The document discusses the importance of leadership agility for business success in today's environment of constant change. It highlights that while most executives believe agility is essential, most companies acknowledge they are not agile enough. The document also discusses differences in coaching and learning preferences between younger and older generations. Finally, it provides survey results finding that while organizations view agility as important, most rate their own agility as only moderate and see opportunities for improvement.

1. SPRING 2012
PERFORMANCE
YOUR LEADERSHIP
COACH
From Heroic to Post-Heroic Leadership
Leadership Agility 360TM
A New Era Instrument to Gage Your Organization’s
Leadership Agility Level
Did You Know?
Learning Preferences of Different Generations –
How Critical is Agility to Business Success
Taking
Collaborative Intelligence
Transformational
The Ability to Harness the Energy and
Leadership to Intelligence of Groups or Teams
New Levels of
Connect the Dots: Team Emotional …
Effectiveness
page 4 Social Intelligence … Productivity
Your 10 Step Guide Life Unlocked
to Collaborative 7 Lessons from Neuroscience
Intelligence to Overcoming the... “Greek Jitters”
page 10
A Coaching Case Study
Coaching Wisdom Winning First Impressions
The Art of
Building your Team’s Emotional and Social
Questioning Effectiveness
page 12
When Shift Happens

2. SARGIA Partners S.A. is a strategic part-
ner of the Center for Advanced Coaching
(CAC) and the Neurobusiness Group (NBG)
global networks, providing state-of-the art
Leadership Coaching, Leadership Team
Alignment, Leadership Agility 360TM and
Interpersonal Impact Consulting services
in Southeast Europe. We make high per-
forming senior executives and their teams
better by championing and challenging
them to even greater heights of success.

3. P E A K PERFORMANCE
LEADERSHIP AGILITY,
THE LADDER TO
POST-HEROIC LEADERSHIP
Leadership agility is the master competency of transformational leadership,
the ladder to post-heroic leadership, with its ally being collaborative intelligence
and its enemy being fear. In this issue, contributors to the Peak Performance jour-
nal feature leadership agility examples, case studies, and research, as well as new
methods for developing a culture of agile leadership, by cultivating our emotional
and social awareness and capabilities. Bill Joiner, thought leader and author of
Leadership Agility, offers a developmental view of leadership for collective
intelligence in a world of change and complexity.
Marcia Hughes, creator of the Emotional and Social Intelligence model for Teams
(TESI), gives us insights on how organizations can profit by cultivating the collective
intelligence of their teams, and Dr Srini Pillay, the brain science master for harnessing
fear and anxiety, offers us lessons for living a life... unlocked.
This issue has the answers that will help you navigate through constant change
and to effectively manage increasing interdependencies with customers, strategic
allies and other stakeholders.
Enjoy reading!
Georgia Kartsanis
CEO, SARGIA Partners
“The kind of cultural change we have been striving for requires far more than mere skill development from our leaders. It requires that they grow—that
they significantly upgrade their inner ‘operating system’ to be able to embody the kind of leadership that can create the envisioned culture. We now
recognize that leadership is a process of transformation whereby leaders are encouraged to make a profound shift—to gain a deeper understanding of
themselves, the world, and their relationship to others.” Bob Anderson, Creator of the Leadership Circle
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

4. P E A K PERFORMANCE
TAKING TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP TO NEW LEVELS
OF EFFECTIVENESS —By Bill Joiner
The pace of change is accelerat- and success requires the manage-
ing. Every company’s business envi- ment of increasingly complex rela-
ronment is becoming more complex tionships?
and interconnected. These powerful
conditions require leaders and orga- What is Leadership Agility?
nizations who can exercise new levels
of “agility.” But what, exactly, is lead- Leadership agility is the ability to lead
ership agility? How do you assess it, effectively when rapid change and
and how can you put your leaders on uncertainty are the norm and when
success requires consideration of mul-
tiple views and priorities. It requires a
Bill Joiner is a seasoned leadership expert and organizational change consultant, with 30 process of using enhanced awareness
years of experience completing successful engagements with companies based in the and intentionality to increase effec-
US, Canada, and Europe. He is co-author of the book Leadership Agility, and co-developer, tiveness under real-time conditions:
with Cambria Consulting, of Leadership Agility 360, the only online feedback instrument stepping back from whatever one is
that assesses research based levels of leadership agility. Bill speaks about leadership focused on, gaining a broader per-
agility, partners with senior leaders in developing high performing teams, creating break- spective and bringing new insight into
through strategies, leading organizational change, and redesigning business processes. what needs to be done next.
He also provides leadership workshops and custom-designs and implements action
learning programs. He is the designer or co-designer of most ChangeWise consulting Levels of Leadership Agility
and training services. For nine years, Bill served as an adjunct faculty member for the
Leadership for Change program at Boston College. He has a BA and MBA from Southern Our research shows that leaders grow
Methodist University and earned his Doctorate in Organization Development at Harvard. through a series of predictable, learn-
able, “agility levels” that are based
on well-documented stages of per-
sonal development; and as they grow
the path to the kind of agility that will through the following three levels of
make them more effective in today’s leadership agility, they evolve from
turbulent world? tactical problem-solvers into strategic
Competency models tell us what managers, and then into farsighted,
worked well in the past. But what capacity-building leaders, always re-
does effective leadership look like taining the skills they gained at pre-
in an unprecedented new era where vious levels:
the pace of change is accelerating • Expert: Leaders who use their techni-
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

