CONSULTANT|COACH

AD HOC, WHEN IT’S URGENT

So that you don’t only end up wiser afterwards, I can also support you directly and without beating around the bush, just as you need it right now. Upcoming situations or appearances, surprising challenges, difficult conversations, decisions: whatever it is, it is always worth trying to get ‘smart’ quickly beforehand. Just ask, and we will clarify very quickly whether I can help or not.

For me, ad hoc also means that the topic is burning under your fingernails right now and you quickly need a perspective for a rewarding development so that you can move on well and steadily. The actual development may then take more and longer. Here is a whole series of metaphors for typical life situations I have already experienced; maybe one of them rings a bell for you.

I. Houston, I Have a Problem

In mid-flight, a system-critical failure or an acute problem that needs an immediate solution so you can keep flying safely. From your flight path, we can quickly clarify the situation by phone or text message, check the options and find a solution that may be patched up for now, but holds until there is time to look at everything calmly in the dock and repair it. By the way, astronaut John “Jack” Swigert didn’t say ‘Houston, we have a problem’, but ‘Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.’ That’s how it should be after we have talked.

Duration: max. 0.5–1.0 hours

II. Pit Stop

The quick format for people on the racetrack of life, where we drive far more laps. Refuel, check the tires, minor repairs and adjustments, check the driver’s fitness. Just like in a car race: technically necessary and tactically smart. We meet in the pit lane that suits you, real or virtual, right by the track, and create the conditions for you to continue the current race well. Maybe that’s all it takes; maybe we discover topics that are due after this race and before the next one.

Duration: max. 1.0–2.0 hours

III. Dropping Anchor

A spot still at sea, to stop safely for a while without drifting off as long as no berth is available. Carefully choose the anchorage while keeping the channels clear, check the holding ground, keep an eye on wind, weather and current, and cope with swinging at anchor. The anchor is dropped with care, not thrown in like a towel. Time to report in, catch your breath, fix the most urgent things, get help, ride out the storm, that is, wait for better weather, restore maneuverability, and secure the way to the next berth.

Duration: max. 4 hours

IV. Weekly Rest Period

Figuratively speaking, we are all somehow in the freight and passenger transport business. After a packed week, and that means 56 hours behind the wheel, a rest period of 45 hours, or alternately at least 24 hours, is required: get off the road, leave the wheel and the driver’s seat for a while and take care of yourself and your own roadworthiness. Hand on heart: which driver sticks to the 56/24-hour rule when no one is checking? Nothing before, nothing after: one day of intensive work on the topics that occupy you consciously and unconsciously. A big sort-out, checking, clarifying. Doing something for your stamina, making workshop appointments for yourself and your vehicles. Planning something new for the coming week, an earworm, a ‘headworm’ or a ‘heartworm’, whatever the topic is right now. It’s best to stay overnight nearby before and after, because coming to rest is exhausting, too. Suitable locations by arrangement.

Duration: max. 8 hours / a full day

V. Time-Out

An interruption of play, initiated by your own team or by the other team. Time to reflect on the strength and behavior of the other team, check your own tactics, assess situations caused by exhaustion and injury, and find solutions to win the game if possible, or at least to finish it as well as possible. Working with me over two days gives you room and time to really take a time-out. It allows a depth and breadth that can only be achieved in at least two consecutive days. The personal and shared momentum carried from the first day into the second contributes to a good climate for intensive engagement. Part of the work over the two days is enough time to arrive, wind down and open up, and then to prepare well for the end of the time-out.

Duration: at least two days

VI. Mountain Ultramarathon

Lasting development and change take time. Much longer than a marathon. No standard distances, depending on the terrain, and it feels like well over 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) of elevation. Most of the time, this is not about winning but about making it. Arriving. No extremes and no extreme risks. Preparing for a very long distance with phases of euphoria, exhaustion and despair, and, with my good support, of encouragement, self-activation and lasting change. Preparation and precaution are an essential part of the run. With the development goal in sight, we set up a structure for the entire course together and pay attention to every detail for a successful distance. This is the format for lasting coaching processes.

