Early on in her career, R&D innovation expert Dorthe Lybye (SL 2010) saw her fair share of leaders lose their temper at work. It prompted her to think about the kind of leader she wanted to be.
“There are different ways of managing people,” she said. “Ultimately, I think we all want to be treated with respect. Shouting at people, I don’t think that’s acceptable.”
She believes that leaders should be role models. “If you want to lead, you have to set an example,” she said.
Lybye’s path to leadership began in 2003 at Denmark’s Risø National Laboratory where she was hired to research sustainable energy after graduating with a PhD in materials science. Three years later, she joined Danish multinational insulation manufacturer Rockwool Group as a research project manager.
In 2010, Lybye, who had by then been promoted to section manager, scouted for a program that would not only boost her leadership skills but also provide a safe space for women to share their workplace experiences. “Besides leveling up my leadership, I wanted to be in a program where they have female role models,” she said.
An engineer by training, Lybye often found herself the sole female presence in male-dominated teams and environments. “I’ve attended quite a number of conferences where there were hundreds of men but just a handful of women,” she said.
“Back in the day, I often wondered what it was like for other women, especially female leaders. Although I had a great male mentor, I feel it’s important to have a role model of the same gender with whom you share common experiences, whether at work or in life. It’s easier to deal with challenges when you don’t feel like you’re alone.”
Leading with authenticity
On the recommendation of a friend, Lybye signed up for IMD’s Strategies for Leadership program which catered to women. She said a major takeaway from the program was learning to embrace her authentic self at work.
“Some women think they have to behave like men to get ahead and be successful,” she said.
However, Lybye asserts that women can excel at leadership without forgoing their emotions. “Some people lead through intimidation but the ones who succeed do it with empathy. The feedback I got from my team over the years is that a good leader creates ‘space’ for staff and makes them feel acknowledged and seen.”
Supporting other women leaders
The leadership program inspired Lybye to follow in the footsteps of her “role model”, Ginka Toegel, Director of the SL program, who helps participants gain new perspectives on leadership to uplift other aspiring female leaders.
“For one of our assignments, our cohort was asked to start a company or charity,” she said. “A few of us thought about starting an alumni organization instead, one that would allow us to share the same ‘language’ and have the same references and understanding about the workings of leadership, especially from a female perspective.”
Lybye and her coursemates pushed hard for the idea, which ultimately came to fruition. Since its formation in 2010, SL alumni have been holding an annual retreat at IMD’s Lausanne campus, which Lybye makes an effort to attend every year.
“Every retreat kicks off with a ‘state-of-the-nation’ address. An IMD professor from the faculty then gives an update and pep talk on leadership to keep alumni up to date on the newest management trends and developments. It helps us recharge our leadership and inspires us to continue on this journey.”
Navigating organizational change
Adept at driving cross-functional collaboration, coupled with her passion for innovation, Lybye made steady gains in her career. In 2022, she landed her most challenging role to date when she was appointed Rockwool’s Director of Technology Innovation. She was responsible for a portfolio of development projects for automated production equipment and products in the non-insulation business as well as being tasked with overseeing the design of a new production facility.
Looking back, she said a key insight from the SL program on organizational psychology helped her to master the steep learning curve in the new role and ease her transition into senior leadership.
“I come from a technical environment where we are trained to solve issues through the application of technology,” she said. “We can make the wheels spin and create solar panels and so forth, but leadership is a lot more than just dealing with technology.”
All the more so, she added, in today’s disruptive business landscape where change is constant. “For example, when something new is introduced into the workplace, staff may become fearful about not meeting their KPIs and you can almost always expect some form of employee resistance.”
Lybye added that leaders need to understand the psychological factors that influence how employees respond to change. “Only then can you convince your staff, get their buy-in, and shepherd them through change,” she said.
Developing leadership gravitas
On the road to leadership, there were other challenges Lybye encountered, including a few unexpected ones.
She gave an example. “I would be giving a presentation to top management, and I would receive comments about my blouse and whether its color matched my PowerPoint slides. But isn’t the business idea I’m presenting more important? Men are seldom confronted with how they dress and how their voice sounds.”
She advocates that women find other ways to command attention and inspire confidence such as building up their leadership presence.
“Harnessing our vocal and presentation skills can change how others perceive you and build gravitas,” she said. “A key lesson I learned from the SL program is that if you project your voice, speak at the right pitch, and master the right body language, you can influence others better and create an even more powerful leadership impact.”
Closing the gender gap
In October 2023, Lybye left Rockwool to pursue a new career opportunity at her alma mater, DTU Technical University of Denmark (DTU), as a consultant for carbon capture, storage, and utilization (CCUS) projects.
Moving forward, she believes that men should be roped in as allies in the pursuit of gender equity. “One thing I find interesting is that when they realize that their daughters or wives are treated unequally in their workplace, men start stepping up. It’s obvious that to tackle the issue of gender inequality, we need to first find a way to overcome the awareness issue.”
She added that women can achieve so much more if they can look past preconceived notions about gender. “Women have been told that they can’t figure out how to program computers or do math and physics. Yet these areas are not harder for women to accomplish compared to men because they can be done as long as you are bright. Some of the most brilliant mathematicians in history are women. Even the mainframe programming that you use in the banking world today was created by a woman,” she said.
The bottom line is, “Don’t listen to the things that you have been told you can’t do and believe in yourself.”