5. P E A K PERFORMANCE
cal and functional expertise to make of the change by the executive team is
tactical organizational improvements, absolutely essential. This team needs
supervise direct reports, identify and to learn to embody the new culture in
solve key problems, and sell their its daily interactions with one another
solutions to others. and with those they lead.
• chiever: Leaders who set clear or-
A The pace of change and degree of
ganizational objectives, lead strategic interdependence in today’s global
change, motivate and orchestrate business environment demands that
team performance, work across corporations develop organizations
boundaries, and step up to chal- where at least the top tiers of man-
lenging conversations. agement are capable of functioning
• atalyst: Those rare leaders who
C at the Catalyst level. To rise to this
operate at this level are visionaries historic challenge, organizations need
who can lead transformative change, to help many of their Achiever senior
develop agile organizations and highly managers grow into the Catalyst level
engaged teams, and collaborate with and many of their Expert middle man-
others to develop creative, high-le- agers develop to the Achiever level.
verage solutions to thorny organiza- Work First with your And they need to focus not just on
tional issues. (Currently, only about Executive Team the development of individuals, but
5% of managers act with consistency also on the development of leadership
at this level). No culture change effort is likely to be teams and the leadership culture. The
Research shows that the most effective successful unless the organization’s task of bringing a leadership culture
leaders in complex, rapidly changing top executives champion it (Kotter, to a new level of agility is not some-
environments are those who can op- 1996). When a change in leadership thing that can be accomplished by a
erate with consistency at the Cata- culture is needed, especially toward the few heroic leaders. It is necessarily a
lyst level. Catalyst level, full-fledged leadership collective undertaking.
Transformational Leadership Approach
Profits Conscious
Organizational Leadership, Growth
Sustainability Well-being Developing Tranformational Agility
LA 360 assessment Team Synergy
Systemic Awareness
and Transformational Agility
Group Coaching Creating the context and the practices for
Individual Coaching deep collaboration synergy
Systemic Thinking Engaging in Transformational
Transforming problems into opportunities Conversations
from a systemic perspective Building relationships, trust and alignment
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

6. P E A K PERFORMANCE
FROM HEROIC TO
POST-HEROIC LEADERSHIP —By Bill Joiner Stephen Josephs
In their book Power Up:Trans- fective in certain situations. The pre-
forming Organizations Through Shared dominant combination of Expert and
Leadership, David Bradford and Allan Achiever leadership worked relatively
Cohen distinguish between “heroic” well for most companies until the wan-
and “post heroic” leadership. We found ing decades of the twentieth century,
that managers at Pre-expert, Expert when the globalization of the economy
and Achiever levels (about 90 per- ushered in an era of constant change
cent of all managers) operate from a and growing interdependence. In this
heroic leadership mind-set. That is, new environment, with its increased
they assume sole responsibility for demand for collaborative problem
setting their organization’s objec- solving, teamwork, and continuous
tives, coordinating the activities of organizational change, heroic leader-
their subordinates, and managing ship over controls and under utilizes
their performance. subordinates. It discourages people
Heroic Leadership can be highly ef- from feeling responsible for anything
beyond their assigned area, inhibits
optimal teamwork, and implicitly en-
Stages of Development courages subordinates to use the he-
Types of Awareness roic approach with their own units.
In this new era century, sustained
Synergist success will require post-heroic lead-
ership. Leaders who develop beyond
Co-Creator Post-Heroic
Leadership the Achiever level of agility retain the
ultimate accountability and authority
Catalyst that come with any formal leadership
role. At the same time, they work
Institutional “Ceiling” Achiever to create highly participative teams
Heroic
and organizations characterized by
Leadership
Expert shared commitment and responsi-
bility. Unfortunately, as noted in the
Conformer Introduction, only about 10 percent
of today’s managers are functioning
Operator at post-heroic levels of agility: ap-
proximately 5 percent at the Catalyst
Pre-Adult level, 4 percent at the Co-Creator
Enthusiast
Stages
level, and 1 percent at the Syner-
Explorer gist level.
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

7. P E A K PERFORMANCE
LEADERSHIP AGILITY 360™
A NEW ERA INSTRUMENT TO GAGE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S LEADERSHIP AGILITY
Leadership Agility 360 is for improvement) for each arena: • Clear Road-Map: Unlike tradition-
the only online behavioral feedback • Leading organizational change: taking al 360s, the Leadership Agility 360
assessment designed to identify where initiatives to improve an organization Feedback Report does not only pro-
managers are in the Agility develop- and its key relationships vide a clear picture of the manag-
mental process and which includes • Improving team performance: taking er’s current state, it also provides
the full constellation of Catalyst lead- initiatives to improve a team and its a specific, descriptive “road map”
ership behaviors, showing high per- key relationships of the next steps in their leadership
formers, in very specific terms, where • Engaging in pivotal conversations: development.
they have room to grow. person-to-person discussions with • Aggregate Feedback Report: An
The tool was jointly developed by important outcomes at stake Aggregate Leadership Agility 360
ChangeWise President, Bill Joiner, Feedback Report is available for
and Cambria Consulting President, Four Types of Leadership Agility group interventions.
George Klemp. The Leadership Agility
360 embodies the strengths of both Research revealed that the full set of Debriefs with a Powerful
firms: the thought-leadership of an agile leadership behaviors includes four Development Planner
award-winning author and an indus- mutually reinforcing types of agility.
try innovator, a proven track record in The Leadership Agility 360 assesses The Leadership Agility 360 is debriefed
designing and delivering assessment these behaviors within each of that by the SARGIA Partners’ seasoned
tools for corporate clients around the three action areas described above. coaches who are specially trained to
globe, and three decades of experience work with this instrument. Feedback
consulting to and coaching leaders. Feedback Report: A Concise, recipients also receive a Development
Actionable Road-Map Planner that helps them translate their
Using “Action Arenas feedback into a behaviorally specific
to put Feedback in Context • Concise Data Display: Concise, in- action plan. The result is an engaged
tuitive, and easy to digest. coaching process set up to increase
Traditional 360s use rather abstract • Actionable Format: Organized into mental, emotional, and leadership
competencies with little or no reference the three action arenas of leading agility through the practice of new
to the contexts within which they are change, leading teams, and pivotal behavior applied to important real-
enacted. For example, “Brings conflict conversations time initiatives.
into the open for resolution.” Research
shows that a manager’s competency
in this and other leadership behaviors Who uses the Leadership Agility 360?
varies according to whether the con-
text is leading change, leading teams, This new era feedback instrument is being used in leading companies in
or one-on-one conversations. a wide variety of industries.
Consequently, the Leadership Agility Primary applications include one-on-one coaching engagements, use
360 assesses a manager’s level of agil- with executive teams and other management. The Leadership Agility 360
ity within each of these three specific is especially well-suited for use with executives, senior managers, and
“action arenas.” There are eight quan- high-potential managers, but it works well for any manager who leads a
titative questions and two written-com- team and has responsibility for making organizational changes.
ment questions (strengths and needs
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

