Exercise nr. 3

The only story that could fit under the parameters that you specified is the period when I worked at

Unison LLC Tbilisi based insurance company. I was doing my internship(practice) at Unison as a part of

my Bachelor’s degree program. In the end of the internship the head of the legal department Nata

Bodikadze proposed me to remain with them as I proved to be a good intern. I accepted and after I got my

bachelor’s diploma I started to work at Unison.

The company is dealing mainly with vehicle and health insurance so at first it was extremely difficult for

me to understand what is going on as what I learned at university was not enough comparing to what I

had to do, thereafter the first month I position myself as D1.

In a month I started to be more independent in regard to the assigned tasks as I learned from fellow

lawyers from the department tricks and elements that made the job easier and more efficient. This is

where I believe I started to be D2. I am not fond of paperwork to much so I asked Nata to give me court

job in order to have a more active job style. Nata didn’t want to do it at first but I insisted and she gave

me a case, sort of test case in order to see if I can do the job. The case implied an individual that had a

cheap travel emergency insurance and claimed reimbursement for his health services expenses as a result

of a suspicious sudden illness. We refused to reimburse him as the contract implies reimbursement only

in emergencies and only in sudden cases his case wasn’t an neither an emergency nor sudden. The

individual sued us. I had to be quick and smart so I requested his medical history and found out that he

had exactly the same health problem before which served as grounds to think that it wasn’t a sudden

illness. I won the case and Nata gave me the court job. I was so amazed that I won the case. It was my

first serious job, done well which boosted my confidence and as a result I believe I transcended to level

D3 or D4.

Head of the legal department Nata, had two different leadership styles. At first she had a ,,Teacher’’ style

as she was pushing me but at the same time explaining and giving me hints on how to work with

documents the most efficient way possible. After I started to defend the company in court and did it quite

well, the management applied a mentor leadership style. In my opinion relating ourselves to the specifics

of my development story the management adopted a suitable way of leadership.

Exercise nr. 2

I realized this task with my roommate Davit Grediavshvili. We, Georgians, are very good negotiators, as interpersonal relations in Georgia are very strong. Therefore, we decided to give and take feedback regarding the Influencing/Negotiating skill that as appears we both possess on a quite advanced level. We love to persuade others, build consensus through give and take, gain cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals.

1) What was the hardest part, if any?

From my point of view the hardest part was to understand whether the negative feedback that we were giving was reasonable and had solid grounds as we have different styles of negotiating and influencing people, because I was perceiving a certain action as a medium/long term strategy whereas Davit was thinking that it’s a ,,pushy behavior ’’ if I can say so , therefore we decided to ask a third party to help us decide.

2) What you liked?

I liked that in practice feedback has a dual applicability from one hand feedback helps to improve the existing skills and from another contributes to eliminate the negative elements that hinder the development and result.

3) What was the most useful take-away?

The most useful take-away was the fact that I realized the variety of styles or ways that you can use the negotiating skill, by virtue of psychological approach. Therefore there’s more than one way that you can use negotiating skill in order to achieve the result, also I realized that it is crucial to have a buffer of tolerance especially when you deal with various people.

Exercise nr. 1

No Position Competence Definition Basic levels (proficiency level) 1-5

Questions asked

1 Company Lawyer

Problem Solving

Ability to anticipate problems, see how a problem and its solution will affect other units; gather information before making decisions; weight alternatives against objectives and arrive at reasonable decisions; adapt well to changing priorities, deadlines and directions; work to eliminate all processes which do not add value; is willing to take action, even under pressure, criticism or tight deadlines; take informed risks;

5/5 1. Tell me about a time where practical improvements needed to be made based on large amounts of data?

2. Describe a situation in which the cause of a problem was notinitially clear?

3. When have you needed to solve a problem using abstract,lateral thinking?

2 Firefighter Teamwork Able to effectively work and complete tasks in-group settings. Works cooperatively, with a positive attitude with others to achieve common goals. Treats others with dignity and respect and maintains a friendly demeanor, values the contributions of others, works strategically in cooperation with other team members, crucial for firefighters.

5/5 1. How do you deal with team breakdown ?

2. Describe a situation in which you were able to build team spirit during a time of low morale

3. What kinds of people do you have problems getting along with?

4. What are in your opinion key ingredients in guiding and maintaining a successful team relationship?

3 Financial Analyst

Analytical thinking

Ability to visualize, articulate, conceptualize or solve both complex and uncomplicated

5/5 1. Give me an example on how you demonstrated your quantitative ability.

2. Describe the project

problems by making decisions that are sensible given the available information.

or situation that best demonstrates your analytical abilities? What was your role?

