What Tuff contribute with to an Agile work environment? Some words about Tuff from people working in an Agile and VUCA environement

What Tuff contribute with to an Agile work environment? Some voices from people working in agile and VUCA work environments

Marin Petrov, co-founder and CEO of Hack and Paint marin.petrov@hackandpaint.com, www.hackandpaint.com

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? I am the co-founder and CEO of Hack and Paint (www.hackandpaint.com) - a self-management game studio start-up. I took the Tuff Leadership Training Step 1 which was a life changing experience both for me and for the organization. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? We are a company that runs on top of Holacracy, which has a lot of similarities to Agile and is also non-hierar- chical management system. I always describe Holacracy as Agile for Organizational structures. In recent years, there has been a lot of innovation happening in the organizational aspects of companies. How we run meetings or how we develop products faster and more efficient. But the missing ingredient in all this has been exactly what Tuff Leadership Training provides - personal development for leaders and managers in such or- ganizations. So, if Agile provides the systems and structures for the organization, Tuff Leadership Training provides the mindset that people in those organizations need to have to exercise their full potential. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? All companies nowadays are more and more VUCA in a sense. Compared to more predictable organizations in the past (let’s say a factory), we now see that the traditional hierarchical management doesn’t work in such uncertain and complex organizations. We already have the tools in place to replace that traditional hierar- chical management systems, but we didn’t have the tools for the people in those organizations to learn how to better operate in them. That is where Tuff leadership training shines - it is not only beneficial for the managers and team leaders in such organizations, but for every single person in it. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? Here are few key aspects that I myself learned after the training: 1) How to ”inspire” people in my team or organization without the need to ”inspire” them. 2) How to put the responsibility on the people in my team and not own the responsibilities myself. 3) How to give clear messages to my peers so I am understood. 4) How to show that my peers are also understood and really understand them, not just think that I understand them. 5) I learned how to be a better coach and a better human. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? I have experienced many different management and leadership trainings, but Tuff is on a completely new level. One person in your organization can attend it and give it a ”test run” which is what I did. Now I’m certain that each employee in our organization should attend it too.

In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? It is much harder than I thought. It is called ”Tuff” for a reason, but I didn’t believe it before I tried it. I used to believe I have really good leadership skills. And I do, but now I see how much more I have to learn and practice in order to be a leader on this new level. Tuff leadership gave me the skill sets and the instruments to achieve that new level of Leadership.

Perry Timms, Founder & (CEO) Chief Energy Officer: PTHR Author: Transformational HR (Kogan Page - October 2017) See Perry’s TEDx talk at tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-future-of-work-Perry-Timms Text/call: +44 7711 169677 | Perry.Timms [Skype] Browse: pthr.co.uk | slideshare.net/PerryTimms

Introduction Following my introduction to Tuff Leadership (training and methodology) I had the pleasure of experiencing their 2+2 days Introductory learning events in January and February in London. Here are some reflections and examples of my experiences. What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? I am a founder and practitioner within my own enterprise (PTHR) aiming to help HR teams and people to be- come more future-focused, more future-savvy and more skilled and creative towards their best vision of the future. It’s consulting, speaking and writing as a micro-agency and a connected network of progressive think- ers and doers in the future of work space. It was through the network (Lisa Gill in particular) that I was first alerted to Tuff. At the time (mid-2016), I had just walked away from a challenging assignment as a consultant to a digital agency and was revving up my own enterprise again to be the varied, adaptive thing it was before that assignment. I met Karin and Carl Erik and was enamoured by the Tuff principles and the philosophy de- scribed by the two founders. I wanted to know more and was fortunate to experience this as part of 2 events as part of a structured programme early in 2017. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? I am not just a disciple for new ways of working and leader, I am a strong believer that our current orthodoxies need reinventing. So, Tuff Leadership Training felt very much of that ilk and I wasn’t wrong in my perception. In looking at a more adult, responsible and responsive way to lead and collaborate, Tuff felt like the perfect bridge to me between traditional thinking and doing in work and leading and the progressive practice I felt was needed. Non-hierarchical and agile ways are my ideal but I’ve seen and experienced how difficult it can be to get traction in this new way. Old habits really do die hard. Tuff Leadership Training is a rewiring of thoughts; a re- calibration of beliefs and a reinvention of methods to do what managers should do for most of their time: get the best from their people. Ownership, accountability, empowerment, liberation, trust, potential, decision-making, pathway creation, innovation and sensing are all enhanced (now that I’ve seen Tuff Leadership Training in action) by this meth- odology. It suits agile and non-hierarchical ways and it suits, as I said earlier, that transition between old and new. In Joshua Cooper Ramo’s smart book “The Seventh Sense” he talks about the old and new dynamic in networked ways of working and leading. He also says that leaders are largely skills-deficient in these areas and see old and new things equally in a threat and potential sense. Tuff Leadership Training helps leaders see such new developments (non-hierarchical and agile) as potential and not threat allowing fear to no longer lower IQ; freeze mindsets and create unproductive tensions.

