Lithuania‘s location has throughout its history always made it one of the main transportation hubs in Europe and thus played a huge part in the country’s economy. Girteka Logistics is the largest asset-based transport company in Europe with over 24,500 employees. They are constantly growing and their employees‘ careers grow with them: as many as 77% of the company’s managers have made a career within the company.
In recent years they have found big success with their internal training program, “My Leadership Journey.” Aimed at nurturing first-time managers, the program focuses on the critical transition from individual contributors to leaders managing teams. Emphasizing self-awareness and diversity, Girteka has found an indispensable ally in the DiSC personality tool, enhancing the effectiveness of this transformative program.
Program Highlights
A module on Managing Diversity and Motivation: At the heart of the program is the module that utilizes DiSC for understanding and managing different personalities, crucial for effective leadership.
Enhanced Self-Awareness: DiSC assessments, coupled with 3 hours of insightful feedback, have become the program’s highlight and are widely appreciated by the learners.
Strategic Placement of DiSC Module: Moving DiSC to the last module of the program proved beneficial, as participants are more open and receptive towards the end of the training program, creating a safe environment for honest discussions.
Impactful Outcomes
Increased Self-Understanding: Participants expressed that the DiSC module was “the best and most interesting,” offering profound insights into their behavior and personality.
Managerial Self-Acceptance: Feedback from learners indicates a noticeable transformation. Managers have developed a deeper understanding and acceptance of their unique perceptions and leadership styles.
Cultural and Personal Diversity Management: The program has notably enhanced managers’ abilities to operate effectively in diverse contexts and manage different personality types, expanding the open area in their Johari window.
The DiSC Difference
Initially employing DiSC Classic® profiles as part of the program, Girteka recently upgraded to Everything DiSC®, finding it more user-friendly and practical with its additional report options (ie the Comparison and Supplementalreports). DiSC profiles have been instrumental in reinforcing key messages of the program and fostering deeper self-awareness among participants.
Follow-Up and Continuity
While “My Leadership Journey” program is a one-off experience, Girteka ensures ongoing development through opportunities for the same managers to engage in discussions focused on their development goals. As a next potential step, continuing with DiSC to develop the managerial/leadership aspect (ie Everything DiSC Management profile) might be a valuable option.
Conclusion
“My Leadership Journey,” with its strategic incorporation of the DiSC tool, stands as a testament to Girteka’s commitment to developing insightful, self-aware, and diverse leaders.
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Magnetic Group keeps the aviation business running with its suite of products for airlines, MROs, manufacturers, and asset owners. Its business is divided into four distinctive sectors: Magnetic Creative provides design and manufacturing services for both aircraft interior and exterior. Magnetic Assets provides aircraft with engines, landing gears for lease, engine transportation stands, and spare parts and components solutions. Magnetic Maintenance provides aircraft line maintenance, base maintenance, and aircraft engine repair and management. Magnetic Talents offers a full range of engineering and CAMO services, together with various industry-related EASA Part-147 trainings.
Headquartered in Estonia and spread across multiple locations worldwide, they have a dedicated team of 700+ professionals.
Goals
The journey with DiSC began with a clear mission—to improve interpersonal relationships, communication, and teamwork in various settings. Let’s take a closer look at how Magnetic MRO integrated DiSC into their organization’s internal trainings.
Magnetic Group’s goals for their internal trainings were:
Goal #1: Enhancing Self-Awareness
Magnetic Group recognized the value of self-awareness and sought to help participants understand their own behavioral preferences and tendencies. This deeper understanding empowered individuals to navigate their professional and personal lives more effectively.
Goal #2: Improving Communication Skills
Effective communication is vital in any organization. Magnetic Group embraced DiSC to adapt participants’ communication approaches, enabling them to engage with individuals of different DiSC styles more effectively. The result was smoother and more efficient communication.
Goal #3: Strengthening Team Dynamics
Teamwork is the backbone of success. By utilizing DiSC, Magnetic Group fostered understanding, appreciation, and collaboration among team members. This strengthened their team dynamics and propelled their organization forward.
Goal #4: Developing Effective Leadership
Leadership plays a crucial role in driving organizational growth. Magnetic Group equipped their C-level executives with the tools and insights to adapt their leadership approach, leading to stronger relationships and improved leadership effectiveness.
Goal #5: Resolving Conflicts and Problem-solving
Conflicts are a part of any workplace. Magnetic Group provided participants with strategies to navigate conflicts and challenges arising from differences in DiSC styles. This promoted a more harmonious and productive work environment.
What they did
To bring the power of DiSC assessments to life, Magnetic Group conducted internal trainings using the Everything DiSC Catalyst® learning platform. They also ensured that their own consultant underwent the DiSC® Certification program, guaranteeing expertise and quality.
