Andrei Dodan, Senior Consultant at Trend Consult Group, is like a GPS for your soul, an explorer of the mind who helps you discover your own maps and navigate confidently through life. With extensive experience in personal development, Andrei transforms individual or group sessions into true inner adventures, where each participant discovers their own superpowers and learns to use them to achieve their goals.
Andrei knows that each of us has a unique style of thinking and interacting with the world. Through practical techniques and exercises, he helps you better understand your behavior patterns and transform them into driving forces for success, harmonious relationships, and inner well-being.
Andrei acts as a personal coach for your communication, teaching you to express your ideas clearly and to listen empathetically, enabling you to build authentic relationships and provide impeccable services to clients.
C&B: You have a unique approach to coaching, helping people discover their own “inner maps.” How did you develop this style, and what inspired you to explore this direction in personal development?
Andrei Dodan: Rather than coaching, my expertise lies in facilitating the journey of improving psychological safety within teams. What has been crucial for me to understand and accept in this endeavor is that the perception of psychological safety is primarily an individual aspect. First of all, different people perceive the level of psychological safety differently, even if they are referring to the same context (team, project, organization, etc.). Secondly, each individual has different needs, the fulfillment of which depends on the experience of psychological safety. My role is to facilitate this discovery process: in what way do individual experiences shape the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral structures of personality? How do these structures prioritize psychological needs that determine the feeling of psychological safety? What behaviors can team members exhibit or avoid for that individual to feel psychologically safe? Lastly, how can team members contribute to creating a culture where these behaviors become norms?
What inspired me to explore this direction? The fact that I myself do not easily feel psychological safety within a group. It took me several years to understand what I need in and from a group, but once I understood, I felt relief and satisfaction thinking that I could contribute to this journey for others as well.
C&B: In your coaching sessions, you use techniques and practical exercises to transform participants’ behavior patterns. Can you share a specific example of how you’ve helped someone overcome their limits and achieve their goals?
Andrei Dodan: In the sessions exploring the level of psychological safety within teams, we discuss individual needs and the elements we feel are necessary to perceive that these needs are met. I fondly remember a workshop where the team manager shared how important it was for him to provide autonomy to his team members. He spoke about how much he needed autonomy in his own development, how often he lacked it, how closely his results were tied to the extent to which he perceived he had autonomy, and, not least, how happy he was to reach a point where he could verbalize this need to his own manager. Almost all the members of his team appreciated this behavior and the constructive effect it had on how they did their work—everyone except for one person. This individual said, “What you intend to offer as autonomy, I perceive as abandonment. It’s very hard for me to think and achieve good results when I feel abandoned.” This led to an authentic and vulnerable discussion about the line between autonomy and abandonment, about aligning intention and perception, and about creating a safe environment in that team where such experiences could be addressed.
C&B: You mentioned that each person has a unique style of thinking and interacting with the world. How do you identify these differences in coaching, and how do you adapt your approach based on each client’s needs?
Andrei Dodan: Identifying different thinking and behavioral patterns can be done through several approaches. From structured methods (using psychometric tools, for example) to more ‘free’ methods (such as sharing a relevant experience followed by analysis). The results of these approaches also influence how the process unfolds. I’ll give two examples. In the first, a person realizes that they strongly feel the need for predictability, and the lack of it in a project they recently joined generates a strong state of anxiety. The importance of this need must be reflected in my approach: I need to clarify the process, the stages, the specifics of each stage, etc. In the second example, an individual realizes that at this moment in their life, their need for meaning is not being sufficiently met. In their new role, they often hear phrases like “We have to do it because it comes from above,” “It was decided that way; it’s not our place to ask why,” or “Because I say so,” etc. My approach must respond to this need for meaning by clarifying the purpose of the process, facilitating the identification of benefits, the areas they can improve, and its relevance to them. In conclusion, everything a person learns about their own thinking or behavioral patterns can shape the process itself, making it more relevant and suitable for them.
C&B: What role do effective communication and empathy play in personal and professional development? How do you help your clients improve these skills to build authentic relationships?
Andrei Dodan: They play a very important role. In a team where they are lacking, the discussion about psychological safety stops at “I don’t feel psychologically safe.” The response often is, “Well, that’s not the team’s problem; it’s yours.” Let’s take them one at a time. We need to communicate our needs, expectations, and intentions effectively. We need empathy to receive these messages from our interlocutor, to accept and understand them, and to consider them important. The loop closes with effective communication again, discussing what we will do next (or stop doing) to contribute to the psychological safety of team members.
C&B: As a true personal coach for the mind, how do you approach the challenges people face in maintaining long-term motivation and continuing their journey toward success?
Andrei Dodan: Psychological needs are the source of our motivation. More accurately, the extent to which we perceive our psychological needs are met determines the level of our motivation. Exploring the challenges of maintaining long-term motivation involves examining how the activity, project, endeavor, or job at hand meets these needs. Let’s look, for example, at the need for meaning/purpose. Do I feel that the project that challenges my motivation has a higher purpose? Does it bring benefits? To whom? Is it aligned with my own value system? How do I respond to the question, “Why am I doing this project?” It’s hard to feel motivated in a project whose meaning I do not resonate with (or one whose meaning I do not perceive at all). Another example is the need for competence: Do I feel adequately prepared to carry out this project? Do I have control over the outcomes? Do I feel good at what I do? Motivation and the perception of one’s own incompetence rarely coexist.
