“It turns out that governors can be living people, and not “a person in a case.” The finalist of “Leaders of Russia” on why the Kremlin’s personnel reserve cannot be created from the winners. — What did you see in Nizhny?
Having graduated from the university with honors, Evgeniy Lupinos immediately headed the HR segment large company. It turned out that practice and theory differ markedly from each other. The young specialist faced a generally trivial choice: change the world or adapt to it. Zhenya chose the first one - he left his job and organized a company, within which he began to teach and train managers. As a result, today Evgeniy is close to winning the all-Union management competition “Leaders of Russia”.
To each his own
Evgeniy’s company MOST Consulting, in addition to education and training, is engaged in expert assessment personnel and the creation of a personnel reserve. Please explain to a non-specialist what this is and how it happens. After two seconds of thought, Zhenya gives the example of hospitals. “How do they usually select the head of the department or the chief physician? The best doctor is invited to this position. But the best doctors in most cases want to treat and do not want to manage. They are persuaded, their salary is doubled, and they agree. As a result, the clinic loses a good surgeon or oncologist, and in return gets a bad manager. Treating and managing are different competencies. In our Omsk region, Medical Unit No. 9 was the first to understand the trend and invited us. We conducted extensive research, trainings, tests, including using our own method of observing the gaming behavior of staff, conducted management trainings and as a result created the very personnel reserve- a group of doctors capable of becoming effective managers. And also those who saw their purpose only in directly saving lives and health,” he says.
The work turned out to be so effective that the administration of Medical Unit No. 9 itself repeatedly requested their services and brought most of the large clinics in the region to them.
Don't get stuck in Amur
Having seen astronauts on TV, children become astronauts. To save lives, they become doctors. They want to build houses - by architects. But how does the desire to teach others how to manage people arise? It is unknown, because our hero did not have such a desire as a child.
“My high school years were at the end of the 90s,” recalls Evgeniy. - Everyone around wanted to study to become economists, bankers and lawyers, but only those whose parents were able to pay for such an education could. And I grew up with my mother and grandmother, on a pension and the salary of a salesman in a bakery. In addition, he grew up in a residential criminal area of Omsk nicknamed “Cupid”, which by no means promised its inhabitants a guaranteed bright future. Therefore, my childhood dreams were aimed at one thing - to get out of “Amur”, to become one of the people, and for this to get a good higher education.”
Having realized all this, Zhenya began to study excellently. I loved mathematics more than other subjects. From the sixth grade I took part in all city mathematical Olympiads and emerged, if not a winner, then certainly a prize-winner. In the ninth grade, he successfully passed the exams at the fashionable lyceum, but did not study there. Having graduated from school with a gold medal, I saw myself in a technical university, but providence intervened - friends invited me to go for a day open doors to the university (Omsk State University named after Dostoevsky). There, having heard the speech of the head of the Department of Economics and Sociology of Labor, Vladimir Polovinko (who later became a mentor), he unexpectedly and finally chose his life’s work - HR.
Tough Conversation
The discipline “personnel management” turned out to be at the intersection of his favorite mathematics and fashionable economics, so, as Evgeniy says, it hit the target. From his third year, as the best student in the expert group, he was already involved in freelance projects in real business. At the age of 22, he graduated from the university with honors, but even before receiving the diploma he received an offer to take the position of head of personnel services at the Kolos sanatorium with a staff of 450 people.
“What was the hardest thing about my first permanent job? - he asks again. - The most difficult was the crisis of 2008. In order for the sanatorium to survive, a decision had to be made to temporarily transfer all staff to half-time and half-pay. I had to announce this to the entire team from the stage of the assembly hall. Before this, I did not sleep all night - I was nervous and thought about how to properly convey the news to people about such an unpopular decision. I came out and said that if everything is left as is, then in a couple of months we will go down the drain and they will have nothing to feed the children. And if we delay for a few months, then later we will restore full working hours and salaries. No, they were not happy, and it was the most difficult performance of my life. But in the end, people understood me, agreed, and after five months we were able to restore salaries.”
Hungry Science
Zhenya worked at Kolos until he was 24 years old. On weekends, I found the strength to give lectures to Omsk State University students and attend professional forums. The university management invited me to teach on a permanent basis. After leaving the sanatorium, he became a university teacher. But it quickly became clear that you couldn’t make a living by teaching. I had to earn extra money through freelance consulting projects in an existing business.
And then everything went as if by itself. Specialists, whose competencies Evgeniy tried to improve during consulting campaigns, began to come to his lectures and master classes at the university. It turned out that these same specialists are able to learn much more from his classes, ask interesting, correct questions and leave grateful for the knowledge they received.
