Józef Kącki
Can you, after graduating from a leading technical university, follow a path other than engineering? My story shows that education is just the beginning of the road…
I built my managerial skills, and later my leadership skills, based on training, MBA studies and the tips of mentors. However, above all, I reflected on daily challenges, successes and failures.
I gained experience during 10 years in the IT industry, leading PM, marketing and professional services departments. I was a managing director of the first company listed on New Connect.
I am passionate about psychology, personal effectiveness, using one’s own potential, and also applying these areas in group work. I get great joy from teams achieving goals, which would not be possible individually, even for a genius.
I take great satisfaction from the development of others and passing on experience and good examples. I value daily work with people who are better than me. That’s why I established Leaders Island, where for the last four years I have had the opportunity to work with over a thousand managers and leaders.
I believe in the superiority of practical experience over theoretical knowledge. Curiosity of the world and the proximity in our global village of top class leaders led me to create the LiGHT for Leaders Foundation. Every year in Krakow during the LiGHT conference, of which I am the curator, we host excellent leaders, thereby strengthening the leadership skills in our country.
Social responsibility for the close and distant environments is also important for me. During the last two LiGHT editions we collected 100 000 PLN for charity. I am also a member of the CEO-volunteers Coalition, which promotes the voluntary giving of skills.
I really like to talk with experts. I run a podcast “From the workshop of a leader”, in which, together with invited practitioners, I share experiences from the fields of management and leadership.
After work, I change the context but remain in the role of a leader. My most important team is made up of my wife and four inquisitive children.
I love the distance of 42 km 195 m and have completed a few marathons. I have also taken part in many yacht cruises as a helmsman.
That’s all, I don’t have any time for others. 🙂
Błażej Pasiut
Resolving difficult matters is my specialisation.
I obtained my experience of conducting discussions in difficult situations, coping with crises and solving conflicts in the most extreme way: as a mediator and negotiator in crises. For years I have been supporting others professionally while taking decisions concerning people’s lives.
In the role of a court mediator, I help the parties to find the optimal solution to their dispute. I help people to settle conflicts which are sometimes so old that they can not remember when they started. I have participated in over 4,000 mediations conducted inside as well as outside courts.
I share my experience, which is no less of a challenge, as a scientific worker. I have created courses and conduct educational activities in the area of the psychology of conflicts, mediation and negotiation. For many years, I have been passing on my knowledge to students of such institutions as Jagiellonian University, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University and AGH University of Science and Technology.
My profession has become my passion. The second one I have is Kyokushin karate, which can be defined by a road to look for the truth about yourself, about others and the art of dialogue. I help people, teaching them how to speak and agree on the common truth, especially in the most difficult situations. Therefore, I have succeeded in obtaining agreement even between … work and hobby.
From the very beginning of Leaders Island, I have been sharing my experience, leading workshops in inter-personal communication and mediation in business. I show people how to effectively understand each other and, thanks to that, how to achieve… agreement!
Wojtek “Wery” Wereszko
I obtained my experience in the areas of planning, directing and motivating in… a uniform. Before I began my mission for business, I was an officer in the GROM and Formoza military units with over 20 years of service.
I commanded, among others, the Polish Army Contingent in the Persian Gulf as well as during the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. For seven years, I led the training department and was the commander of the JW GROM Military Diver Training Centre. Thus, I come straight from a world where taking conscious, brave and effective decisions sometimes affects even more than individual human lives.
I obtained knowledge during numerous training courses both in Poland and abroad. I am also a graduate of the Military University of Land Forces in Wrocław in commanding divisions. I graduated from the Gdańsk University of Technology in the Faculty of Management and Economics in the area of production process management. I also participated in postgraduate studies in the Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship Technology.
Already in my second year of professional life, I obtained the FRIS trainer’s certificate. I am also an accredited consultant of the Facet5 methodology, a certified practitioner of The Coaching Maps method as well as a business trainer of the SET Academy. I have obtained certificates in the areas of Prince 2 project management and MSP programs, Change Management and M_o_R APMG International risk management.
After this rather long list, which you have probably skipped, I can tell you something about myself. I follow the principle that you can not manage co-workers. They should be guided, supported and developed so that they can take our role when the time is right.
I am a strong advocate of teamwork. I focus on areas connected with conscious leadership and believe deeply that “it’s not necessary to be a hero to send people into battle, a hero should be one of those that go into battle”.
I deal with building effective project teams using the above-mentioned methods of FRIS, Facet5 and The Coaching Maps. I try to inject the participants of the training with ideas taken from the world of special forces, mainly in the areas of managing risk in projects and programs. I am also interested in building long-term business strategies as well as supporting individual development through mentoring and coaching management staff.
Based on the experience of my former professional life, I founded the True Leader firm. I created the “Grow up to True Leadership” development program directed at management, which is based on the most effective tools of the military world.
For over 25 years, I wake up no later than 6 am in accordance with the “The faster we start… the later we finish” principle! During my free time, I explore wilderness of Europe on a Harley.
Dawid Ostręga
I am not a trainer, a “coach” nor a theorist. I am a specialist in building teams, which I have proven in many places and various fields. I have managed in such firms as EPAM System, IBM, SolarWinds and SKK. I have set up from scratch four software development centres in Krakow.
For 20 years, I obtained experience outside Poland with the intention of bringing it back. After graduating in London, I didn’t want to be seen as just an IT engineer. I wanted to widen my personal horizons and show a wide range of managerial skills. To do this, I accepted a scholarship to Wesley College in the USA to do an MBA.
At that time, I could already boast about leading a scout group, my own company and the champions of England in American football. Even today, I love to combine my various worlds: sport, scouting and business, in order to transfer experiences and managerial “lessons” between them.
Away from business, I built a scout group which was awarded the title of the best at the world jamboree in Canada. As an American football player, I was a three-time champion of Great Britain and multiple captain of the national team. As a trainer, I created the Kraków Kings team, the champions and vice-champions of the Polish American Football League.
I am most passionate about identifying and developing the personal potential of people in the team. I am linked to Leaders Island through my passion for training the new generation of leaders by practitioners. By such people as me, who share their successes (and also failures), in order to create a space for the development of the next leaders in our country.
When I am tired of my duties as a director in Shell Energy or running the Kraków Kings youth team, I get on my motorbike and relax my mind, visiting the beautiful places of Lesser Poland. On two wheels, I have reached each country in Europe and most states of the USA.
Don Allen
I am passionate about people, building teams and… success. Those are the factors that formed his career path.
I’m a dynamic entrepreneur with a proven track record of success in diverse business ventures, from building and managing coffee shops and gyms to launching a successful modelling agency. With a focus on cost-control and service improvement, I’ve transformed a low-turnover restaurant into a high-volume success, increasing sales by 100%.
Additionally, I was responsible for the successful implementation of the UK Governments “Investors in People” program across 13 restaurants and bars nationwide, demonstrating a commitment to investing in and developing people.
I have been working as an actor and director for more than 25 years. I have appeared on TV in shows The Bill, 2point4 children, and Keeping Up Appearances to name just a few. I have completed number one theatre tours across the UK and Europe and played the lead in a USA tour of Ajax directed by Peter Meineck.
In the film industry, I’ve successfully produced and directed both a micro-budget and a £1.5 million budget feature film.
Furthermore, I am a dedicated mentor and teacher, leading workshops in some of the most challenging schools in London and inspiring the next generation of leaders.
Workshops that I conduct:
