Leadership ...
Leadership Mastermind Group
Purpose of the meeting
To create a strong motivation to seek out-of-the-box solutions in a difficult business environment and to sustain team spirit and leadership attitudes among Executives.
To inspire to reframe one’s professional and personal perspective towards the changes that are now a permanent feature of the market, professional and personal environment in order to arouse and realise unconscious potential.
To build personal courage to boldly face the challenges of both professional and personal life.
Form of meetings:
Meetings take the form of focused, open conversation, sharing best practice and generating ideas based on five key principles: confidentiality, honesty, accountability, support and creativity.
The resulting ways of dealing with difficulties and proposed methods of achieving goals will be reflected upon and discussed in the forum. The session will produce a list of concrete conclusions, which will become a reference for the participants’ functioning in the coming future. Each participant will choose one of the practices to implement between sessions.
At the next meeting, participants will start by discussing, the implementations they are putting in place in the teams they manage.
The modalities for the participation of the head of the management team in the MASTERMIND group should be decided individually.
Method of implementation:
To ensure maximum effectiveness of the development activities, we propose to rely on the model of MASTERMIND sessions conducted online. Both the form and the structure of conducting meetings are characteristic of this model.
Meeting structure::
Sessions should take place at intervals agreed and accepted by all participants (e.g. once a fortnight, on a Wednesday, at 10:00).
No more than 12 – 16 participants per session.
Each session lasts approximately 1.5 – 2 hours.
Each session includes the following elements:
- status of participants,
- key challenges,
- discussion of solutions and best practices for key issues,
- contracting the implementation of solutions
- inspiration
Game Changers
Leadership Development Program
Game Changers is a series of workshops dedicated to executives developing leadership competences based on D. Goleman’s ‘Emotional Intelligence’ model. Each session is a set of games and exercises allowing participants to experiment with difficult decision-making situations and typical, often unconscious ways of dealing with them. The behaviours presented and decisions made provide source material for analysis and reflection confronted with theoretical models.
The managerial workshops allow for the development of new methods of dealing effectively with professional difficulties and then testing these methods in the work environment between sessions. The programme is built around the concept of ‘Entrepreneurship’ understood as:
- Ambition in achieving exceptional business results
- Independence and responsibility for generating real work outcomes
- Ability to manage diversity and create added value from it
- Ability to recognize emerging market opportunities or threats
- Quick and effective response in the face of opportunities or threats
- Implementing a cost-effective plan for managing them, with a focus on the actual profit/loss from a given initiative or transaction
By implementing the Game Changers program, we aim for its participants, upon completion, to:
- Be more focused on achieving measurable and ambitious results.
- Prefer decisions that have a real impact on financial outcomes (margin, return on investment) rather than just sales volume.
- Be able to prioritize business actions in terms of the relationship between their costs and potential profits.
- View their business environment as a set of opportunities to exploit, not yet fully tapped by the market.
- Be aware of potential risks arising from market competition and have a set of effective alternatives.
- Be prepared and open to changes that will undoubtedly occur, even if not always perceived as beneficial.
- Possess the knowledge and skills to create a motivating work environment for their subordinates.
- Have a set of tools for effectively influencing others and be able to apply them in practice.
Difficult Managerial Conversations
Difficult Conversations with Difficult Employees – How to assertively and non-emotionally influence the behavior of challenging subordinates or partners within the organization.
Emotional Competence “Empathy” as a tool for selecting the best methods to influence changes in the attitudes of specific individuals.
Emotional Competence “Self-Control” as a key skill in maintaining constructive interpersonal relationships with difficult partners.
Behavioral Competence “Influence and Impact” as a set of behaviors leading to the achievement of intended results despite differences in opinion.
Assertiveness in Communication as a method of fully expressing oneself in interactions with others. The impact of Human-to-Human relationships on building tangible results at the Business-to-Business level. A set of methods for establishing contact and presenting one’s position without risking the deterioration of relationships between the parties.
Difficult Managerial Conversations: Scenarios of Dialogues That Will Certainly Happen in the Future:
- Constructive Criticism – How to provide corrective feedback without demotivating or lowering the efficiency of your subordinates.
- The Nature and Boundaries of a Developmental Conversation – How to create an environment where subordinates are willing to open up and honestly discuss their deficits/development needs.
- The Structure and Form of Communication Aimed at Finding Solutions to problems that subordinates bring to their manager.
- Corrective Plans – The main message of a “corrective plan,” its stages of implementation, monitoring of results, and the consequences of its execution.