At some point, Lupinos decided to work more with specialists than with students, and accepted an offer from one large plant where he headed the personnel department. But at the plant, his innovative ideas met resistance from the board of directors, accustomed to living by tradition. Thus, it turned out that the university gave him the opportunity to create, develop and realize himself, but did not generate income, and the plant did not generate income. From this understanding, the idea was born to teach HR science, but not to students, but to existing managers. on a commercial basis. And Evgeniy founded MOST Consulting.
And after some time, the company formed its own pool regular customers and the business became successful.
What are you giving?
Evgeniy founded MOST Consulting in 2012, when he was 25 years old. And he immediately became the head coach of his team. That is, he had to train both forty- and fifty-year-old managers, who work experience exceeded Zhenya's age from birth. How did he manage to get grown people to listen?
“Yes, there is such a problem,” our speaker laughs. - But it’s there for the first five to ten minutes. As soon as people realize that I have something important and interesting to tell them, skepticism disappears. I'll tell you the most difficult case: I had to teach at the department of government and municipal government university. I walked in, and three-quarters of the audience were men in uniform, over the age of forty. There was naked doubt in their eyes that I could teach them anything. But ten minutes later no one remembered my age.”
At the very beginning of his career, Evgeniy sometimes tried to artificially give himself maturity and seriousness, but he quickly realized that in his business, the more natural the behavior, the more adequate the perception. Age is not important, it is important to be prepared on all issues.
The greatest competence of a consulting company, the most complex and most expensive product is conducting sessions strategic planning. All the top managers of the enterprise gather in a meeting room and, for example, within two days they decide how to live further. The moderator of such a session, that is, the person who organizes a civilized discussion, asks the right questions and ensures the progress of negotiations, is precisely an expert from a consulting company. Lupinos personally conducts 7-8 such sessions a year.
Live easy
It must be said that Evgeniy invented one of the unique tools that the company uses today under the pressure of the last crisis - 2014-2015.
“At the beginning of 2015, the business began to sharply cut costs, primarily abandoning luxury services,” he says. - And consulting is just a service in this spectrum. Many went bankrupt. We quickly restructured, starting to focus on training. Moreover, they invented new model training, which was called “business gym”. The point is that instead of long classes, we began to conduct short but frequent ones. People began to come to us as a training session - say, twice a week for two hours. The method turned out to be effective."
Thanks to the MOST Consulting “gym,” the crisis passed without losses. Today the company has 18 employees and a beautiful office in the center of Omsk, and has more than 20 training programs in practice. Evgeniy personally has developed a whole series of proprietary teaching methods, conducted more than 2.5 thousand training hours, continues to teach at Omsk State University as a hobby, organized the regional project “HR Brand Workshop in Omsk”, collaborates with the regional administration and in the near future plans to take his mother out of "Cupid".
Summing up the story about himself, Zhenya says that his main task is to teach and train people to manage and communicate with subordinates so that they feel a thrill from it, and the main marker of the company’s effectiveness is that people and companies come back again and again.
One of the best
Zhenya came to participate in the “Leaders of Russia” competition by accident. A friend advocated, they say, “very large-scale and interesting.” At first Evgeniy was skeptical about the idea, but he went to the competition page.
“I teach people leadership, the ability to motivate, management techniques, negotiation skills, and teamwork,” says Evgeniy. - And the “Leaders of Russia” competition is just about this. And I wanted to test myself. Understand how much I have the right to teach others. And I managed to register.”
According to the results of the first stage, Zhenya entered the top hundred, although 20 thousand people participated from the Siberian Federal District. According to the results of the second stage, he took 52nd place. According to the results of the semi-final - one of the two first places (more precisely, it is not reported). He says that the level of qualifying tests at the competition is very high. For Evgeniy Lupinos personally, getting into the semi-finals, regardless of winning the competition, brought a lot of satisfaction - he talked to very interesting people and speakers, and completed his personal minimum task. He says that the level of qualifying tests at the competition is very high. The questions did not force one to demonstrate precise knowledge, but rather revealed the ability to think quickly and critically.
Today he is one step away from first place in the “Leaders of Russia”. What to do with the prize - a year of mentoring from the most famous businessman or manager in Russia - who to choose? Evgeniy says that he thought a lot about this and can name Gref, Kiriyenko and Potanin as his favorites.
Evgeniy does not yet know where to spend the second prize - a million rubles on training. Everything will depend on the range of possibilities and limitations. What he knows for sure is what he would like to develop further in himself - leadership, negotiations and management. There is no such thing as too much intelligence, as they say.
