Excellent praise for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way by Asko Känsälä!

We are thrilled to share with you excellent new endorsements and praises for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way (orig. Johtajasta mestariksi) by Asko Känsälä! We have a full English manuscript for you!

This unique book on Finnish perspective of leadership combining art and craftsmanship, like the great Finnish master architect Alvar Aalto, has resonated with many entrepreneurs, researchers and business authors:

“’LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way’ by Asko Känsälä is a refreshing take on corporate culture and strategy. The text contains lessons from a lifelong pursuit of excellence in leadership. It sheds light on many dysfunctions that have been normalized in corporate life. The idea that companies undertaking major change efforts is in fact a sign of prior failure to adapt and learn in real time. The insight that busyness is a signal that one has failed to find their focus and prioritize what is important. The connection between art, beauty, and leadership and pursuit of a beautiful company. This book will make you pause and rethink everything you’re doing.
Giorgio Paizanis, Partner, BCG X, The tech build and design unit of Boston Consulting Group, Redondo Beach, CA, USA

LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY by Asko Känsälä brings to life the pivotal role of leadership in motivating individuals to perform their best. Känsälä successfully draws an analogy between a leader and a carpenter, emphasizing the importance of craftsmanship, precision, and vision in leadership roles. Like a carpenter who meticulously shapes wood into valuable creations, Känsälä argues that a leader must similarly shape their teams, inspiring every member to unlock their fullest potential. LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY convincingly demonstrates that effective leadership isn’t about giving orders but rather nurturing, mentoring, and enabling the individuals within the team to unleash their full potential. A must-read for anyone seeking to refine their leadership skills and inspire their teams to exceptional heights. And an important contribution to leadership in a time where responsible leadership is needed more than ever.
– Jim Hagemann Snabe, Chairman, Siemens AG and Northvolt AB, Germany

There is much to learn from the Finns (can you say “sisu”?), but this is the first book I’ve seen that nails the Finnish way of leadership. Through his vivid stories, personal reflections, and compelling thinking, let Asko Känsälä be your guide in understanding how to lead in today’s world. Apply the concepts in LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY and you will have the mark of a master.”
– B. Joseph Pine II, co-author of The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money

“Leadership is often thought of as a quality of the individual, but in this LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY we learn it is more of an art form to be mastered.  We develop to be an exceptional leader through cycles of practice and reflection, just like the mastery of any other complex skill.”
– Jeffrey K. Liker, PhD, author of international bestseller The Toyota Way

This is an insightful and important book for leaders at all levels. The central theme is that leadership mastery is an intentional lifelong learning process that starts with leadership of self and then advances step-wise to the ultimate goal – helping others become their best selves. Asko uses the concept of “mental models” to describe this journey and offers compelling examples of how craftsmen in any field achieve mastery in the same way. The book is not only deeply thoughtful; it also offers a practical guide to translate these ideas into action.
William G. Pietersen, Professor, The Practice of Management, Columbia Business School, New York

Full English translation is available – join the success of the Finnish Way of Leadership!

Download the full English manuscript for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY here!

Leadership as Mastery: The Finnish Way

Asko Känsälä

Lead like a Finn! The Finnish way of leadership combines art and craftsmanship, like the great Finnish master architect Alvar Aalto.

What does craftsmanship have to do with leadership? What makes a company beautiful? And what can the Japanese culture contribute to a good working life and good leadership?

Asko Känsälä spent his career building successful businesses and coaching new leaders. He has refined his leadership experience of more than 20 years into a vision of leadership as a craft. Growing up as a leader is like a craftsman’s lifelong path from apprentice to professional. Leadership is a way of thinking, and good leadership is good thinking. LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way presents the thinking patterns, tools of the leader-craftsman that good leadership requires.

Inspiring and humane, this book offers a new perspective on leadership, success in the business world, and a better working life.

“ [—] Six words about the book – “Beautiful is something that ages beautifully” (Alvar Aalto).” – Mikko Mattinen, Director of the Finnish Digital Agency

LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: THE FINNISH WAY
JOHTAJASTA MESTARIKSI
Tammi, 2023, 174 pp.

READING MATERIALS
Full English manuscript

RIGHTS SOLD:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
ESTONIA: Ühinenud Ajakirjad

About author


Asko Känsälä

Asko Känsälä (b. 1957) is a Finnish business builder and leader with a successful career as deputy CEO in the Finnish market leading telecommunication and digital services company Elisa; coach, investor, and grandfather to 10 grandchildren. He is passionate about inspirational leadership and has worked in manufacturing industry, public administration, banking, and ICT, as well as for four years in Japan.

Bibliography


2023, General Nonfiction

Leadership as Mastery: The Finnish Way

Asko Känsälä

Publishing Perspectives is discussing Finnish Non-fiction!

Publishing Perspectives is discussing Finnish Non-fiction!

We are very proud to share that Publishing Perspectives dedicated the intro of their rights roundup last week to Finnish Non-fiction from our agency! The article discussed how ” all things related to Finland and Finnish-ness” are especially in demand internationally and quoted our CEO Elina Ahlbäck saying ““It feels to me, that Finns do have something unique in their concepts for nonfiction, leadership, and personal growth.”

The segment discussed three of our non-fiction highlights, all of which had recent rights sales:

  • Leadership as Mastery: The Finnish Way by Asko Känsälä, which is now sold to Estonia 
  • Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu by Emilia Elisabet Lahti, which was published by Sound True in the US early this year and has been sold to Thailand, China, and most recently to Latvia 
  • How Finland Survived Stalin From Winter War to Cold War, 1939-1950 by Professor Kimmo Rentola, which will be published by Yale University Press  in the UK and US later this year and was sold to Greece and Poland recently.