- The Art of Giving Praise – How to give praise in a way that not only boosts the subordinate’s self-esteem but also strengthens their belief in their professional abilities.
Leadership According to SYMLOG
The SYMLOG method versus the traditional 360-degree assessment – Is it worth investing in a new approach to evaluating and building potential among mid- and senior-level management?
SYMLOG is an acronym for System for the Multiple Level Observation of Groups, and it serves as both a theoretical research model and a method for measuring and developing personal resources. The advisory and research group SYMLOG CONSULTING GROUP continues over 45 years of scientific work and achievements by Robert F. Bales (Professor of Psychology and Social Relations at Harvard University), continuously updated in seventeen languages (across more than 65 countries worldwide).
SYMLOG uses a unified and comprehensive system to assess the values expressed by individuals, teams, and organizations. By describing reality, SYMLOG enables the comparison of the current state with the standards of highest efficiency. This type of analysis allows for the development of strategies and the implementation of organizational development processes, the formation of effective teams, and the improvement of leadership skills.
The Origin of the SYMLOG Approach, Its Key Dimensions, and the Unique Types of Information Obtainable Through the Various Reports:
- The unique ability to diagnose the dynamics of relationships within teams, specifically what attitudes all individual members have towards each other (combining individual 360-degree views into a network of mutual relationships and interactions).
- The ability to diagnose the strength of a team’s integration or, alternatively, identify the number of informal subgroups and their potential leaders.
- Analysis of the leadership strength of a specific manager and their ability to motivate and activate subordinates.
- An inventory of initiatives that should be implemented for each team member to achieve stronger integration of the entire structure.
Based on the results of the leadership, team, or organizational potential diagnosis, a two-day workshop is conducted, aimed at a group analysis of the results and the formulation of developmental proposals that serve as the framework for the team’s future functioning.
Operational Team Management
The Operational Management Cycle: How to Use Critical Events in the Team to Build the Leader’s Authority.
Developing an inventory of methods and techniques for a manager to influence their sales team, ultimately ensuring the achievement of results at a level that satisfies the company.
Expanding the repertoire of managerial behaviors in typical management situations, which in turn leads to increased engagement and motivation of subordinates.
The Operational Management Wheel Model – Six steps in the managerial action path that lead to success. This model answers the question of how to communicate your expectations to subordinates and how to support and monitor their work process to ensure they deliver the expected results on time and in the planned scope. As part of the discussed model, there will be a full and detailed discussion with participants on the significance of each stage, the best ways to articulate them, and the expected outcomes on the employee’s side
Key Stages of the Operational Management Wheel:
- Establishing Clear Expectations – Communicating clear, unambiguous, and non-negotiable expectations regarding the goals to be achieved.
- Building a Sense of Ownership – Selling the ownership of goals assigned to subordinates so that they identify them as their personal goals, rather than those of their manager or organization.
- Skills Development – Providing adequate developmental support based on the quality and difficulty level of the tasks assigned.
- Measurement / Monitoring of Results – Conducting the “managerial supervision” process through active participation in the operational actions of subordinates.
- Feedback – The role, timing, and expected outcomes of corrective feedback.
- Recognition of Achievements – Providing positive reinforcement for completed tasks. Differentiating motivating appreciation of work from baseless compliments, which can be perceived as ineffective attempts at manipulation.
Team Management Styles
Managerial Styles as a Tool for a Supervisor’s Influence on the Managed Team, Building Lasting Employee Motivation and Engagement. Presentation of the process of building a leader’s authority by articulating a range of leadership styles that are precisely tailored to both the current business conditions of the team and the development stage of each subordinate. Developing methods for a manager to influence their team, enabling the maintenance of high levels of motivation and engagement among subordinates, depending on changing organizational conditions.
Training Game “Building the Tower” – This game allows managers to evaluate their preferred methods of managing their teams, especially under the pressure of achieving ambitious goals. The leadership styles expressed in these situations will be discussed in terms of their effectiveness in building team potential and reinforcing the leader’s authoritative presence.
“Good Boss / Bad Boss” – What behaviors build a leader’s authority – The goal of this exercise is to identify best practices in people management based on participants’ deeply emotional personal experiences. Managers will draw on their own career experiences to pinpoint effective behaviors that establish and maintain leadership authority.
HBS Leadership Styles Typology – Presentation of six management styles as responses or reactions from a leader to specific business conditions in which their team is currently situated, as well as to the individual needs of team members. The discussion of the proposed model will be based on the outcomes of the “Good Boss / Bad Boss” exercise and will cover additional topics, including:
Situational Use of Management Styles: In which specific situations does the use of each style lead to either exceptional results or unintended failure?
