Dear all
My name is Oliver Bendix Nygaard and I recently graduated from Henley Business School with an Executive MBA meaning that 2,5 years of hard work suddenly have transformed into a fancy title that I am of course very proud of.
I have been enrolled through Henley Nordic and participated in courses and lectures in Denmark, UK and South Africa.
Besides studying and working within various aspects of Sales and Business Development I am married to my wife Anne, lives in Hellerup north of Copenhagen and besides spending time with family and friends, I am a triathlete competing on the semi and full Ironman distance.
Meaning that I am a person that is always busy, always trying to keep up with tight deadlines and maybe like yourself – sometimes a bit stressed about finding a proper work-life balance. Things that I will describe much more about in my posts and videos going forward.
My first video is this one, that gives you a short introduction to my self and to why I think you should read my posts and watch my videos. Check it out and read further below.
Looking back at the beginning of the journey when I started the MBA in September 2013 – it seems like yesterday, yet I have experienced and learned so much.
The MBA has honestly changed my life and the way I see myself. I have never reflected upon my own behaviour and the way others experience me. In fact, I have never reflected that much about my career and the different things that has happened since I started my first real job in 2005.
I have acquired a lot of useful technical skills from various courses, especially Managing Processes and Systems that I have not worked that much with before, but the biggest benefits have definitely been the personal and leadership development journey that has been extremely rewarding to me.
Reviewing the first Personal Development assignment done after the first work shop at Henley in September 2013 I stated that I was ‘over-optimistic’ and I also, at that time, might tend to lose interest in things once initial enthusiasm has passed. I needed to work on these weaknesses.
Now I think that I have acquired a lot more confidence in myself and my personal capabilities that have made me believe in that I have the skills to meet the deadlines of the things that I have to accomplish.
This has definitely made me calmer and less impatient that has then made me allow myself time to go more into depth with things and I do not feel that I tend to loose interest in things to the same extend anymore.
The pictures below are from the study trip to South Africa with my class NS14. The study trip was rewarding in various ways both on a personal and on an academical level.
We experienced things and did things that are so far away from the ordinary business world that forced each of us to reflect upon out own life in Northern Europe and made us return with graditude in a whole new way. The things that we did and saw are classified and things that I cannot write about in details.
We also, besides participating in the very serious aspects of the study trip, had a great time experiencing the “Big 5” on a safari and had great dinners outdoor.
The ability to stop and reflect has made me see the various organizational challenges from above and this has made me react less aggressive towards things that I do not understand or do not have to change. This was also one of my personal development goals from the first Personal Development Assignment.
Going forward I will concentrate on keeping reflecting upon my own development, my career and especially my behaviour. I will not set specific goals for things that I have to achieve. I will rather, as described in my 3rd Personal Development assignment, keep focusing on my personal strengths and weakness that will make me reach my goals.
I think there is a lack of the more personal stories on how life as a MBA-student really is. I sure missed such one, when I studied. Therefore I will be blogging about my experiences with studying an MBA at Henley Business School and all the various different aspects of a work-study-trying to a an ordinary spare time-balance.
I will try to describe my reflections about participating in a study group, studying in Denmark and UK. Learning from and with others and describe some of my different tricks to finding a somehow proper balance between the MBA, a full time job, training and a family.
Hopefully you and many others will find my posts interesting and hopefully you will also consider taking the next step towards enrolling for the Henley MBA that I think has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Stay tuned!