Interview with Mikaela Kumlin Granit:A Foreign Policy Advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister
 A diplomat’s daughter who spent her childhood years in Paris and Thailand, it’s no surprise that Mikaela Kumlin Granit, 40, was drawn to a career with the Swedish Foreign Service. During her own impressive career, Kumlin Granit added two more continents to her globe-trotting collection, serving in both Zimbabwe and Washington, D.C. Kumlin Granit then returned to Stockholm, Sweden, to work with EU issues. Eight months ago, she became one of three Foreign Policy Advisors to the Swedish Prime Minister.
Kumlin Granit is fiercely sharp and to the point: when we met her in her spacious office, the pleasantries were as sparse as the décor. We soon realized, however, that her bluntness isn’t a sign of rudeness or disinterest—it’s simply the most efficient way of going about things. And, let me tell you, Kumlin Granit knows a thing or two about efficiency. This is a woman who starts her day promptly at 6:30 a.m. Alternating the kid-care every-other day with her husband, Kumlin Granit clothes, feeds and drops off her three young children at school by 8:05 a.m, then hops on the 8:12 train for the thirty minute, environmentally-friendly commute to work. Repeat ad infinitum.
Painstaking planning not only allows Kumlin Granit to enjoy— well, tenuously maintain, at least— the kind of success she has in both her professional and her personal life. She argues that careful planning is what got her where she is in the first place. Kumlin Granit has been very clear about her career plans, always weighing her personal goals with those of her husband and later, her children. Equally importantly, but often a sorely neglected part of the work/life balance equation, she has been very direct about her expectations for splitting household responsibilities with her husband.
Bellow, we’re happy to present Kumlin Granit’s rational and resolute life approach on how to have it all— or come pretty damn close. But beware: replicating Kumlin Granit’s success is not for the faint of heart.
How did you manage to move around as often as you did with the Foreign Service, while having a husband and children?
“We were very strategic, in a way. People could say that we were very lucky because we managed to combine our careers both ways. When we went to Zimbabawe, it was my husband who had a job at SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), and I had just had a baby. I was lucky because a job opened up at the Swedish Embassy. Then I managed to get a post at Washington and seven months later my husband worked his way to the World Bank, also in Washington, thanks to careful planning from his side. We were lucky, but it’s not just luck in this. You have to plan very much. My husband would go crazy if he couldn’t work. And I would too. He chose Zimbabwe and so the next time it was my turn to choose and his turn to follow. I think we’re going to stay here [in Stockholm] because now it would be hard to find a match again.”
 Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister sounds very glamorous. What’s your job like on a daily basis?
“It’s pretty chaotic. Every time you try to make a structure, it falls apart because you just can’t. So you need to be very flexible.
“It tends to be a very high workload. But it’s possible to plan to some extent. Maybe I do not come home as often as I like. I try to keep the weekends free, even if it is hard. You need to set those limits for yourself, because no one else will do it for you. It is possible. Thus far I have managed for the most part, even though I have a lot of work to do. But then, even though I manage to do that, you’re still stressed because you know you weren’t working through the weekend. [My husband] works much more in the evenings. For me that doesn’t work. When I come home, I want to be home. I get really speeded if I work from home, I need to cut it off. When you get kids you tend to get very efficient.”
What is it like, having children and working such a demanding job?
“In one way it is encouraged a lot [by the office]. We can work from home. If you need to be home with sick kids, we have the tools to do that and so forth. But it’s really difficult. You don’t have enough time for yourself. Then of course you have the Swedish system where you have daycare. We are lucky because we have grandmas and granddads that help us out, too. It’s not an easy thing. It’s really hysterical. It’s also the Swedish culture that brings it to a crazy level, because you’re expected to manage this all by yourself. In the States, for example, there’s a completely different understanding of using help. In Sweden, there’s a culture of managing everything yourself, you should never let others clean for you and so on. If you need to buy help, it’s very expensive. You’re supposed to paint your house yourself! Even our [IKEA] furniture we are expected to build ourselves! I know, it’s funny, but I’m not joking. We have a situation that’s not really tenable in the long run. But now there’s such a big part of the population that is in the difficult position of trying to balance work and family life. There is a greater realization/understanding for the problems. It is fantastic that we now are at least having a debate about this[in Swedish politics and press].”
How did having a family affect your career when you were traveling?