3. Tell me about a time when you had to analyze information and make a recommendation.

4. To whom did you make the recommendation?

5. What was your reasoning ?

Exercise nr.1(continuation)

No Competence Low(0) Average(1) Strong(2)1 Problem Solving Proposes solution to

improve customer satisfaction

Determines cause of workforce problem and recommends corrective action

Addresses routine organizational problems by leading a team to brainstorm solutions

Establishes guidelines to clarify complex and/or controversial processes

• Reconciles conflicting and/or incomplete information to develop solutions • Applies appropriate methodology to discover or identify policy issues and resource concern

• Addresses systemic barriers inhibiting the achievement of results by forming teams to conduct focus groups and develop solutions

• Improves organizational efficiency by developing, planning, and implementing a multi-tier solution to complex or unprecedented problems

• Develops and implements a remediation plan restoring stakeholder confidence in a critical agency program

• Synthesizes information from internal and external sources to develop an action plan addressing program issues

2 Teamwork • Works with team to implement operating procedures within agency • Suggests utilizing team exercises to improve dynamics• Requires frequent guidance

• Includes entire team in decision-making process when developing mission and goals for the division • Creates senior-level teams to design and implement requirements for new systems and procedures • Leads team from various organizational units to create new systems or processes

• Promotes cohesiveness of a dysfunctional team by defining roles and responsibilities of each team member and establishing overall objectives • Leads teams to implement Congressional programs and interact with legislative representatives• Inspires interagency team to accomplish long-term strategic goals

3 Analytical thinking

Applies the competency inthe simplest situations

• Applies the competency in somewhat difficult situations

• Designs and implements an agency-wide financial

• Requires close and extensive guidance• Ensures the result is accurate andcomplete• Monitors income and expenditures for projects

• Conducts research to determine resource needs and guides the procurement process to acquire resources • Conducts a cost-benefit analysis to develop sound financial plans with programmatic impact • Follows established guidelines and procedures to ensure approval of funding for key initiatives • Prepares and monitors office's annual operating budget

management system to meet organizational objectives • Develops agency-wide financial procurement procedures and policies • Audits major acquisitions having agency-wide impact, presents findings, and recommends corrective actionsApplies the competency in exceptionally difficult situations

Exercise nr. 4

5. Please evaluate at which development level (D1 to D2) Kaspars is related to each

task:

a. Kaspars is a capable and energetic middle level manager in a medium size organization

(about 70 people). He has more than 10 years work experience, and he has been working

hard to build his career. He has good project planning and collaboration skills, and

Kaspars likes working in a team. He has a good sense of humor and he is well-liked

among his office, as well as he is informal leader

of his team. As Kaspars' line manager is sure that he is ready to be promoted, he is being

given several tasks to see if he is ready for the next career level.

Kaspars is asked to create the budget for the Sales department for the next fiscal year. So far

his line manager has been doing it. Budgeting is always a stressful time, because every

number has to have justification behind it, you should not forget anything and quite often all

estimates have to be defended fighting with the Finance Director of the region. Budget has

very many lines and positions (business, travel, staff salaries, taxes and benefits, training

etc.), one needs to acquire a lot of new information and work closely with Accounting to

obtain it. Every mistake can influence the work of the next year. And this has to be done on

top of regular responsibilities which already usually take more than 8 hours of a day.

Kaspars already finds it difficult to have enough quality time with family and kids, and now

on top this is coming! It would be good if his boss could help with this, but unfortunately he

is on a long-term business trip in Poland and will not return before the deadline for

submitting the budget.

Development level D2 as a result of low commitment and to some extent low or

middle competence.

b. There is high level management visit planned in Riga office. All the local management is

very

excited about it. They would like to avoid any misunderstandings and leave the best

impression- the atmosphere is not far from painting the grass green. Kaspars has experienced

organizing similar visits of lower management, but only as a team member, as the

Commercial Director Baltics has

been leading everything (general visit agenda, logistics, introduction to the organization,

presentations of local Lead Team etc.). The Commercial Director has big experience dealing

with such issues, as he is from Poland and has been part of hosting guests there. In Poland

such visits take place every two months, in Riga - once in 5 years! 2 days before the

management visit the wife of the Commercial Director, who has stayed back in Poland,

breaks her leg during a car accident. It is a complicated fracture, and she has to stay in a

hospital for several operations. During that time someone should take care of the other

family members (2 small kids and a dog). So the Commercial Director leaves for Warsaw

with the first possible flight, promising Kaspars to be available over the phone. Kaspars is

upset about the situation and really worried. Rumors say that the Global Finance

Director has a very short fuse

Development level D1, because I think that Kaspars wants to organize everything on

the top level, therefore he is very committed, however he doesn’t know how to do it, so

his competence is low.

Exercise nr. 5

Peter Bergman describes his storyline according to the Kotter 8-stage model that you can see

on the right.

At first Peter thought that everything is

going well and had no worries as he

had experience and thought that took

into account all details. However

everything went wrong and Peter was

demoralized as his approach didn’t

work. Peter was in the situation to

embrace change or fail.

The urgency was from the very

beginning in form of getting the project

implemented. Peter started to shape his

working environment. Peter changed

his approach on how to obtain the

desired result where he communicated

his vision to the project members in the most efficient way.

Peter implemented change and achieved the best result that he could expect applied the

Kotter model.