The winner of the personnel project of the Putin administration: how she was encouraged by Minnikhanov, “pumped up” by Kiriyenko, and she added a year to herself
Recently, the best of the best managers in the country were identified. The “Leaders of Russia” competition has ended in Sochi. Our Tatarstan compatriot, regional director of the Lindström company Alexandra Lebedeva, was also among the hundred winners of Sergei Kiriyenko’s personnel project. In an author's column written for Realnoe Vremya, she spoke about the humanity of the governors, the support of Minnikhanov, the “pumping up” from Kiriyenko and top officials. Also, our columnist did not forget about her classmates with whom she made her way to her cherished goal.
Why did you decide to participate in the competition?
You know, there is a feeling inside that this is yours. Like love at first sight. In those split seconds that passed from the moment I heard about the competition in the news on Channel One until I decided - yes, I’m participating, it was impossible to make a logically sound and verified decision. But I immediately decided that yes, this competition is about me. That's how it happened.
I can say for sure that after deciding which university to enter, where to take my first job and who to marry, this decision was the most important and correct one in life.
In order to move on, I lack systematization practical experience, obtained in the work. I have been working in international companies for 20 years, I started as an intern at the institute at Lufthansa Airlines, where I ended up working for 10 years, then 3 years at the American recruiting company Kelly Services and now I have been working for the Finnish company Lindstrem for 7 years. , which provides rental services for workwear and lobby carpets throughout Russia. The English teaching diploma obtained 20 years ago has already lost its relevance. Therefore, I am looking forward to starting my studies with the allocated grant.
In those split seconds that passed from the moment I heard about the competition in the news on Channel One until I decided - yes, I’m participating, it was impossible to make a logically sound and verified decision. But I immediately decided that yes, this competition is about me. That's how it happened
The mentor whose selection I now expect before the end of February is additional opportunity gain knowledge from a person who has already done a lot in his life and achieved a lot. In general, this mentoring practice, in my opinion, is very important. At least, remembering the turning points in my life, I always see next to me some more experienced person - either my teachers or supervisors who gave advice, shared their experience, gave me the opportunity to take initiative, in a word, who helped me grow .
How was it?
On the very first day, Sergei Kiriyenko, Elena Shmeleva and Alexey Komissarov spoke at the opening ceremony. Then until the evening there were master classes from mentors. Shuvalov, Sobyanin, Gref, Lavrov, Kudrin and one Malaysian specialist in transformational leadership shared their experiences and views on leadership. In the evening there was round table with the governors of Samara, Oryol, Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Tyumen and Tula regions. It was very informative and entertaining and completely changed my view of officials - it turns out that they can be living people, and not a “man in a case.”
The next day we worked in teams and mentors came to us. The morning began with Rustam Nurgalievich Minnikhanov, who was the first to come to us with a task, then we continued to work together with Nikolai Podguzov from Russian Post, and after lunch we solved the case under the supervision of Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko. It was very interesting and exciting. Kiriyenko, by the way, gave a very high-quality feedback to our group - told about the pros and cons of our solution, drew attention to the zones for further development. It was clear that he was very excited about the success of the competition.
Getting Rustam Minnikhanov as your first mentor on the very first day is like winning the lottery
About Minnikhanov
He's very cool. Getting him as your first mentor on your very first day is like winning the lottery. Calm, he came, sat down, said hello to everyone, immediately took out his phone and began filming us for Instagram. He reassured us: “Don’t worry so much, tell us what you think.” And somehow the excitement immediately began to let go, and it gave such a powerful charge of positivity and energy that it was enough for us until the very end. Then I heard from other participants that he made such an impression on everyone. Everyone told Sergei Khrushchev and I (the two of us were on the team from Kazan) that you have a great president. It's very nice to hear this. Pride in the republic.
At the end, Sergei Stepashin walked past our table, saw Minnikhanov, came up to us and said: “You are very lucky, this is one of the most powerful regional leaders in Russia, I confirm!”
About the team
One of the conditions for the finals, which was announced to us in advance, was to form a team of 7-8 people in such a way that there would be no more than three people from the same federal district. We chatted in advance and put together a “backbone” of five people - three Muscovites, two Kazan residents - and even made an announcement about additional recruitment of participants. I was very worried about keeping the team united - this takes time, and the sooner we start interacting with each other, the faster we will go through all the stages of team formation and be able to work effectively for results.
On the eve of the start, in Sochi, the six of us sat in a room and solved a business case together in order to hear each other and understand how best to build interaction. On the very first day of the final, two more participants “found” us - one from Chelyabinsk, the other from Perm, who fit very harmoniously into our composition.
“Life after forty is just beginning, I now know this for sure,” these words of my favorite film now apply to me too
Who did we go through these 5 days with?
Pavel Gudkov - Moscow, Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Small Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere - very motivated, smart. Always thinks before doing something. He slowed us down a little when at the very beginning we were rushing to quickly recruit the entire squad, and I think this turned out to be the right strategy. Pavel is also a unique person - he can listen to a group discussion and at the same time record all thoughts and ideas on the board, this is really cool.
