The Invisible Mentor Interviews Lynn Kahle
January 19th, 2010 | 
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I am always amazed at my interviewees, they are all so awesome and you can benefit from their wisdom and experience. I conduct these interviews as much for my benefit as yours. I know there is a lot of information, but go through it slowly and think about it.
At some point I will have a PDF of the interviews for download. While reading, jot down the information that applies to your unique situation. How would you answer the interview questions. After you have read Part 1 of the interview extract what you perceive as five great ideas.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I am a 48-year old woman, married to a Danish man. We have four children together ages 9-23. Our daughter is the oldest and only the two youngest live at home. I am from Houston, Texas, and moved to Denmark (to a small town north of Copenhagen) in 1985.
Since 1988 we have lived in an old house, built in 1922, which we have refurbished and continue to change and maintain. We also have a fairly big lot, by Danish standards, and one rooster and 11 hens. I spend a lot of money on organic vegetables and fruit as well as milk. I have cut down on the amount of frequency of our meat consumption. I also whole-heartedly support Obama and am very concerned about the environment.
What’s a typical day like for you?
That depends on the time of year and which day of the week it is. My “real” day job is as associate professor at an engineering college where I teach marketing, innovation and business studies. I am also working on and desperately trying to finish my dissertation at Copenhagen Business School. I would like to have had this finished a couple of years ago but I do have a full-time job on the side. I also work as a moderator for an executive council. We meet twice a year in the U.S. I wish I could make my living doing this as I learn so much and enjoy networking.
How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?
I love to learn…anything. I am constantly trying to improve myself and to help others. I think about happiness a lot and doing the right thing.
If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
I would have started exercising earlier and participated in a sport(s) of some kind. I also think I would have either taken engineering more seriously or studied something else. I sometimes regret that I didn’t end up making a living doing what I studied in a more direct way.
What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?
The power of social networking. Lots of potential, lots of garbage too.
What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?
The Internet, available information, and the limited shelf life of text books.
What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?
Information overload, technology, and my inability to keep up. What to prioritize in teaching? I feel like we have to sacrifice depth to breadth sometimes.
What’s unique about the service that you provide?
As a teacher I really work on context and communicating the big picture, as I understand it, through my own experience to my students.
What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?
Communicating, in the sense of making difficult subject matter less elusive
Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.
Trying to understand different learning styles. A coaching program one year ago helped me to realize and accept this.
What lessons did you learn in the process?
People have different perspectives on what they think is important, also in a temporal context.
Tell me about your big break and who gave you.
Being invited to write my Ph.D. at CBS, by the department head, Ricky Wilke
Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?
Not understanding the responsibilities and expectations of my first job in Denmark. I have since learned to prioritize and plan better, especially in a longer-term perspective.
What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?
Assuming that my parents were always right and knew what was best for me. I should have accepted a scholarship I was offered and studied on the East Coast. My mother wanted me to stay close to home and my father wanted me to study engineering. I ended up doing both, at Texas A&M University. I never fit in, didn’t really enjoy it, and should have moved far away and found more liberal and intellectual folks to be in my sphere. I have done this as an adult.
What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?
Leaving the U.S. which ended up being permanent (so far). It means that I sometimes feel as if I am in no man’s land, culturally. I can feel extremely alienated from U.S. culture and I’m not Danish either. I think it has been a wise choice in terms of quality of life and a good place to rear children.
What are three events that helped to shape your life?
Living overseas as a child (twice), learning two languages other than English, and moving as an adult to Denmark.
What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?
It’s not original but it’s genuine…my four children!
How did mentors influence your life?
I can’t think of any mentors and that makes me sad…
As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?
READ.
What are three takeaway from Lynn’s interview? How can you apply Linda’s interview? Which aspects resonated with you? What are your five great ideas?
Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.
About Lynn Kahle
Originally from Houston, Texas, Lynn has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark since 1985. She holds a degree in Industrial Distribution from Texas A&M University and worked in industrial sales (pipe, valves and fittings) in Texas and joined Brüel & Kjaer in Denmark in the electro-acoustics department, heading up sales and marketing of studio microphones.
Since 1989, Lynn has been an associate professor of international marketing at Copenhagen University College of Engineering, global business engineering department, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Copenhagen Business School’s marketing department. Her topic is Experience Innovation, which is what led her to the GEL (Good Experience Live) conference and Creative Good. She produced euroGel2006 in Copenhagen and is the moderator for Executive Council 9.
Lynn is married to a Dane and they have four children, an old house, and lots of Wyandot hens and one rooster.
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