Kari Harteva’s Blueprint for High Performing Leaders, Teams, and Organizations

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In Episode 26 of The Exponential Show, host Mayank Singh speaks with Kari Harteva, Partner at August Leadership, about what truly drives high performance in organizations. Kari brings a rare mix of perspectives: he has led multiple business transformations as a Managing Director across industries, and now helps clients identify, develop, and place leadership talent through executive search and leadership advisory.

This episode is a practical masterclass on leadership character, team performance, and how to build organizations that win market share even in slow-growth environments.

From Business Transformation to Leadership Advisory

Kari’s career has been shaped by transformation work. Born and raised in Thailand to Finnish parents, he built his leadership foundation in multinational environments, often with regional Asia-Pacific responsibilities. Early on, he worked closely with a Managing Director known for joining companies to turn around performance. Watching these transformations up close became formative.

Over time, Kari moved from learning transformation to leading it. He went on to drive business turnarounds across four different companies, taking underperforming businesses and turning them into high performers. For Kari, “high performance” is not a vague label. He defines it clearly as doubling the business within three years, and ensuring success continues even after the leader moves on.

Two years ago, August Leadership, a global executive search and leadership advisory firm, approached him to become a Thailand-based Partner. The fit was natural. Kari had lived the Managing Director experience, including hiring, developing, and leading teams. That experience now shapes how he advises clients and assesses leadership potential in others.

Why High Performance Starts at the Top

Kari believes business performance is led from the top, and the biggest differentiator is the leader’s character.

He shared a simple but powerful pattern: companies may start at the same time and in similar conditions, but years later their results can be wildly different. The difference, in his view, is usually not the product or the timing. It is the person leading the organization.

One of his most provocative insights is his take on ego.

Kari argues that ego can be healthy because it fuels ambition. Leaders with strong ambition want to win, want to lead their category, and cannot tolerate being average. That drive creates momentum. The key is ensuring ego does not turn into arrogance. Arrogance kills humility, reduces listening, and weakens leadership.

Beyond ego and ambition, Kari believes high-performing leaders consistently demonstrate:

• High IQ to understand complexity and make strong decisions

• Strong EQ to lead people effectively

• High TQ, or Trust Quotient, because teams and stakeholders must trust the leader to follow them
  

He also highlighted a set of traits he sees repeatedly in leaders who build winning companies: high energy, high passion, and impatience. While impatience is often viewed negatively, Kari sees it as a driver of action and speed. In a low-growth environment, where GDP and industries may not expand quickly, winning becomes a market share game. The faster leaders make decisions and execute, the more likely they are to “bite first.”

The A, B, and C Player Framework

After leadership, Kari sees teams as the second major pillar of performance. He uses a framework popularized by Jack Welch: A players, B players, and C players.

• A players are high performers with strong drive, passion, and a growth mindset. They overdeliver and raise standards.

• B players are reliable and consistent. They deliver outcomes but are not always the high-energy, overperforming type.

• C players are underperformers with limited growth mindset and low execution ability.

For high performance, Kari believes the goal is straightforward: maximize A players, develop B players, and remove C players.

He used a sports analogy to make it clear. In a team sport, every position matters. A championship-level team cannot afford a weak link. Even an A player can have an off day, and great coaches substitute quickly to keep performance high. Businesses should approach performance the same way.

A key point Kari emphasized is how A players think. A players are often demotivated when they are treated the same as low performers. If C players remain in a team, A players disengage because they feel standards are not protected. One of the best ways to retain A players is to ensure the team has no C players.

How to Lead A Players and Grow B Players

Kari’s view of leadership changes depending on the type of player.

With A players, the leader’s job is not micromanagement. It is clarity, empowerment, and recognition. A players need direction and goals, then space to execute. They also need to be rewarded well and to feel they can learn from the leader. If the leader’s capability is not strong, A players will not stay engaged for long.

With B players, Kari spends the most time coaching and mentoring to help them grow into A players. He made an important distinction between the two:

• Coaching is question-based. The coach helps the person reach their own answers by expanding perspective and removing blind spots.

• Mentoring is advice-based. The mentor offers options, pros and cons, and guidance based on experience.
  

Which approach to use depends on urgency. Kari compared it to aviation. When time is short and stakes are high, there is no room for questions. Leaders must give direct guidance. When there is time, coaching can deepen learning and capability.

From “I-Shaped” Specialists to “T-Shaped” Leaders

Kari also shared a common gap he sees in organizations. Many professionals operate as “I-shaped” specialists. They have deep knowledge in one function like sales, finance, or operations. That depth is valuable, but leadership requires breadth.

To become effective leaders, people must develop into “T-shaped” individuals. They still have depth, but they also build broad understanding across business topics like strategy, economics, people, and P&L. Kari believes leaders should actively create space to have these broader conversations with management teams, not only task-based discussions about deliverables.

Can Leaders Be Built, or Are They Born?

Kari believes strong leaders are often born rather than trained, in the sense that leadership traits can be deeply wired. However, he also believes development is possible, especially for people with high IQ and the motivation to grow.

Ambition matters. Some professionals are content staying in mid-level roles. Others want to become number one. Coaching and mentoring work best when the internal motivation is present.

Thought Leadership, Consistency, and Trust

Kari sees personal brand as a deliberate choice. Every leader already has a brand, even if they never speak publicly. Silence still creates perception, and it may not be the perception you want.

He has chosen to be seen as a thought leader, and that requires consistent communication, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. He linked consistency directly to trust, using an example from Singapore Airlines: people trust the brand because every experience is consistent across touchpoints.

For leaders, the same principle applies. Choose what you want to be known for, then communicate consistently until the market trusts you in that space.

Thailand as a Business Base: Opportunity Still Exists

Kari views Thailand as geographically advantaged in Southeast Asia, with a strong domestic market and established strengths in areas like tourism and agriculture. He believes Thailand must continue evolving into higher value industries as labor costs rise, and he sees opportunities emerging in areas like data centers and industries with strong supply chains such as automotive.

Still, Kari’s core message is that opportunity exists regardless of economic cycles. Even if industries are slow, businesses can grow by taking market share. The winners are those with strong leadership, a sharp strategy, and teams built for execution.

Kari’s Three-Part Framework for Sustainable Performance

To close, Kari offered a simple blueprint leaders can apply in any business:

1. Work on your leadership character and play the role your organization needs

2. Build a sharp strategy with a clear value proposition

3. Hire and retain the right team, prioritizing A players and protecting standards
   

When those three elements align, Kari believes success becomes achievable in almost any environment.