Unlocking Entrepreneurial Potential Through Cognitive Awareness

Case Study · MindSonar

Marianne Araneda: Unlocking Entrepreneurial Potential Through Cognitive Awareness

Marianne Araneda riding with a young client during an equine-assisted therapy session

Background

Marianne Araneda returned to Guatemala after completing her studies in equine-assisted therapy in the United States. Due to unexpected financial circumstances in her family, she was unable to make the final payment for her academic program — and although she finished her career successfully, she never received her university diploma.

That created a real emotional barrier. Despite her knowledge, passion, and strong vocation for equine-assisted therapy, Marianne hesitated to start her own professional project. To understand what was holding her back, the MindSonar assessment was applied in the context of “Limits for Entrepreneurship” — the goal was to identify the thinking patterns behind her hesitation to start a business.

What the MindSonar profile revealed

The profile showed several thinking styles that explained both Marianne’s initial difficulty to take action and her potential strengths as an entrepreneur.

Reactive thinking

Marianne carefully analyzes situations before acting and prefers to fully understand them before making decisions. This can delay the first step, but it also makes her decisions thoughtful and strategic.

Procedure orientation

A clear preference for structured processes and step-by-step approaches. Marianne feels most confident when she can move forward following defined sequences.

Specific focus

A strong focus on details and precision, which lets her deliver high-quality work — especially valuable in equine-assisted therapy, where observation and subtle behavioral cues are essential.

Development orientation

Marianne is motivated by gradual improvement and continuous progress. She feels comfortable growing step by step rather than through abrupt changes.

Solo working style

A preference for working autonomously and concentrating deeply on her projects — a trait that supports the independence entrepreneurship often requires.

Equine-assisted therapy session with a young child A toddler with a plush horse during a session at Entrelazados

The intervention

Understanding these thinking patterns allowed the coaching process to focus on aligning Marianne’s entrepreneurial strategy with her natural cognitive style. Instead of waiting for ideal conditions — such as owning horses or having her own facilities — she designed a progressive, structured growth model that matched the way she thinks. She began by renting horses, designing clear step-by-step procedures for her programs, and developing her services gradually, through continuous improvement.

Through the coaching collaboration, she also developed innovative programs combining equine-assisted therapy with coaching for team development. These programs use experiential learning with horses to support leadership development, emotional awareness, team cohesion, and personal growth.

The results, ten years later

Marianne’s project Entrelazados has become a sustainable initiative dedicated to equine-assisted therapy and development programs. The journey included both growth and loss — some of the horses she started with have passed away over the years, and today six horses are part of the program.

10

years of Entrelazados

64

active students

6

horses in the program

60+

lesson hours per week

Sixty-four students currently take lessons, and the centre delivers more than sixty lesson hours every week. Alongside therapy, Marianne runs programs with students from several schools and equine-assisted experiences for personal and team development. Over time, Entrelazados has grown into a space where therapy, learning, and human development come together.

Where the project stands now

The debt to the university — the very obligation that once kept her diploma out of reach and held her back from starting — has been paid off. Entrelazados has secured sponsors, and this month every available class slot was filled, in a period that is usually one of the quietest in the year. The number of students the centre can take on is now set by the number of horses in the program, not by demand.

Marianne with young riding students holding their ribbons Marianne with one of the Entrelazados horses

In Marianne’s own words

Marianne talks about the programme and what changed along the way. The video is in Spanish; subtitles can be switched to English or another language in the YouTube settings (auto-generated, so treat the wording as indicative).

Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/rt0lKGgGoH4

Key learning

This case shows that MindSonar is more than a diagnostic tool — it can be a catalyst for personal and professional development. By understanding how Marianne naturally thinks and makes decisions, it became possible to design an entrepreneurial pathway aligned with her strengths.

She did not need to change who she was. She needed to build her future using the way she thinks.

Ten years later, what began as uncertainty has become a purpose-driven project that impacts dozens of lives every year.

Marianne hugging a horse, making a heart with her hands

Follow Entrelazados

Facebook: facebook.com/entrelazados.gt
Instagram: @entrelazados.gt

MindSonar expert

Sergio Sáenz

Coach & MindSonar expert, Empower You Coaching Group — Guatemala

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sergio-saenz-coach

MindSonar · Because you are so much more…

The hidden reason this leadership team struggled to delegate

Case Study · MindSonar

Debbie Yarhi was brought in to help a young leadership team that was struggling with missed deadlines, inconsistent delegation, and communication issues that were slowing performance. At first glance it looked like a straightforward execution problem. But when a team is made up of capable, committed people and results are still suffering, there is usually something deeper shaping the way they work together.