8. P E A K PERFORMANCE
DID YOU KNOW?
LEARNING PREFERENCES OF DIFFERENT GENERATIONS
HOW CRITICAL IS AGILITY TO BUSINESS SUCCESS
Younger Generation of Leaders Older Generation of Leaders
Ample opportunity to have learned from others - in fact,
Coaching Preferences Desire to learn from others via coaching
they should be coaching newer leaders
Less likely to embrace the formal structure of a
Learning Style Want formal training on specialized topics and projects
classroom
In your view, what are the critical traits of an agile business? 90% of executives
Select up to three. (% respondents) believe that
Rapid decision-making and execution 61 agility is
A high-performance culture 44 essential for
The ability to access the right information
at the right time 34 business success
Accountability and credibility 34 and growth
Flexible management of teams and human
resources 31
Decentralised or “flat” management
29
Yet most
reporting structure
Lean operations 22
companies (74%)
Continual process improvements/Six Sigma 17
acknowledge
Unified/flexible application infrastructure 9
they are not
Other 2
agile enough
Source: Organisational agility: How business can survive and thrive in turbulent times,
Economist Intelligent Unit
Why the gap?
How important is agility to your organisation’s overall How would you rate your organisation’s overall agility?
business success? (% respondents) (% respondents)
Extremely important — it is a core Extremely agile and can react to market
differentiator for us 40 changes as needed 23
Somewhat important — it contributes to Moderately agile; we are working to improve
our business success 48 our ability to react to market changes 61
Neutral — many factors shape our Not at all agile; we proceed with caution/work
business success 10 at a slower pace in our decision-making 15
Somewhat unimportant — other factors
play a more significant role 2 Don’t know 1
Not at all important — agility is not a
relevant criterion for our business 0
Source: Organisational agility: How business can survive and thrive in turbulent times, Source: Organisational agility: How business can survive and thrive in turbulent times,
Economist Intelligent Unit Economist Intelligent Unit
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

9. P E A K PERFORMANCE
COLLABORATIVE
INTELLIGENCE
THE ABILITY TO HARNESS THE ENERGY AND INTELLIGENCE OF GROUPS
— B y M a r s h a l l G o l d sm i t h
In today’s business world IQ and
EQ (emotional intelligence) are neces-
sary but no longer sufficient. It’s time
to raise our collaborative intelligence,
our CQ, in business.
Why is CQ Important?
As the speed of change makes it in-
creasingly difficult to predict the future,
the responsiveness and adaptability
of a company is a crucial business
survival skill. With shorter response
times, companies must enable their
employees and teams to respond to
new circumstances like a shoal of fish
changing direction in the ocean, be-
having as if it were one organism. De-
veloping higher CQ in the workplace
leads directly to that capability.
• Looks after its own: Individuals are
What Does a High CQ Team In hard times, the soft stuff often not left to fend for themselves, and
Look Like? goes away. But emotional intelli- staff retention is high because people
gence, it turns out, isn’t so soft. If feel a strong sense of belonging
Here are some of the most impor- emotional obliviousness jeopardiz- • Is well connected with other teams
tant characteristics of a team with es your ability to perform, fend off and with corporate objectives. Like a
high CQ: aggressors, or be compassionate healthy organ in the body, it knows
• Is able to share the stress and strain in a crisis, no amount of attention what its function is and serves the
evenly throughout the team to the bottom line will protect your greater good through rough times
• Achieves its objectives more through career. Emotional intelligence isn’t and smooth
people and less through politics a luxury you can dispense with in • Replenishes itself, growing its mem-
• Has a strong network of connection tough times. It’s a basic tool that, bers, and is constantly learning to
and support between its members. deployed with finesse, is the key better adapt to its environment
This accelerates learning, enabling to professional success. • Displays a strong sense of meaning-
the team’s reactions to be rapid and Harvard Business Review ful participation, which the members
responsive to challenges are all nourished by
SARGIA PARTNERS • • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

10. P E A K PERFORMANCE
CONNECT THE DOTS
TEAM EMOTIONAL… SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE… PRODUCTIVITY
TESI® is the Collaborative Growth Team Emotional and Social Intelligence
Survey® developed by Marcia Hughes and James Terell. It creates the op-
portunity for a team 360 – that is each member of the team rates the team’s
skills from his or her perspective.
This allows team members and leaders to measure the levels of identification
with the team, as well as engagement, and skills in areas such as communi-
cations and conflict resolution.
7 Core Skills
4 Results
2 Lasting Benefits
YOUR 10 STEP GUIDE TO
COLLABORATIVE INTELLIGENCE —By Marcia Hughes
Collaboration is a result of collaborate and when is it useful? We’ll vey). When teams build their skills in
people working together to reach a answer this question for individuals by forming a strong team identity, engag-
mutual answer to a challenge or op- exploring 10 steps for individuals to ing with motivation, building emotional
portunity. As our world becomes more follow in order to act collaboratively awareness, enhancing communica-
integrated and boundaries become and briefly review how teams build tions, supporting one another in work
more blurred, the need and desire to collaboration. life balance to manage stress, growing
collaborate is heightened. Collaborative Intelligence™ is a key their conflict resolution skills so they
Organizations frequently list collabora- outcome teams can reach as they can benefit when conflict occurs and
tion as part of their mission or vision build their skills. act with positive mood they will be
statement or as one of their values. Collaborative intelligence is a result engaging multiple strengths and act-
With all of these forms of embracing teams profit from when using the seven ing collaboratively. Developing these
collaboration, we know it’s something skills measured by the TESI® (Team seven skills helps team members learn
good, the key question is how do we Emotional and Social Intelligence Sur- how to be collaborative and to use
SARGIA PARTNERS • 10 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

