The leader's gearbox – a translation project that required a delicate touch rather than AI

”We were extremely satisfied with using Språkbolaget for the translation of our book. They always replied quickly and were responsive to our needs. They kept their commitments, and combined with a personal approach, this made us feel secure and valued throughout the entire process.”

Niklas Eriksson and Pär Skoglund Finquist, authors of ”Ledarens växellåda”.

The leader's gearbox – a translation project that required a delicate touch rather than AI

The Leader’s Gearbox: your path to active and joyful leadership, published in September 2025 by the publishing house Own Your Book. The authors, Niklas Eriksson and Pär Skoglund Finquist, have extensive experience as managers and leaders, both in Sweden and internationally. The book is intended as a practical handbook that turns theory into action and encourages reflection so that the reader can apply the ideas directly to their own leadership. The book is based on a concept where the various leadership skills a manager needs are likened to the gears in a car. Which gear the manager should engage depends on the situation and on whom they are leading. You must be able to lead yourself (gear 1) before you can shift up and lead others. It is also crucial to be able to engage the R gear, as in reflection, in order to lead sustainably and learn more along the way.

– We are passionate about making leadership happen in everyday life by embedding leadership skills into the bodies of managers and leaders, explains Niklas. We want to inspire people to dare to shift up, shift down and shift more in their leadership.

The book received an enthusiastic reception and the authors use it as literature in their popular leadership courses. It was only natural to consider having it translated into English to reach a wider audience.

– There are a lot of books published in English about leadership, says Pär, but we believe our book will be able to stand out from the crowd. No one else is talking about the importance of ”shifting leadership”, so in that way we are unique both with our concept and our book.

The question was how the book should be translated.

Trust decided the translation method.

Books are normally translated by human translators to ensure the result is of sufficiently high quality, but AI translation with post-editing has in recent years reached such a level that even that method was a viable alternative.

The authors obtained quotes from several language service providers and studied different solutions.

"We did a thorough analysis and compared various translation agencies, and we also considered machine translation," says Pär. "What tipped the balance was trust. We have a personal and direct tone in the book that we really wanted to keep in the English version. To be sure that would be preserved, we chose to go with human translation. The price was naturally somewhat higher, but the difference wasn't so great that we wanted to risk the quality to save a few thousand kronor.".

The authors' choice fell on Språkbolaget, and Ida Norlander was appointed project manager. Ida notes that the authors realised in good time something that not all clients are aware of, namely that even though the price for the translation step itself can be driven down using AI, it backfires in the stage of elevating the AI translation to human quality. Post-editing an AI translation and giving it the same personal touch and finesse that a human translator gives it from the outset is a complicated process.

Simple and straightforward translation process.

– The working process was simple and straightforward, Niklas explains. We began with a test translation of part of the book. Once we had evaluated that part of the process, we divided the translation into two partial deliveries. What was good about that arrangement is that we have a number of specific expressions that it is important to render consistently throughout the book. In this way, together with the translator, we were able to find the right tone and phrasing, something that worked very well.

– It is precisely this balancing of the requirement for consistent specific phrasing with the desire for linguistic variety that AI finds extremely difficult to achieve, comments project manager Ida Norlander. Achieving that from a raw AI translation can take almost as long as conventional translation.

This is confirmed by the highly experienced translator chosen by Språkbolaget for the assignment:

– When I translated Niklas and Pär's book ”The Leader's Gearbox”, I saw it as my most important task to convey their ideas, concepts and intentions rather than simply translating the individual words. Doing so in a way that suits the intended readers was a further challenge.

– AI is undeniably an impressive tool, the translator continues, but an AI tool can never put itself in the author's – or in this case, the authors' – thoughts. Not to mention the thoughts of the intended readers. Nor can AI ask for clarifications or work together with the authors to find precisely the right phrasing. It is for this reason that I am convinced that real, human, analogue translators retain an important place in translation – particularly in literary translation.

Challenges of reviewing translated technical text.

Whether a text is translated by AI or a human, a review stage by Språkbolaget is always included, and this can look quite different depending on whether AI or, as in this case, a human has taken care of the translation stage. The reviewer comments:

– One challenge when reviewing translated non-fiction is understanding which words and expressions constitute key terms – and which should therefore be translated consistently – and which expressions can advantageously be varied with synonyms or paraphrases to make the text ”flow” better. Unlike when a text is translated using AI, where important terms tend to be given different translations throughout the text, the reviewer and translator can have a dialogue about how terms and more general expressions are best transferred.

– Another challenge, continues the reviewer, is metaphors. In the book The Leader’s Gearbox, the car and its parts are used as central metaphors. The translator and I discussed to what extent the metaphors could be transferred directly into English, and where it was instead more appropriate to use a paraphrase to highlight the actual idea behind the text. These are balances that can only be struck by human translators and reviewers: metaphors that work well in the source language, but which would be stilted and perhaps even incomprehensible in a direct translation, are given a more natural solution.

Rewarding with linguistic creativity.

The person responsible for holding together all the project's components and people – primarily the client, translators and reviewers – is of course the project manager – in this case Ida Norlander:

– As project manager, I have had overall control, not least regarding the practical side of files and delivery times, but I have also had a great deal of insight into the linguistic work. I have helped to bounce around ideas regarding various expressions and have also communicated and discussed comments and thoughts between Pär and Niklas and the translator and reviewer – in both directions. What has struck me is how important and rewarding it is that we have had room for linguistic creativity and discussion, and that together we have been able to turn phrases this way and that. It is precisely this dialogue between people that I believe is often the key to a successful final result.

Pär and Niklas agree with that analysis.

– We were extremely pleased with using Språkbolaget for the translation of our book. They always responded quickly and were responsive to our needs. They kept their commitments, and together with a personal approach, this made us feel secure and ”seen” throughout the entire process.

Key lessons from the book project.

There are many lessons to be learned from this book project, but the most important one is perhaps that the choice between human translation and AI translation is not purely a matter of cost. Furthermore, the difference in cost is not that great when you look at the overall process – including reviewing and post-editing. But even more important is the human element. Only a human can get inside the authors' mindset and intentions, and convey that to the target audience, which not only has a different language. It has a partly different culture, a different background, different expectations and different needs. AI certainly translates quickly, but cannot take into account the aspects that eventually govern the book's reception, reviews and sales.