Executive Coaching
... a results-oriented, systematic process
My coaching approach is to support executives and their teams to fully understand the demands put on them, strengthen their strengths, uncover their hidden potential, and to work on their needs for change.
- The beginning of every coaching relationship is marked by a first non-binding meeting in which we find out whether the chemistry is right. Then I support the client in defining his/her coaching objectives – involving superiors or HR where appropriate. Goals are set with respect to the client's needs for change, improvement or further exploration. In this phase mutual trust and respect are established.
- Once the fundamental goals are set, I flexibly adapt my coaching style to every client and apply a wide range of methods and intervention techniques customized to my individual client's needs. The opinions of colleagues, staff members and/or other interfaces are taken into account, if required: how do they see the coachee's strengths and development needs?
- During the coaching process, I focus on the essential. I set up a high-quality coaching process based on my international practical leadership experience, my expertise as a clinical psychologist and consultant and my deep and basic understanding of the dynamics and processes within companies.
Please click on the links below for detailed explanations of the individual types of coaching including practical examples:
Management & Leadership Development
My portfolio also includes international qualification measures for executives. I cooperate with a network of partners to tailor the programs individually to the needs of your company. The executives are actively involved with respect to goal-setting, contents and implementation – because it is essential to tie together the development and the business strategy in a way that ensures that the executives learn what the success factors for themselves and for the company are.
Our methodical basis for these trainings is not to "entertain" the participants with lectures and contents, but to promote reflection, practice, active learning, implementation and trial and error. We work with creative learning approaches, reflection in small groups, peer coaching, transfer coaching, theoretic short input ("food for thoughts") and accompanying project work. We place high importance on securing the results by means of a high level of theory-to-practice transfer.
Practical Examples:
- Conception, design and implementation of a global multi-module leadership program for 2,000 senior leaders of an industrial enterprise. The program focused on: strengthening the individual executive's leadership profile, developing his/her own leadership brand, leading in a rapidly changing international environment, establishment of a joint and comprehensive understanding of leadership, leading in flat hierarchies, strengthening of a feedback culture.
- Design, implementation and coordination of a multi-module top talent leadership program in a commercial enterprise. The program focused on: preparing an individual career/development plan, identifying and capitalizing on one's own potential and possible derailment factors, broadening of the participants' leadership competence, strategic work. Members of the management board and executives supported the program actively with lectures, fireside chats, panel discussions and the sponsoring of business-relevant projects.
Potential Evaluation & Management Audit
Another area of expertise I specialize in is potential evaluations and assessments of applicants for top executive positions. These include internal candidates who have been designated for the succession into a top position or talents who are to be further promoted within the company as well as external candidates. I carry out potential analyses using reputable personality inventories, instruments for the assessment of cognitive, analytical skills, and conduct elaborate biographic interviews.
If desired, I also obtain references about the candidates. I interpret the results on the basis of the respective position description and the requested competencies and/or support my clients in defining the competencies and criteria.
Practical Example:
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A European subsidiary of a globally operating Japanese company asked for an assessment / management audit for three candidates – two of them external applicants – for the position of Head of Human Resources. Special competencies required were intercultural sensitivity, a high willingness to cooperate versus dominance, and analytic-strategic thinking. I complemented an elaborate interview with the Hogan Assessments method, including the Cognitive Ability Test and discussed the results of the assessments and the reports with the CEO and the Global HR Director.
They followed my recommendation and successfully hired the candidate who matched the profile best. At the end of the process, I provided all candidates with detailed personal feedback.
Strategic Human Resources Management
In 1997, Dave Ulrich published his book "Human Resource Champions". Since then, HR organizations have been called upon to act as business partner and to be considered as such within the business. Although HR managers strive to achieve this goal, today, 15 years later, there are still countless conferences on this topic each year. We still hear complaints that HR is not regarded as strategic partner or does not position itself "properly". Whatever the reasons are – I support you with pragmatic concepts to align the HR function and its activities in a way that they back up and support the business strategy and the financial success of the organization.
A variety of practical examples:
- Sparring partner for the Head of Human Resources; e.g. for the new HR director of a consumer goods company, over a period of 9 months;
- Consultant for the internationalization of HR processes and instruments; e.g. for a German medium-sized company which had acquired several other firms in Europe, or a German pharmaceutical company which restructured the complete HR organization;
- Support of HR teams during strategic repositioning; e.g. for the HR organization of a bank;
- Development of consulting competence for HR managers; e.g. with a qualification measure for the development of competencies in the area of talent assessment and potential evaluation, interview techniques or the conception of a respective qualification program;
- Conception of HR processes like succession planning, mentoring, talent development and performance management; e.g. the implementation of a performance management process and annual appraisal interviews including the training of all executives for a media enterprise;
- Employment of balanced scorecard instruments to measure performance.