In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? Building on the above, it sets a more adult perspective on the conversations that matter in work. People - combined with systems and tools - make an organisation what it is. Conversations are - as quoted at the UK’s most progressive business conference Meaning - the smallest units of change. Therefore, anything that brings more power, humanity, effective actions and clearer thinking to this will help us exponentially shift from old to new. Tuff Leadership Training does this. It helps the manager’s mental models (quoted often by such luminar- ies as Peter Senge and Otto Sharmer) and therefore the approaches are shifted and the actions revolutionised as a result. This is much needed in a world where the onset of more digitisation and fragmentation of the working world unsettles people and they look to rebel against this advancement instead of understanding and working with this new energy and technology. Overall, I would say that Tuff Leadership Training is one of the smarter new energy and technologies to appear in the management realm for quite some time. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? The main benefits for Tuff Leadership training in Agile and Lean environments is to open up the responsi- bility sphere to all people and not hold it in management positions or individuals and - perhaps most im- portantly - to resist the lure to default to the old orthodoxies. I am certain that most of the reasons our new management thinking, modelling and practice hasn’t shifted is because it’s harder to let go, create something new and bring that in as the new norm. Tuff Leadership Training therefore could be the enhanced fuel additive to an already highly purring engine of brilliance. Over revving will cause the engine to fail: Tuff Leadership Training is a new stimulator, lubricator and damage limi- tator. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? It matches intent, vision and desire to new, practical and adaptive ways to deliver on the vision. It’s hard to shift from predictable machinery to new ways and Tuff Leadership Training helps at the most challenging level for this: individually. Systemic changes will follow and Tuff Leadership helps people with that too - their con- nection to the things and the models they will have to experience in any shift, transformation and evolution is underway, reactions to this may vary and Tuff Leadership Training provides a much more sophisticated way of handling reactions to maximise the opportunities and individual contributions in this change process. Sustaining shifts is also an organisational disability that often curtails the impact of great vision and de- ployed application towards this. Tuff Leadership Training has - in my view - altered the relationships between manager and team member to address this also. In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? You will never be the same again.

Rune Hvalsøe, Agile coach info@agilekonsulenten.dk +45 3132 3941 Currently working to facilitate, drive and support the introduction of agile methods and processes in Danfoss, Denmark. The overall objec- tive is to facilitates and support the integration of new agile processes and methods across Danfoss software and hardware product devel- opment projects. I embrace, coach and teach agile values and principles to cross functional teams, selecting the best agile frameworks, tools, and methods (e.g. SCRUM, SAFe, XP, Kanban etc.) in agreement with Danfoss.