Pavel Sukhovarov - Moscow, MTS Satellite TV (a subsidiary of MTS PJSC) - a very cool team player. He stays calm, never sticks out his opinion, and is ready to listen and be heard. Very capable. It was incredibly comfortable to work with him as a team, I really envy his colleagues and employees, high level people management.
Dmitry Stapran - Moscow, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting LLC - megabrain and megaman. In his head there is an incredible amount of the most interesting information about everything, while he does not “press” with his intellect, but tells it in such a way that you want to listen further. Very well-mannered and caring towards other participants. Dima was the first to ask for feedback from other team members. For me, this is always an indicator of openness and readiness for change.
Sergey Khrushchev - Kazan, Auchan LLC - a very communicative team player with a great sense of humor. We met Sergei during a meeting with the leadership of Tatarstan - first with Asgat Safarov, and then with Rustam Minnikhanov. It immediately became very easy for me to communicate with him, he makes me feel comfortable as an interlocutor, and I invited him to join the team. I’m very glad that we were together in the finals, Sergey took a very responsible approach to working on tasks in the group, it was clear that he was rooting for the team, and not for himself personally.
Veronika Sipacheva - Vladivostok, Non-profit support fund social development Primorsky Krai "Energy of Participation"/FEFU. The youngest participant in the competition is only 24 years old. Has incredible potential. She is very smart, knows how to express her opinion and does not shy away from more experienced colleagues. We never even felt the age difference at the table. I am sure that a bright future awaits Veronica, and I will follow her successes with interest.
Abushaev Maxim - Chelyabinsk, Region-Media. A very cool participant, humorous, mischievous, and at the same time extremely smart. It was great to work with Maxim; he had an incredible focus on results and drive. At the same time, he can see problems very deeply and solve them strategically, convincing all team members.
Okunev Anton - Perm, Norilsk Nickel LLC - a general service center - is always full of ideas and suggestions. Very positive, sensitively caught the mood of the group and gave us timely signals to stop when the decibels went off scale. At the same time, he always behaved correctly, did not put pressure on the team, and strived for victory together with everyone else. I hope Anton realizes his dream!
In my opinion, the team with which we reached the finals became the most valuable acquisition of the entire competition. I really want to continue communication, meet together, share ideas together and help each other
Of the eight members of our team, half made it to the top 103. What helped? I think we had a common desire for a “higher goal” - in all competitions we strived to perform as a team, we took care of each other, tried to give everyone the opportunity to perform, tried to listen and hear everyone’s opinion. Also, I think we understood quite clearly what strengths each of us, and also used this in our work. Why not all eight? In my opinion, there was a lack of even greater dedication and focus on team results. Often, each of us was responsible for “our own” part of the task, and did not take responsibility for coordinating the work of the entire group. We could also give each other feedback more often and help each other become better. We did it on the first day and didn’t do it again, and this is also an important component of teamwork - reflection and analysis of mistakes.
In my opinion, the team with which we reached the finals became the most valuable acquisition of the entire competition. I really want to continue communication, meet together, share ideas together and help each other. The competition “discovered” each other for us, gave us the joy of communication, so now I have seven more friends.
What do I regret?
I never learned to whistle. During the heated group debate, there were a couple of moments when it was necessary to attract the attention of six intelligent but heated men. I think a loud whistle would help. So I’ll continue my training - it will come in handy!
I didn’t personally thank the appraisers, experts, competition organizers, supervisory board and everyone, everyone, who had anything to do with this. The level of organization is simply fantastic. Call center, personal account with results of all stages, reports on competencies, list of literature for self-education. And most importantly - the support and joy for all participants, which was visible on all faces. When you enter the Sirius hall and understand that you are welcome, they were waiting for you, they are worried about you. This is inspiring!
I also had a wonderful girl, Nastya, in my 9th grade at school No. 53 in Sochi. It turns out that she goes to Kazan to visit her grandmother almost every summer. Nastya is simply fantastic - very out-of-the-box thinking, modern, and passionate about modern music. She really helped my partner and I conduct the lesson. I would like to take this opportunity to express my admiration and gratitude to her. In general, the 53rd school in Sochi really impressed us - the shining, intelligent eyes of the children, all the teachers are very positive and treat the children very carefully. You really want to bring your children to such a school and to such people.
School No. 53 in Sochi really impressed us - the children’s shining, intelligent eyes, all the teachers are very positive and treat the children very carefully. I really want to bring my children to such a school and to such people.
What made you smile?
After one of the publications in our regional media, by the will of fate, Veronica and I became “shaggy female leaders of Russia.” It was very funny to see such a funny indignant comment on the photo. My friends and colleagues laughed with me and said that we are now introducing new trend light shaggy hair is in fashion for female managers.