Duration: several sequences over a period of about 12–18 months

NOT JUST FOR THE BOSSES

Why is it always only the bosses who get the tasty workshops? Employees are the ‘human capital’, after all, and there are many more of them. Yep. But if I own a company, or am responsible for it as a board member or managing director, and I see the role of managers as achieving as much as possible, sustainably, with the employees in my interest (‘getting out of them whatever is legal’), whom do I invest in most? I teach the magic tricks to the magician, not to the audience.

In practical terms: managers learn how to conduct salary negotiations successfully. I don’t know of any in-house seminar called ‘Successful salary negotiations for employees’. No wonder. My services are also, and especially, for people who are employees, meaning employees who are not also managers (after all, everyone is supposed to work together). For better cooperation, not for better opposition. And yes, sometimes it simply feels good to learn something that makes life with annoying bosses and colleagues easier. All this and more is available here.

AND YOU SHOULD BE WORTH IT TO YOURSELF! Every month €10 for your smartphone, €15 for fitness, €25 for Spotify/Amazon/Netflix, a few hundred for housing, etc., etc. And what do you invest in yourself and your development? It is quite astonishing that every month we spend more money on servicing our car, on health insurance or on our outfit than on our own personal development or our more lasting happiness. You can and should use consulting and coaching for yourself, too. If you want to live as happy a life as possible, you will need professional support every now and then. Which top athlete would achieve extraordinary performance without experts at their side? And our life is at least as challenging as top-level sport.

IMPROV THEATER WITH ME

No script, no fixed dialogues or scenes, because the topics and questions come from you, and the mood ‘in the house’ depends on the situation. Lights on, enter stage, but with a clear goal. With the courage and skill to take the right steps spontaneously and off the cuff, to make for a successful and lasting session. In my work, I use proven knowledge and methods, and yet there are no standards or fixed schedules. People and personalities are different, situations and moods are spontaneous, ways of opening up to reflection, development and learning are different. And so working with me is always individual and situational, always a little different. Like a good sailor: experienced, responsible, seasoned, with clear goals, holding course, yet flexible and patient in format, intensity and approach.

So when it comes to consulting, what does that mean? The Latin origin ‘consultare’ explains it better; it still stands for consulting in many other languages today, such as English ‘consult’. Getting advice (in German), consulting someone and thinking about how this advice can improve a possible decision. As a consultant, of course I bring all my accumulated professional and subject knowledge. Far more valuable, however, are my knowledge and experience of inner and outer processes in people and in connected systems such as families and organizations. Combined with my personal qualities and my network of experts in very different fields, that is what makes the difference. So, how questions can be solved with lasting success, what lasting success is in the first place and how we can learn from the attempts of others, which prerequisites and conditions make for success and failure and what their consequences are: that and more is what it’s about. Consulting here is therefore not simply filling up on knowledge, but much more a holistic view of the person seeking advice, the systems around them and successful strategies and tactics, weighing possible options for action, making decisions and implementing them successfully. As a consultant who is also a coach, I have an unusual eye for the person seeking advice and for the complexity of social systems. There are plenty of clever papers, but turning them into individually valuable and the best possible advice, that is the art. An empathetic oracle that speaks plainly, so to speak.

And when it comes to coaching, what does that mean? Coaching is my professional support, limited in time and topic, using structured methods of conversation, self-reflection, learning and feedback. Systematic support in perceiving, getting to know, reflecting on and understanding yourself better, in order to examine your own behavior and expand it in terms of a wider range of options. The need for coaching is often triggered by acute or pent-up situations and experiences in which your own toolkit is not enough for a lasting solution, or repeated attempts on your own have not brought success. So it is about concrete changes that work in the short term as well as lasting personal development in the medium and long term.

Coaching has become an established term in professional contexts, but it keeps snagging on two misconceptions. Misconception number one: that it is possible to work on work (‘work’) separately within the balance of life (‘life balance’). Misconception number two: that coaching paid for by the employer would not create biases and limitations in the coaching process. That is why my offer is aimed above all at self-payers who want to develop holistically, on their own behalf and on their own terms. So no sponsored bus tour, but a guided DIY (do it yourself) journey.

As a coach who is also a consultant, I have a keen eye for the need to unleash your own resources, strengthen resilience and foster the ability to shape solutions. A smart medium who understands people, so to speak.

