Kimberley Jonsson joined CHU almost by chance. While studying at university, she applied for 27 jobs in a single day and the first company to call her back was CHU. She got the job – and never left.

Over the next 20 years she’s risen through the ranks, eventually becoming CEO in 2020. Reflecting on that journey on CEO: Behind the Scenes, Jonsson stresses that her career has been shaped less by long-term ambition and more by staying focused on the role in front of her.

“I don’t think at any point leading into that did I ever think about the step after,” she says. “I was just kind of focused on doing a good job with what I’m doing, maybe keeping one eye on what I’ll do next.”

She explains that the pressure is on younger professionals to always look to the future – often too far ahead.

“I think a lot of people, especially young people who haven’t worked in businesses for 20 years, maybe they’ve got their eye too firmly focused on what they’re going to do next and not on executing what it is that they’re doing right now,” she says.

Leadership challenges

For Jonsson, self-management has been the biggest leadership challenge.

“The hardest learned lessons are the leading yourself lessons,” she says.

And one piece of advice from her leadership coach stands out in particular: “The leader’s psychology plays out in the team.”

Jonsson has seen firsthand that her own mindset inevitably filters down through the business.

“If I’m feeling a certain way, that goes through my team and that goes through their teams,” she acknowledges.

That awareness has shaped her approach to transparency.

“I’m very open as a leader,” she says. “I don’t believe in hiding things from my team or not discussing things that would be important to them.”

At the same time, she knows there’s a line.

“It’s that balance of being open and discussing challenges without bringing people into a negative mindset,” she says. “It’s about sharing information without sharing your internalized feelings about it.”

Over time, Jonsson has also learned to temper her competitive streak.

“When you’re working in a team, you need to be a part of the team,” she says.

“You need to be helping each other, and it doesn’t matter if there’s a problem in one area and not in another, it doesn’t really mean that that person’s doing a better job. It probably just means that they’re not facing the same issue as that other person.”

By building trust and goodwill from the start, these issues can be solved before they become real problems.

“Reach out to people and have a conversation or take them for a coffee,” she advises. “Stop and talk to them in the hallway when you don’t need something from them.”

Ultimately, Jonsson’s philosophy is to always be accountable.

“The thing that really resonated with me was someone said to me very early on, ‘Just keep stepping up,’” she recalls.

Listen to the latest episode of our CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast with Kimberley Jonsson on Amazon, Apple or Spotify.