And yet - after the announcement of the results, when they came to interview me, for some reason, out of excitement, I added a year to myself and told everyone that I was 42 years old. So if you see this somewhere, don’t believe it, I’m still only 41, but “life after forty is just beginning, I now know that for sure” - these words of my favorite movie now apply to me too.
What's next?
Study, study and study again. I came to the competition to win a training grant, and now I am in the process of choosing a program that will allow me to grow and develop further. I really want to get an Executive MBA education English. I want to add more strategy, implementation of changes and innovations to practical skills, as well as “cook” in a group of talented classmates.
How did they react to my participation in the competition at work?
Supported. My team of managers, with whom I work in Kazan, very warmly saw me off to the finals, wrote me messages with words of support and motivation. And now that I’ve returned, I see pride and admiration in their eyes, and this really energizes me for further work.
Colleagues from Rostov-on-Don also warmly received me when I came to visit them immediately after the final. The company's management was also constantly interested in my successes; the general director called and inquired about the events right during the finals. I feel that the company also monitors my achievements. This is very pleasant and obliges me to do a lot. It's nice to work for a company that cares about your success.
I came to the competition to win a training grant, and now I’m in the process of choosing a program that will allow me to grow and develop further.
The most important result of the competition
Family support came first for me. Even when I first decided to participate in the competition, my husband and I discussed what would happen if I won the semifinals. Then they started thinking about the finale. Many thanks to my parents, who came and supported us throughout the competition and helped my husband cope with his little daughter. And when I won, my son, who is 14 years old, said that when he grows up, he will also participate in the competition. This is probably the most important result - to be an example for your children.
Alexandra Lebedeva
Yoshkar-Ola, October 19. The winner of the “Leaders of Russia” competition from Mari El shares secrets on how to become the first in the prestigious competency competition.
Now the qualifying stage of the most interesting competition “Leaders of Russia” begins in the country. Throughout the country, people are being looked for who, due to their knowledge, life experience, and charisma, could finally become future leaders capable of giving Russia a new impetus in development.
The “Leaders of Russia” competition is open. Everyone can participate in it. And for me, this is a kind of revolution in the approach to the formation of the elite in Russia. The fundamental principle itself has changed. This is when the nobles were replaced by the bourgeoisie: you get into the elite not by blood or relationship, but by your abilities - and that’s all!
How tough is the selection for this competition? What did you need to present? How to win? MediaPotok asked about this and more entrepreneur and arbitration manager Nikolai Vitchukov, the only representative of Mari El, who last year reached the finals of the “Leaders of Russia” competition.
— Nikolai Mikhailovich, how did you come up with the idea to participate?
“I turned on the TV, saw a story about the competition and thought: “Why not? » Registered on the site. Next, I had to record a video interview with myself.
- Um, did you ask questions... to yourself??
— Rather, it’s a video essay, a three-minute story about myself in the first person: who I am, what successes I already have, what interested me in the competition, what I expect from it.
— What did you want from the competition?
— I wanted new perspectives, so that new opportunities would be opened. And in fact, they opened up. The level of communication that was provided to us during the competition greatly expanded my scope - ideological, intellectual, and social. And most importantly, the level of acquaintances that I now have, I think, will be applicable in my life.
- So, you recorded a video and...
— ...Sent the video along with a package of documents to the organizers’ website. Then the organizing committee called me and said that I was in. I was admitted to the correspondence stages, there were two of them, on the Internet.
— What awaited you at these stages?
— Within two days it was necessary to answer a certain set of questions. The questions are absolutely varied, from mathematics to logic. Knowledge was tested in literature, geography, etc. Evaluated general level development, this is a kind of extended IQ test. At the second stage, managerial qualities were tested more.
— And based on the results of the correspondence stages, you are invited...
- ...to the semi-finals, to Nizhny Novgorod. Frankly, I was surprised. Because I couldn’t answer all the questions - I’m not a genius, and I can’t know everything. Meanwhile, it was necessary to respond within a strict time frame. I would like to advise those who will storm this competition: if you come across a difficult question, skip it, otherwise you will waste time. I’ll tell you a secret: my wife stood behind me and, if she noticed that I was thinking for a long time, she said: next question! My wife was generally very supportive of me. And the fact that I became the winner and reached the finals was largely due to her.
— What did you see in Nizhny?
— Various competitions were held there for two days. It was a set of business cases, business games, where an assessment was already given of a person’s managerial qualities, what he is capable of, how he can communicate, negotiate, make decisions in stressful situations. In the semi-finals there were three of us from Mari El, and although all the guys turned out to be worthy, I made it to the final alone, taking seventh place in the Volga Federal District.