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? I participated in Tuff Leadership Training Step 1, and then Step 2, when I was a section manager at Sony Mo- bile, I participated in the training in 2013. I was a section manager for up to 38 people, I was helping our PO with his role, educating the teams in Agile way of working, working with my SM – trying to work as a Coaching manager. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? • Agile is very much about delegating responsibility to the teams, this means that managers have to become coaching managers and the mindset in the organization have to change – this can only hap- pen if management support the transition. • Becoming a coaching manager is difficult for any manager – Tuff Leadership Training give the partici- pating managers and leaders a theoretical and practical introduction to what it means to be a coach- ing manager, why we want to become coaching rather than controlling and lot of practical exercises. • Working as a coaching manager means that you need to lead with questions not with answers. • When you delegate the responsibility to the employees, the only way to interact with them as a manager is through questions, if you start to tell them that they need to do, you are taking back the re- sponsibility. • Tuff Leadership Training give the participants the tools to communicate with the employees in a way that stimulate the Agile mindset. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? I do not know your company, but Agile is addressing VUCA and, in the Agile way of working, the deci- sion is often moved the teams, and you constantly need to ask questions to find the right path, you will most likely work very much like Eric Ries describe it in his “The Lean Start-up”. Having an organization where you constantly have to learn, where you constantly have to test your hypothesis, you need to put your faith in the hands of the teams and management have to learn to lead with questions rather than answers – as when you are in a VUCA environment, you do not have answers but a lot of questions that you need to find answers to, and only coaching managers can suc- ceed with this (as I see it).

Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? The main benefit for me was to get additional tools to work with and practice it during training and with some of my colleagues after returning to the company to avoid many of the pitfalls there are. • It has helped me a lot later as an Agile coach, as it helped me to frequently stop and think about what we were doing and if we were moving in the right direction. • It has helped me working with teams, SM, PO, managers to ask them questions rather than telling them what to do, the best way for people to learn is to reflect over the situation and make their own choice. • It has also helped me in some tough situations, i.e. it is often better to say things like they are, directly and based on facts – I have used it when I fired people (cut down at Sony Mobile), when I had some tough discussions with employees who find it hard to adapt to the Agile mindset and jeopardize the team work and I have used it when I have showed managers and executives the impact of their inter- fering with Scrum teams. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? Tuff Leadership Training is the best leadership training I have tried, having worked with Agile and transformation challenges it creates, I would say that someone who have received this training is bet- ter dressed for the challenges they will meet. I have been working with Agile transformation since 2008 (9 years) and I have found that the biggest challenge is management, you can only succeed with Agile if management supports it and under- stand their role, Tuff Leadership Training will help managers to become coaching managers, but it requires a lot of work from the managers, as it is a difficult mindset change for most managers. In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? • Tuff Leadership Training has a great mix of theoretical and practical content • Tuff Leadership Training has very engaged and motivating trainers • I use to say that companies implementing Agile way of working are companies who recognize that creative people are not plug-and-play resources.

Richard Kronfält, Global Head of Delivery at Alite International richard.kronfalt@alite-international.com

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? My name is Richard Kronfält and I am Global Head of Delivery at Alite International, a technology innovation partner and IT consultancy company with 100+ employees in five countries, and with clear agile aspirations (work in progress...). I am part of the management team and directly responsible for all of the technology de- livery we do from all development sites.

