LeadIN: Self-development is the key to balanced and high-performance leadership

Managing a company and people at the highest level is rewarding and challenging at the same time. Eva Štefanková, founder of LeadIN, and her team have long worked with business leaders internationally. She argues that personal resilience, life balance, delivering performance with greater ease and developing the ability to engage and inspire others to collaborate are key elements to focus on in a leader's journey of sustainable success.

How would you evaluate the Slovak business environment in terms
of self- development?

In the area of leadership, I see a clear need for development
and shift. Because our business environment is young, there is still a relatively small pool of experienced professionals who can personally and multi-linguistically support the systematic and in- depth development of leaders, even though there are many coaches, training companies, trainers and therapists available in Slovakia.

In what can you feel your handwriting?

We look at the issue of leadership from a different angle and go deeper. We do not impart a basic set of management skills to our clients, but a so-called "leadership master skill set" through which they can consciously build success, life balance and life satisfaction. We work with clients based on our personal experience in a business environment, our professional backgrounds, whether psychological or coaching, as well as years of experience in transformative human development.

At the same time, we are all also engaged in our own self- development to live the transformation and not just talk about it. I need us to speak from our own experience. This is our differentiator, and nobody is doing it in this way and on this scale in Slovakia yet.

How are you developing within your profession?

I have completed 128 days in the dark, during eleven stays in the professional workplace for dark therapy in Celadna, Czech Republic. My longest stay in perfect darkness lasted 35 days consecutively.

Why should clients invest in self-development or employee development?

We need to continuously develop in order to move forward on an individual level and to be able to respond to the many new challenges in a changing environment. The higher up you go in firm, the fewer opportunities and resources for learning there are in the business, creating the need for external support.

It's about bringing a person to a conscious attitude of building success combined with being in tune with their balance and contentment. In this way, he learns to look at the opportunity to build success through team potential, but also to pursue mutual prosperity.

In 2014, you were the first to launch a transformational authentic leadership program on the Slovak market. How was it revolutionary?

We delivered a concept that was unique not only in its content, but also as a highly effective whole. In the context of in-depth and systematic development over a period of six to twelve months, we bring themes and suggestions to clients that work at the level of changing attitudes and perspectives about themselves and others.

It creates a solid foundation, an inner anchor in a person, based on which he can achieve results with greater ease, build success on the principles of sustainability, improve relationships with others - to better understand them, engage them and inspire them to cooperate.
In eleven years of working with clients internationally, we see that our concept works regardless of gender, nationality and socio-cultural affiliation.

We have this confirmed by the results of the impact measurements:

  • 100% of the participants rated the programme as very useful, which they recommend to their colleagues and friends
  • 90% of participants reported greater resilience to stress and improved ability to cope with stress, pressure and challenging situations
  • 96% of participants confirmed improved ability to lead, motivate and engage others
  • 87% of participants reported a positive impact on their overall sense of well-being, balance and satisfaction in both work and personal life
  • More than 77% of participants reported that their performance improved after completing the programme, even though they were already high performers at the time of joining the programme

How has it evolved over the years?

All our programs are based on our own concepts. It's a time- tested, high-functioning learning model that delivers real results in resilience, performance, overall satisfaction, and in collaboration with others. We are constantly evolving our programs, which has led to additional leadership formats focusing on talent, young emerging managers, and we also work with teen-aged youth. The latest concept will be launched now in the autumn on the occasion of the the tenth anniversary of the launch of our programmes in Slovakia.

Why is it important to also focus on women's leadership? How is it different from men's leadership?

Diversity is essential for success in business. Given that many leaders today are men, there needs to be a focus on promoting women's leadership to achieve true diversity. Building success has gender specifications, which is why in the first year in our open programmes we run separate groups for women and men.

Some topics, such as working with one's own boundaries and fears, are addressed with different techniques and in a different order to achieve maximum effect. It is important to add that alongside diversity, it is equally crucial to focus on inclusion, so it is also necessary to work with men to prepare them to support and welcome women into their ranks, but also to understand their role in a more heterogeneous environment.

Do you offer group programs or is it also possible to have individual sessions?

We work with clients both in depth and individually, but most of our activities are focused on group development in intra-company and open programs, with participants coming from a variety of companies and business backgrounds.

We have worked with many multinational companies such as Siemens Healthineers, KPMG, Lenovo, Lesaffre, Raiffeisen Bank International in Vienna, Inter Cars, Raiffeisen Processing Centre and many others. We have also worked on the development of female managers at CSOB, Lenovo in the Middle East and we have covered companywide training a Frey Services, TUI ReiseCenter Slovakia.

From the local companies I will mention the strong brands SWAN, Ditec, Kruh remeselná pekáreň and TRIAD. We are grateful for the trust and openness of company leaders to a different kind
of training than traditional training.

More than two thousand participants from forty countries and one hundred different companies have graduated from our programmes. We have a large community of alumni and professionals that we connect. Our results reflect the many careers and accomplishments of our graduates.

– This article is BrandVoice, commercial content created in collaboration between the client and the Forbes BRANDlab team. –