The final took place in Sochi, and 300 people from all over the country came here. Here we had speakers who spoke about problems in the Russian economy, in the public consciousness, and proposed solutions. Kudrin, Lavrov, Sobyanin and others spoke.
But most of all, of course, I remember Gref, a man who already lives in another world, far ahead of us, he has very innovative ideas. And when we solved business cases here, we already had mentors - either governors or equally high-level managers.
— What did communicating with such blocks give you? Russian politics?
“I began to look at many things differently. They see our regional problems from a completely different point of view. We think that our retirement age has been raised, our dears are bad, etc. But they think more globally: by simply patching up a hole in the asphalt, but without changing the entire structure of the road infrastructure, we will not solve the situation with roads. The same with pensions: people should receive vocational education to be competitive until age 65. In a word, a look on a completely different scale, and we were given this opportunity to look at all of Russia as a whole.
— What did you get, besides experience? Have there already been any offers?
— Yes, I have already received some offers, however, from other regions and from slightly different professional fields. In addition, as a finalist, I received an educational grant of one million rubles. And now with these funds I am studying at the Skolkovo School of Management, studying the system public administration. One of the modules of this course will take place in Beijing at the Business School.
— But as for the civil service, are you now in some kind of “golden reserve”?
“I’ll say this: I hope that they remember me.” In fact, there is a feeling that a new management team is now being formed in the country. And the President entrusted this important task to Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko.
“Moreover, if you look at the new governors, we need people, even young ones, who are energetic, active and, most importantly, educated.
“It seems to me that the goal is to have accomplished people in government who will think not about their pockets, but about the country.” Yes, a person who comes to the civil service should receive a decent salary, but he should not use the civil service as a business. It is no coincidence that, as a rule, already established people who have reached certain levels participate in “Leaders of Russia”.
- That is... already, in essence, leaders?
— Yes, each in their own industries. Of course, we had unemployed people and young guys who were just starting their own business, and they even made it to the finals and won. Here the knowledge and skills of a person were really assessed, and not his condition. And these people are also leaders, only potential ones.
— Will this year’s competition arouse interest among our fellow countrymen?
— Several people have already called me, asking how to take part in the competition, how to answer the tests. Even people I don't know find me. There is already quite a lot of interest in this competition in the republic.
— And yet, judging by the number of applications for the “Leaders of Russia” competition, Mari El is not yet among the leaders. Why? Are our people just shy?
- You know, I would give instructions to the directors: if you have young, smart guys who want to participate in this competition, there should be no restrictions! I know that many people say: “They won’t let me go at work”, “I don’t have time”, “I’m very busy”... But the potential is enormous!
In this sense, state corporations are more far-sighted and flexible in this regard. We had a lot of participants from Russian Railways, Gazprom Neft, and Sberbank. I hope for the same foresight from our corps of directors. People don't even ask for money, just give them a chance to enter a new orbit of development!
https://www.site/2018-02-15/uralskiy_finalist_liderov_rossii_o_tom_pochemu_iz_pobediteley_ne_sozdat_kadrovyy_rezerv_kremlya
“Nobody promised us a position”
Finalist of “Leaders of Russia” about why the Kremlin’s personnel reserve cannot be created from the winners
Denis Tur - manager at the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development Yaromir Romanov
A few days ago in Sochi, Russia’s first competition “Leaders of Russia” ended, which, as was discussed on the sidelines, was invented in order to create a new talent pool of modern managers. Officially, the finalists received 1 million rubles for education and the opportunity to work with a famous mentor. One of the winners of the competition, Denis Tur, told the site how the competition took place, how he achieved success and why the winners will not get into the personnel reserve of the presidential administration.
— To participate in the “Leaders of Russia” competition, you needed experience, including managerial experience. Tell us about your background and career and how you gained this experience.
- I'm from ordinary family military. For a long time I lived in military camps. I always had before my eyes an example of a leader, an example of a father. He fought in Afghanistan, he has high awards. I studied at a regular school, only in the 10th-11th grade did I move to a gymnasium, where I could look at my education a little differently. I wanted to enter the law academy, but I did not have enough points for the budget, so I entered the USTU-UPI for “Organization Management”. And I didn’t regret it, because there I picked up more skills that would be useful to me in life. I also think that playing sports [helped me]. I started working professionally at school athletics, fulfilled the norm of a candidate for master of sports. This allowed me to learn how to achieve some goals through work and work on myself.
I graduated from professional sports and in my 4th year I realized that I needed to work somewhere. I found a vacancy for a bank call center specialist. Then I thought that you couldn’t just get into the bank, you needed some kind of connections. After the interview, I was told that I didn’t need to work in a call center, but in sales. I went from a simple trainee to a group leader at Uralvneshtorgbank, then a group leader, and a department head at SKB Bank. Each stage of growth did not always go smoothly, sometimes painfully. I had to take steps back in order to grow later. I never had any illusions that you could make a career in one year.
