Memories from the CEE New Managers Training: tales from Warsaw

In the last weeks, our colleagues participated in the CEE New Managers Training in Warsaw, Poland, an event meant to reunite all the new managers in the Central and Eastern Europe region. The event spanned across three days and was designed as a learning process based both on the accumulation of new information and on self-discovery. The central elements of these trainings were the interaction between participants, the constant exchange of information, opinions, and ideas, that contributed to each of them enlarging their perspectives but most importantly, to them learning from each other’s experiences. Whether we talk about people specialised in completely different areas, or colleagues from other countries working on similar projects and sharing common views, the familiar atmosphere and the feeling of safety that this event managed to create came as a support to our new managers.  

A new role always comes with challenges and most of the time with uncertainty and lack of confidence, in this case, a new management role is no different. At Mazars, our people are the center of our activity. We are counting on our people’s knowledge, abilities, and professionalism in everything we do, and it is essential for them to have all the necessary support from our side in every stage of their development.

Our colleagues have kindly shared with us their Warsaw experience through a series of testimonials, discovering in this way, through their eyes, what CEE New Managers Training truly meant. They have told us about the exchange of perspectives between participants, about what new information they brought home with them, about how they felt during those three days and last but not least, about the vibe and general atmosphere of the event itself.

New perspectives from colleagues in CEE

Given the nature of the event, the participants had the opportunity to network and be exposed at a regional level. This experience will serve them in their new role, being ultimately an exercise of collaboration between different people, coming from different countries, not having the same approach or way of working, but with one thing in common: their shared purpose. They will have plenty of opportunities to replicate this exercise within the teams they will coordinate. This event also came with a new level of appreciation for the different points of view of other people from which we as individuals can learn and evolve.

I’m very grateful that I could accumulate new management knowledge and observe different approach methods in other participants. I had the chance to put into practice the theoretical notions that were presented to us through a series of interactive activities and exercises. Our colleague, Mihaela Zamfirescu, Supervisor Client Coordination shared from her experience at the training.

Simina Vicol, Manager Outsourcing – Accounting tells us how CEE New Managers Training in Warsaw was a dream! Challenging, well structured, full of role plays and different scenarios to interpret and analyse, mixed teams at every activity, interacting directly with colleagues from the whole region. Yes! REGION was a keyword for this training. We have met Mazarians from CEE, with particularities and challenges specific to the service lines to which they belong, because success is not limited to a team and to the fulfillment of the projects in a department, but it represents the constant collaboration of all departments. 

New information, new knowledge

The most important mission of this training was to offer the new managers all the necessary resources in their activity from now on. Whether we are talking about information for them to use when managing the relationship with the teams, the management of the characters and of the different approaches of the people they are overviewing, or about new tools that can make their work more efficient, our colleagues were able to collect advice coming from other colleagues’ past experiences but most importantly, to realise how to put into practice information they already had.

On this note, Floriana Păianu, Manager Audit & Assurance tells us: When it comes to the information delivered throughout the event, the ones from the training based on the DISC model stuck with me. These had a very specific and useful role, that of helping us identify certain behaviours within the teams we are coordinating and later base our interaction with the people we are working with on the previously mentioned characteristics.

The different nature of the training and the complexity of their spectrum required different approaches from one to the other, some of them having in the center the personal image and the way participants are presenting themselves now, in their new roles. Regarding this aspect, Floriana added that the self-discovery and personal branding training managed to create a safe and relaxed space for us to open up and share our opinions, without the fear of being judged and I felt that those really encouraged us to think deeply about the image we portray of ourselves to others and how that image has to align with our values and motivations related to our professional development.

The Warsaw experience taught me that it is essential for a manager to cultivate their leadership abilities and to build strong connections with the members of their team in order to be able to adapt to the rapid changes constantly appearing in the business environment, told Aurelia Neagu, Manager Audit & Assurance, emphasising also the importance of making mistakes and using them as valuable lessons from which we can learn and that can contribute to a continuous personal development.

Angela Niță, Manager, Outsourcing – Accounting, in her tales from Poland points out: The CEE New Managers Training experience truly helped me realise the importance of my role, both within my team and within the company. With this, I was also reminded of the responsibility that I hold, representing Mazars in a professional way, by guiding my team towards success by focusing on collaboration and teamwork. The event emphasised the differences between us and at the same time, the fact that our mission is to transform them into advantages for us and our team, capitalising on the different perspectives and problem-solving approaches.

The atmosphere of the event

The complexity of such an event can represent a challenge in itself, given the great volume of information delivered and the duration of it. In a context like this one, one of the factors that lead to success is the atmosphere that is created, which differentiated this training from other similar ones, as our colleagues point out in the next paragraphs. This comes also with the benefit of having facilitated firstly a fun experience, a safe and relaxed space in which our colleagues could speak up freely and feel at ease, being far away from a sober experience that tends to feel too official.

The combination between fun and useful was at the core of the three days spent in Warsaw, tells us Claudia Mateiu, Junior Manager Business Development: From fun activities, based on getting to know the participants and bringing them together, and those of discovering the city, to learning sessions filled with content that could have easily been adapted to all levels of knowledge regarding LinkedIn, management and business development tools, all of them contributed to a well-balanced event, that was extremely useful and managed to achieve its purpose. Claudia also points out the importance of the logistical and organisational elements that contributed to what the CEE New Managers Training represented: The training experience was so enjoyable thanks to the availability and kindness of the trainers and organising staff. The event offered me transparency and clarity upon the tools and approaches that can be used to facilitate the interactions within the work environment and also, the opportunity to collaborate and interact with our colleagues from other countries.

Similar aspects shared by Ana Dragomirică, Manager Outsourcing – Accounting: Often times, the word “training” is associated with a multitude of technical and theoretical aspects, alongside a lot of hours spent sitting on a chair. But this event was different from the others in the sense that it created a context for us to step out of our comfort zone through the interactions with our colleagues from the region, and also managed to intertwine the theory with the practical side throughout the activities we took part in.

We couldn’t have imagined a better overview of what the CEE New Managers Training represented than the one we got through the eyes of our colleagues, to whom we are the most appreciative for their openness. We are sure that now they have all the necessary resources, be them professional or personal, to deal with all the upcoming challenges in their new roles. We have travelled with them, virtually, to Warsaw and back, taking part in a complex event that managed to bring to the table so many different perspectives while having one common goal. Collaboration, openness, valuable information and people: this is what the CEE New Managers Training was all about.