How Pedagogy Interns adapted to their Host Organisation

Before pedagogy students of a certain Dutch university start their internship, for instance in an educational institution, they were profiled with MindSonar. 

Their supervisor, having intimate knowledge of the culture of each the institutions where the students do their internships, was able to express that culture in terms of Meta Programs and Motivational Drives.

The supervisor, comparing the profile of the student with that of the culture of the institution, could then predict the kinds of obstacles that a particular student was likely to encounter in that particular institution. Let’s say the institution’s culture was reactive, specific, and information-oriented and the student had a proactive, global, and activity-oriented profile. The supervisor could then predict that some people in the institution might experience the student as rash, uncontrollable and vague.

The supervisor would discuss this with the student and also help them think about how they could best respond, should this problem occur. This had advantages for both for students and the institutions. If the predicted problems occurred, the student was prepared to respond adequately. This reduced escalation of conflict and often prevented the eventual drop-out of the student from that internship.

Resilience in Leadership – Bouncing Back

In the first two articles in this series, we described the four essential elements of the Leadership Mindset. We started from a definition by Bill Clinton. In the first article we covered the element of vision in the second one we discussed strategy. For a Leadership Audit, we constructed a vision benchmark and a strategy benchmark. In this third article, we will focus on engagement.

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MindSonar: The Key to Unlocking Effective Coaching Communication

Understand your client’s communication style to get better and quicker results.

As a coach, it is important to understand our client’s thought patterns and language preferences to better facilitate communication.

This is where a MindSonar profile helps us understand our clients’ cognitive styles and communication preferences.

Understand our communication style and thinking.

For us to be successful coaches, we must be self-aware of our own cognitive style and communication preferences. 

Our coaching session may be affected unintentionally by our preconceptions and preferences if we are unaware of them, which could impede the client’s progress. 

Because of this, we need to have a firm grasp of our own cognitive and communication quirks so that we can make the appropriate modifications to make the session relevant to the client’s needs.

As MindSonar is context driven, a profile specific to when we are coaching enables us to gain these insights as a coach.

 Are you of your communication style and thinking patterns as a coach?

Change our communication style for better, quicker outcomes.

Matching our language and communication style with the preferences of our clients enables us to build rapport quickly and understand their thinking and language patterns so we can ask better questions. 

Additionally, it allows us to challenge their perspectives by introducing disruptive language that may help them think differently or evolve mentally as needed. 

To illustrate, if I have a client who is a high energy, enthusiastic, and brims with positivity, I will initially mirror their communication style. Later, I may use language and questioning techniques to transition them to a more reflective and focused mode, so they avoid overlooking any potential pitfalls.

How do you change your communication style during your coaching sessions?

Change the internal communication style of my client.

Most people have some sort of inner dialogue going on in some form or another.  The language used internally has a powerful impact on an individual’s mindset and affects their behaviour and the outcomes they achieve.

Negative self-talk, ‘glass-half-empty’ and ‘away from’ thinking and language can lead to many issues for our clients around confidence, motivation, and mental health issues.  

Additionally, positive self-talk can help individuals feel more confident in achieving their goals and can help build better relationships.

Using their MindSonar profile to raise awareness of their internal thought and communication processes enables the client to transition from negative to positive self-talk quickly and easily.

Are your clients aware of how their internal communication style may be holding them back?

Changing communication changes the outcomes.

By becoming aware of their internal and external language patterns through their MindSonar profile, clients can identify when they are hindering their progress. 

Through MindSonar, clients can identify language patterns that may be inhibiting them from achieving successful outcomes. 

This newfound awareness allows for the transition into a more positive language which will inevitably spark beneficial thought processes as well as effective action plans leading to success!

Enhance your communication coaching outcomes with MindSonar.

MindSonar provides coaches with a powerful tool to better understand their clients’ communication styles and thought patterns, which leads to more effective coaching sessions and ultimately, better outcomes. 

Coaches who are self-aware of their communication preferences can also make adjustments to avoid unconsciously biasing their sessions. 