— Are you currently working at the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development (UBRD)? What position? What are your responsibilities?
— I am the managing director of the center for organizing sales and development of e-business. I am involved in digital projects, promoting services on the Internet, optimizing and digitalizing business processes to make it more convenient for our clients to use our services.
— Why did you decide to participate in the “Leaders of Russia” competition?
- It was an accident. I was told that there was a competition two weeks before the end of registration. I looked at the conditions, and I was hooked that you could undergo a comprehensive assessment of your management and leadership skills. It was absolutely free, and it's a useful thing to evaluate yourself from the outside. We carry out a lot of assessments at our bank, but I have not undergone a federal level assessment.
— So you didn’t expect then that the competition was an opportunity for personnel growth?
— No, I didn’t have any illusions about personnel growth, the finals or even the semi-finals. I thought I would last until the first test. There you had to register in your personal account, and then film a video interview. It was a shock for me, because I don’t know how to behave in front of cameras at all. I re-shot what I said 40 times. It was a difficult ordeal. After this there was a task where you had to answer various questions on history, literature, and state law in two minutes. It was also stressful.
— What happened in the finale?
— On the first day there were seminars, Lavrov, Kudrin, Gref, Oreshkin, Shuvalov, Kiriyenko spoke, they talked about their cases, assessed their pros and cons. Communication was open and did not obligate anyone, because the same managers were sitting around. Then there were three days of assessment tests. It was very difficult, as there were strong guys in the semi-finals and finals. It was difficult to show my skills in this highly competitive environment. We also had to teach a lesson at school on the topic of leadership. And at the end there was a task to optimize lean production: it was necessary to make production more efficient in three cycles.
— What did you say in class at school?
— I was in 10th grade. I told the guys what my thoughts were in the 10th grade; then I didn’t think about leadership at all. I tried in simple words explain how I set goals, how I can use the opportunities that arise, how I solved cases. We talked for a long time, then they all even added me as a friend on VKontakte.
— Do you think today’s tenth-graders are different from what you were like at that age?
- I think not. Everyone reaches an age when they understand some kind of responsibility and their interests become more clear. Everyone begins to think about prospects in life. I told them that they were born in the era of digitalization, so they will be more successful than us.
We had to get used to it and we are still optimizing for digital instruments, and they are already there like fish in water.I told them that only after college I registered on VKontakte, when he appeared, they were shocked and laughed for a long time. I also told them that I had looked through their class's meme folder, they were surprised how I could find it, I replied that in the digital world it is quite easy.
— There is an opinion that modern children are less focused on building a career, and are more inclined to travel, comfortable life. And to achieve success, they need to make efforts for which they are not ready.
— Now our world faces great challenges in terms of digitalization of all spheres of life. We will need a new format of leaders. Freedom of thinking will be a plus and will help unleash your creative potential. Simple specialties will undergo robotization and digitization. Most likely, the “do” category will become fully automated; we will need people who will know more, be able to, and develop creatively. Students will eventually realize this and will be able to adapt quickly.
- Let's get back to the competition. The finalists received the right to work with a famous mentor. Will you choose him or will he choose you?
— Before the start of the final, at least ten mentors had to be chosen. I chose 10-12 people from different categories, including Arkady Volozh from Yandex, the head of Sberbank German Gref, the founder of Magnit Sergei Galitsky, [Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government Igor] Shuvalov, [Minister economic development Maxim] Oreshkina. It’s difficult to choose because, on the one hand, there is very little information; on the other hand, you only know them in the public sphere. I had to choose according to my feelings.
— What can you spend an educational grant of 1 million rubles on?
— Within 30 days we need to conclude an agreement with RANEPA. They will be money operators. Then I can choose any Russian education at my discretion.
— Didn’t they explain to you why only Russian?
— There was a little joke [at the competition]. Gref was asked what his opinion was about Russian education. He said he was very modest. With the experience that I have, a Russian [education] will be enough for me. I have street soft skills - street skills, I do not have an academic education in management, I have experience that I have accumulated by working with professionals, trying to educate myself by reading books. The programs that exist in Russia will be sufficient; I will be able to improve my skills.
— In Yekaterinburg and in the all-Russian stages, you beat deputies, employees of the presidential administration, and employees of regional authorities. Do you think this speaks about the level of preparation of the authorities if current officials cannot pass their own leadership competition?
— There were not many participants from government agencies. Those guys from government agencies with whom I talked seemed very open, interesting, and advanced. We had an open panel discussion with the new governors, it seemed to me that they had open, fresh thoughts, they were of a high level.