My first contact with Tuff Leadership Training was when I was working as Engineering Manager at Axis Communications, where I at the time lead the agile introduction to all of Axis’ software R&D. I participated in the Tuff training myself, and also later sent several of my employees (and recommended several colleagues – both managers and project managers – to attend too). In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? Because honesty, trust, empowerment and feedback are at the core of the agile philosophy. Its what’s needed to build autonomous efficient and continuously improving self-motivating teams with highly dedicated staff. Agile is all about getting and giving clear and honest feedback often. It’s about trusting people to their job in the way they see fit. It’s about trusting each other, respecting and treating each other as grown-ups and let- ting people influence their work and solve their own problems themselves. The Tuff Leadership Training, to me, is exactly about giving you the tools to be direct, clear, honest, respectful, to get attention and help peo- ple solve their own problems themselves. “Giving feedback” and “coaching” are unfortunately two very worn and misused/misunderstood terms. Coaching and giving feedback is much harder than what it seems. Part of the training is about helping you un- derstand that, by discovering and challenging your own pitfalls and weakness in this context. Extremely valuable and eye-opening. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? Given the above, I think the training gives you invaluable tools to give feedback, and help staff start solving their own problems themselves. It gives the power to (and responsibility for) problem-solving back to the staff. Managers and team leaders can focus more on leadership itself, on facilitation, moderation, strategy and vi- sion, and less on operative hands-on problem-solving. This scales better, and more people and brainpower – more bandwidth – is available for decisions and work. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? It helped me see my own weaknesses in my leadership. It helped me see how I was not as “coaching” as I thought. It gave me tools to give feedback and be direct, that I still use (or aspire to use). It inspired me to see my staff members in a different light, and changed how I see the role as manager and leader. In a young agile organization, the manager’s role is undefined, which often collides with e.g. Scrum or Kanban implementa- tions. With a coaching leadership based on Tuff Leadership Training, it helped me see how my job is not to be hands-on – but rather inspire, facilitate, give feedback, empower and help the staff see their own strengths and possibilities by themselves, completely autonomously without me. It helped me in making my own role less important. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? Tuff Leadership Training has been proven over years and years, services bought by many very large companies in various industries (agile software development is just one of them, I guess). The staff teaching the courses are truly passionate and experienced in this area. The days at course are both challenging and inspiring, and they leave you with ideas and tools that can be used daily for years on. I would recommend Tuff Leadership Training to any company that aspires to be a modern agile organization, and to all managers and leaders there (formal as well as informal leaders). In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? Inspiring. Very insightful. Eye-opening. Very useful, even years later. And best of all: mapping extremely nicely to the agile philosophy.

Patrik Sjöberg, consultant (scrum master) at Cygni AB patrik.sjoberg@cygni.se

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leadership Training? At present, consultant and Team lead at Swedish Pension Agency. My assignments typically resemble the Scrum master role but sometimes with more of a lead perspective. The work includes planning, coding, daily stand-ups, team development and retrospectives. I have gotten to know Tuff Leadership Training through a psychologist/organizational consultant who recommended the training. Attending the training was then part of my own personal competence plan at my consultant firm. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? Agile non-hierarchical work places require a high level of honest, straight-forward communication. That is one area where Tuff will really help. Furthermore, in a truly agile organization there is a lot of emphasis on auton- omy and self-organization and the lesson Tuff gives us is to trust in the potential in each individual, and to look for and help to coach on hidden potential. I think this is a perfect match with agile organizations. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? In environments with a lot of stress and outside pressure I think it would be extra important to build trust and commitment in your work group. Tuff leadership training will give managers and team leaders some im- portant tools in this area. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? The training gives direct hands-on expertise in direct empathic coaching/communication and also the way the training speaks about each and every individual’s potential. These are really the main areas where I think Tuff will make a difference. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? I would recommend Tuff, if the organization is ready. The values and day to day work should be aligned with a modern view on leadership where the leaders are coaches assisting the employees in finding their true poten- tial. Or at least have a clear vision on going in this direction.

Annika Solehav, Director Supply and Production at Maquet Critical Care AB Licentiate degree in Lean Production Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology annika.solehav@hotmail.com

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? I’m currently “Director Supply and Production” at a small venture capital financed company in the Life Science business, my responsibility is ramp-up production from a small-scale laboratory process to a high volume au- tomated production process. I came in contact with Tuff Leadership Training when I was responsible for the logistics at a Swedish sub- sidiaries of a German ventilation company. I was responsible for purchase, warehouse and assembly of cus- tomized products, and wanted to change the working methods and start to work according to lean principles.