The initial focus was on their C-level executives, who faced unique communication and leadership challenges. Tailored training sessions helped these high-level leaders understand their own personality types, leverage their strengths, and adapt their communication styles to connect effectively with diverse personalities. The goal? To enhance their leadership effectiveness and cultivate a positive organizational culture.
Recognizing the value of spreading DiSC knowledge throughout the organization, Magnetic Group extended the program to lower levels. However, the content was thoughtfully customized to meet the specific needs and roles of participants at each hierarchical level. This ensured that the training addressed the communication dynamics and teamwork requirements specific to each level, fostering collaboration and growth throughout the organization.
With DiSC as their compass, Magnetic Group empowered its leaders to navigate the intricacies of communication, develop effective leadership skills, and nurture a harmonious work environment.
Results & feedback
Overall, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Participants praised the program’s value, describing it as a transformative experience that provided actionable insights and practical skills. Leaders, armed with a deep understanding of their own styles and those of their team members, witnessed improved leadership skills and enhanced team performance.
Leaders, by understanding their own leadership style and the styles of their team members, were able to adapt their approach, delegate tasks effectively, and build stronger relationships with their team. This resulted in improved leadership skills and better overall team performance.
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Schneider Electric is a global organization that offers digital energy management and automation solutions and technologies to achieve efficiency and sustainability.
They operate in more than a hundred countries and have 135 000 employees worldwide.
Below is a brief summary of their experience with DiSC.
Goals
They wanted to develop teamwork skills and create an even more inclusive work culture. In the conditions of remote work, where there is less face-to-face communication, DiSC helps to understand each other faster and build better connections. They decided to offer DiSC assessment and training to all employees – in all three Baltic countries across all departments.
DiSC allows managers to better understand their teams and team members to communicate more effectively. When forming new project teams or working groups, DiSC gives the opportunity to base cooperation on understanding each other’s differences and taking them into account right from the start.
Results
First, they introduced DiSC to each team during an internal training and discussed what team profiling means in terms of communication and collaboration. After that, employees continued to use DiSC on their own – there were meetings between managers and subordinates and between team members, where they agreed on how to communicate with each other more effectively. Everything DiSC® Catalystprovides a good opportunity to compare your DiSC styles – to find synergies and get tips on how to deal with possible bottlenecks.
Feedback
“Employees really appreciate that they have a tool that gives them the opportunity to better understand themselves and find out how others perceive them. DiSC allows employees to share detailed feedback and talk about communication problems – cooperation is more open and they find the right approach to each other faster. They really like that DiSC helps them both in their work and private life.”
– Signe Saks, HR Business Partner Baltics
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Our client Change Partners conducted a Leadership Succession Program for middle managers in the Estonian civil service. It was one of the biggest public training tenders that year to provide an innovative and practical development program for ambitious first-level leaders.
The program provided a cooperation network, new knowledge and tools, and experience needed to succeed in leadership roles. The program aimed to help ensure the strong future growth of middle managers for the Estonian state. And to increase the readiness and confidence of the participants to accept the role associated with higher management responsibilities in the future.
PROGRAM’S CONTENT AND SOLUTION
In one of the first modules of the program named “Personal Efficiency and Self- Leadership”, DiSC played a major part in giving participants a clearer focus on self- development as leaders and on techniques for team development, engagement and communication.
Since the customer expected a high-standard development program that has already proven itself worldwide and has an innovative approach, Everything DiSC Workplace came out to be the perfect fit. All 115 participated managers received a personal profile and learned how to implement this powerful new generation DiSC tool.
This DiSC-based module was a very good introduction to a large-scale program. Many of the following modules often referred back to DiSC – therefore becoming a so-called “common language” to talk about the topics covered in the program.
VALUE FOR PARTICIPANTS (BOTH FROM DiSC AND THE PROGRAM AS A WHOLE)?
There is a need for more cooperation within the civil service today, and in a completely different way than before – throughout the organization, between departments, and among roles. DiSC gave the participating managers additional insight and tools to enhance communication strategies and communication between different parties.
Participants emphasized that DiSC provided a significant amount of new practical knowledge about themselves, particularly in relation to their strengths and challenges.
Immediate implementation of DiSC in relation to ongoing projects or management dilemmas was also considered important – such as how to create a more personalized approach to specific employees depending on their behavioral style or how to support the motivation of different people.
Although participants were mostly from different institutions, many of them were interested in following up with Everything DiSC Comparison reports between each other after the studies, in order to improve one-on-one relationships and understanding of each other more specifically.
CONCLUSIONS & FEEDBACK
Key message is that DiSC training should not be just a one-time thing. It’s methodology and profiles can be nicely linked to and add value to many other important management topics – communication, change management and more.
Some thoughts from the participants:
“I will definitely try to engage with DiSC systematically, as well as practice different situation recognition and situational management. I will also try to monitor the developmental needs and reactions of my personality type more closely.”
