about awareness to action international programs and services
TRANSCRIPT
What You Want• You want to develop strong leaders at all levels of the organization.
• You want a strong culture of self-aware leaders who combine a bias for results with the emotional intelligence needed to move people toward shared goals.
• You want effective teams that communicate well and perform seamlessly, whether those teams are co-located or globally dispersed, long-term or project-based.
• A corporate culture that emphasizes agility, execution, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness.
What We Do
Self-Aware and High-
Performing Leaders
Effective Existing Teams
Integrated New or
Multicultural Teams
An Agile Company
Awareness to Action International works at the intersection of performance and personality. We understand that self-awareness and self-management, combined with the emotional intelligence to effectively understand and interact with others, shapes a company’s ability to perform effectively and succeed in a competitive world.
We design and deliver engagements for individuals, teams, and larger business units that get the results you need.
The pages that follow highlight each of our programs and offerings. For more information, contact us at [email protected] or call +1.215.825.2501
We Help Our Clients Develop:
ContentsOur Philosophy …………………………………………………………………..p. 5
Executive Coaching Program …………………………………………………..p. 6
The Personalities at Work Program ……………………………………………p. 7
The Enneagram Model of Personality Style ………………………………….p. 9
Team Building and Team Coaching …………………………………………...p.11
Instinctual Leadership …………………………………………………………..p.12
Beyond Common Sense: Effective Thinking and Decisions….……………..p.13
About Awareness to Action International …………………………………….p.14
What Our Clients Say …………………………………………………………...p.16
Our Philosophy: Awareness to ActionAwareness to Action International works at the intersection of performance and personality. We understand that results matter most and that successful people come in all personality styles, but we also know that our habitual patterns of thinking and behaving can undermine attempts to change and grow. Thus, we help our clients remove the obstacles to success. Each of our engagements, whether they are with an individual or a team, are based on a three-part framework: Awareness, Authenticity, and Action.
AwarenessWe help our clients increase self-awareness in real-time. They learn to become skillful in identifying and modifying their unproductive habitual tendencies.
AuthenticityWe help our clients align their view of the world with the reality of the world and equip them with a process for challenging their assumptions and resolving the conflicting commitments that block change.
ActionSpecific action plans enable our clients to adopt new behaviors by strategically practicing the right behaviors in a deliberate way. We help individuals go from relying on outmoded habits to developing and practicing effective action.
Awareness
AuthenticityAction
Executive Coaching:Awareness to Action LeadershipThe Awareness to Action Leadership-Development Program helps high-potential leaders develop unparalleled self-awareness linked to execution.The program combines an in-depth personality-style assessment, a 360-degree feedback review, and a systematic approach in which an executive coach helps leaders:• Identify their strengths and opportunities for
growth,• Create an action plan that helps them
immediately improve performance and grow in ways that aide in career advancement, and,
• Utilize a set of leadership and performance models that set the stage for life-long learning.
Ongoing coaching sessions help ensure that leaders understand the feedback in the context of their personality style. Further, the sessions assist in developing ways of thinking that will help the client approach leadership challenges with more flexibility and effectiveness.
Our work with leaders focuses on four broad areas:
• The ability to scale and take on greater responsibility.
• Self-management and adaptability.• Effective relationships and balancing
power, connection, and executive detachment.
• Effective thinking skills that combine rigor, curiosity, and creativity.
The Personalities at Work ProgramSelf-awareness and emotional intelligence toward others are critical competencies for the workplace.
The Personalities at Work program helps organizations foster these capabilities in its employees. The program enables groups to improve communication and cooperation, reduce conflict, and increase appreciation for diversity by exploring the nine personality styles found in the workplace. The programs described on the following page are typically one- to two-days long. However, we can customize programs to meet your specific needs.Personalities at Work is based on the groundbreaking book, “Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence and Change” by Robert Tallon and Mario Sikora. This program has been used by companies around the world. Contact us today and see why.
Three Versions of the Program
Personalities at Work for Individuals… is designed to give participants actionable insights into their personality style and the styles of those they work with. This session focuses on the motivations and typical behaviors of each personality type, along with topics such as what each type likes and dislikes in others, how they approach problem solving, how they frustrate other people, etc. Participants also learn about typical performance roadblocks for their personality types and learn strategies for overcoming them.
Personalities at Work for Managers… covers much of the same material in the previous program, but also provides guidance on managing the different personality styles and gives managers insights into how their personality style influences the way they manage others.
Personalities at Work for Executives… is designed to equip senior executives to understand how their personality style helps or hinders them in meeting the specific demands of leadership at higher levels of an organization.
