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 has long term experience with developing business leaders internationally. She believes that personal resilience, life balance, delivering performance with greater ease and 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 upgrade. Since our business environment is young, there is still a relatively small pool of experienced professionals who can personally and multi-linguistically support systematic and in-depth development of leaders, even though there are many coaches, training companies, trainers and therapists available in Slovakia.

In what do you see your footprint?

We look at leadership from a different angle and go deeper. We do not provide a classic set of management skills to our clients, but a so-called "leadership master skillset" through which they can consciously build success, balance and satisfaction in life. Our work is based on our own former managerial experience in corporate business environments, our professional backgrounds in field of psychology and coaching, as well as years of experience with transformative personal development. At the same time, we are all actively engaged in our own self-development to live the transformation and not just talk about it. I truly believe, this is our differentiator, and nobody is doing it 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. The knowledge gained from there is integrated into our concepts and is a source of creativity in creating others.

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

We need to continuously develop in order to move forward on an individual level to increase our ability to respond to new challenges in a fast changing environment. The higher you go in the company-hierarchy, the fewer internal opportunities and resources for learning are available, which creates the need for external support.
Our work is about bringing conscious attitude to success-building in line with own balance and contentment. We also focus on opportunities to unleash team potential and foster mutual prosperity through collaboration.

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

We launched a program-format that was unique not only in its content, but also as a highly effective holistic concept. In the context of in-depth and systematic development over a period of six to twelve months, we bring themes and inputs to clients that work at the level of changing attitudes and perspectives. It creates solid foundation, an inner anchor in a person, based on which better results with greater ease can be achieved and sustainable success can be built.

In 12 years of working with a significant number of 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 launch of various new leadership formats focusing on high potentials / top talents, young emerging managers, and we also work with teenagers. 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 female leadership to achieve true diversity. Success-building has gender specifications, that is 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 aspecific order to maximize effect. It is important to add that alongside diversity, it is equally crucial to focus on inclusion. From that reason it 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?

Yes, we work with clients also individually to support them on their transformation journey. Most of our activities are focused on groups through our internal company and cross-company programs with participants coming from a various businesses and industries.

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 few strong brands such as SWAN, Ditec, Kruh remeselná pekáreň and TRIAD. We are grateful for the trust and openness of company leaders towards a different kind of leadership development than traditional training-approaches.

More than 2000 participants from +40 countries and +100 different companies have graduated from our programmes. Our results are reflected through career-progressions and accomplishments of many of them. We also have a large community of alumni and professionals that we connect.

– FORBES, august 2024 –