Courage as a Strategic capability

Mentor:

Xenia Kourtoglou – Research & Resilience Expert

Focus:

Human behavior, work, resilience, meaning

Key Question:

How can people remain strong, creative, and mentally resilient in a world of acceleration, uncertainty, and constant pressure?

Exploration:

• What does it mean to be human in a digital world? • How are work and identity evolving? • How do we build resilience in individuals and organizations?

Mentor:

Rena Kalogianni (MBA, ICF-ACC).
Business Consultant and Leadership Coach specializing in team empowerment and executive leadership.

Focus:

Identity, reinvention and personal leadership through change.

Understanding who you are today, what you may need to leave behind, and who you need to become in order to move forward.

Key Question:

Who do you need to become for what comes next?

‍In a world of constant change, our greatest challenge is not simply to adapt. It is to have the courage to question identities that may no longer serve us and consciously create the next version of ourselves.

Exploration:

How do you recognise when an old identity is holding you back?

How do professional transitions reshape the way you see yourself?

What does it take to let go of a role, title or version of yourself that once defined you?

How can fear become a signal for growth rather than a reason to stay still?

How do you build the confidence to step into a new identity before you feel completely ready?How do you remain authentic while continuously evolving?

Mentor:

Maria Xytaki – Group Corporate Affairs, Communications & Sustainability Senior Manager, Saracakis Group of Companies
Member of Corporate Sustainability Committee, American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce

Focus:

Sustainability, Servant Leadership, Purpose-Driven Leadership, Corporate Responsibility, The Power of Mattering, Artificial Intelligence, Organizational Transformation and the future of business

Key Question:

How can we communicate more effectively, and which emerging leadership styles can help build resilient organizations ready to embrace AI and sustainability—and drive truly human transformation?

Exploration:

• Business Ethics – Why do principles, values, and purpose matter more than ever within an organization?
• What are the most severe risks posed by Artificial Intelligence?• Why do leadership approaches such as Servant Leadership and Truly Human Leadership help organizations operate more effectively?
• What is the Power of Mattering, and how can it be applied within an organization to improve performance and productivity?
• What are the fundamental principles of ESG, and how can ESG serve as a competitive advantage and a driver of strategy and transformation, rather than simply a regulatory obligation?

Mentor:

Dr. Nikolaos Dimitriadis, University of York Europe CampusApplied Neuroscience Lab, EY Greece

Focus:

Neuroscience, communication, trust, persuasion

Key Question:

How does the human brain communicates and what does this mean for building trust and persuading people?

Exploration:

• Abandon misunderstandings and myths about the human brain, decision making and behavior.
• Understand the brain's approach to communication and trust. • Learn brain-based persuasion methods to achieve better common goals.
• Make your communication brain-friendly and improve your impact!

Mentor:

Stefanos Karagos

Lead AI Transformation AdvisorFounder & Senior AI Consultant, CAIO Group

Focus:

Generative AI, AI Transformation, Leadership, Strategy & Business Transformation.

Key Question:

How can leaders strategically leverage Generative AI to turn technology into measurable business value and competitive advantage?

Exploration:

• Understand how Generative AI is reshaping the way we work and lead.Identify where AI can create meaningful and measurable business value.

• Explore how the role of leadership is evolving in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

• Turn AI from a technology tool into a strategic competitive advantage.

Mentor:

Stathis Sahinis – Business Strategist

Focus:

Strategy, innovation, startups, new products & services

Key Question:

Are businesses ready for the future — and if not, how do they redesign themselves?

Exploration:

• Which business models will survive? • What new needs are emerging? • What products and services will matter tomorrow? • How do we move from idea to execution?

Mentor:

Pakis Papademetriou

Focus:

Personal Purpose, Authentic Leadership, Values, Personal Responsibility & Decision-Making.

Key Question:

How can leaders discover what truly drives them and remain true to their purpose and values when faced with difficult decisions?

Exploration:

• Discover what truly drives you as a leader.Identify the values you are not willing to compromise.

• Explore how personal purpose shapes your decisions and behavior.Learn how to remain authentic when pressure, targets, and challenging circumstances put your values to the test.

Mentor:

Gerasimos Michalitsis

Schizo: An Engineer with Commercial expertise
Technology & Organizational leadership.
Innovation adoption and New Venture initiation.

Focus:

Transitioning from corporate executive to founder → the innovation scene, product leadership, decision-making under uncertainty, and building new ventures.

Key Question:

Would you leave behind the certainty of a structured career to step into a new, immature environment with minimal data and plenty of hope?

Exploration:

• How does your professional psyche change? How does the “impostor fear” transform in the startup environment? How do you move from corporate title and authority to personal influence?
• What do you take with you? What do you leave behind? — Corporate skills that remain valuable. Habits that limit speed and experimentation.
• From strategy to product. Turning an idea into a clear value proposition. Decisions with incomplete data and limited resources.
• When and how do you move from startup to scale-up? Funding tools. How you build a team, processes, and partnerships without losing agility. How you balance growth, funding, and operational discipline.

Mentor:

Dimitris Kokkinias, the Nobody.

Five editions of “Nous Tyrannos” (The Tyrant Mind). Four sold-out events. Founder of Softening & Healing. Ten years in a tent in the forest. Still chops wood.

Focus:

The mind as the source of fear. Awareness and energy. The freedom of not needing.

Key Question:

Who is the one who is afraid?

Alexander the Great stood before Diogenes in all his glory. Diogenes, lying in the sun, asked only that he not block it. He was not afraid of him for a single moment. He wanted nothing from him.

Everyone admires the armor. Few see the suffocation and the fear carried by the one who wears it.

The KYKLOS365 survey shows people who endure, but do not feel safe. Four in ten feel they must constantly prove their worth.

In the face of fear there are two roads. One builds endurance. The other goes to the source: a mind that wants to prove, to be seen, to win, to hold on. As long as you chase victory, you will fear defeat.

Plato wrote that the first and best victory is victory over oneself. This cycle asks: what if no victory is needed at all?

The experience:

The work is done through awareness and energy. Attention, which usually looks outward, turns inward. First to the body, where it becomes visible how much energy is spent on proving, defending, controlling. From the body’s information, the path leads to instinct. And from instinct, to intuition: a knowing that does not pass through the mind, and therefore does not fear. That is where self-knowledge begins.

This becomes practice in every meeting, every negotiation, every decision that costs. Before you speak or decide, you stop and turn your attention inward. Decisions not made out of fear are different decisions.

You will not leave stronger. You will leave freer.

Exploration:

• When is fighting spirit courage, and when is it fear working overtime?
• Proof, display, glory, power. Who needs them?
• The mind as servant and the mind as tyrant.
• How many times did Odysseus weep?
• Can you lead without needing to win?