After hundreds of meaningless trainings, workshops and roundtable discussions people tend to become rather reticent to attend to more events of this kind. I am no different. When I started the journey towards Sofia to attend a “new” people management course, I couldn’t think about the days I will “waste” from my work time.

But as I learned, sometimes you can discover new perspectives exactly when you are the least expecting.

In Sofia I realized in the first day, that although I considered my self as a good leader, I am exactly on the opposite side. Sometimes men think that deliver results are not pleasant to the people as well. But we heard so many times the vise words of our result oriented society, “if you want an omelet, you have to brake a few eggs”, that we almost automatically accept, that result desire sacrifices.

At the training not only that I was able to identify my skills and my mistakes correctly, but I also learned, that any process could be fun, no matter how hard it is. And it is our role to create the settings for the fun part of every task and to go beyond the processes that tend to focus only on result.

In a society which evaluates the individual mainly on the basis of the “indicators” and “numbers” and it is able to assess the performance, the human factor can be neglected. But in any process, if you want real potential and exceptional results you will need your partners in full capacity, motivated and interested.

So since Sofia, I haven’t changed in a major way, but I gained a new perspective which, until now, it was missing. At the first days I started to apply all the principles right away, and obtained results right away, but the every day hussle and stress makes you to be less focused after a while. But when I have a stressful or unpleasant conversation, since Sofia, my mind is always focusing on SBI*, and I try to structure everything in a different way.

I still have a long road to walk, until I will be able to say that I am a people manager, in the true sense of the word, and the hardest battles are against my own reflexes, behaviors and beliefs.

But since Sofia I know my goal and the path. The rest is up to me!

Magor Csibi, Country Manager WWF Romania

* way of giving feedback by reflecting on Situation, Behavior and Impact