That is where MindSonar became especially useful. It helped Debbie make the team’s underlying patterns visible and gave her a clearer understanding of what was driving the issues beneath the surface.

What the team profile revealed

As she reviewed the results, Debbie noticed that they leaned more reactive than proactive, more internal than external in locus of control, more matching than mismatching, and more general than specific in how they processed and communicated. Their strongest Graves drive was Order and Reliability.

This was a team with real potential. They cared about their work, took responsibility seriously, and wanted to do things well. The challenge was that some of the same qualities that made them thoughtful and dependable were also slowing execution.

Why delegation wasn’t working

Delegation was one of the clearest examples. Their strong internal locus of control showed up as ownership, responsibility, and initiative — yet it also made leaders feel personally responsible for making sure everything got done. Work was assigned, while the leader still carried the outcome mentally, stepped in too quickly, and held on more tightly than necessary. Team members were involved without being fully empowered to own the work, which left expectations unclear and follow-up heavier than it should have been.

Their reactive pattern added pressure because issues were often addressed once they had already become urgent instead of being caught early. Their high matching made execution harder as well, since the tendency to stay agreeable meant they did not always challenge vague instructions or test assumptions with enough rigor. On top of that, their preference for thinking more generally than specifically made it easier to align around intention than around clear ownership, standards, and deadlines.

What was really slowing the team down

What was slowing this team down was the weight of those patterns on execution. Once they understood how their thinking styles were showing up in daily behavior, they were able to create stronger accountability checkpoints, delegate more effectively, and communicate with greater clarity.

When a team is made up of capable, committed people and results are still suffering, there is usually something deeper beneath the surface.

The takeaway

MindSonar is not a personality test — it is “the X-ray machine for the mind.” It shows how people think in a specific context, and mindsets vary with context. That is what lets a team stop fighting symptoms and start working with the real cause.

Consultant

Debbie Yarhi

Coach & MindSonar consultant

LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/dycoaching

MindSonar · Because you are so much more…

When a team looks reactive: fear or stress?

Teamwork

When a team looks reactive: fear or stress?

 

How do thinking styles and motivational drivers influence team decisions and overall performance? In today’s article, Irena Grofelnik – a certified MindSonar®️ Professional and leadership transformation coach – shares her expert insights on navigating complexity in the modern workplace.

Specializing in systemic team development and cognitive profiling, Irena excels at translating complex psychological insights into practical leadership tools. Through her work, she helps organizations reduce friction, build resilience, and unlock the full potential of their people. Dive into her latest piece below.

In one recent MindSonar® assessment conducted in an organization with more than 40 participants, an interesting pattern appeared: most profiles showed a Reactive orientation in the Proactive–Reactive thinking style.
The immediate reaction from my professional observation was concern:
Are employees blocked by fear, or are they simply responding to high stress levels?
This question is more important than it seems, because reactivity can have very different meanings depending on the context.

What the reactive thinking style actually means

In the MindSonar® model, the Proactive–Reactive dimension describes how people initiate action.
Proactive individuals tend to initiate action independently and quickly. Reactive individuals prefer to observe, collect information, and respond after signals from the environment.
A key point that is often misunderstood: Reactive does not mean passive.
Many high-quality professionals — analysts, engineers, compliance experts — naturally operate in a more reflective and reactive way. The real question is therefore not whether someone is reactive, but why.

Two possible sources of reactivity

When a team appears predominantly reactive, two explanations are typically possible.

1. Natural Cognitive Preference

Some individuals simply prefer to think before acting. Their profiles often combine reactive orientation with patterns such as:

  • Procedures
  • Detail orientation
  • Cause–effect thinking

In such cases, reactivity reflects analytical processing, not hesitation.

2. Stress or Organizational Pressure

However, reactive behavior can also appear when employees operate in environments where:

  • mistakes are penalized
  • decision authority is unclear
  • approval from superiors is required
  • workload or uncertainty is high

Under these conditions, people often reduce initiative and wait for signals, which shows up as reactive patterns in the measurement.
In other words: Sometimes people are not reactive by preference, but by adaptation.

How to interpret the results correctly

To understand the real meaning of reactive results, it is important to look at thinkig styles combinations and values.
For example:
Reactive + Procedures → careful and methodical thinking
Reactive + Detail focus → analytical work style
Reactive + External reference → reliance on approval
Reactive + Away-from motivation → risk avoidance
When reactive orientation is combined with strong security values or authority orientation, the pattern may reflect organizational culture rather than personality.

What leaders should do

If reactive patterns come from analytical thinking, the team may actually be well suited for roles requiring precision and risk awareness. However, if reactivity stems from stress or fear, the solution is not training individuals but adjusting the environment, for example:

  • clarifying decision authority
  • increasing psychological safety
  • encouraging responsible initiative
  • balancing risk control with autonomy

Understanding the difference is essential. Because sometimes the problem is not that people cannot act — but that the system signals they should not.