By helping clients recognise negative self-talk and transition to more positive language, MindSonar enables them to overcome mental barriers and achieve success. 

Ultimately, the ability to adjust communication styles and patterns for both coaches and clients leads to more productive and fulfilling coaching relationships and more positive and quicker outcomes.

As a coach, you want to help your clients unlock their true potential for success. 

Incorporating Mindsonar into your toolset is an excellent way to improve communication and provide more powerful coaching outcomes for your clients.

MindSonar is my go-to tool for understanding clients’ communication styles and cognitive preferences – it’s a must-have in my coaching toolkit.

Resilience in Leadership – From ‘how’ to ‘why’ and back to ‘how’

In the first two articles in this series, we described the four essential elements of the Leadership Mindset. We started from a definition by Bill Clinton. In the first article we covered the element of vision in the second one we discussed strategy. For a Leadership Audit, we constructed a vision benchmark and a strategy benchmark. In this third article, we will focus on engagement.

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Argentina won the World Cup as a High Potential Team

AGILE ORGANIZATION
The Argentinian national football team became world champions. Due to the money involved, and above all, the number of people who train this sport professionally, it is the most competitive contest in the world. The level of difficulty is increased by the fact that a High Potential Team must be organized for a month, consisting of a fairly large number of people – 26 players plus staff. In addition, to be a coach of the national football team, it is good to be able to work in agile sprints – teams are created as projects, and planned to achieve goals: eliminations, championships, and friendly competitions.

PEOPLE, TOGETHER, KNOWLEDGE
Which team was your favourite during the last World Cup and why? Let me tell you that four teams qualified for the semi-finals.  Their managers (coaches) seemed to remain at the back of the teams they lead.  They didn’t consider that they have a great contribution to the victory and put knowledge above the competition, the team above the individual.

Let’s begin with some quotes from Didier Deschamps – the French coach – that explain masterful leadership:

“I don’t consider myself the most important member of the team”

“One of the main tasks of a manager is psychology”

“You always learn, especially from failure.”

PREFERENCES OF MANAGERS IN BUSINESS
I know, I know, we are all modest, and we declare that the team is valuable above all else.  Of course, we like to learn and we like the text promoted by my fellow coaches and business trainers that failure is nothing but feedback! All of this needs to be operationally transferred to the team.

Recently, Forbes Magazine published an article based on Ernst & Young’s Global CEO Outlook Survey, which found that:

86% of Polish CEOs believe that strategic decisions in the company should be made top-down (46% of CEOs from other countries have a similar opinion).

74% of Polish CEOs are more willing to reward individuals for their contribution to strategy implementation than teams for collective work and effort (50% of CEOs worldwide).

In the same article, there is an answer to the question of what, according to Polish and foreign bosses, determines success after the pandemic, and what characteristics are key. Vision and determination account for the most, 24% in Poland (25% – worldwide).  Humility is 10% (11%). Openness and transparency are 8% (16%).Humility, openness, and transparency are still not at the highest price ;).

Now to the next story about the Argentinian coach and the High Potential Team, which in my opinion is somewhat at odds with the CEOs’ choices in the study.

INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL
The fact is that the national team of Argentina four years ago was eliminated by France in the 1/8 finals of the World Cup. Before this match, the team itself fired the coach Jorge Sampaoli, whose way of running the team was extremely self-centered – at MindSonar® we call this set of values: POWER. They just cut him from the team during the tournament. The coach did not suit the LEARNING values, of players seeking joy and a sense of playing, he did not give them added value, and he disturbed them. A leader’s strong internal locus of control kills the team’s engagement and eventually kills the leader himself.

We are told how significant a strong locus of control is. Sure, that’s an important thing when it comes to achievements. We measure this in MindSonar®. Unfortunately, it often turns into a negative internal locus of control for the manager: “Everything depends on me, I control everything! And I will tell them!” = micromanagement.