It seems to me that public administration will be restructured according to the form of openness, because we will need to keep up with the rest of the world. I believe that we are moving forward.“Leaders” are not needed everywhere in government. We received assessments based on several criteria: leadership, socialization, innovation and others; not all areas of public administration require these skills. It will be enough to identify each person’s strengths. I think that changes are taking place in public administration; they will transform even those who currently work there. Those who cannot adapt will leave. Those who can will change.
— How do you evaluate the competition participants? Were there any random people there?
— Both the finalists and semi-finalists were worthy. For example, Konstantin Goncharov has a project “Let’s Arrange”, he deals with an acute social problem - arranging for people who are forty and above. With his experience, he could be useful for the challenges facing the country. Vitaly Mutukov is a good, strong manager in the business environment, Andrey Vinnitsky is a Doctor of Law, then they will further develop and continue their careers, regardless of whether they made it to the finals or not.
In the finals it was very difficult to show my skills in a highly competitive environment because everyone was trying to show them. But I decided to remain myself, because I do not want to deviate from my principles and behave differently than I behave. I behaved as I saw fit. But there were definitely no extra people there.
- “As you considered necessary” - is it somehow different, not like other participants?
— There were moments when the guys behaved, perhaps, more actively than they behave in ordinary life. Even [deputy head of the presidential administration] Sergei Kiriyenko made a shake-up on the third or fourth day. He directly said that there is no need to engage in idolatry. He said that it is noticeable that when the appraiser is looking at you, you behave more actively, and when he is not looking, you sit quietly. According to him, this is more a minus than a plus.
— Sverdlovsk Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev has already promised that he will invite all five finalists from the region to his internship. Will you go there?
— I don’t yet quite understand the format that Evgeniy Vladimirovich proposes. After the meeting I will have more information.
— Would you be interested in working in government agencies or state-owned companies? (It was discussed on the sidelines that some of the winners of the competition might be offered positions there..)
— I haven’t thought about working in government yet. But the examples that I saw at the competition - governors Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov, head Tyumen region Vladimir Yakushev - showed that they are forward-looking and quite experienced leaders, they have different backgrounds. The views and the way they conveyed ideas to us made sense to me. Together with the governors, we solved specific cases in the region, it was interesting.
— Now UBRD meets my criteria, I can realize myself here. Our bank is successful, ideas can be implemented here.
— We began to hold more competitions, for example, for the positions of ministers. Would you be interested in participating?
— I have never worked in government agencies; this area of responsibility is incomprehensible to me. I see that there is a conditional preparation of the governor’s personnel reserve, [they invite] people from business, they are given a large ambitious position, they use their flexible tools communications, management. They don’t like that the government doesn’t allow them to work the way they work in business; flexibility allows you to solve problems much faster than bureaucracy. This “rested for three days” is absolutely not about me. If I am now forced into some kind of bureaucratic framework, I will not be able to realize myself there, I will not be able to work in this format.
— How do you assess social and career elevators in today's Russia?
— Career elevators in commercial organizations I can appreciate it. If you work long and hard and show your professionalism, you will grow. If you don’t sit back and be lazy, but constantly offer some ideas. From the point of view of government, this thing is not clear to me. I could only evaluate it by talking to the leaders [at the competition].
-What are they saying?
— That approaches are changing. For example, Oreshkin said that he wants to implement a culture of flexible management, that they use instant messengers for communication. That they don’t hold long, big meetings, that they try to communicate with each other faster.
— It is believed that the “Leaders of Russia” competition was invented because the presidential administration suddenly realized that it had nowhere to get new personnel.
— I haven’t heard at all that the participants will be included in the government’s personnel reserve. It didn't sound like that.
Now I hear in the press that this is the “personnel reserve of the president,” “the personnel reserve of the Kremlin.” The question is probably not worth it. Nobody promised a position. They said that they could offer us if we fit into someone’s team.Each finalist and semi-finalist has a wealth of experience to draw upon. If given the opportunity and authority to apply, this will be a useful case for public administration. And if they put you in the same framework and say: “Here you have to write a memo, and until it goes through all the circles of hell, it won’t go further,” it won’t fly further than that. The main thing is that everything does not calm down and that they find an opportunity to use the finalists and semi-finalists.
— If they don’t use your potential later, including for some appointments, it turns out that the meaning of the competition is practically neutralized.
- I think not. There was no task at the competition to select government managers. The task was to digitize the competencies that made it possible to find people’s strengths. If they wanted state administration, they would hold a competition for state administration. And here they made a general competition. You can’t say to a person who came from innovation: “Now, come on, show how you can run a city.”
— Does the competition impose any obligations on you?
- None. We were not limited in any way, there was no political context. What I really liked was that we communicated freely on any topic. Everyone said what they thought was necessary. We felt quite free. We could ask any questions.