In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? I have not worked according to Agile methods myself, so I can’t answer the question from an Agile-working method point of view. But I have worked with implementing lean principles and I have striven to reduce hierar- chies and to increase the responsibility as the team takes and as each person in the team takes. My experience is that Tuff Leadership is very beneficial in several ways when a greater responsibility from the persons is desir- able, both to support them as wants to take the responsibility and to coach them as do not want to take re- sponsibility. And also to solve the conflicts as might arise when the authority and control changes. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? It gives the managers tools to coach the staff and the teams so that they can relate to VUCA and focus on their duties/tasks. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? The training gives the manager methods/tool as can be used when having regular feedback sessions to sup- port persons/teams. And also, methods/tools as the manager can use when there is a need to give spontane- ous/immediate feed-back to persons how has behaviours as not is beneficial for the team. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? I would truly recommend Tuff Leadership Training, and I would recommend that all leaders on all levels in the organisation should attend the training. In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? My experience is that Tuff Leadership really are TRAINING the manager. It is not a theoretical information where you learn about do and don’t. Tuff leadership training is training the manager to be able to lead and coach independent of the situation as occur. My experience is also that we as have attended Tuff wishes that our managers also did attend the training. Tuff teaches another way of being a leader, so it is very seldom as a manager, by years of experience, have achieved the attitude/skill as Tuff leadership training is providing the managers with. But being a leader at a high position in an organisation I guess you have to be nonhierarchal, very curious and have very low prestige if you shall dare to attend a Tuff training seminar.

Veronique Daar, VP Customer Support, Tacton Systems AB +46 709 214 112, veronique.daar@tacton.com

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? I am VP Customer Support at Tacton Systems. All Tacton’s managers go to Tuff Leadership Training, Step 1 and Step 2 to insure a common way of management within our company. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? In a non-hierarchical structure, I would say that to reach effectivity, cooperation and a good working environ- ment, coaching is the key. The decisions must come from the team and not from above. Tuff Leadership train- ing courses are teaching and helping to implement coaching in the company in a very practical way. The training works individually for each company and focuses on people and how to communicate.

In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? In a VUCA structure I imagine that you really need to get all employees on board even when you aren’t 100% sure of how you will reach your goals. I believe that by coaching, with the tuff method, we have managed to make all our employees responsible for their actions within the company. They feel they are a part (and they are!) of the company and the department decisions and that gives energy to the company and the work we do. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? For my department and the departments of my colleagues I would say that “we are all in it together”. We have a common vision and by coaching and listening (after we learnt how to) to each other we became more effec- tive. We have a better working environment. I know my team appreciates me more as a manager and trusts me. I received excellent results in the “Great Place to Work” Survey and I am convinced this is because of the coaching that I have implemented during the last couple of years after my Tuff training. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? After attending several leadership training courses, I must say that Tuff really sticks out from the others. As I mentioned the practicality of the training, the pedagogy of the trainers and the simplicity of the method was for me very positive. Tuff manages to “put my leadership in question” and look at it from a coaching perspec- tive. I also gained from how the trainers got the participants to open up to be able to share experiences. We all came out stronger and wiser. In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? It is tuff! That is for sure. It’s not a walk in the park to open up as a leader and be ready to question ourselves after years of experience. So, you have to be ready for the ride I would say and be open to change. It was inten- sive, interesting, I laughed and cried. It is directed to leaders in all branches as long as you are sure that you are ready to listen to your employees and understand that you need them more then they need you.

Peter Cornelius, Head of R&D, Cambio Healthcare Systems Peter.Cornelius@cambio.se

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? I am Head of R&D for a large software company with close to 400 people involved in developing and support- ing software. We are using Tuff as a facilitator across the company to promote a common platform and meth- odology for our leadership and to be able to increase productivity and remove obstacles. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? I think it is beneficial no matter what the organisational model you have. Agile is lot about changes and con- stant creating new teams. Having a clear platform of how you manage feedback, retrospectives and other sit- uations really helps in removing productivity obstacles. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? I think the tools provided to the managers are in many cases a must as VUCA environments implies a high de- gree of changes in both organisation and tasks for people. This change will naturally create more opportunities but also challenges that you need management tools to deal with. Tuff has the tools.

Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? As stated before, you create a common understanding among those who have taken the training so that, in relationship to leadership and operations within the company, discussions about methods and terminology are known and therefore speed things up and make everything so much more efficient. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? I think Tuff in our case was able to understand our challenges as a company and also address this for several categories of personnel. Feedback from individuals on many levels are all positive. As a side effect, we have also found these tools extremely useful in customer discussions. In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? It is a very good mix of theory and practice, with coaching in parallel. During the classes you are constantly challenged to think and talk, in a way that leaves everyone in the room active and involved. Small home exer- cises are also given to increase the level of learning.

Joakim Manding Holm, Founder and consultant, Adaptiv Adaptiv is an IT-consultant firm based in Stockholm specialised in agile and lean methodology. Joakim Manding Holm is author of the book “Valuebased teamwork” joakim.manding.holm@adaptiv.se

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leader- ship Training? Founder, manager, and software organisation consultant at Adaptiv. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? In several ways. Learning how to coach, give feedback, and facilitate group dynamics are useful skills in any environment. On a deeper level I would claim it helps the open-minded manager to discover just how top- down they still think – even when they’re certain they’re not. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? One could also argue that the tools that Tuff teach, for example coaching and having a coaching stance, are more beneficial in high-paced environments than in stabile. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? Most of the training is not focused on that level. It is of no concern which processes a company uses or even how decisions are made when the subject matter is on the invisible parts; the feelings, attitudes, and strate- gies individuals and group hold. The main target group of the training is certainly managers from traditional, hierarchical organisations, but the tools and underlying principles are universally useful. If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? Tuff has a completely different view on leadership than most leadership companies. It starts with a solid belief in human capacity, equality, and transparency. Their leadership is truly the servant-leader kind. From there, they build a solid set of tools for leaders that are extremely useful but often neglected. The training session are very practical, consisting of mostly exercises and reflection. This engages the participants and helps them learn. Finally, their trainers are among the most grounded, wisest, and nicest people I’ve ever come across.

In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? Transformative. I can wholeheartedly recommend Tuff.

Ann Jerreborg, HR Manager, Tacton Systems AB +46 739 202410, ann.jerreborg@tacton.com

What is your role and responsibility and how and in what capacity have you gotten to know Tuff Leadership Training? HR manager, responsible for all questions related to employees within Tacton Systems AB. All our managers with direct reports attend both Tuff Step 1 and Step 2. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in Agile and non-hierarchical working environments? Tacton Systems employs highly educated personnel (many with PhD’s) that work in a project based international environment. They work very independently and are expected to make their own deci- sions as much as possible. We thus need managers who can coach individuals to support them and the teams succeeding. By having so much rigorous and practical training in the programmes, Tuff en- able us to ingrain in our managers this mindset and way of being. In what ways, would you say Tuff Leadership Training is beneficial for managers and team leaders in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) working landscape? I believe that in a VUCA work environment, a great dialogue between managers and employees is critical and decisive. TUFF has the best training program for this. Having experienced the training yourself, what would you say are the main benefits for managers and team leaders who operate in Agile (and Lean) environments? To have managers and leaders who believe in their employees, believe that they independently can do great work. To let go of control and trust your employees builds self-managing teams.

If you were giving advice to an organisation looking for a leadership training supplier, what would you tell them in regards to Tuff Leadership Training? Be prepared that this is not merely a manager course. This is training that will lead to real personal development and it is challenging for anyone taking part. Welcome outside your comfort zone. In what way, would you describe Tuff’s training? An education that changes your view on leadership. The leader shall let the group and the individual assume the responsibility.