FROM HIERARCHY TO HOLARCHY, OR CAN YOU GIVE UP LEADERSHIP?
Lionel Scaloni was then appointed interim coach of the Argentinian national team. And you know what happened next? Their development towards the High Potential Team began. Quote from Goles en Directo:

“Scaloni is the most beautiful case in the history of Argentinian football. All because of the humility of Scaloni, who got rid of his ego and played what his players wanted. He wanted to play vertically, and they wanted to play closer to each other, to enjoy the game. Modesty. From a guy who rose to prominence as a one-off, interim coach who was treated like a meme. Today, he is the youngest coach to win the World Cup.”

In an interview with Spanish Sport, Lionel Scaloni, the current Argentinian coach, spoke of his conversation with L. Messi in 2021 – because he felt strong anxiety after the draw with Brazil, he shared it with L. Messi. “Messi told me, ‘It doesn’t matter… we’re moving on… I’m sure it will be fine, and if not, it’s okay to try.’  It took the pressure off me…” (quoting Football-Espagna.Net). A manager who learns from a player’s attitude. A manager who lets go of the pressure! A manager who has concluded that the locus of control is not entirely within himself, that it is better to give leadership to someone with knowledge (value system: LEARNING + balanced cognitive patterns of locus of control and internal reference).

I hear our Polish managers passionate about football or I read sports journalists shouting: “We need a coach who will rule the locker room! Who’s going to hold the locker room by the face!” or “Only Herve Renard (Saudi Arabia coach) – he’s the best coach – did you see how he motivated the players in the changing room? You heard him say: ‘Messi has the ball in the middle of the pitch and you guys are not doing anything – why don’t you take your phone and take a picture with him on Facebook?!’ I see a value system here: POWER + extremely high: internal locus of control and internal reference.

I hear our managers and sports journalists like it, but it’s counterproductive. I would venture to say that the High Potential Team, the team of Argentina, would have fired Renard if he motivated them like that as they fired Sampaoli four years ago!

And as far as I know, the Saudi Arabian team did not go very far in the recent World Cup, but journalists do not mention this.

It seems to me that today’s manager, who has a chance to create a High Performing Team, is closer to Yoda than to Han Solo or any other Avengers.

YOUNG PEOPLE – HOW TO MANAGE THEM?
From my managerial colleagues, I hear frequently uttered incantations: “This generation of young people (Y, Z) is hopeless, they do not engage in work! They don’t care about anything!”

Well, in response, I will again quote France’s coach Didier Deschamp: “Managing players is harder these days because of the arrival of new technology. They are all using it in their spare time so they become more isolated and selfish. They share less, they talk less. They have apps, their phones, and the Internet but they are less used to talking to people.” Didier Deschamps knows that the players are guided by different values than those that were close to him at their age, therefore it is a challenge for him, and … he adapts.

Think about your role in the team, about the team itself, while remaining its leader.

Maximize your performance with our mindset analysis – MindSonar®

The photo for this post from the dressing room of the Argentina national team was probably taken in 2016, unfortunately, I do not know the author.

Helping a Professional find their Dream Job

Sometimes talented professionals don’t fit in a given corporate culture. A common response is to doubt oneself and try to fit in. Fortunately, this professional did a MindSonar profile.

During the intake he told the MindSonar professional that he had had previous jobs that ‘fitted like a glove’. He felt happy, appreciated and was able to contribute. His last two jobs, however, had not been a great success. He felt his managers didn’t trust him and he was making a lot of mistakes. Overlooking his previous job experiences, he noticed the ‘missing ingredient’: the feeling that there was a safety net while learning.   

In his MindSonar profile he focused on a previous job when he had a 100% ‘safety net experience’. He discovered that ‘autonomy’ and ‘positive feedback’ were very important criteria for him to feel proud of his professional abilities. MindSonar helped him to understand the unique combination of meta programmes that supported his “100% safety net experience”. A combination, that immediately explained why he didn’t fit in with the present corporate culture: this was not their dominant way of thinking. 

He rewrote his resume, reconsidered his job outlook and found  an authentic way of presenting himself during job interviews (focusing on his uniqueness). He was successful: he found his dream job within a few weeks!

The MindSonar professional running this project was Jascha Kamstra (Netherlands). Look her up in the Registry.