If you are looking to enrich your list with a Finnish perspective, we have full English translations for all three titles for you to read!

Download the English PDF for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY here!
Download the English PDF for GENTLE POWER here!

Download the English PDF for HOW FINLAND SURVIVED STALIN here!

Johtajasta mestariksi / Leadership as Mastery: The Finnish Way
Tammi, January 2023, 174 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
ESTONIA: Ühinenud Ajakirjad
Reading materials:
Full English manuscript

GENTLE POWER: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu
Sounds True, January 2023, 194 pp.
Rights sold:
WORLD ENGLISH: Sounds True (orig.)
CHINA: Cheers Publishing Company
LATVIA: Zvaigzne ABC
THAILAND: Amarin Printing and Publishing
Reading materials:
English edition

HOW FINLAND SURVIVED STALIN: FROM WINTER WAR TO COLD WAR, 1939-1950
STALIN JA SUOMEN KOHTALO
Otava, 2016, 240 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)
ESTONIA: Äripäev
GREECE: Papadopoulos Publishers
POLAND: REBIS
WORLD ENGLISH: Yale University Press
Reading materials:
English manuscript

About author


Asko Känsälä

Asko Känsälä (b. 1957) is a Finnish business builder and leader with a successful career as deputy CEO in the Finnish market leading telecommunication and digital services company Elisa; coach, investor, and grandfather to 10 grandchildren. He is passionate about inspirational leadership and has worked in manufacturing industry, public administration, banking, and ICT, as well as for four years in Japan.

About author


Emilia Elisabet Lahti

Emilia Elisabet Lahti (PhD, MSc, MAPP), who goes by Elisabet, is an awarded educator, applied psychology researcher, and founder of Sisu Lab that helps create communities and work cultures based on everyday leadership as an expression of courage and compassion. Elisabet holds a master’s degree in social psychology from the University of Tampere in Finland and a master’s in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied under Professors Martian Seligman and Angela Duckworth. 

Since initiating the research on the Finnish construct of sisu in 2012, Elisabet’s doctoral work has involved exploring the limits of her own sisu through ultra-endurance running and Eastern martial arts. Her work on sisu has been featured by The New Yorker, Business Insider, BBC, Forbes, and more. Born and raised in Finland, she has lived and taught internationally and given talks at Fortune 500 companies, TEDx, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley.

About author


Kimmo Rentola

Kimmo Rentola (b. 1953), PhD, is a historian and professor emeritus of political history, at the University of Turku from 2006 to 2014 and at the University of Helsinki since 2014. In his research, Rentola has specialized in the history of the Cold War, the relationships between Finland and the Soviet Union, and both Finnish and Nordic communism. His other research areas are the youth movements of the 1960s and the history of intelligence agencies.

His latest title, How Finland Survived Stalin, won the Lauri Jäntti Award for non-fiction literature in 2017, while his previous book Vallankumouksen aave (‘The Ghost of the Revolution’) won the Scholarly Book of the Year Award in Finland in 2007.

First foreign sale for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way by Asko Känsälä!

We are thrilled to announce that the Estonian rights for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way by Asko Känsälä (orig. Johtajasta mestariksi) have been acquired by Ühinenud Ajakirjad! The deal was closed by Sten-Erik Tammemäe at Elina Ahlback Literary Agency.

This is the first foreign sale for this unique book on Finnish perspective of leadership combining art and craftsmanship, like the great Finnish master architect Alvar Aalto. Full English translation is available – join the success of the Finnish Way of Leadership!

Ühinenud Ajakirjad are aiming to publish LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY in Estonian in January 2024. They praised the book for its personal and unique approach to leadership:

Decades-long career in leadership has made Asko Känsälä understand leadership as a handicraft skill that you can improve upon, up until mastery. [This book is a] human and inspiring personal experience that reveals leadership as a profession from a wholly new perspective and shows that it is possible to become a good leader through learning, learning, and learning. And in order to become a good leader, one has to learn how to lead oneself.
 Tiina Lebane, Head of Book Department, Ühinenud Ajakirjad, Estonia

Download the full English manuscript for LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY here!

 

Endorsement:

“Leadership is often thought of as a quality of the individual, but in this LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY we learn it is more of an art form to be mastered.  We develop to be an exceptional leader through cycles of practice and reflection, just like the mastery of any other complex skill.”
– Jeffrey K. Liker, PhD, author of international bestseller The Toyota Way

 

LEADERSHIP AS MASTERY: The Finnish Way

Asko Känsälä

The Finnish way of leadership combines art and craftsmanship, like the great Finnish master architect Alvar Aalto.

  • Discover a new, Nordic perspective of leadership!
  • Find out what makes a company beautiful?
  • Growing up as a leader: craftsman’s path from apprentice to professional

What does craftsmanship have to do with leadership? What makes a company beautiful? And what can the Japanese culture contribute to a good working life and good leadership? Asko Känsälä spent his career building successful businesses and coaching new leaders. He has refined his leadership experience of more than 20 years into a vision of leadership as a craft. Leadership as Mastery: The Finnish Way presents the thinking patterns, tools of the leader-craftsman that good leadership requires.

Johtajasta mestariksi
Tammi, January 2023, 174 pp.
Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig.)
ESTONIA: Ühinenud Ajakirjad
Reading materials:
Full English manuscript

About author


Asko Känsälä

Asko Känsälä (b. 1957) is a Finnish business builder and leader with a successful career as deputy CEO in the Finnish market leading telecommunication and digital services company Elisa; coach, investor, and grandfather to 10 grandchildren. He is passionate about inspirational leadership and has worked in manufacturing industry, public administration, banking, and ICT, as well as for four years in Japan.

Bibliography


2023, General Nonfiction

Leadership as Mastery: The Finnish Way

Asko Känsälä