11. P E A K PERFORMANCE
this outcome wisely.
Collaboration is a communication and
problem solving process that is based
on a structured engagement style and
process. Those who collaborate well pay
attention to personality styles, behavioral
engagement strategies, and timing of
the decision making as well as who is
invited into the discussion, often referred
to as stakeholders. Individuals and or-
ganizations can act in a collaboratively
style informally and accomplish a great Marcia Hughes is President of Collaborative Growth®, a firm specializing in emotional intel-
deal. The following 10 steps will help ligence, leadership development, conflict resolution and communications through training,
individuals and leaders be successful in executive coaching, strategic design, and team development. She holds a J.D. with honors
their collaborations. These skills can be from George Washington University and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of
integrated into one’s natural behaviors Colorado. She is co-author of The Handbook for Emotional Social Intelligence, Emotional Intel-
so the benefits of collaboration abound ligence in Action and A Coach’s Guide to Emotional Intelligence and author of Life’s 2% Solution.
with minimal effort.
10 Steps to Act with Collaborative Intelligence
1. Be aware. Notice what is happening so you can choose how 6. Express your opinions and share your knowledge. If you keep
you are involved. Breathe deeply to benefit from adding oxygen to what you know close to your vest you undermine the ability of
your brain, to your heart and to feel calm and resilient. everyone to make a good decision, you role model that the proc-
ess isn’t fully trustworthy and neither are the people involved.
2. Apply intention and attention. Form your intention so you Remember your actions speak louder than your words.
know specifically what you want to accomplish and how. Then
decide what steps in the process you will pay attention to in order 7. List commonalities and differences. It’s amazing how often
to keep yourself on track. Intend to collaborate, which means people struggle over principles they already all agree on because
intend to work together, to listen and to respond in order to ac- they didn’t take time to recognize the agreement. If you clarify
complish your goal together. Clarify your own purpose and goals; where there are differences and where you agree then you can
this is not a process you can accomplish on auto-pilot. begin gathering information to move towards a mutual solution.
3. Commit to the process. Collaboration takes time, energy and 8. Apply divergent thinking. Be willing to listen to other people’s
patience. If you’re hesitant about using the process you’ll hold perspectives even though they may be very different from yours.
back, be protective of “your” information or rush through the An attitude of curiosity will be helpful.
process. One way or another without commitment you are most
likely to minimize the potential for success. You may end up feel- 9. Be appreciative. Keep noticing what works and through this
ing annoyed or antagonizing others or both. positive process explore what seems to be off-center, to just not
work. Explore these inconsistencies with curiosity to find points
4. Attend to others. Create a foundation for engagement by creat- of agreement.
ing a personal connection. It’s out of little personal discussions
where you find you have things in common that form the basis for 10. Make decision(s). At this point everyone comes to a convergent
trusting one another. answer and agrees to support the one answer. Future pace by imag-
ing it’s sometime in the future and you’re observing how well the de-
5. Mutually establish goals and other criteria. Be sure you are cision works. Is anything askew? Did you take on too much at once?
headed in the same direction! Does anything else need adjusting? If so make the changes now.
The result of collaborative decisions is that you have tapped into everyone’s smarts, build trust and have gained
mutual commitment to success. What’s not to like about this scenario?
SARGIA PARTNERS • 11 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

12. P E A K PERFORMANCE
COACHING WISDOM
THE ART OF QUESTIONING
—By Georgia Kartsanis
Why is it Important?
The art of questioning is one of the most important skills for empowering
people. Unfortunately, this skill isn’t typically taught in school where the fo- Georgia Kartsanis is a Master Coach and
cus is on knowing answers, not on asking questions. the CEO of SARGIA Partners.
As opposed to the goals of journalists who ask questions to get information, With her diversified and international
the goal of leaders is to use questions to co-create a dialogue together with experience in organizational structure/lead-
their team. ership matters, and her unique capability
Anyone, with practice and attention, can become better at asking questions. of coaching C-level executives, she is typi-
If you are intentional—thinking in advance about your questioning stance, cally engaged by CEOs to support them in
“watching yourself” (being reflexive) as you work, and reflecting on how you improving their interpersonal impact, agility,
did—you can improve! creativity and personal resilience, as well
Effective dialogues help you and your team as strengthening their executive team’s
• Re-direct discussions in positive ways alignment and collaboration.
• Understand the meaning of their work She specializes in CEO Coaching, Leader-
• Challenge people to think more critically, broadly and deeply ship Team Alignment and Neurocoaching
• Open up new options for action for enhancing leaders’ resilience, creativity
• Move from point A to point B and agility.
• Enable the team to overcome being stuck on a problem
• Engage big ideas like “how will our project impact our client?”
How To Ask Good Questions
Though there is no step-by-step reci- tion to questioning and listening. To team to make a decision, but they
pe for learning how to ask questions, think about your stance, consider the were not ready to make one, your
the following suggestions can help following questions: expectations may lead you to push
if you are willing to learn and be at- What is this discussion for? You will in that direction.
tentive to yourself as you work with have a different questioning stance What things about myself (skills, knowl-
your group. for a brainstorm where you generate edge, mood today) do I bring to this
ideas than in making a decision where discussion? What things do I need to
1. What is Your Questioning Stance? you narrow options. leave behind to make this work? For
Before beginning any session or con- What are my expectations for this example, you may know a great deal
versation, take some time before to discussion? Many times the leaders’ about an issue, but this knowledge
think about how you want to approach expectations can either help or limit may inhibit discussion. Or, you may
it. This is called your “questioning the possibilities of what happens. For be in a bad mood, which will have to
stance”—it is your general orienta- example, if you really wanted your be bracketed.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 12 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