Last but not least, we also need to explore the extrinsic component of motivation. Are there consequences of my performance in that project that I don’t feel motivate me? Are there rewards, recognition, praise, etc.? On the other hand, are there risks associated with not completing it? “Will I gain something if I do it? Will something happen to me if I don’t?“
C&B: You have worked both individually and with groups. What differences do you observe between group dynamics and individual dynamics, and how do you ensure that each participant benefits in both types of sessions?
Andrei Dodan: Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. One common element is the need for a psychologically safe framework. A space where the individual feels they can speak, ask questions, express disagreement, acknowledge that they don’t understand, without being judged or ridiculed. In both individual and group sessions, my responsibility is to create this safe space. In groups, the effort is greater because there are more variables (each participant with their own thinking patterns and reactions, the relationships between participants, the group itself as an entity, etc.). While in individual sessions, I pay close attention to my transfer, in group sessions I observe and address (non-confrontationally) the dynamics of the members.
In individual sessions, the space belongs to a single person. There are no competitors; they don’t have to fight for it. In group sessions, it is my responsibility to ensure “equal voice“—the right to equal contributions.
In individual sessions, the main source of learning is the individual’s experience (and its exploration). In group sessions, we leverage the potential of social learning (the experiences of group members).
In both individual and group sessions, my role has its limits. A common behavior in both frameworks is that I address moments when these limits are at risk of being exceeded or are exceeded.
C&B: What do you consider to be the common “superpowers” that people discover during coaching sessions? How do you guide them to leverage these in their daily lives?
Andrei Dodan: People discover that what they call a “superpower” is actually the ability to exhibit constructive behavior in a non-constructive situation, or one that risks becoming non-constructive. Some examples of “superpowers” include taking a 5-minute break in a confrontational discussion, motivatedly refusing a task that doesn’t align with their own goals, competencies, responsibilities, or values, or formulating and providing feedback about behavior that has caused discomfort, etc.
How do I guide them to leverage these in their daily lives? I often return to an analogy made by Thomas Harris: You cannot teach someone to navigate in the midst of a storm. Similarly, you cannot build a value system in the split second between the moment your son says, “Johnny punched me in the nose,” and your response. I share this perspective. Constructive behaviors are formulated and tested when the weather is calm. If they pass the test, they are practiced, but still when the weather is calm. Thus, in stormy weather, the chances of using those constructive behaviors (that have been formulated, tested, and practiced) increase. What is the low-risk context in which I can practice formulating a motivated refusal? What is the low-risk context in which I can verbalize disagreement with an idea? Or in which I can ask a question about someone else’s idea, as opposed to directly contradicting it?
C&B: Coaching is often seen as a process of inner exploration. How do you help those who are reluctant or have difficulties accessing their inner resources for change?
Andrei Dodan: Change is often uncomfortable. We are not a species that has evolutionarily concluded that novelty comes with greater chances of survival. On the contrary, we hunted in the same forest, drank from the same spring, and clung to a single cave. The deeper the change addresses a behavioral determinant, the more difficult it is and the stronger the defenses it triggers. Adrian Florea speaks of the Diagonal of Change as the mental model for processing change. According to this model, there are two forces acting on us towards change: the perception of a problem in the present and the projection of a future gain. In my individual or group sessions, I explore these two directions: on one hand, what is the current discomfort (an unsatisfactory outcome, a stalled project, a difficult relationship, stress, lack of motivation, etc.) and how does the behavior in question contribute to this discomfort? On the other hand, what is the desire for improvement, and how does the behavior in question threaten the chances of that improvement?
In addition to working with the elements of the Diagonal of Change, I address defenses when they arise and explore two directions: what is being defended, and what is it being defended against? However, this exploration cannot be done in any other way than in a psychologically safe space.
C&B: What is the greatest satisfaction you gain from your coaching work, and what motivates you to continue working with people on this journey of transformation?
Andrei Dodan: The source of my satisfaction has changed over time. In the early years of facilitating development programs, those “aha” moments provided me with satisfaction. There followed some years when commitment to action brought me satisfaction (those moments like, “I’ll talk to my boss tomorrow,” or “I’ll organize a meeting with the whole team on Monday and propose we look at the situation this way“). What gives me the greatest satisfaction now is the feedback after returning to reality, specifically from people who say, “I did this, look how it turned out,” or “this worked, this didn’t work,” etc.
C&B: What does the future of coaching and personal development look like for you? What changes do you think will occur in the way people approach personal and professional growth?
Andrei Dodan: Regardless of the direction in which technology will develop, I believe that discussions about development will increasingly be held by more and more people and will become more integrated. I venture further into predictions and anticipate that we will no longer discuss professional development separately from personal development, but rather about the development of the individual. Collectively, we have convinced ourselves that we are not so good at compartmentalizing. The discomfort caused by a specific project does not stop just because we get home. The frustration I feel in discussions with my teenage son does not go away just because I have arrived at the office. I believe we will increasingly seek integrative approaches to feel that we are living a fulfilling life. I also believe that development will cease to be tied to certain stages of life (I’ve started a new role, I want to reskill, I’ve gone through an important change, etc.) and will instead become a continuous process. A process that we owe to ourselves.
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