“Sirli Männiksaar, “Best Leader 2025” finalist: you have to be ignorant to do great things

Sirli Männiksaar, who has grown through the organisation to become the CEO of Ericsson Estonia, one of Estonia’s leading exporters, says that to do great things, a leader must be ignorant in a good way and not get stuck in what has been done or the limits of what is available.

Sirli Männiksaar, CEO of Ericsson Estonia, finalist of the competition organised by the Pärnu Leadership Conference, the Estonian Association for Personnel Management (PARE), the Estonian Employers “Confederation and Äripäev, shared her leadership experience and lessons learned in Äripäev’s radio programme ‘Juhi jutud’ (Leaders” Tales).

Here are some worthwhile reflections from the conversation.

About the driver’s journey.

Everyone has their own journey, there is no right or wrong. When I first started at Ericsson (20 years ago – ed), I had this idea in my head that “oh, great place, I’ll be here for a few years”.

I’ve been inspired by being able to move and the opportunities that have come my way, every new experience has been a mind-broadening step in a direction I hadn’t thought of before.

The most enlightening story about becoming a leader.

Before returning to Estonia on the tour, I accepted an unexpected opportunity to move out of Estonia with two weeks’ notice. It was one of the most important turns I had made in my professional life so far. If I had sat back and planned, I probably wouldn’t have made the move.

I stepped out of my role as a manager into the tech sector, into AI and machine learning, not knowing where I was going.

It taught that sometimes you have to see things from the outside in to see things from above. That way you can make much more rational and wise business decisions, because it’s easy to get emotionally stuck in your own environment.

In order to make big changes, you need to be ignorant in the most positive sense. Don’t get stuck in the past, it will get in the way. That is why, while I respect the structure of an organisation, I am still ignorant of its limits – you can redesign an organisation when it no longer fits in today, or when it becomes a hindrance to your goals.

Lead the way a person wants to be led.

It is said that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. From a management point of view, it is more appropriate to treat others as they want to be treated. Now, as a leader, try to understand how he wants to be treated. This is the art that leaders practice every day.

People often think that things don’t work out, that people are from different generations and have different ways of thinking. In fact, 80% of why things fail are practical issues – goals, bringing people together, negotiating things. Different generations and different mindsets are not the cause of failure.

Caring at work.

I’ve seen it a lot and it’s a challenge for young leaders, for example, who have grown up to be specialist leaders, to have issues come to the leader’s desk that no one is looking out for. These are very practical things, people with their everyday thoughts, worries, joys, family problems and relationships. Navigating that is caring. When you’ve been in a leadership role for a while, you realise you can’t take everything in, but that doesn’t take away the caring.

You have to deal with those same emotions yourself. If you become a worry-well, it will start to affect you. But, if you notice yourself, you can notice the people around you, whether they are doing well or not.

Making plans in uncertain times.

I have a set of goals, a North Star, towards which I am moving, both personally and professionally. Most people don’t like not knowing why they are doing something or where they are going. As a business, this is vital – if your business doesn’t have a purpose, you usually soon don’t have a business.

If you still get up in the morning and don’t know exactly what’s going to be on the news, agility is key. You need to build resilience into both your business and personal plans, and just follow. Isn’t that what the military says, that it’s not about the plan, it’s about the planning. That is inherent and essential to any business.

Sirli Männiksaare’s question to Estonian leaders: there are currently 3-4 different generations in the labour market. How do you manage this diversity?

The best manager will be announced on 16 May at the Pärnu Management Conference.