Individuals
Managers
Executives
The Enneagram Model of PersonalityA TOOL FOR INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM TRANSFORMATION The Enneagram is one of most robust but easy-to-use models for understanding personality available today. It identifies two interwoven elements of personality: our instinctual biases—what matters to us to us or what we value—and our adaptive strategies—how we go about satisfying those values.There are three instinctual domains and we each tend to focus on one over the other two. • “Preservers” focus on the fundamentals: processes and structures, administrative needs, and resources. • “Navigators” focus on group dynamics: organizational mores and culture, information exchange, and status issues.• “Transmitters” focus on the excitement: wowing customers and co-workers, positioning the product, and getting the sale.We each tend to habitually rely on one of nine adaptive strategies, such as “striving to be perfect,” “striving to be connected” or “striving to be powerful.” (See next page for more on the strategies.) The combination of the instinctive values and the habitual strategies creates a unique personality profile that provides us with unparalleled insight into ourselves and those with whom we work.
The Nine StrategiesAt Awareness to Action International we focus on problem-solving “strategies” rather than personality “type.” Each of the nine personality styles is rooted in an adaptive strategy; that is, an approach to solving problems and adapting to our environment. The strategies are rooted in a non-conscious need to feel a certain way when faced with the challenges life brings. This affective need greatly influences the way we think about the world. Our resulting behaviors are consistent with the way we need to feel and the way we think. We use all nine strategies to varying degrees, but one serves as our default or most commonly used strategy. We call this the preferred strategy. There is nothing inherently wrong with (non-consciously) preferring one strategy over the others, but we run into trouble when we use our preferred strategy habitually and maladaptively (i.e., in ineffective ways). The goal of working with the Enneagram is to develop the flexibility to use the right strategy in the right circumstances rather than over-relying on our preferred strategy whether circumstances call for it or not.The connecting points of the diagram represent a neglected strategy and a support strategy for each Ennea-type. We use each of these strategies in both positive and negative ways, but we often neglect to use or misuse one and unconsciously over-rely on the other for support of our preferred strategy.
Peaceful
Perfect
Connected
Unique
Outstanding
Detached
Secure
Excited
Powerful
Striving to feel…
Awareness to Action Teams
Awareness to Action Teams starts with a comprehensive examination of the team and development of an in-depth team profile. This profile uses the simple-but-robust Enneagram model of personality styles to identify how each individual focuses their attention disproportionately on one of the three instinctual domains—preserving, navigating, transmitting—and how they over-rely on one of nine adaptive strategies to satisfy their values (see pages 9-10). Once the team profile is identified, we’ll lead participants through the three-step Awareness to Action process to help the team develop skills for identifying shared goals and objectives and removing the interpersonal and structural obstacles that make it difficult to achieve them. Because every team is different, our consultants will work with you to customize this program so it meets your exact needs.
Contact us today and we can design the
right solution for you. [email protected]
+1 215.825.2501
Instinctual Leadership Program
Each of us has a particular instinctual focus of attention that shapes what we value. This focus influences our leadership style, creating strengths and blind spots.
• Preservers are focused on the nuts and bolts of leadership—processes, structures, administration, etc., but they can be overly conservative and uninspiring.
• Navigators are focused on group dynamics and culture, and they are often good strategic thinkers; but they can struggle with execution and administration.
• Transmitters are focused on the intensity and excitement of the business—selling their vision, ideas, and products to whomever will listen—but they can struggle to read subtle cues from others or changing group dynamics.
The Instinctual Leadership Program explores these three leadership styles and equips each style to leverage their strengths and overcome the liabilities caused by their unconscious focus of attention.
Preservers Navigators Transmitters
Beyond Common Sense: Critical Thinking and Decision-Making for LeadersEveryone thinks they have good critical thinking skills; few people are actually good critical thinkers.
Current scientific theory on reasoning suggests that we are excellent at reasoning our way to what we want to believe, but not so good at seeing the world objectively and clearly. However, we tend to believe the opposite—that our intuitions are objective and accurate. This group program helps leaders develop the tools and abilities they need to overcome innate reasoning biases that cloud our judgment by addressing three distinct areas:
• The importance of critical thinking skills and the innate impediments to doing it well, including cognitive biases and poorly managed emotions.
• Logical fallacies--the dangers they pose and how to recognize them.• Effective tools for reasoning and decision-making
While soft skills—such as emotional intelligence or the ability to manage conflict and communicate well—are critical for strong leadership, effective reasoning and decision-making skills are an important and often-overlooked part of the leader’s toolkit. This program will give you those skills.
