Taimar Peterkop: Leading smart and high-ego people requires a different approach

The position of Secretary of State has been the easiest job to come by in my career, says Taimar Peterkop. When the then Prime Minister Jüri Ratas offered him the position, Peterkop had to ask his wife before giving an answer.

Taimar Peterkop grew as a leader in the Ministry of Defence and led the Information System Authority before becoming Secretary of State. In the summer, Peterkop talked about his journey and experiences as a leader on the show "Leader Talks." Here are some interesting thoughts from that conversation.

"I have been a top executive for the last 14 years and have seen the growing importance of people during this time. In my previous job, I led the Information System Authority, which has many IT people who are more educated, more intelligent, and have bigger egos than average. This showed how much focus needs to be on the individual to lead such people. The State Chancellery is also an organization with very dedicated and smart people. We need to value people more and more."

"As a leader, I grew up in the Ministry of Defence, starting as a specialist and ending as a Deputy Secretary General, which is a top executive position in the public sector. In the beginning, I applied a lot of what I had learned in the military. I was a bit of a disciplinarian. The more I have worked with people smarter than myself, the more I have realized that you need to handle people more sensitively, give them freedom, and do things more softly and collaboratively than I did in my early years."

"What does disciplinarian mean? I am a morning person, and for a while, I was always at work by seven in the morning, had to be the first, and then watched when others came in, making jokes if someone was a few minutes late. I was a bit disciplined, living with deadlines and results, sometimes looking at things too much in detail."

"I have had the luxury of working with very intelligent and dedicated people, and leading such people is different from leading people in ordinary situations. It has changed me a lot."

"Jokingly, becoming Secretary of State has been the easiest position I have gotten in my career – the Prime Minister Jüri Ratas called and offered me the job. Probably, the offer was based on what I had to show, that the Prime Minister trusted me and made such an offer. This position is solely the Prime Minister's decision in Estonia."

"I was on paternity leave at the time. When our first child was born, I wanted to take paternity leave, but I had just become the Director General of the Information System Authority, and my wife said: 'I understand, go to work.' When we had our second child, that option was no longer available. When Jüri Ratas made the offer, my first response was that I had to ask my wife. Fortunately, she said: 'We have been here together for three months, maybe it's time for you to go back.' I didn't have to start the next day anyway, so I could still be on paternity leave for almost half a year."

"Without knowing all the other positions in Estonia, I believe that the Prime Minister's job is the most responsible and hardest leadership job in Estonia. The burden of responsibility is enormous. I have seen two Prime Ministers, and the way responsibility affects a person has been somewhat similar. Public attention, all those emotions. If you look at the media's attitude towards the Prime Minister throughout their tenure, there are many similarities. What leaders can learn from this is how to bear responsibility in a difficult position, both in good and bad times, and still move forward."

"The role of the Secretary of State is to support the work of the government and the Prime Minister. The first is easier – we ensure that the government can meet every Thursday morning at 10, make decisions, and communicate them. Supporting the Prime Minister in his daily work is more dynamic. A new Prime Minister needs more administrative support, and then there are crises. The world of politicians is a bit of a crisis or chaos, where something is always happening. You have to be ready to support, regardless of the situation. Part of the work is routine, basic hygiene, and the other part is like rock'n'roll."

"The State Chancellery employs 150 people. They are very close to the government and the Prime Minister, and this must be used responsibly. We constantly joke that it is a country of officials and that officials make decisions. On the contrary. For politicians to make decisions, we have to do the preparatory work and not interfere in political discussions. Sometimes it requires self-discipline not to influence things too much, send biased memos, or try to sneak in our opinions."

"By law, the Secretary of State must have a legal education. This is very important for the government to make lawful decisions. We live in complicated times, and to navigate through them and protect the rule of law, it is good to have a person with a legal education."

"In addition, stress tolerance is important in this job because it is relatively stressful due to the uncertainty and lack of routines, and we live in an era of crises. Stress tolerance must be good to avoid burnout."

Source: Aripaev.ee