Leading with Trust: A Conversation with Sara Hägge, CEO of Nordic.Partners

I think they absolutely can, and more than that, I think they depend on each other.

Empathy helps you understand people properly. What drives them, what blocks them, and how they perform best. Authority gives direction and makes sure decisions are made when they need to be made.

I don’t believe leaders have to choose between being liked and being respected. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Leading with empathy doesn’t make you less decisive, and making difficult decisions doesn’t mean you can’t remain approachable.

The important thing is that people understand why we are doing something. If the “why” is clear, people can handle uncomfortable periods. It is a bit like training for a marathon. Nobody enjoys every session, but you accept it when you understand what it is building towards.

For me, trust, transparency, and accountability are all connected.

In a remote company, communication becomes even more important. Not just formal updates, but real conversations. We talk about projects, but we also talk about life. That matters more than people think when people rarely meet in person.

Trust also comes from consistency. If someone needs me, I am there. At the same time, I do not believe in over-directing people. We hired them because they are good at what they do.

Transparency is about context. People should understand where we are going, why we are going there, and how their work fits into the bigger picture. That does not mean everything is shared. Some information is confidential, commercial, or personal. But people should not have to guess what matters or what success looks like.

That is also how you avoid micromanagement. Before work starts, you agree on the outcome. Too many companies measure activity instead of value. Sitting in front of a computer for ten hours does not automatically mean something important was achieved.

My karate career shaped a lot of how I think about this. In competition, people only saw a few minutes on the mat. They did not see the hundreds of training sessions behind it. My coaches could not, and did not need to, monitor every single one. We had a clear plan, I understood the purpose, and I was trusted to execute. The biggest misconception is that remote teams need more control to perform. In reality, performance doesn’t come from visibility; it comes from alignment.

When expectations are clear, and people understand the purpose of their work, distance becomes irrelevant.

Remote leadership works the same way. You do not build accountability by watching people work. You build it through clarity, trust, and ownership.

I do not think culture is something you protect. I think it is something you practice every day.

It shows up in how we communicate, how we make decisions, and how we treat each other. Growth will always change things, but the goal is not to become bigger and more complicated. The goal is to scale trust and clarity without losing what made us strong in the first place.

That also affects how we hire. I look for curiosity, ownership, humility, and people who genuinely enjoy learning. Remote work gives a lot of freedom, but it also requires communication, self-leadership, and balance.

Motivation is similar. I do not think it is something you can simply add from the outside. It comes from people understanding why their work matters and having the freedom to own it.

Recognition matters too, not only for the big wins but also for the small steps that lead there. In sport, everyone sees the medal. Nobody sees the training behind it. Work is very similar. The process is where most of the value actually is.

Earlier in my career, I mostly led sales teams, people who were often quite similar to me in motivation and working style. That was more straightforward in some ways.

As CEO, I work with a much broader mix of people. Different personalities, different strengths, different ways of thinking. That has forced me to become more flexible.

My core beliefs are still the same. I trust people, I want ownership, and I value clear communication. But I have had to adapt how I apply that depending on the person.

Some people need more structure, some need more dialogue, and some just need space. That has probably been the biggest shift for me. You can make difficult decisions and still treat people with respect and honesty. Being approachable, to me, is about making sure people feel safe coming to you, even when the conversation is uncomfortable. Not about avoiding those conversations.

I have also learned that making the right decision and making the popular decision are often two different things. Sometimes people will not immediately understand a decision, and that is why communication matters so much. They may not always agree, but they should understand that the decision was made thoughtfully and with the company’s best interests in mind.

The opportunity is to scale Nordic.Partners into an even stronger strategic partner for both affiliates and operators, driving performance across more markets without losing the close relationships that make this industry work.

The challenge is complexity. In iGaming, growth quickly means more markets, more regulation, and more moving parts. If you are not careful, that slows you down or dilutes decision-making. So the focus is making sure we grow without losing the speed, transparency, and hands-on approach this space really depends on.