Matching the Appropriate Leadership Style to the Tenure and Skill Level of a Specific Team Member.
Long-Term vs. Short-Term Styles: Which styles should be used consistently, and which should only be applied situationally?
The Key Impact of a Manager’s Leadership Styles on the Organizational Climate within the Team, demonstrated through the levels of engagement, motivation, collaboration, and the innovativeness of ideas proposed by team members.
How to manage others so that, in the distant future, they remember us as their best boss.
Public speaking
Public Speaking for Managers – How to effectively and efficiently deliver presentations to influential audiences and create a positive image of your department.
Adequate Self-Assessment – How to effectively build self-esteem and avoid being influenced by destructive external opinions (or personal internal ones).
Psychological Stress – Its nature, stages of the stress response, and methods for effectively managing stress levels to optimize the use of your resources.
Memorable Presentation Scenario – Gradual tension-building and the use of metaphors in communication with the audience.
Assimilating a new leader
Meeting objectives:
- To enable the new leader to quickly ‘get into the team’ allowing for optimal implementation of the change in the management system and the daily functioning of the team
- To create a platform for an open exchange of information between the new leader and the members of the managed team in the area of needs, potential concerns and development directions
- Build a so-called ‘psychological contract’, which will become the foundation for the future functioning of the team
Method of delivery:
One-day off-site workshop allowing participants, in a relaxed and safe atmosphere, to address important business issues and to develop methods of communication and team management for the future. management that will become the basis for the team of the future.
Content coverage:
The new leader assimilation process is built from four content-related modules tailored to both the specifics of how a team operates in a business environment and the individual characteristics of the new leader. Each of the modules can be completed separately, at intervals, but the best results are obtained when the process is conducted over the course of a single workshop day. The stages of the assimilation process are outlined below:
Stage I – Introduction to the assimilation process
The facilitator introduces participants to the main ideas and objectives of the assimilation process, aiming to create an atmosphere of safety and open exchange of information while maintaining confidentiality.
Stage II – Question Generator
At this stage, participants generate a list of questions for the leader, covering the following thematic areas:
- Personal leadership style
- Communication and problem-solving
- Decision-making
- Expectations regarding work standards
- Setting priorities
- Other areas (not covered previously but relevant to the team)
Stage III – Presentation of the new leader
Based on the list of questions drawn up, the leader presents his/her answers in the form of an interview with the facilitator, who deepens the interview with additional questions that may be relevant to the other participants, while on the other hand there may be some apprehension to ask them.
Stage IV – Calibration of working methods / New psychological contract
On the basis of the articulated expectations and goals set by the organisation, the facilitator leads a discussion aimed at the commonality of key business and management principles that will become the basis for the team’s future functioning.
Stress Management
how to find emotional stability in an unstable environment
Meeting objectives
- To make participants aware of the key mechanisms influencing the perception of the environment in which we function and their impact on our actions.
- To discuss how we create our emotional states and how to regain control over them in unusual situations.
- Introduce the most important self-regulation tools to effectively regulate stress levels in the body.
Scope content:
What governs us, or the backstory of our behaviour – the key factors that shape the cognitive, affective and behavioural patterns that, like signposts, guide us through life.
The amygdala and frontal lobe, or how to effectively influence your stress response – a discussion of the causes and process of the stress response, the short and long-term consequences for the body, and ‘first aid’ techniques in stressful situations.
Avoidance, emotion or task, or how we cope with stress – self-diagnosis of typical stress reactions and suggestions for adequate tools to control the intensity of stress.
Stress, its stages and structure and ways to overcome – ways to prevent and mitigate personal crises. Self-diagnosis and methods of regulating nervous tension. Time and outcome pressures, vulnerability to stress and mindset. Using environmental pressure to build self-efficacy.
ToolBox ‘Crown of the Worker’ – A set of methods and tools to help regain stability and balance in a new business environment.
Positive thinking in negative circumstances
Is this even possible?
Objectives of the meeting
- To introduce participants to the key mechanisms that shape an individual’s motivational profile and discuss how to consciously influence them.
- To discuss methods of ‘firing’ oneself into action in situations where belief is lacking and motivation falls.
- To create a personal action plan with the knowledge gained, which would on the one hand take into account the methods and ways of working with oneself presented, and on the other hand be implementable.
