Interview: Personal Leadership & Vitality

Interview: Personal Leadership & Vitality

The real story behind NLBA's training courses. In a series of interviews, we ask students and participants for their experience of the various training courses and master classes we offer. This time we speak to Sebastiano Zafarana, senior partner success manager at T-Mobile. He did the Personal Leadership & Vitality (also known as the Self-Management, Leadership & Coaching Masterclass) in 2021.

Hi Sebastiano, can you briefly introduce yourself?

‘My name is Sebastiano Zafarana, 45 years old and now working at T-Mobile for 13 years (started at Tele2 in 2009). I really enjoy working for T-Mobile, the company really suits me and I hope to be able to stay for many years to come. I trained as a singer and did so professionally for years, but I wanted to leave the uncertain life behind me, so I chose to do the singing next to my work at T-Mobile. That way I can have both sides 😉.’

(Sebastiano Zafarana during training: 3rd from left)

What is the reason you went looking for a training / Masterclass and what did you want to achieve with it?

‘Through T-Mobile, employees receive a training budget. I am always open to self-reflection and want to keep developing that. So I started looking for a training course that matched that.’

How did you come into contact with NLBA?

‘T-Mobile organises ‘Learning weeks’ twice a year, where training institutes can give a sneak preview of their training courses. NLBA gave a sneak preview on Personal Leadership & Vitality (training variant of the Masterclass Self-Management, Leadership & Coaching. Made possible especially within T-Mobile's learning budget. ed.) and this appealed to me enormously. I registered for the full training course immediately after this session.’

Why did you choose the Personal Leadership & Vitality training?

‘See my earlier comment about the ‘Learning weeks’ session. In doing so, I found Jan van Zwieten to be hugely inspiring as a trainer. I am of the opinion that in such ‘self-reflection’ training sessions, you should also feel a click with the trainer and I felt this very strongly right away. Jan explained everything very well and came across to me as someone who knew very well what he was talking about.’

And … how did you like it?

‘The training was beyond expectations for me. It was very intensive and I have to admit that it also caused some black outs. At times I couldn't remember the material. But what I really liked about this training was that Jan challenged you to surpass yourself! I don't want to give away too much about the content, but the combination of DISC and MBTI was an eye opener for me. I had often attended courses similar to DISC, but never before had there been such a deep dive into the profile that rolled out of the test. You therefore got to know yourself and fellow students very well, with the result that you were able to use each other’s strengths to achieve higher goals. This also happened immediately within the training. I have done things I would never have done without the help of fellow students!’

You have since referred quite a few people to this training, why?

‘Because I’m just really excited! I have even encouraged my partner to take the training and the funny thing is that together we apply what we have learned in our private lives. This happens organically though, not obsessively haha, but we regularly laugh about it together when we judge someone on their profile. By the way, I think this training is extremely suitable to do with your team. I am convinced that you can then help each other well to be more successful as a team!’

Anything else you want to say?

‘Everything written above is very cool, but of course without great staff it will be nothing at all. The team at NLBA is insane! All nice and sweet people and hugely committed to the students. They are open to feedback and take it extremely seriously, which means they are flexible with the planning in some cases, for instance. This makes for a good atmosphere within the group.’

From the editors

Sebastiano's enthusiasm spills out. That is why we were not surprised that next month he will participate in the 2-day follow-up training Personal Leadership – Inner balance in focus. Enthusiastic about this interview with Sebastiano? Read more about the Masterclasses and
training courses of Netherlands Business Academy here.