Accelerate Now — the 6-session Emotional Intelligence programme for high-potentials in the automotive and tech matrix.
Connect better. Lead with EQ. Become more resilient.
PROGRAMME FACTS
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Format: 6 live sessions · 150 minutes each · Online or on-site |
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Group: Minimum 3 · Maximum 8 participants |
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Language: English and German |
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Online: Available worldwide |
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On-site: DE, SK, IN or any target country · by arrangement |
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Bangalore: On-site co-facilitated with Ruchikka Kar (ICF ACC) |
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Investment: Discussed in the Discovery Call |
Before We Describe the Programme.
Let Us Describe You.
Specifically, you are technically strong. You know the system better than most people in the room. You have delivered, and you have delivered consistently. And there is something that is not quite working yet — and you have probably not said it out loud.
And your team does not bring you the real problems. They bring you the cleaned-up version — the one already filtered through ‘how will he react to this.’ You are solving problems that should have stayed one level below you because when you step in, they never learn to handle it themselves. And the alignment call that should take 30 minutes turns into a 2-hour renegotiation of what everyone already agreed to. And somewhere in the last months, the energy that should go into strategic thinking is going into firefighting instead.
Indeed, none of this is a technical problem. Specifically, it is the gap between knowing how to do the work and knowing how to lead the people who do it. And that gap has a name: emotional intelligence.
And Accelerate Now closes that gap. Indeed, in six structured sessions, you learn to connect more deeply with your team, lead with emotional intelligence instead of technical authority, and become more resilient under the exact pressures that are costing you the most right now.→ Book your Discovery Call: https://calendar.app.google/oHahvA3ouuLXG1Zz9
Three Things That Change.
Measurably. Permanently.
Indeed, these are not learning objectives for a course. And these are the three behavioural shifts that every Accelerate Now participant describes when asked what changed after the programme.
01 — You Connect Differently with Your Team.
⚡Before: Your team brings you filtered information. The Slovak engineers confirm everything and say nothing real. The Indian hub says yes and goes silent for two weeks. You have data but not truth.
✅After: You read what is not being said. You ask questions that surface the real picture. Your team brings you problems early because they have learned that early honesty is safer than late silence. And the Green-Melon reports stop — not because you demanded it, but because the psychological safety for the real version now exists.
02 — You Lead with EQ, Not Just with Authority.
⚡Before: Under pressure, you react. You solve it yourself because it is faster. You give the answer instead of asking the question. Consequently, your team has learned that waiting for you is the path of least resistance.
✅After: You know exactly which emotional trigger just activated. You name it, pause, and choose your response. You have three leadership modes and you know which this moment needs: the Decider who steps in when clarity is critical, the Mentor who guides without taking over, or the Coach who asks the question that makes your team find the answer themselves.
03 — You Are More Resilient Under Pressure.
⚡Before: The 60-hour week feels normal. You carry the team’s anxiety as well as your own. And the strategic thinking keeps getting pushed to next week.
✅After: You have built neurological firewalls. The 6-second rule, the Body Scan Reset, the Pause Principle — automatic now, available exactly when you need them. You de-escalate instead of escalating. And you protect the mental space you need to lead strategically.
Six Sessions. Three Parts.
One Complete Leadership Transformation.
To sum up, the programme follows a deliberate sequence. Specifically, self-awareness before self-regulation, self-regulation before empathy, empathy before crucial conversations. Each session builds on the previous one because the neuroscience does not allow shortcuts.
Part 1 — Who Am I? (Sessions 1 & 2)
Indeed, you cannot regulate what you cannot name. And you cannot connect with others until you understand what is happening inside you first.
Session 1 — The EQ Advantage — Why Emotional Intelligence Drives Leadership
📌All in all, in this session: Introduction to the five EQ components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. We build your personal Emotional Hijack Map using Plutchik’s emotion model — identifying exactly which triggers activate your fight-or-flight response in the boardroom, the alignment call, and the conversation you have been avoiding. Practical exercise: ‘What emotions show up for you under pressure? What physical signs signal them?’
👉Already by Monday: You leave with your personal Emotional Hijack Map and a concrete protocol for the next high-pressure moment. Ultimately, you stop reacting. You start deciding.
Session 2 — Mastering Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation
📌Furthermore, in this session: Deep dive into self-perception: your values, triggers, blind spots, and impact on others. Consequently, we practice the ‘6-second rule’, the ‘Name it to Tame it’ technique, and the Body Scan Reset — three neurological tools that interrupt the amygdala hijack before it reaches your team. Practical exercise: high-pressure scenario role plays from the DE–SK–IN matrix.
👉By Monday: Absolute composure under fire. You de-escalate crises instead of absorbing and re-transmitting them. Your team feels the difference by the next Monday morning.
Part 2 — Connect with EQ (Sessions 3 & 4)
Once you understand your own emotional landscape, you can begin to read others accurately. This is where the cross-cultural leadership gap is closed.
Session 3 — Cultivating Empathy — Understand and Connect
📌Subsequently, in this session: The three dimensions of empathy: cognitive (understanding the perspective), emotional (feeling the signal), and compassionate (acting on it). Following this, we decode non-verbal signals across cultural boundaries and eliminate the Green-Melon Effect and the Indian Yes as operational risk factors. Role Plays in DE–SK–IN scenarios where the verbal message and the real message are different.
👉Afterwards, already by Monday: You read the room accurately in virtual teams and cross-cultural calls. You build the radical loyalty that makes honest escalation possible.
Session 4 — Active Listening and Non-Verbal Communication
📌For instance, in this session: The difference between passive hearing and generative listening. The ‘Vague Request’ exercise: one person gives an intentionally ambiguous instruction, the other must surface the real requirement through questions alone. More precisely, we decode body language, tone, and virtual non-verbal signals in remote and hybrid settings.
👉The fact is, by Monday: You stop missing what is not being said. You secure honest feedback from people who previously gave you the version they thought you wanted. The real picture reaches you earlier.
Part 3 — Lead with EQ (Sessions 5 & 6)
Explicitly, the programme is complete when your emotional intelligence becomes visible in the conversations that matter most — the ones you have been avoiding, the ones that define your culture.
Session 5 — Crucial Conversations — Confidence in Difficult Communications
📌Accordingly, in this session: We prepare for and practice the conversations most leaders avoid: low-performer feedback, upward feedback to HQ, cross-cultural disagreement, budget battles, and team conflict. The XYZ method: X=behavior, Y=your feeling, Z=the impact. Two structured roleplays with live observer feedback and structured debrief: a PM-Team Lead conflict over task allocation, and a disruptive team member conversation.
👉By Monday: You separate the issue from the person, consistently. You navigate the executive floor with precision and win the conversations that matter in a way that keeps the relationship intact.
Session 6 — Leading with EQ — Integration and Personal Action Plan
📌Specifically, in this session: Synthesis of all five EQ components and the three leadership modes: Decider, Mentor, Coach. Each participant builds a personal EQ action plan — a concrete roadmap for the 90 days after the programme. Closing commitment: each participant states one specific behavioral change in their own words to the group.
👉By Monday: You leave with a leadership identity no longer dependent on technical authority. You have the EI tools, the self-regulation protocols, and the leadership language to connect, lead, and grow — in Germany, Slovakia, India, or wherever the matrix takes you.
→ Book your Discovery Call: https://calendar.app.google/oHahvA3ouuLXG1Zz9
Not 1:1 Coaching.
Three Specific Differences.
Whereas, the BYG Executive Coaching service follows your live problem. It is open-ended, responsive, and designed for leaders already under real operational pressure.
Accelerate Now differs in three ways:
1. Fixed EI curriculum.
Six sessions, deliberate sequence. Self-awareness before self-regulation, self-regulation before empathy, empathy before crucial conversations. To be exact, the order is non-negotiable because the neuroscience does not allow shortcuts.
2. Group-based, 3 to 8 participants.
The group is not a cost-saving measure — it is the methodology. You see your own patterns in others. In particular, you practice new behaviors with real people, not in a simulation. And you cannot hide from a group.
3. Emotional intelligence as the non-negotiable foundation.
Indeed, not because EI is fashionable. Because every expensive leadership failure I have seen in 25+ years in the automotive matrix had emotional intelligence at its root: the leader who could not regulate under SOP pressure, who avoided the crucial conversation for three months, who missed the signal that the yes was not a yes.
Three Ways to Run the Programme.
Online Individual — worldwide:
You and up to 7 peers in a live online cohort. English and German. Scheduled for Munich, Prievidza, and Pune simultaneously. The fastest format to start.
Online Corporate Cohort — your team:
A dedicated cohort for 3 to 8 leaders from your organization. For department head circles, high-potential cohorts, and cross-functional teams who need a shared leadership language. Your team practices the new behaviors on each other in the same sessions where they learn them.
On-Site — one week, in your country:
The full 6-session curriculum in person at your location in Germany, Slovakia, India, or any target country. On-site adds real-time observation of team dynamics and the physical presence that creates a different depth of trust. All on-site engagements are by arrangement — travel, visa, hotel, and logistics vary. Contact us directly.
Bangalore On-Site.
Two Coaches. Two Perspectives.
One Session.
The Accelerate Now on-site programme in Bangalore is co-facilitated by Andy Balbus (ICF PCC) and Ruchikka Kar (ICF ACC). This is the only format where two coaches — one from the German headquarters context, one from the Indian corporate leadership context — facilitate in the same room at the same time.
Andy Balbus — ICF PCC
25+ years in automotive. 2 years on the ground in Pune at Brose India. 12 executives coached inside the Indian hub. The HQ perspective from someone who has sat in the Indian alignment calls and understands the gap between what headquarters sends and what the hub receives.
Ruchikka Kar — ICF ACC, Bangalore
ICF Associate Certified Coach based in Bangalore. Local cultural intelligence, industry experience, and insider credibility in the Indian corporate leadership context. Ruchikka co-facilitates exclusively for the Bangalore on-site delivery.
Indeed, most international programmes deliver Western content and call it cross-cultural. Specifically, this co-facilitation closes the gap between what the facilitator intends and what the Indian participant actually hears.
→ Enquire about the Bangalore on-site programme: https://calendar.app.google/oHahvA3ouuLXG1Zz9
From the Field:
What the Expert Paradox Actually Costs.
When I built the electronics R&D department at Brose Prievidza from scratch, the instinct I brought into leadership — solve it yourself, it is faster — was the single most destructive habit I had as a leader.
And the shift came through discipline, not decision. Specifically: asking the question instead of giving the answer. And holding the silence after the question. And trusting the discomfort that came before the engineer found their own solution. When I left for India four years later, my team lead Michal told me: ‘How dare you — you are leaving a family we built.’ That is not a line from a leadership book. It is the result of 40+ engineers who were systematically given ownership and the space to use it.
You can have either excuses or results — not both. What Accelerate Now teaches you is how to create the conditions where your team chooses results too.
→ View full case studies: https://boost-your-growth.com/leadership-case-studies/
Direct Answers.
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Time for your Expert Check
How deeply are you still stuck in expert mode?
4 questions. Your honest view of the transition that is the most expensive career trap in the automotive industry.
You Can Have Either Excuses or Results.
Not Both.
The Programme Starts When You Decide.
And technical expertise got you here. And the next level — where your team brings you problems early, where your presence creates clarity instead of silence, where you absorb pressure without transmitting it — requires a different foundation.
Specifically: Six sessions, one hundred and fifty minutes each. Structured emotional intelligence, real behavioral change, and a group of peers who push your thinking in a way that a private session cannot. Online, or on-site in your country. In Bangalore, with Ruchikka Kar.
Specifically, the Discovery Call is 30 minutes. No commitment. A direct conversation about whether this programme is the right fit for your situation right now.
→ Book your Discovery Call: https://calendar.app.google/oHahvA3ouuLXG1Zz9
Or: founder_andybalbus@boost-your-growth.com | reachruch@gmail.com | WhatsApp: +49 151 4495 7099
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