is what you are to me. This could be a letter to my 25-year-old self, except that you鈥檙e both so different from me at your age. Yes, I also took years to decide what I wanted to do. Yes, I moved abroad. And yes, I pledged myself to a young man my mother didn鈥檛 share common language with. But that鈥檚 where the similarities end.

I don鈥檛 want to claim the credit for how capable and courageous you鈥檝e grown to be. Instead, I鈥檓 grateful for being able to walk alongside you on your journey. We share the same values, and I cherish you for that. You take your time exploring your options, and I respect you for it. You boldly go further than I ever went, and for that I admire you. You are your own distinct selves.

It hasn鈥檛 always been easy to understand your choices, but I value you for being different from me. This is the first point I want you to understand: diversity makes sense. In business, a wise leader puts together colleagues who complement each other. Not only because they compensate for each other鈥檚 weaknesses, but because diversity helps people feel unique (and everyone likes being unique).

Since you are women and I am a female company executive, I guess I should say a few words about the underrepresentation of women in the top ranks of power. I鈥檓 not one of those people who set their goals at birth and relentlessly pursue them to completion. Like most people, I reach a plateau in what I do, grow restless and push myself to the next level to see if I can cut it there too. I keep going until I hit a ceiling. And I haven鈥檛 hit many ceilings yet.

Growing up in Finland, I was aware of the invisible career barrier that makes the path to leadership positions difficult for women, but I didn鈥檛 see much evidence of it before moving to the UK. The translation industry has a female-dominated workforce, and in my experience talent is recognised all the way to the top 鈥� irrespective of gender.

The biggest block preventing women from reaching the top in general is not a lack of competence, but a lack of confidence. So here is my second point: you are already capable. Work on your confidence and make sure it matches the level of your competence. Somebody said to me last week that we rise in a company to the level of conflict we can handle. Pay attention to those skills.

There are organisations set up for the purpose of helping women with this. I loosely follow the work of , whose tagline is 鈥榯railblazing women鈥�. The translation industry has its own global peer group, , which provides an open, collaborative forum where women can share expertise and experience and move forward. They even accept male members who are happy to support and work towards this goal.

“Don鈥檛 fear if suddenly, one day, you want to start doing things the traditional way. Don鈥檛 fear staying still, putting down roots, shouldering responsibility and taking on long-term commitment. You can do that too.”

The third thing I want to tell you is that you are not too young. You are not too young to be taken seriously, to know what you want, to settle down, even to start a family 鈥� as long as you understand that I am obviously too young to be any good as a grandmother. Nor are you too old. I went back to university for a second degree 鈥� BA in Fine Art 鈥� at the age of 35, as I wanted to see how far my talent could take me.

Working full-time as a freelance translator, attending lectures, producing artwork for the portfolio and raising a family (you) turned out to be too ambitious, but my main reason for dropping out was that I thought I was too old to make such a drastic change in my career. I shouldn鈥檛 have believed that. Looking back now, I don鈥檛 regret the decision and how things turned out, but age was not the right reason to change direction.

Don鈥檛 let fear steer your decisions. This is my fourth piece of advice. You have not feared to go out into the world to make it your own. You have not feared to go against what is standard practice, what is expected, what is considered the sensible thing to do. So don鈥檛 fear if suddenly, one day, you want to start doing things the traditional way. Don鈥檛 fear staying still, putting down roots, shouldering responsibility and taking on long-term commitment. You can do that too.

My fifth and final tip is that work can be done without relentless passion. Most of the time, interest, motivation and commitment matter as much as zeal. It is a truth universally acknowledged that people do business with people, and mostly they do business with people they like and can remember. If you want to succeed in business, be competent, be likeable and be memorable.

Invest in networking and in connecting with people, more than you would feel naturally inclined to do. And when you come to assess your working life at the end of it, remember that there will only be two things that truly matter: what you achieved and how you lived your life in achieving it.

So there you are. Oscar Wilde wrote in his play An Ideal Husband that the only sensible thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. I don鈥檛 mind if you do just that. I don鈥檛 mind if you become leaders or not, even though I can see great leadership qualities in both of you. I just want you to be kept out of harm鈥檚 way and 鈥� what a clich茅 鈥� to be happy. I will love you whatever.

Always yours,

脛颈迟颈

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Apparently, the phrase has passed into everyday French to describe overambitious people who want to overthrow the boss and take his or her place (thus the name 鈥榟e鈥檚 no good鈥�, pronounced with a French accent). Which was of course not me, and not how I ended up being the managing director of STP.

Global research by Common Sense Advisory indicates that most translation companies are small businesses with less than half a dozen employees. It is safe to assume that such companies are often managed by their owners who work full time in the business, either in a linguistic role or on the commercial aspects.

