Having previously worked as the sales manager for a production equipment manufacturer, Andreas was ready to try something new and joined Symetri in 2014.
“I’d dealt with robots and screws and bolt for around 15 years so I thought it could be fun to try something entirely new that I hadn’t done before and didn’t know much about.”
Despite having worked in tech for many years, technology is not the main thing that gets Andreas exited to go to work in the morning.
“I’ll be honest and say I’m not really that tech interested! To me, the best part about my job is really meeting customers and hearing their thoughts, ideas, and history, what they need help with and what we can do. That is what I really like,” he explains.
The same goes internally.
“Yes, that’s why I really like having staff responsibility. I think it’s fun to help and support others, so they succeed. To be a bit of a coach.”
Another way to lead
In his role, nurturing success by coaching his team as well as customers is his focus and in the seven years since Andreas started at Symetri his leadership skills have grown a lot.
“Well, it should really be others that judge the success of your leadership skills,” he says with a laugh. “But yes, I feel I have developed. I’ve really toned down myself to the benefit of others. Before I was more eager to engage in discussion to express my own opinion. Now I try to coach instead and ask questions so that others find insight and solutions themselves.”
He attributes this change both to having been at Symetri for a while and feeling safe at the company, but also simply being seven years older.
“It’s another way to lead, to take less space and meet the person where they are in the moment and lift them up without pushing my own thought and ideas,” he explains.
Aha-moments
The best thing about working at Symetri, according to Andreas, are the people.
“I like them all! Of course, I haven’t met all of them, but the ones I have I feel I really get along with. Hopefully they would say the same,” he explains with a laugh. “I think there is a light-heartedness at Symetri. We can be serious of course but still playful in some way which gives a lot of energy.”
And those colleagues make even the most difficult projects fun to tackle.
“I really like when we have more complicated projects. When we need to think a bit more to solve a problem,” Andreas says. “When you’ve had to dig in and put your heads together, succeeding always feels extra special. It’s a great feeling for the individual but more so perhaps the team because you really get to see how great your colleagues are at what they do. In normal projects things are usually solved so quickly that you don’t really reflect on how skilled people are in the same way. In difficult projects you get more aha-moments and you can really lift each other up a lot.”
Whether it’s a complicated or simple project, the goal is the same at the end of the day.
“The hope is that we are strengthening our customer’s positions and that we make them more efficient and successful which means that they can claim more market shares and be competitive. I imagine we have a part in that,” Andreas says. “And when others are happy and have succeeded, both customers and colleagues, then I feel I have also succeeded”.
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Do you want to take on a new challenge and want to know more about working at Symetri? Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Connect with Andreas on Linkedin.