“When the kids are young, it’s very easy to move them around. It wasn’t a problem to move to Zimbabwe and Washington. But it was tough to move back to Stockholm because my eight year-old was very, very upset. So now it would be really tough to move. Given my own experience, it’s really important that they have a sense of roots. In Washington, we had a wonderful life but it was really just a temporary thing. To be able to root them in something, in a house that we own– it sounds very normal, but it’s a great pride for me.
“They say, ‘oh the best thing you can give children is to move them around.’ But I don’t know. I think it’s interesting and fun and you need to do it to get it out of your system. But it comes to a point where you feel as though you just need to land. You don’t actually get used to changing things all the time. You think ‘oh, I’m so adaptable.’ But it comes to a point that, for me at least, you just don’t feel like getting that new crowd of friends again. You want to have people you rely on.”
 What is it like working for the Foreign Service if you also want to have a family?
“It’s fun to get into the Foreign Service. But it’s really hard to match that with your spouse. Now [in Sweden] they’re lowering the extra allowances for being posted abroad and for an accompanying spouse. It’s not as generous being a diplomat abroad as it was before. So it’s really a losing situation to work in the Foreign Service, not least for an accompanying spouse who often loses career opportunities and his/her income during the years abroad. You have to really think twice. It’s a lot of fun for the first couple of years, but it can be quite tough. And you need to have a really stable relationship and someone who has the possibility to move. Of course, everyone tells you this when you’re young…
“What you want is flexibility, the possibility to work from home. That’s not impossible, not even here. I love long summer vacations. This is the good thing about Sweden. You don’t have that in the States. I’ve managed to have six weeks every year. That is something I’ve been very strict on since my kids were born. I’d rather work a lot for a time and then be completely off. That is my way of working.”
Is working for the Foreign Service easier for men or women?
“No, I think it’s quite equal. It’s just that it is easier for men to be stationed abroad, and to have their spouse follow. And if they don´t have a spouse to begin with, it seems easier for them to meet/find a spouse when stationed abroad. It’s easier to be a single male diplomat. That’s just the feeling I have.”
What do you need to do to make it work— to have a successful career like yours, as well as a family life?
“It depends. You need a good husband that takes a lot of responsibility in the house. [My husband] cooks a lot, he cleans a lot. If it weren’t for that it would not work. It’s really on the verge of not working, but it does work. You need to have a very stable relationship. And you need to have the same perspective on things. If you have that, you have a very good chance of managing.”
You and your husband really seem to split household and family responsibilities equally. Is your husband unique?
“I think he’s Swedish. But also, for being Swedish, he’s unique. He can sew things. He can do everything around the house. Even though I take a larger responsibility for the kids, he’s very involved in that. We have the same kind of view on life and on goals. But if you don’t have that I think it’s very hard to have a life like we have.
“You can see that those that make it this far, they always have this one thing: two spouses that are really willing to chip in. That makes things work. But if you don’t have that, you see the divorces come. And sometimes I think people think of how practical a divorce is, because you can really divide up the kids. Sometimes I think: how wonderful to have a week [completely off from the kids]!”
What is your advice to young people who are thinking about a career in the Foreign Service?
“You have to go into it for the right reasons. You have to have enthusiasm. Go in with open eyes, and realize that it’s not the same thing as when you went traveling as a student. And being a woman is a bit difficult when you go traveling when you are stationed abroad and if you are single. I just think that you should be more observant. I have a very strong instinct and very strong intuition and I always follow that. I have the kind of personality where I’m aware of my strengths and my weaknesses, I think. We’ll see where I am in five years.”  If we were the gambling kind —and we are— we would put money on Kumlin Granit’s staying power, five, ten, even fifteen years from now. Certainly, Kumlin Granit’s self-awareness is a big contributor to her success. Equally important is her willingness to make demands. She demands weekends and summers off— and she gets them, despite the chaotic and high-pressure nature of her work. She demands that her husband take a lot of responsibility in the house. And he does. Seriously, the man sews!
We walk reeling out of Kumlin Granit’s office, long to-do lists unfolding in our heads. True to her profession, Kumlin Granit has offered us, and you, some concrete advice. Bullet points? Why not? That’s probably how she would do it:
• Think it through before you join the Foreign Service.
• Find a spouse who has the same perspective on life and who is willing to share responsibility equally.
• Put family first.
• Be strategic. Plan ahead.
Go to and good luck planning, friends. We’re off to procure ourselves industrial size organizers. Photo in the Riksdag by anna_t on Flickr under Creative Commons License.
Photo of Riksdag exterior by Cathy257 on Flickr under Creative Commons License. Photo of Stockholm skyline by thecameo on Flickr under Creative Commons License. |