Irena Grofelnik, TTPC, Certified Mindsonar Professional, Slovenia, irena@spiriton.si

Fokuso Coaching & Training

From Misunderstanding to Connection: A Team Finds Its Way Back

A case study from Fokuso Coaching & Training, the Netherlands.

The Situation

Two participants reviewing a printed MindSonar profile during a team day at Fokuso.
Two participants studying their MindSonar profiles during the team day.
A school in the middle of the Netherlands reached out to Fokuso Coaching & Training for support with a team that had come to a standstill. Ten teachers, men and women, were working toward a shared goal: preparing students for their final exams. Genuine collaboration, however, had all but disappeared. The atmosphere was tense. Misunderstandings piled up in the staff room. One person felt their colleagues were too casual about things. Another felt that every minor detail was being blown out of proportion. One team member came across as someone who often pushed back and kept returning to the same points. Another withdrew, adapted to whoever was loudest, rarely made his own voice heard. Meanwhile, the overall results were actually quite solid. No one on the team could see that anymore.

The Root of the Problem

The team did not understand each other. This was not because people lacked the will to collaborate, but because no one had insight into why the other person behaved the way they did. Different work values and different ways of seeing. Without understanding those differences, behavioural contrasts get misread. Not as accusations flying back and forth, but as quiet friction that wears people down.

The Approach

Team members leaning over MindSonar profile posters during the F5 feedback session.
Team members writing anonymous feedback on each other’s profiles, following the F5 method.
Fokuso used two tools. MindSonar. A profile that provides insight into the thinking styles and values a person applies at work. Not a label, but a mirror. The F5 Method. A structured approach in which team members give each other anonymous feedback based on their profiles. Because the feedback is anonymous, the sting disappears. Judgements do not surface directly. What remains is honest, recognisable insight. The ten teachers completed the MindSonar profiles, exchanged anonymous feedback, and worked through the outcomes together during a team day.

What Happened

Two team members reading a MindSonar profile together at a long table in the Fokuso studio.
Two colleagues working through the outcomes together, one of the quieter moments of the day.
The anonymity turned out to be the key element. Because team members did not know who the feedback came from, the automatic defensiveness fell away. Space opened up to genuinely listen, both to what others experienced and to what each person’s own profile revealed. The conversation shifted from who is right to how each person actually looks at the work. Team members discovered each other’s blind spots and strengths. For the first time, they understood why one colleague always pushed for more detail, driven by a deep-rooted need for quality and structure. They also saw why others kept wanting to protect the bigger picture.

The Breakthrough

Two moments stood out. The team member who had often been read as the difficult one, the colleague who kept returning to the same concerns, openly shared at the end of the day that he felt heard and seen for the first time in years. Another colleague, who typically operated reactively and let his attitude be shaped by those around him, realised that he was allowed to step forward. His knowledge and perspective were genuinely valuable to the team, in line with his profile rather than in conflict with it.

The Results

  • From mutual misunderstanding to mutual understanding.
  • Insight into each other’s motivations and work values.
  • Concrete tools for better collaboration.
  • More energy and ownership within the team.
  • A team day experienced as a genuine turning point.

What This Shows

Collaboration rarely breaks down because people do not want to work together. It breaks down because people do not understand each other. When what drives someone becomes visible, and when there is enough safety to talk about it, the dynamic changes. Problems are not avoided, they are examined through the right lens. Does your organisation have a team that is stuck, or one that shows more potential than its current output suggests? Fokuso guides teams using proven methods such as MindSonar and the F5 approach. Get in touch at www.fokuso.nl. To learn more about MindSonar, visit mindsonar.info.

About the practitioner: Jan van der Werf, Holistic Coach

Sometimes you get stuck. In your work, in your team, or simply in yourself. You notice that you keep ruminating, spend too much time in your head, or lose energy. These are precisely the moments when Jan helps you bring movement back. Through Fokuso Coaching & Training, Jan has been offering individual coaching, team coaching, and training programmes such as mindfulness (MBCT), ACT, and systemic work for more than ten years. Not abstract, but down to earth and practical. The focus is on strengthening resilience, focus, and balance. Jan believes that everyone has the capacity to grow, even when things are difficult. His approach is intensive, results-oriented, and at times confronting, yet always delivered with empathy and respect for each person’s unique story. Small steps can lead to significant change: less stress, more calm in the mind, energy in the body, and clarity in decisions. Plan your appointment at Fokuso and make the difference today. www.fokuso.nl · 06 5264 0611 · info@fokuso.nl