13. P E A K PERFORMANCE
2. The Art of Listening
The title of this tool is “The Art of Ques-
tioning” because your ability to ask
good questions depends on your abil-
ity to listen. Though this may sound
backwards, good questions come from
really listening to what members of
your team are saying. Here are some
tips to being an effective listener:
• Concentrate on what is actually be-
ing said, not what you think they are
saying or want them to say.
• o make sure you are listening close-
T
ly, it is sometimes a good idea to
restate what team members say (in
slightly different terms) to clarify.
Skilled leaders will use this restate-
ment to ask further questions of the
individual and/or entire team.
“Let me see if I am hearing you right,
you think that ...” “Did I get it?”
“Did others hear the same thing or goal is not to get better answers but • Play devil’s advocate. Make sure
something different?” deeper questions and better dialogue. that you let the team know that you
“How come you used this word?” Thus, any answer, no matter how good, are playing devil’s advocate to help
“That is interesting?” can be followed by another question them see the other side.
“It sounds like you are also talking and can be redirected to the rest of the
about power ...” team. When dialogue occurs, people 4. eflecting on Your Questioning /
R
“What do others think about this? Do will start to play off of each other and Listening
you all agree or not? Why?” the leader will no longer be the center After you have completed a session,
Be attentive to important or “a-ha” mo- of the discussion. This is a goal of ef- take some time to reflect and evaluate
ments in the conversation, and then ask fective facilitators. Here are some tips on your questioning and listening.
questions about them. “A-ha” moments to link questions together: • How well did you think you listened to
can be those good or bad moments, • ry to avoid questions that will stop
T the group? Were there any moments
breakthroughs, or points of confusion discussion (yes or no, right or wrong where you did not listen well?
(a useful way to think about “a-ha” questions, sometimes why ques- • What were the moments when ques-
moments are times when you think to tions). tions really worked and didn’t work?
yourself in the moment: “alright!” “oh • Ask questions that involve plural an- Was there a particular line of ques-
no!” “finally!” “I don’t follow?” “what swers like “what kind of things can tioning that was effective in open-
do you mean by _____?”). we do to address this problem?” ing up a discussion for the whole
Pay attention to body language, at- These types of questions open up team?
titude, and behavior (i.e. what is not alternatives, allow multiple responses, • How did your team members re-
being said) as a way of listening to and encourage more thought. spond?
the conversation. • sk people to respond to each other.
A By being attentive to questioning and
“What do other people think about listening, you can improve over time.
3. inking Questions /
L that idea?” Highly skilled leaders are able to reflect
The Art of Co-Creating Dialogue “Does anyone have a different way on their performance in the moment—
By carefully listening, you will be bet- of looking at it?” they are able to “watch themselves
ter able to link questions together and • Imagine possibilities: with “What if listen and question” while listening
co-create a dialogue. Remember the …” scenarios and questioning.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 13 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

14. P E A K PERFORMANCE
LIFE UNLOCKED
7 LESSONS FROM NEUROSCIENCE TO OVERCOMING THE… “GREEK JITTERS”
—Srini Pillay, M.D.
In Greece, the collapse of growth after 2008, in combination with soar-
ing public and external deficits, led to the escalation of Greek debt (Christo-
doulakis 2011). Following this, fear of change, stress, insecurity and the loss
of morale are persistent challenges that companies face when trying to re-
cover or maintain a competitive edge (Konstantopoulos, Sakas et al. 2009).
While many obvious insights can be gained from observing how employees
behave, brain-based insights can help accelerate strategies with unique in-
sights. “Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear” now
published in Greek, offers details on these strategies. Below is a summary
of some main points:
SARGIA PARTNERS • 14 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

15. P E A K PERFORMANCE
3 Fear of Success
While many people fear failure, most
leaders do not recognize how they fear
success. Success means you have to
live up to something, and also that you
may fall from a greater height, or that
you may be out in front with nobody
to follow and alone. Significance:
Learning how to switch the brain’s
attention to growth rather than being
defensive actually affects how your
brain will work to help you. Sometimes,
trying to prevent yourself from falling
1 Moving Beyond Unconscious Fear actually makes you fall. Understand-
ing the brain science of this can help
Brain science proves that even when you do not feel afraid, unconscious
you frame things more effectively for
fear can disrupt your attention, concentration, motivation and drive to
you and your team.
complete tasks. Significance: If productivity is being affected by lack
of concentration and poor motivation, consider what actually decreases
activation in the brain’s fear center because unconscious fear is likely
playing a role. Two methods: re-appraisal and refocusing when learned,
internalized and consistently applied to communication with employees 4 If It’s Hard
can change brain activation and help people focus more on increasing to Change, It’s Not
speed to execution. Unchangeable
People often feel like they are
faced with impossible tasks.
2 Overcoming Dread Many years ago, if I asked you
if it would be possible to go to
Brain science teaches us that the dread of being fired or having to face an the moon or to end smallpox,
uncertain future is actually caused when we feel as though we are facing a these feats would have seemed
wall. When this happens, the brain switches its activation away from an “ex- too large. Brain conditioning can
treme anxiety” area to a “freeze area.” Workers just stop being productive. limit our imaginations. Signifi-
Significance: In these instances, it is better to be anxious than frozen. Brain cance: Understanding how to
science teaches us that one way to free the brain up when it is at a dead- reverse brain conditioning can
end is to switch the activation way from the area that causes freezing. To do be helpful: the basis of this is
this, it is helpful to know that the brain will move out of frozen mode if you changing what keeps you stuck
make a small choice (any choice) rather than think about the correct choice in your current context, analyz-
endlessly. Also, learning how to think long-term may seem obvious now, but ing your switch cost (the cost
when faced by a wall, we often forget this. Doing this will change your brain of change) and learning how to
activation accordingly. Making the brain less goal-oriented and more “big use your brain to increase com-
picture” focused can help at times when you are stuck. mitment to a new path.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 15 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