“DiSC behavioral styles can be applied very well – they help to understand people, mediate a better communication between them, and also contribute to compiling departments.”
“It seems reasonable to apply DiSC analysis at workplace right away and take the behavioral styles into consideration when giving out tasks and communicating with people. It also helps to adjust the expectation levels for your team members.”
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Tesonet – one of the biggest tech companies in the Baltic States, is an accelerator specializing in next-generation IT products, with a focus on cybersecurity tools and solutions.
Tesonet employs over 1400 people and works with clients from more than 80 countries, investing and helping to develop game-changing products and experiences.
Goal
Tesonet chose DiSC because it is a simple and well-developed method that would give them a common language to talk about people differences and show possible paths for better cooperation and to improve organizational culture.
Their Learning & Development Partner participated in our DiSC Certification program to be able to facilitate DiSC sessions internally.
Tesonet uses DiSC for 3 types of learning and development activities:
Team bonding sessions. DiSC helps team members to get to know each other better (become aware of your strengths and challenging sides) and to solve various problems (lack of trust, miscommunication, etc.).
Leadership development. DiSC helps their current people managers and potential successors identify their unique leadership styles, potential weak points and create development plans to work on them.
Soft skills training (e.g., Effective Communication, Conflict Solving, Giving Feedback, etc.). Tesonet has incorporated DiSC into soft-skills training to help employees understand that the way they communicate and provide feedback might not work for people with other styles. This understanding strengthens their communication skills and broadens their toolkit.
Results
Tesonet is using the all-new Everything DiSC® Catalyst learning solution that offers a personalized interactive learning platform that integrates DiSC into the natural flow of everyday work.
“DiSC gave us a common language to talk about our differences and not to be afraid to express our fears or weaknesses. It also showed possible paths for cooperation between from the first glance very different and confronting styles.”
– Inga Balžekaitė-Šaulienė, L&D Partner.
Feedback from participants of DiSC sessions
“I gathered a lot of information about my team and a lot of useful knowledge on different types of people. It will be very helpful in everyday life.”
“I got to know team members much better. Found ways how we can supplement each other and improve performance as a team.”
“People differ. If you have any misunderstandings in communication, focus on their (not yours) profile: goals, motives and fears.”
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Playtech is the world’s largest supplier of online gaming and sports betting software. It’s one of Estonia’s 5 unicorns and they provide cutting-edge, value-added solutions to the industry’s leading operators.
One of the most important questions for Playtech HR team was: how can they support their leaders in their growth?
Our Solution
Together with Playtech’s HR team, Change Partners helped to create Playtech’s first-ever global development program for new managers, with all people leads from different countries brought together. They held 38 sessions over a 10-month period for 90 managers.
The fully virtual training program, using Zoom, polls and other interactive elements
The program consisted of a kick-off session and 5 modules:
MODULE 1 – My Job as a Manager
MODULE 2 – Understanding myself and my team
MODULE 3 – Managerial Communication – why, what, when and how?
MODULE 4 – Building commitment and ability in your team
“The biggest victory moment of the whole process for us was seeing the “eureka” moments when, during the training, someone discovered the power of a newly learned tool or when we could detect a clear shift in a managers’ mind. One could not expect better feedback to the work done.”
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One of the most experienced and long-term users of DiSC in Estonia, our consulting client Change Partners, is working with Swedbank – the leading bank in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania employing 6,000 employees who serve more than 3 million individuals and 280,000 companies.
Client Need
Swedbank’s goal was to develop the negotiation skills of client managers who play an important role in the success of the bank. It was important to increase their ability to understand and influence people with different styles.
Solution
Change Partners’ training focused on three key aspects of the negotiation – relationship, styles and process.
Using the DiSC profile, each participant got to know their personal negotiation style and behavioral peculiarities, strengths and development needs. Through DiSC-based tools, participants learned to recognize the client’s behavioral style and to choose the right negotiation strategy which adapts to customer preferences.
Participants learned how to prepare for the negotiations, start them in a correct way, listen to the position of the partner and ask questions, convincingly and self-assertively present their position, different techniques of influence, negotiate a common interest and seek initiative, deal with opposition and difficult situations, negotiate a decision.
Results
Better negotiation skills throughout the client manager’s level.
Participants started using effective persuasion techniques based on the tendencies and behavioral patterns of the client.
Participants gained the ability and knowledge to rightly analyze ongoing negotiations and to plan for future negotiations in a meaningful way.
Participant feedback to Change Partners DiSC trainings
“I learned a lot from the training – how to better prepare client meetings and more systematically adapt to the negotiation partner. DiSC will definitely help to communicate more effectively with the other party in the negotiations.”
“With the help of DiSC I learned to better understand myself and to better manage myself by understanding different types of clients.”
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