The business provides the owner with a life-long career and income, and many only start to think about an exit strategy after reaching a certain age, or burning out. The options are to find a buyer for the company, to pass it on to their children or to get someone else to manage it. Family succession is a great solution when the next generation is competent enough 鈥� and interested enough 鈥� to take over and inject new blood. If this is not an option, it is natural to look to promote someone from within.

When Jesper Sandberg, STP鈥檚 founder and now executive chairman, appointed me managing director a year ago, I had already been working in the company for almost 15 years, building the empire with him block by block, probably considering it mine as much as he considered it his. Consequently, our staff did not seem particularly shaken or stirred by my appointment.

Wondering how different it might be in a company where the baton is passed to a descendant rather than a colleague, I asked Thomas Faust about his experience. Thomas recently joined his father in running , a Luxembourg-based translation company which, like STP, has grown to its current size from one man鈥檚 freelance business.

Thomas grew up watching his father translate, went to study business and tourism, and still took some time to decide that taking over a translation company was what he really wanted to do. Not wishing to see his father鈥檚 legacy pass into the hands of a stranger was a strong motivator for him.

How to replace the irreplaceable?
Many translation company owners worry deeply about finding someone able to聽run the business like they do. Surely no one else would be willing to put in the hours,聽have the attention to detail, possess the dedication, share the vision and master the minutiae. No one else could possibly care as much. This may be true, but it鈥檚 also the point. No hired manager will ever do the job exactly like the owner did. And there are benefits to that, the same as when a parent entrusts their kids to a nanny.

The parent has unparalleled love and concern for their children, plus a brilliant vision for what they should grow up to be. But a professionally trained, emotionally detached nanny may do a better job of bringing them up with discipline, good conduct and structured training 鈥� and equip them to deal with an outside world that does not automatically think them special.

Likewise, when considering passing the reins to the next generation, it might help to think of them as a translator working on a text originally created by someone else. She may not be as precious about the original as the content owner is, but regarding the version she is writing, her feelings of ownership easily equal those of the original writer, and she will dedicate all her skills to creating a product that will have the same impact on her target audience.

Thomas believes that working your way up is probably the best way to enter a management role, because it proves to everyone that you have earned the position and you have gained credible industry skills on the way. But, he adds, it is not always a feasible option in small companies. The organisational structure is flat; there is the team and there is the owner. There is no career ladder to climb and no opportunity to learn management skills in stages.

The team size limits the talent pool to choose the management material from, and promoting one person from a small group of peers carries the risk of causing friction and raising suspicions of favouritism. When Thomas stepped straight into his managerial role, he spent months familiarising himself with all the tasks in the company. What really helped him, though, was that he knew the members of the team personally, having already spent time with them outside of work. It enabled him to quickly establish good working relationships, though he knows that he will still have to work hard to prove to everyone 鈥� including his father 鈥� that he is worthy of their trust.

When a company is owner-managed, it is quite possible that everyone else in the company has well-thought-out, accurate job descriptions, while the MD has none. The first step in transferring the job is to write down what the MD does. The next step is to decide how much of that should belong to the remit of the new MD, and then write a job description accordingly.

When I sat down to write mine a year ago, I divided my new responsibilities into three processes:

1. Strategic
This means that I鈥檓 responsible for creating and implementing STP鈥檚 strategy and directing the company鈥檚 work, resources and policies.

2. Operational
This is about translating the strategy into business plans and monitoring our teams鈥� progress against those plans by setting performance measures, by verifying the appropriateness of our service with our clients and stakeholders, and by directing internal development.

3. Organisational
I oversee the organisation of all of STP鈥檚 functions: linguistic production, project management, IT and language technology, HR management, vendor management, customer relationship management and communications management.

Whatever duties are included in the new MD鈥檚 responsibilities, it is important to agree a transition period for the handovers. And it is important to realise that some processes may need to be changed before they can be handed over.

As an owner-manager builds a company from scratch, they tend to develop solutions organically, reactively and independently, as needs arise. This may result in systems that only they understand. With a new manager taking over, it is likely that such systems need to be updated, perhaps even reinvented.

For me, access to real-time financial analysis and accurate management accounts became paramount when I started managing someone else鈥檚 money. Thomas says that he identified processes in need of optimisation at his company, which led to restructuring of workflows and implementation of new software. At other companies, decision-making, approval and reporting channels may need to formalised. Or targets need to be set 鈥� and met.

Handing over company leadership is like running a relay race. In succession planning, you identify and develop the person you want to pass the baton on to. A relay race brings out the best in everyone and, apparently, increases rather than decreases the speed of the athletes. A 400-metre relay team, for instance, can achieve a time that is better than the four runners鈥� combined 100-metre times, because the athletes are already running when they receive the baton.

A well-planned transition period in a company can achieve the same result. It is also great that a baton drop does not automatically disqualify a team; whoever had the baton when it was dropped may pick it up and continue the race. Ultimately, it is all about the baton, not the individual runners.