Scope content
First we create the habit, then the habit creates us – patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour that created in the early stages of development can bind in adulthood.
Myths about positive thinking – theory vs reality, or what positive thinking is and isn’t, and why our perceptions often lead us astray.
Don’t Believe Everything You Think – a set of ways and tools to guide your mindfulness, calibrate your view of reality and stimulate yourself to take action when commitment drops and a lack of confidence in winning emerges.
Procrastination and other barriers to achieving a goal – how to deal with the inner limitations and barriers that stand in the way of the life we truly deserve.
3 steps to positive thinking in our lives- on how to put the knowledge gained in the meeting into practice so that it becomes the preferred way to function in a demanding environment.
The Foundations of Self-Motivation
How to Ignite Yourself to Inspire Others
Meeting Objectives
- Presenting to participants the key mechanisms shaping an individual’s motivational profile and discussing ways to consciously influence them.
- Discussing methods to “ignite” oneself into action in situations where confidence is lacking and motivation decreases.
- Creating a personal vision and action plan for the next quarter, incorporating the presented rules and principles of self-motivation.
Scope of Content:
First, we create a habit, then the habit creates us – patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors formed in the early stages of development can bind us in adulthood.
David McClelland’s Model of Social Motives – the latest theory in social psychology in the field of motivation, explaining how to achieve intended goals and identifying potential areas for individual development.
5 Methods to Motivate Yourself into Action – a set of ways and tools to stimulate yourself into activity in situations where engagement decreases and doubt in success arises.
Procrastination and Other Barriers to Achieving Goals – how to deal with internal limitations and obstacles that stand in the way of the life we truly deserve.
7 Habits of an Effective Salesperson – fundamental principles for operating in the insurance business that help maintain sales performance and create a stable and predictable flow of clients.
A Life Full of Time
- Presenting participants with the key mechanisms that shape subconscious actions under the pressure of numerous responsibilities and discussing ways to consciously influence them.
- Discussing methods for segmenting the workday and focusing on tasks in situations where the workload increases and motivation decreases.
- Creating a personal action plan based on the acquired knowledge that, on the one hand, incorporates the presented methods and ways of self-management, and on the other hand, is feasible to implement.
Scope of Content
Why is there a growing mountain of unsolved issues? – Identification of problems in time management. Taking stock of time, analysing your own time management to date. Time thieves and their elimination – applying countermeasures with a view to the future
How does good time management affect the working atmosphere? – Impact of good time management on the self-motivation and emotions of others in our working environment
Time management styles – Identifying one’s own time management style/preference. Developing a style that is optimal for oneself. Valuing time. Prioritising – important things versus urgent things. Analysing one’s own potential and developing effectiveness. The impact of identifying a personal vision and mission on managing one’s time resources.
What is time leverage and how to put it into practice? – The stages of medium and long term action planning. The role of ‘milestones’ and how to set and measure them. Working on a planning sheet.
How to focus on the goal – the secrets of effective people. – Effective task completion. How to strengthen decision-making capacity. Introversion, i.e. feeling in control of your own life and your time. Proper implementation of the week’s plan according to set priorities.
Stress, its stages and structure and ways of overcoming – Crisis prevention and mitigation methods. Crisis management. Self-diagnosis and methods of calming nervous tension. Time pressure and outcome. Vulnerability to stress and mindset. Using environmental pressure to build self-efficacy.
Building i and maintaining relationships
with internal and external customers
Meeting objectives:
- To create a platform for sharing best practices that enable effective relationship building in business and life
- To introduce participants to the key attributes to accurately diagnose a client’s motivational profile and to develop ways and methods to consciously use this knowledge in communication practice
- To prepare participants to communicate openly, so that they can face difficult situations with the client with attention and calmness, and focus their attention on precise messages related to a specific goal to be achieved
- To teach how and with what methods to overcome one’s own limitations in interpersonal contacts in order to achieve communicative freedom and job satisfaction
Scope content
Multiple perspectives – an exercise aimed at gathering a set of insights associated with the functioning of the organisation now and in the future. Participants are divided into teams and use metaphors to present a picture of the organisation from their own perspective.
Barriers within us, i.e. our inner limitations blocking us from accessing our personal potential and from reaching our full potential, both in life and at work. A set of exercises to gain insight into the stereotypical and often unconscious strategies that determine the quality of our relationships with other people and discuss ways to influence them.
Eric Berne’s transactional analysis as a model to help diagnose a partner’s preferred communication position and shape the end result of the relationship through matching and assertively enforcing constructive positions.