16. P E A K PERFORMANCE
Reference s
5 Unlocking a Caged Heart Christodoulakis, N. (2011). “FROM INDECI-
SION TO FAST-TRACK PRIVATISATIONS:
Fear affects relationships: it makes mergers more difficult and joint ven- CAN GREECE STILL DO IT?” National Insti-
tures impossible. The brains of those who are afraid of such business tute Economic Review 217(1): R60-R74.
intimacy may lose out on opportunities. Significance: The relationship Konstantopoulos, N., D. Sakas, et al. (2009).
brain that is afraid of being “burned” by past partners, may lose out on “Lessons from a case study for Greek banking
MA negotiations.” Management Decision 47(8):
idea- growing and cost-saving opportunities in new joint ventures. By 1300-1312.
understanding how the brain processes this fear of relatedness, busi-
nesses can start to help potential partners grow from being avoidant or
anxious to more secure in building a new future together.
6 Fear and Prejudice
People are prejudiced about Greece because of recent events. They may
be prejudiced even if they don’t know it. This makes banks not want to lend
money and customers not want to buy. Significance: By understanding how
fear lies at the basis of brain-based prejudice, you can help to reverse the
prejudice in lenders and customers to help grow your business.
Dr. Srini Pillay is a highly sought after Certi-
7 How to Develop Emotional Superglue fied Master Coach who has been coaching
executives for the past ten years. He is
When companies lose money and do not grow, they are traumatized. the CEO of NeuroBusiness Group™ (NBG)
This trauma actually biases brain memory-the memory center gets stuck based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
in only recalling the bad things. Significance: There are ways to rewire He is also Assistant Clinical Professor at
that brain that can rewire these memory centers. In fact, these memory Harvard Medical School and an interna-
centers are one of the most responsive to specific behavioral changes. tionally recognized fear, anxiety and brain
Brain science can help us understand what we can do to focus on build- imaging researcher. Dr. Pillay’s skills span
ing new memories. For example, research shows that debriefing may a wide variety of topics in executive coach-
create relief but actually cement memories in the brain more. Focusing ing, and with a history of highly successful
on what makes you resilient helps to lay down new brain pathways. workshops in New York, California, London
and Brazil, Dr. Pillay has influenced many
high ranking executives, from the Vice-
President of Sales for Microchip to senior
Thus, brain science applied to business can be very helpful in making us HR personnel from Coca Cola.
think of new strategies that will be instrumental in overcoming fear so as to Dr. Pillay also has fifteen years of experi-
move our businesses forward. In Greece, it is critical to activate the memo- ence with nationally funded research at
ries of Greek history that once made Greece one of the most influential na- Harvard Medical School, and in Peak Per-
tions in the world. DNA is highly resistant to change. And resilience and the formance, he brings together his expertise
capacity for brilliant ideas is still in the DNA of Greek society. If we learn how in brain science, executive coaching, fear,
to use this gift of history in practical and effective ways, this can help move stress and leadership to introduce us to
Greece forward. Brain science is a useful way to do this as it offers practical cutting-edge tools and methodologies on
and step-by-step advice on ways that people, who are at the heart of busi- how to deal with fear and stress in the con-
nesses in Greece, can change. text of corporate leadership and success.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 16 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

17. SARGIA Partners C A S E STUDY
COACHING
A Case Study
THE CHALLENGE THE COACHEE OBJECTIVES
In one of the largest companies • To realize, first and foremost, the benefits of coaching
in the energy sector, where de- • o identify the factors that were stopping him from performing effectively
T
velopment of senior executives • o boost his confidence
T
was almost nonexistent, the HR • o become more effective as a leader by improving his leadership style
T
Manager was well aware that one • o be coached in a sustainable way so he could use these behaviors in
T
of the key competencies organi- the future
zations (including his own) need
to develop is the capacity to ex-
ecute changes effectively – an im-
perative task in order to improve.
THE ACTIONS
However, this company was not
A six-month program on a one-to-one basis was agreed. During the di-
familiar with the culture of coaching
agnostic period, we assessed his influencing style and then had feedback
and the HR Manager wanted to a)
from specific stakeholders.
introduce it by delegating a mem-
When the behavior for change was revealed, he designed a strategy to-
ber of the management team and
ward this behavior and he committed to an action plan in achieving the
b) persuade senior management.
results he desired.
This was achieved and a C-level
executive was appointed.
RESULTS
In his own words… The client has achieved the objectives which were set and has developed
the inner confidence and capabilities to drive his career to the next level.
“The coaching program offered by SARGIA He has learned to communicate powerfully without defensiveness, while
Partners introduces participants to a differ- still maintaining his direct approach. A 6-month follow-up with the stake-
ent way of perceiving and evaluating situ- holders and the coachee indicated that the new behavior had become fully
ations and events within our professional established. Moreover, as a result of his development, he has established
and personal lives. Thereby it facilitates the a coaching culture and has engaged SARGIA Partners master coaches to
efficient treatment of the difficulties and coach some of the senior management executives. A Coaching program
anxiety that are encountered daily, improves has been developed to address specific needs:
personal balance and gradually even the • o be more ‘Transformational’ and ‘Emotionally Intelligent’ in their lead-
T
quality of the coachee’s life. My personal ership style
experience showed that coaching is not just • o improve their behavioral flexibility
T
a means to achieve one or more profession- • o improve their cross functional effectiveness
T
al goals; it is more a personal development,
an evolutionary process during which the
coachee is masterfully guided through diffi-
cult and, many times, painful, assumptions,
to self-awareness and ultimate purpose of
personal development.”
SARGIA PARTNERS • 17 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

