# Managerial Duels > At IT Night on Ivan Kupala, I spoke about the value of managerial duels: they train focus, composure and clear thinking under pressure. A real management workout! - Canonical page: https://shorin.me/en/blog/2025/07/poedinki/ - Page language: English - Published: 2025-07-23 - Tags: Negotiation, Networking, DigitalTransformation - Russian version: https://shorin.me/blog/2025/07/poedinki/index.md Managerial duels A week and a half ago, the “я-ИТ-ы” community for digital executives held [IT Night on Ivan Kupala](https://shorin.me/en/blog/2025/07/ivana-kupala/index.md). Alongside the main professional programme, the event featured a wide range of parallel activities, each offering different ways to take part. As I have [written before](https://shorin.me/en/blog/2025/04/change-roles/index.md), I enjoy the Managerial Duels track. During the main programme, the community presented its various activities, including the duels. As their chief ambassador, I was asked to briefly explain what taking part in them had given me (see photo). Before I spoke, others had already shared various thoughts on what people can gain from managerial duels. One benefit I would particularly emphasise is the chance to try out a role that does not come naturally to you. I took that opportunity in Sunday's duels, but I will write about that in a future post. Here, I would like to repeat the points I made on stage: - Managerial duels feel easy and straightforward until you face an opponent with roughly the same level of expertise as you – or perhaps even more. At that point, the ease and simplicity somehow disappear. - It has become fashionable to talk about fragmented, short-attention-span thinking as though it were something only other people suffered from. In reality, that is not quite true. In the heat of a verbal battle, with arguments flying back and forth, it is extremely difficult to stay focused on all the information generated in just a few minutes of negotiation. I have already [written](https://shorin.me/en/blog/2024/12/spokoystvie-i-uverennost/index.md) about how time slows down during a duel and seems to stretch on forever. Unfortunately, the strict time limit on my talk prevented me from covering the other roles in a duel: the judges and the seconds. These are entirely different activities that require a different set of skills. ## Media ## Original posts - LinkedIn: