Get the most out of yourself and your colleagues with an education in psychology

Managers are psychologists on the front line. While dealing with daily pressure, they make decisions and deal with people in challenging situations, making psychology their number one tool. With a bit of training and self-knowledge, they find a natural and professional leader within themselves, who can even further the potential of others. Read the long version of this article that we wrote for the website Finmag.cz and discover how rehearsing difficult situations is helping Czech managers, and how studying the theory of psychology falls into place.

There are libraries full of guaranteed correct information and techniques from psychology. “Education is double-edged. You may learn some approaches that aren’t compatible with your personality. You would then use the methods you learned that, at first glance, appear correct but prove to be counter-productive in the end. Then the people around you are unsatisfied, and things also feel off to you,” explains senior lecturer Eva Ambrozová, an expert on human development in difficult environments and head of the Institute of Humanities at NEWTON College. Managers who constantly work on developing themselves are therefore seeking professional guidance and practice-oriented education.

“In the MSc in Psychology in Management post-graduate programme, we focus on communication and behaviour in both our professional and personal lives. This field is perfect for students who work with people and want to understand relationships, motivation, and ability to work in a team and lead it effectively. Here the educators help the students identify their natural potential and counsel them on how to use it in the work environment,” explains senior lecturer Jiří Koleňák, vice-chancellor for Strategy and Development at NEWTON College.

Managers teaching managers

Most schools offer lessons full of theory, where only academic psychologists teach, without insight into its actual practice. At Psychology for Managers at NEWTON College, you’ll only run into practised professionals. These are experienced top managers, army psychologists, pedagogues of psychology, and experts who prepare students for extraordinarily challenging situations.

The lessons are focused on training the real-life situations that the students are dealing with at work. They learn a stockpile of techniques that they understand on a deeper level and can put to the test right away.

Some of the professionals you’ll meet here include:

  • senior lecturer Eva Ambrozová, who is an expert in selecting, preparing, and developing people within a challenging environment,
  • life coach Radim Kudělka, who specialises in emotional intelligence and communication within a team,
  • mental coach Vratislav Pokorný, the former head psychologist of the department at the Ministry of Defence,
  • as well as mental coach of Czech sports stars and successful businessmen, Marian Jelínek.

Senior lecturer Eva Ambrozová who, apart from teaching psychology, heads the Institute of Humanities.

Intense psychological preparations start with a personal condition test

The experts place every student that enters the Psychology in Management programme at NEWTON College in front of the mirror. Using psychodiagnostic methods, this personal condition test reveals the students’ psychological development, personality structure, and current state of mind. The special tools then discover the testees’ mental fortitude and psychical condition. The personal condition test shows them where they stand in terms of

  • decision-making, awareness and experiencing,
  • emotional intelligence, which is connected to dealing with stressful situations,
  • mental condition,
  • as well as their stress profile, physical age, and metabolism.

“A major benefit was the personal diagnostics, which created a mirror for me of how I know myself. Thanks to the evaluation, I recognised my strengths and weaknesses and concentrated on how I wanted to work with them. With this awareness, I was even able to work better with people in a team – when you know yourself well, you can focus on getting to know others. And from my point of view, this is one of the most important skills for a manager to have,” affirms Lucie Čačalová, team leader from the company Obsahová agentura.

9 weekend blocks and consultation help with your personal engagement

The basic prerequisite for the study of MSc. Psychology in Management at NEWTON College is personal engagement. Students solve a specific goal, which is based on their own practice. Whether they feel the need to work on themselves or resolve cyclical disputes in a team, their engagement is always based on personal experience.

“Managers or leaders usually join the program, but we also meet people who only have psychology as a hobby. So it doesn’t even matter if the candidates work in engineering or services, for example,” explains senior lecturer Eva Ambrozová.

The study consists of 9 weekend blocks, consultations with experts, and self-experienced intensive training“The study ends with a dissertation in which students deal with their personal engagement. We don’t bother the students with any exams, rather we offer them practical tools for everyday situations. This is why they come with great motivation to develop themselves,” explains Jiří Koleňák.

Every learning block unlocks a specific topic

At the beginning of each learning block, students will clarify what topics are waiting for them. They must be ready to respond and be active. They shouldn’t just receive and write down information. For example, in the Psychology of Workload and Challenging Situations block, they will try out their own examples of strategies that will help them in difficult situations and how to react to the defensive reactions of others.

 “The block is based on experiential activities, so it’s not linear teaching where we would just tell the students how things are. The basic essence lies in experience and discovering what the topic entails. An important final phase is reflection, where the students become aware of the ideas that the topic has brought them. They evaluate how they deal with new experiences and are interested in where they could expand their information,” describes senior lecturer Ambrozová.

They leave the course as more open managers

There is no easy solution when developing competencies in psychology or when solving a specific problem.

Senior lecturer Jiří Koleňák deals with the personal and professional development of people with a desire to do business and work in management.

“We do not have the ambition to educate professional psychologists, a year of study is not enough. Students come to us in a safe space, where, with the assistance of professionals, they discover themselves and raise their awareness of human interactions. They set their own mindset so that they feel good in their working position,” adds Jiří Koleňák.