18. P E A K PERFORMANCE
WINNING
FIRST IMPRESSIONS —by Gerty Phili
Did you know that creating an impression only takes 2 seconds when you
meet someone for the first time? Most people make judgments based
upon first impressions and the accuracy of our first impression is
dependent on many factors. After that first impression is formed, it is
difficult for it to be changed.
Rather than leave it to chance, Let the Other Person
here are a few pointers that can help you Be the Center of Attention
leave a great first impression, and de- Perhaps the most important tip to fol-
velop that into a lasting relationship. low when making a first impression
is to avoid hogging the spotlight. Let
Be Yourself and Present the other person be the center of at-
Yourself Appropriately tention and pay close attention to the
We like to think that appearance doesn’t conversation. The worst mistake you
matter, but it does, especially when can make is talking about yourself
you’re meeting someone for the first
time. Dress appropriately and take time
to perfect your appearance. When you Gerty Phili is Partner with SARGIA Partners SA, Master Coach certified by the Center for Advanced
look good, you’ll feel good. And when Coaching (CAC) of the USA, and Interpersonal Impact Consultant certified by Tonic Ltd, UK.
you feel good about yourself, you’ll Gerty has pioneered the concept of, and proved the value of, Personal Brand consulting
be confident and self-assured. in the Greek business world, offering experiential workshops and one-to-one coaching to
executives so they master the skill of interpersonal impact as it relates to their professional
Be Aware of Your Body Language presence and influence style. She is engaged by her clients to work with their executives
and Facial Expressions in order to enhance their professional brand in alignment with their personal and corporate
Your body language speaks louder brand. Working with individuals or teams, she provides her unique expertise on the funda-
than words. Use your body language to mental keys to interpersonal impact, including professional presence, verbal and non-verbal
project appropriate confidence. Stand communication skills, influence skills and business etiquette—all with a holistic approach.
tall, have an open posture, Smile, make
eye contact and greet people with a
firm Handshake. Be a Good Listener Be Prepared
Being a good listener is not as complicat- Lastly, remember that first impressions
Speak Clearly ed as most people think it is. When having can happen anywhere, even when you
Be sure to communicate clearly with a discussion with someone, make sure don’t expect it.
the people you are meeting. Focus on to let him or her know in a subtle manner Since you never get a second chance
speaking at a moderate pace with a that you are paying attention to what is to make a first impression, keep these
well-modulated voice. Furthermore, be being said. Remember; do not interrupt tips in mind in order to get the oppor-
polite and courteous at all times. when someone else is speaking. tunities you deserve.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 18 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

19. P E A K PERFORMANCE
A SARGIA PARTNERS
TEAM COACHING PROGRAM
FOR BUILDING YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM’S EMOTIONAL
AND SOCIAL EFFECTIVENESS
Designed to:
• Build a clear sense of shared vision and values as a context for transfor-
mation and for reframing behaviors
• Build Emotional and Social Effectiveness to improve the trust, account-
ability and engagement of your leadership team
• Strengthen your leadership bench strength so each member of your team
becomes a role model
• Infuse into your organization a team learning culture and dissipate silos
Our Approach:
• We start with the premise that the team is a living system, a learning team—
more than the sum of the individual parts. This system has behavior affected
by the individuals’ personal visions, mental models and behaviors.
• herefore, understanding how the system and the individual work and de-
T
veloping a shared vision and commitments for the future, on personal and
teamwork mastery, are fundamental.
phase 1 phase 2 phase 3
Building Building Practice Building Sustainable
Awareness and Commitment Behavioral Change
Including INDIVIDUAL 2-Day Workshop Post Evaluation
Coaching Sessions
SARGIA PARTNERS • 19 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

20. SARGIA Partners L E A D E R SHI P T E A M
A LIG N M E N T P R O G R A M
An aligned team has commonality of purpose,
The Benefits
a shared vision and understanding of how to
complement one another’s efforts. • Builds a true shared vision, align-
ing individuals to a collective
inspiring purpose
Team Emotional Social Intelligence (TESI®) • Aligns behaviors with business
goals
Effectiveness Survey • Supports organizational trans-
formation initiatives
TESI® is the Collaborative Growth Team Emotional and Social Intelligence
• Builds personal and team aware-
Survey® developed by Marcia Hughes and James Terell.
ness and accountability
It creates the opportunity for a team 360 – that is each member of the team
• Strengthens the communication,
rates the team’s skills from his or her perspective.
trust, empathy decision making
and loyalty of the team
In our Clients’ words:
“I would definitely recommend this program
for developing and enhancing team shared
visioning and building team alignment and
commitment”
“...During these 2 days, we deepened our
personal awareness and commitments for
This allows team members and leaders to measure the levels of identification self development, broadened our leadership
with the team, as well as engagement, and skills in areas such as communi- skills, enhanced our collaboration and align-
cations and conflict resolution. ment as Team”
The report and its breakout graphs offer unique insights, interpret the mean- “I would like to thank you for giving us an
ing of current strengths and weaknesses as a team, and guide the team to excellent and unique workshop on ‘Expand-
strategically choose where to enhance its skills. ing Your Capacity for Creating Our Future’. It
has been time and money well invested…”
“SARGIA Partners managed in a very short
“In today’s business world IQ and period to unify the team, set team values,
EQ are necessary but no longer and enable the adoption of new behaviors”
“One of the key benefits of the program
sufficient. It’s time to raise our was the resulted commitment from the
collaborative intelligence in team members to the collective goals and
business – our ability to harness especially to the behavioral standards we
have identified”
the energy and intelligence of “It worked as a catalyst in embracing the
groups or teams.” new members to the team”
Marshall Goldsmith “Truly an one of a kind experience!”
SARGIA PARTNERS • 20 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

