Pavla Belostikova is the founder and CEO of Leader Decision.
She has been interested in decision making and happiness since she was a child. She graduated in Economics and got her Master degree in Human Decision Science (behavioral economics with emphasis on psychology of decision making), her final research focused on positive psychology (mainly life satisfaction and self-control). Her study about self-control, thought control ability and life satisfaction has been published in Current Psychology journal. She has found that people who have higher self-control, are able to control their thoughts better (don’t give in rumination or other unproductive thoughts) and therefore they are significantly happier. So, yes happiness is a state of mind and by increasing our self-control we can become more satisfied in our lives. She has always believed that Economics and Psychology should be connected and that these two sciences can help people and companies to thrive.
Besides her academical knowledge, she has a lot of real life experience. She has lived, studied and worked in many different countries and faced many cultural differences. She lived in the Czech Republic, Germany, UK, Spain, Austria, and she is currently living in Brazil. She has traveled a lot which opened her mind and taught her to see things from many different perspectives.
Her strongest characteristics according to VIA (value in action character strengths survey) are perspective, judgment (critical thinking) and authenticity (honesty). She consciously uses these strengths to bring new perspectives and way of thinking to her clients.
Her job is to keep herself updated and use the new research findings to improve people’s and companies’ lives. She combines science with coaching and her own experience giving people new perspectives and helping them to grow.
Publication:
Current Psychology Journal: “It’s the thought that counts: Trait self-control is positively associated with well-being and coping via thought control ability”
University Education:
- Bachelor of Economics at Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic
- Erasmus program at Universidade de Vigo in Vigo, Spain
- Master of Human Decision Science at Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Further Education:
- Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills – Dr. Karen Reivich – The University of Pennsylvania (online)
- The Science of Happiness – The University of California, Berkeley (online)
- Positive Psychology – Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson – The University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill (online)
- Intercultural Psychology, Tandem, Pilsner, The Czech Republic
- Introduction into international youth work, AGSA, Schierke, Germany
- Conflict Management, Europa-Direkt e.V., Dresden, Germany
- Psychoanalysis and Czech and Central European Culture and Society – Professor Joseph Dodds – course by CIEE
- Coach Training individual at Libuše Rychterová – coach and therapist with more than 15 years of practice
Life time member of International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma – “Best in Business” – Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest recognition a business student in the world can receive
