Alexandra Thomas

Alexandra works interactively at all levels in global organizations and companies within fields such as the legal and banking sectors, the cultural sector, the automotive industry and healthcare. She has many years of experience as a regional manager and regularly appears in newspapers, podcasts and radio. Alexandra has written a novel, writes scripts for television and film and works equally in English and Swedish.

LEADERSHIP

Compassionate leadership

Compassionate leadership is about leading with presence and stable internal and external relationships as the foundation. This leadership is a strategic and trainable capability for both leaders and self-leaders in complex, high-performing environments. When leaders and self-leaders increase their compassion competence, their ability to consciously lead themselves and others is significantly strengthened.

Based on psychological research and organizational practice, we explore how compassion benefits decision making, self-regulation, and sustainable performance. Participants gain an understanding of compassion as “empathy in action” and learn to recognize challenges, understand human needs and to act with clarity, care and responsibility.

This lecture connects self-leadership, team leadership, and neuro leadership with the aim of creating resilient organizations. Practical approaches are combined with evidence-based tools for reducing stress and increasing trust, engagement, innovation, productivity and profitability. By leading with and for compassion, both well-being, performance and long-term success are promoted.

Coaching Leadership

In this lecture, you will gain tools, approaches and techniques, as well as a deeper understanding of when and how to use a coaching leadership. Live coaching sessions are combined with exercises, theories and models to create courage and a willingness to practice coaching, regardless of your role. You will learn why coaching is effective and in which situations it is most useful. We work interactively with questioning techniques, active listening, presence, structure and development contracts in a trusting environment.

Self-leadership

A changing working life requires leaders and employees with the ability to lead themselves. Self-leadership is about acting with awareness and proactivity and reflecting on one’s development, communication and self-regulation. By developing active self-leadership, the relationship with yourself and others is strengthened. In this lecture, you will be inspired to create sustainable conditions that allow you to contribute with wisdom, motivation and well-grounded perspectives.

Sustainable leadership

In a boundary-less and hectic working life, the ability to create focus, reflection, and quality is crucial. Sustainable leadership is about balancing personal and professional activities and about recovery — which does not only happen during weekends and vacations. In this lecture, we learn how sustainable leadership benefits both you and your employees’ well-being, resilience and performance. This is achieved through leadership that works with, not against, the natural mechanisms of the brain.

Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback can feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Yet research shows that when feedback is given continuously, openly and from multiple directions, performance increases by 15–30%. In this lecture, you will learn more about what feedback entails and the effects it has on goals and priorities, psychological safety, collaboration, learning and development. You will gain knowledge about success factors and pitfalls in both corrective and reinforcing feedback, as well as tools to contribute to increased performance and well-being through a living feedback culture.

Facilitation

A large part of many leaders’ and employees’ working lives is spent in ineffective and draining meetings. Alexandra has extensive experience of designing and facilitating conferences, trainings and meetings. In this lecture, theories and methods are integrated with practical exercises to share knowledge about meetings that truly engage and move work forward.

TEAM DEVELOPMENT

From Work Group to Team

A team can consist of a group of individuals brought together to work on various projects, or a group that consciously challenges, supports and motivates each other to develop. Anyone who has experienced the power of a well-functioning team knows that team development does not happen by chance. Instead, it is about team members who are aware of the processes and behaviours that make us less competitive and more inclined to work toward shared goals. This requires responsibility, clear communication and well-functioning structures.

A well-functioning team builds strong relationships and engages members in a shared mission. In this lecture, you will learn more about the building blocks that create high-performing teams and trusting relationships. With the right knowledge, a work group can move away from silos, role confusion and conflict and instead create creativity, results and cross-boundary collaboration.

Growth Mindset

Our skills, talents and abilities are not static; they are strengthened through experience and practice. Regardless of age, we can train our elastic intelligence and cognitive flexibility and view failures as stepping stones for learning and development. Having a growth mindset as a leader, employee, or team means seeing colleagues in a context and understanding that we are influenced by roles, collaboration, hierarchy and life circumstances. When we are given the conditions to develop our strengths and abilities, we can more easily handle challenges and work with a sense of purpose and meaning. A growth mindset promotes lifelong learning and helps leaders and employees grow — as people and as professionals.

Cognitive Flexibility

When was the last time you changed a habit or routine? Humans are creatures of habit, but depending on what we do, neurological connections in our nervous system are strengthened and recreated throughout life. There is almost always something we can improve or change, both at work and in our private lives. By learning more about cognitive flexibility, you gain insight into how the brain works and how you can adapt to a changing working life through self-awareness and self-regulation. This lecture is based on research and practical application on how you can use, train and strengthen the muscles that contribute to cognitive flexibility.

Popular Topics

• Compassionate leadership
• From work group to high-performing team
• Self-leadership
• Self-compassion
• Coaching leadership
• Growth mindset
• Psychological safety
• Cognitive flexibility

References

“Alexandra Thomas has an outstanding ability to lead conversations and convey messages that are both knowledge-based and down-to-earth. She connects psychology with responsibility and empathetic action. Alexandra challenges us to rethink how we define leadership and compassion, which I recommend to all organizations and leaders committed to a healthier working life and stronger leadership.” – Staffan Norin