21. P E A K PERFORMANCE
When Sh ft Happens — AN INTER V IE W W ITH E V AN G ELIA PATERA K I
G ENERAL M ANA G ER O F A M G EN HELLA S
How is your business affected by today’s certain economic environment creates
economic environment? financial risks related to credit policy
Health care systems worldwide, and of the existing customers, wealth of
in our country especially, are facing the suppliers, debts, and payment
the challenge of managing health care timelines of the public sector.
budgets while maintaining patient ac- In our pursuit of life-saving treatments
cess to effective health care. In the we take into account the value im-
Greek health care system, managing pact of the therapies we offer and we
budgets is associated with achiev- strongly believe that this is the way
ing a sustainable decreased level of that an effective public health care
health care expenditure in the coming system should reward evidence-based
years, while at the same time serv- health care and rational use of health
ing the increasing public health care The leadership care resources.
needs of an ageing and less wealthy
population.
Team What are the current challenges that your
In Amgen, the largest independent alignment leadership team faces?
biotechnology company of the world,
we focus on serving patients, through
program has In this rapidly changing environment
our main challenge is to ensure pa-
pioneering in new scientific pathways helped our tients timely access to new innovative
and treatments that treat serious dis- team to create therapies , measuring the value of our
eases for which no or not-effective treatments and thus contributing to a
treatment approaches exist. our vision more effective, responsive and sus-
Today’s economic environment in tainable health care system.
Greece has resulted in austerity
measures, significantly affecting the How did you manage to align your lead-
health care system, which currently ership team with your transformation ini-
uses purely administrative measures tiatives?
for managing the decreased budget, We are a team with strong values, which
with special emphasis on price controls we live every day, aiming to support
and rebates, generating mainly from our mission to serve patients. While
the pharmaceutical industry. our basis is our solid value system, we
Although many of the announced mea- have worked towards the creation of
sures are in the correct direction, the a strong vision, aiming to reflect how
system is yet not ready to recognize we want our organization to be in the
and award innovation, which is the next five years, adding value to our
primary focus of our research and de- people and society.
velopment programs and the main The Leadership Team Alignment pro-
priority for patient access to new in- gram has helped our team to create
novative therapies. In addition, the un- our vision and dynamically enrich our
SARGIA PARTNERS • 21 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

22. P E A K PERFORMANCE
values so as to ensure that we attain
it. We have also identified specific be-
havioral attributes common for all team
members that we have committed
to. Through this, we empowered the
bonds of the leadership team behind a
common objective, ready to face chal-
lenges and make the further step.
How do you ensure that the leadership team
shares the vision with the organization and
that people are engaged on that vision? Evangelia Pateraki has started her professional career at Sandoz Hellas in 1990, then moved
In Amgen our primary goal is to main- to Novartis Hellas in 1997, where she has followed a career of 17 years, through various
tain an environment that ensures open- commercial roles, in sales and marketing. In 2001 Evangelia was assigned to Head of Busi-
ness and transparency. We strongly ness Unit Transplantation-Immunology, while in 2005 she became Regional Head Business
believe that our people are the ambas- Unit Transplantation-Immunology, with responsibility for a cluster of five countries, Greece
sadors of our values and are the ones – Romania – Bulgaria – Cyprus – Malta. Evangelia moved to Amgen Hellas in 2007, as Busi-
who will make our vision a reality. We ness Unit Director Oncology/Hematology.
have various approaches for ensuring She has established the new Business Unit in Greece as well as the company’s commercial
access to information, understanding footprint in the Greek market. As of June 2009, Evangelia is leading Amgen Hellas. She holds
and clarity, as well as commitment. a BSc degree in Chemistry and a Masters degree in Bioactive Peptides. Evangelia is a
These approaches include: Member of the Greek Society of Chemists, of the European Hematology Association, of the
• All-staff meetings Hellenic Society of Pharmaceutical Marketing (EEFAM), and Pharmaceutical and Women
• Cross-functional working groups in Business (WIB) Committees, both of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.
• Active participation in corporate citi- Since, May 2011, she holds the position of Secretary for the Local American Working Group
zenship activities (LAWG) in Greece.
• Ability to contribute in problem solv-
ing discussions and decision mak-
ing processes
• Brainstorming process
• Intranet communication
How did you cascade the message (vision)
throughout your organization?
This is a continuously ongoing pro-
cess, very dynamic and participative.
Thus with different ways, like the ones
described above, we work on ensur-
ing that we all have the same under-
standing of the changes that occur
in the environment and in the mar-
ket, on the priorities of our organiza-
tion, while in parallel we focus on our
people, the quality of our actions and
on the value we add to the society,
patients and to the health care sys-
tem as a whole.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 22 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

23. SARGIA Partners PA R T N E R SHI P S
The Center for Advanced Coaching (CAC)
CAC is a US based international organization which provides Master Level Learn-
ing on coaching, bringing the most advanced research, industry tools/ techniques
and coaching methodologies to today’s people-shapers around the globe. It is the
primary access point for advanced training and customized programs for individu-
als and corporations looking to build greater capacity and achieve leading results.
The Center for Advanced Coaching’s professional services, through its global
network of Service Associates, provides leadership coaching for senior execu-
tives and coaching infrastructure for organizations.
Changewise
ChangeWise has partnered with Cambria Consulting, a premier human resource
consulting firm, to design and host several online assessment instruments based
on the research underlying our award-winning book, Leadership Agility. These
instruments provide managers with a specific, actionable road-map for their next
steps in developing the mind-sets and skill-sets needed to become more agile
and effective leaders in today’s world of unprecedented change and complexity.
The NeuroBusiness Group
NeuroBusiness GroupTM is a group of global executive coaches with extensive
experience in working with Fortune 500 companies. Each of the coaches has re-
ceived a certification in neurocoaching which is coaching that relies on integrating
information about the brain in the coaching methodology. Each of NBG coaches
possesses extensive experience working with individuals and companies of all
sizes and knowledge of how to apply brain science to the executive coaching.
Worth Ethic Corporation
Worth Ethic (worthethic.com) is an executive coaching firm founded by Kate
Ludeman, PhD and Eddie Erlandson, MD. Kate and Eddie are widely recognized
executive coaches, speakers and authors who have assessed and coached over
1,400 senior executives in a wide angle of industries located in the US, in all ma-
jor European and Asian countries, and in many South American countries. They
are the developers of the Alpha Assessment and Alpha Coaching Methodology,
which SARGIA uses in its coaching practice.
SARGIA PARTNERS • 23 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

24. We unlock
leaders’
internal powers
for taking
a quantum
leap towards
unprecedented
heights of
success
For more information about SARGIA Partners Leadership Services please go to www.sargiapartners.com.
To discuss bringing SARGIA Partners leadership services, programs, or executive coaching to your
organization please write office@sargiapartners.com