About Awareness to Action InternationalAwareness to Action International is an international consulting group that helps our clients develop the kind of practical self-awareness to leads to effective action. Our consultants come from a wide variety of industry backgrounds, from international banking to publishing, giving us a unique breadth and depth of experience. Our experience with the Enneagram model of personalities styles in working with–and getting results in–organizations of all sizes throughout the world is hard to match.We work with organizations of all sizes—from small regional companies to non-profits to multibillion-dollar international corporations. We have experience working with leaders and teams on five continents and bring a multi-cultural mindset to our engagements.We are proud of the results we deliver to our clients, and we take pride in the fact that we are always learning from our clients, developing our own awareness and insights so we can better help you.
www.awarenesstoaction.com+1 215.825.2501
Mario SikoraMario Sikora is president of Awareness to Action International and an executive coach. For nearly 20 years he has advised leaders in large organizations across the globe. He has worked with senior leaders in numerous multinational corporations, including Motorola, TE Connectivity, Dow Chemicals, Panasonic, Arris Inc., Rovi Corp., Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson.An internationally recognized speaker and author, Mario is co-author of “Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change” and author of many articles on personality styles and leadership, performance improvement, and teambuilding. His writings have been translated into Italian, Spanish, French, Turkish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, and Danish. Mario specializes in working with senior leaders in a number of areas, including:• Performance turnaround—helping leaders overcome performance
patterns that are undermining their success.• Scaling for broader assignments—helping high-potential leaders adjust to
or prepare for the demands of a larger assignment. • Global leadership—helping clients succeed in global roles that require
multi-cultural skill, whether they are US leaders adjusting to an international assignment or non-US leaders adjusting to US corporate culture.
• Leadership and Talent Development—helping clients develop the two most important tasks of leadership—influencing and motivating others and developing strong leaders in their wake.
Mario SikoraPresident/Senior Executive
Coach
+1 215 825 2501
A Sampling of What Our Clients Say
“I have had the opportunity to employ Mario Sikora and the Action to Awareness programs with several management teams over many years. I have found them to be an outstanding way to strengthen the team dynamics for new, and established, leadership teams while improving overall team chemistry and strengthening one-on-one relationships within the team. This work helps foster improved communications around the tough issues that challenge most teams. It is always one of the first programs I deploy when joining a new team.”Charles Dougherty, CEO, American Science and Engineering
“I have been working with Mario for over 10 years and have held a variety of positions during that time. The engagement has been invaluable as I have transitioned from being a team member to leading teams to leading leaders of teams. Understanding my personality and leadership strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of my team, has enabled me to be a better leader and accelerated my professional development.”John Hewitt, SVP/General Manager, DataCommunications Group, TE Connectivity
“I have known and worked with Mario Sikora for over 15 years. He brings a completely unique and dynamic approach to the realm of executive development and personal awareness. An organization or an individual can not grow and acquire ever-higher levels of performance without a clear understanding of the personal strategies we all favor and interact with. Mario's approach is without dogma or personal bias. His use and application of the Enneagram model could not be better-honed for the organization or individual seeking a practical approach to improving their effectiveness in developing highly functional teams. He uses this personality model along with his own intuition and well-trained eye to break down the obstacles that stand in the way our peak performance. By establishing high levels of direct one-on-one connection with the client Mario is able to lock in a sustaining environment in which the leader is able to drive themselves on a career long journey of actualizing their highest potential. Timothy P. Schermerhorn, Vice President & General Manager, Ericsson
A Sampling of What Our Clients Say
“In searching for the right executive coach, I interviewed a number of candidates. Mario was different from the others in that he was able to quickly assess what I needed from a coach. Working together we developed an individualized plan that leveraged my strengths and focused on specific areas of development. The result is that I have enhanced confidence and maturity as a senior leader in my company. Given his background, style, and my personal experience with Mario, I highly recommend him.”Ken Manne, Vice President & General Counsel, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited
“Mario Sikora is a highly effective professional consultant for individuals and group development and growth. What separates Mario from the large number of ‘consultants’ is a unique blend of intelligence that has enabled his creation and application of tools and processes vs. the more ‘rote’ form of delivering simplistic two-dimensional models that are often a broad brush for all. “Mario will approach assignments from an ‘inside and self-knowledge’ out then out again to the group as a system of individuals. His greatest strength is that he truly listens when most consultants are inclined to talk, present, and try to impress. He will want you and your group to become effective and he is very effective in his role as a catalyst to create deep learning, personal growth, and successful outcomes.”Ed Zakrzewski, Director, Human Resources, PEI Genesis
“It’s been a pleasure working with Mario over the last 15 years. As a new manager he taught me to identify and eliminate blind spots, to improve self-awareness and to appreciate personality differences in organizations. More recently, he has helped me build several high-performing teams by improving their ability to work together and with other departments. Mario uses both individual coaching sessions and team building exercises to achieve tangible and lasting results.“ Louis Donofrio, Vice President Product Management, RES Software