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Any manager worth their salt struggles in these areas, and few are able to apply the well-meant recommendations to their own circumstances. Being a manager is a lifestyle choice, to an extent, and we tend to like what we do. Many of us don鈥檛 have fixed working hours, which makes it difficult to distinguish between work and leisure. And our pay is often based on results rather than time spent.

For these reasons, simplistic work-life discussions 鈥� the kind that start from the premise that there is too much work and too little life 鈥� are rarely helpful for us. Instead, I think we鈥檇 do better to view it in terms of what invigorates us and what drains us out. Pursuing a work-life balance from this angle, rather than merely looking at time allocation, has certainly been meaningful for me.

Defining what matters

I鈥檇 like to think I know what matters in life, and yet I can still be guilty of getting my priorities wrong. At times I have even put the demands of my job above the wishes of my family. I consider myself a high achiever, a completer-finisher, and a goal-oriented kind of person 鈥� so hard work is something I enjoy, and my natural inclination towards it is not always easy to control.

My all-or-nothing personality, however, means I unwittingly set the bar at a level that鈥檚 often well beyond most people鈥檚 idea of fun. This can cause tensions in my personal life, but it serves me well at work. Managing a company with clearly defined roles, rights, rewards and responsibilities is easier for me than negotiating the ever-shifting goals and entangled relationships of the private realm.

At times I have also struggled to recognise the elements in my life that zap my energy without yielding a satisfying return. Am I stressed because of my work or my private situation? Discovering the causes and dealing with them requires courage because they are often things I cannot simply remove from my life.

The house I call home. The tasks that provide me with my income. The voluntary commitments that allow me to give back to the community and my industry. The intellectual pursuits that keep my mind young and sharp. The fitness that supplies endorphins. The family and relationships that make me a better person. Each of these can cause stress, but since getting rid of them is not viable, learning to manage them is the only option.

If you were to ask me for a single piece of advice on how to become professionally satisfied, I would say be good at what you do. It鈥檚 easy to enjoy doing what you do well. If you are employed as a manager, be a manager through and through. Think like one, speak like one, act like one 鈥� whether someone is watching you or not.

And my advice for being satisfied in your personal life? Don’t let your job be the only thing that defines you. Single-minded workaholics rarely make inspiring leaders at work, and they鈥檙e seldom the most riveting company outside of it.

Impostor alert!

I understood something profound about my work-life balance when I stumbled upon the definition of impostor syndrome. The revelation that I was suffering from something similar came through talking with friends, and it was only later that I discovered the syndrome was a genuine phenomenon recognised by clinical psychologists.

Impostor syndrome refers to high-achieving people who are unable to accept and internalise their successes, and subsequently live in fear of being exposed as frauds. Dismissing any external evidence of their competence and accomplishments, they brush it off as luck, personal charm or even an ability to deceive others into believing that they are more competent than they are.

Feeling guilty, these gifted people proceed to work doubly hard to prevent others from finding out what 鈥榠mpostors鈥� they are, leading to a never-ending cycle where each new success, promotion or recognition causes the person to feel more like a fake. Getting better at the job doesn鈥檛 help, because the more you enhance your knowledge, the more you discover what you don鈥檛 know. The more you move up the ranks, the more you meet talented people to compare yourself negatively against.

It hardly comes as a surprise that impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women. Some sociologists suggest it鈥檚 a key reason why female academics switch into less ambitious jobs at some point in their career. We look at our senior colleagues, deem that they must be 鈥榮uperwomen鈥� and conclude that we could never emulate them. We don鈥檛 realise that they might feel inadequate as well. I have been labelled a superwoman in the past by friends, colleagues and even by my children, so I should know.

The only solution, many experts say, is for the 鈥榠mpostors鈥� to talk about their insecurities more. That would lead to us not being alone with our feelings of guilt, which in turn would enable us to relax and start to set limits for how much we push ourselves at work. As managers, we should also provide our teams with regular, factual feedback on their performance to alleviate any potential impostor feelings they may have. We should create an objective body of evidence for them by documenting and celebrating their accomplishments and success stories.

Play to win 鈥� or not

When I do manage to be at peace with my professional achievements and stop feeling guilty about the level of my contribution, it frees energy for other areas of my life. In the past couple of years I have experimented with many new pastimes outside of work. And I am learning to enjoy activities I may never become very good at.

Being a novice at anything feels horrible. But since I don鈥檛 get paid for my leisure activities 鈥� I pay for the privilege of doing them 鈥� there is less pressure to perform to a high standard. Consequently, I鈥檓 a reluctant runner bereft of a regime, an infrequent bodypumper stuck lifting only moderate weights, a trainee golfer who never ventures out of the driving range, and a West Coast Swing dancer who can鈥檛 freestyle.

But, hey 鈥� not guilty!

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