Solutions to difficult situations – Sources of difficult situations at work – to what extent we cause them ourselves and how to manage them when they occur. On the basis of case studies prepared by the participants, detailed scenarios of behaviour and sequences of actions of a person leading to breaking an impasse in contact and resolving problematic situations will be drawn up. Based on practical exercises, participants will experience the effectiveness of the approaches discussed, which they will then put into practice.
Conflicts in relationships – stages and phases of the conflict process on the biz of the Galtung Triangle model, which illustrates how behaviours and attitudes can influence the development of a conflict situation.
Conflict resolution styles – Thomas – Killman model as a reference for diagnosing personal preferences for conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation processes.
Assertiveness in practice – about how to build in personal and professional relationships to fully express oneself and build a life attitude based on the formula: I am OK and you are OK. A set of practical exercises allowing participants to try out suggested solutions for turning aggressive and submissive behaviour into assertive behaviour.
Foundations of interaction
Meeting objectives
To create a platform for sharing information on the current challenges faced by the organisation.
To develop a set of key values that are behind the key choices and behaviours of employees and underpin the Company’s organisational culture.
To integrate a vision of how cooperation can develop in the future by clarifying the psychological contract that will guide managers in interacting and resolving critical situations.
Scope Content
Optimising team potential – the decision-making game will specifically build on the team’s ability to generate innovative solutions and bring them to fruition in a competitive business environment. Participants divided into several teams will compete against each other in the implementation of a design project.Diverse perspectives – an exercise aimed at gathering a set of insights associated with the functioning of the organisation now and in the future. Participants divided into teams present a picture of the organisation from their own perspective with the help of metaphors.
Shared values – an exercise leading to the commonality of key personal values of participants and helping to develop shared values that guide the organisation. Based on an agreed set of values, participants will create a psychological contract to support the day-to-day running of the organisation.
Walk in the dark – a set of exercises allowing participants to gain insight into personal cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns in a situation where access to information from all the senses is restricted. Participants, working in pairs, rely on each other’s help to perform the tasks set for them
Building Motivation in the Team
Meeting Objectives:
- Creating a platform for exchanging best practices that allow for effectively building relationships in business and life.
- Presenting participants with the key attributes that enable accurate diagnosis of the client’s motivational profile and developing ways and methods for consciously using this knowledge in communication practice.
- Preparing participants for open communication, so they can calmly and attentively face difficult situations when interacting with clients and focus their attention on clear messages related to specific goals.
- Teaching how and with what methods to overcome personal limitations in interpersonal interactions in order to achieve communication freedom and job satisfaction.
Scope of Content:
- First, we create a habit, then the habit creates us – patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors formed in the early stages of development can bind us in adulthood.
- David McClelland’s Model of Social Motives – the latest theory in social psychology on motivation, explaining how to achieve intended goals and identifying potential areas for individual development.
- Effective Team Motivation – how to translate knowledge of social motives into practical skills for motivating team members. A set of exercises allowing participants to solve prepared case studies based on the model of social motives.
- A burnt-out match won’t start a fire – to ignite others, you must burn yourself – 5 methods to motivate yourself into action. A set of tools and methods to stimulate yourself into activity when engagement decreases, and doubt in success arises.
- Procrastination and other barriers to achieving goals – how to deal with internal limitations and obstacles that stand in the way of the life we truly deserve.
- Decision Game: SUPERFARMER – a game that allows participants to experience the basic mechanisms that arise during the execution of long-term projects and learn strategies to overcome them to accomplish the task despite barriers.
- Internal Dialogue – friend or saboteur? The behind-the-scenes of internal dialogue formation and methods that allow us to change it so that it supports us in critical situations.
- Avoidance, emotions, or task: how we deal with stress – self-diagnosis of typical stress reactions and suggestions for appropriate tools to help control its intensity.
- Stress: its stages and structure, and ways to overcome it – methods of preventing personal crises and mitigating their effects. Self-diagnosis and techniques for regulating nervous tension. Time and performance pressure, susceptibility to stress, and mindset. Using external pressure to build personal effectiveness.
Andrzej is ...
Executive Coach and Leadership Trainer with over 34 years of professional experience in the field of Sales Management and Human Resources Development. A member of the Forbes Coaching Council, the Chamber of Coaching in Poland, and the Polish ISTDP Association.
For over 22 years she has specialized in creating and leading development programs supporting both corporations and individual clients in the area of relationship building based on emotional competencies.