And, very important: no consultant or coach, including me, can promise or even guarantee success. For all the successful assignments, I have also experienced some moments of personal failure; things can snag or not work out. For me, professionalism also means questioning myself and addressing this as openly as possible. Not shirking responsibility, pointing out alternatives and ensuring good conclusions and professional transitions. Criticism is an important part of the process; simply running away is not an option for me and with me. At least that is what I strive for.

LANGUAGE IS ALWAYS A TOPIC

What exactly do you mean by that? Exactly. Even when we share the same mother tongue, we use words and gestures very differently and sometimes connect opposite emotions with the same statements and metaphors. So, true to the ancient quote, I know that I don’t know what you want to express, until I have asked and understood. My mother and father tongue is German: Rhineland, Silesian, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein High German.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to live and work in and with many corners of the German-speaking world, at home and abroad, and beyond. And still, I keep my respect and curiosity about what each person might mean with their words. When it comes to clarity and ambiguity, making verbal and non-verbal language, as well as metaphors and analogies, concrete and developing them is a central topic. I have also been working in English, gladly and well, for more than two decades. In multilingual contexts, I love the many-layered aha moments of exchange. So language is always a topic, and hardly ever an obstacle. Not only as a last resort: with hands and feet.

NOT WITH EVERYONE – NOT ALWAYS

We have to be able to connect and be in the mood for it. Just as you need to check very carefully whether it fits personally, I look and feel very carefully, too. We can give each other an advance of trust; real trust we will earn together. Once that is in place, it is the circumstances, questions, topics and goals that must be able to stand up to the law and to my conscience. Yes, that means I also turn down work on certain questions, and instead try to work on the motives behind such a request. An example? If you come with the question, ‘what’s the best way to cheat on my partner without getting caught?’ Or, ‘how can I manipulate my boss so that I get rid of my colleague?’ That won’t work with me. In clarifying the assignment, I will certainly try persistently to get to the real topic with you.

Last but not least, it is also a question of my not unlimited capacity, which must allow us to work together over the desired period. For all my professionalism, I have good days and bad days, too. With a good sense of myself, there may be times when I don’t take appointments, or reschedule them in good time by arrangement, so that when I am there for you, I can be there with all my strength and abilities. And of course the same applies to you.

I AM NOT A THERAPIST

By law, and by choice, my services are limited to personal development. I expressly do not practice medicine; I cannot, may not and do not want to diagnose, cure or relieve illnesses, and certainly not issue sick notes or prescribe medication. My services are neither psychotherapy nor a substitute for psychotherapy. Taking part in sessions with me requires that you are of legal age and have normal mental and physical resilience.

If, in the initial conversation or at any other point in our work together, I get the impression that you need something other than what I can offer, I will tell you. Often these are parallel or staggered processes. What matters is that you are always in the best hands. And my ‘hands’ are only the hands of a consultant and coach.

RESPONSIBILITY IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT

Every client or coachee bears full responsibility throughout the entire process for all decisions and all actions before, during, after and outside the sessions with me. It’s about you, and no matter what supervisors, HR departments, partners or other supposed clients want, your own will and the assignment you give yourself are what count. It’s only about you and your needs! I take responsibility for my part in the process, and yet I encourage you again and again to question my suggestions and impulses critically, and feel free to discard them for an even better path. Development doesn’t mean taking a seat at the back of the bus, it means taking the driver’s seat!

LIFE IS 365/24

Everything we work out and develop for you should be of the greatest use to you in your daily life. It’s no use if you are only great in rehearsals; you want to be able to deliver on the stage of your life, too. That is why working with me is practical and inspires you to try things out. Sometimes something may snag, or a need may arise spontaneously. In emergencies, you can always reach me quickly and easily. Real life happens in real life. So we discuss how we stay in touch. When you need quick and easy support or live coaching, I am there, through all the channels we agree on. True to Paul Watzlawick’s lovely saying, “One cannot not communicate”, there are hardly any moments in which we cannot not find a way not to not communicate.

FAVORITE PLACES

To engage in this kind of work, you need the right surroundings. Away from everyday life, time to arrive and open up, an environment where you can let go and feel at ease, a place for intensive work. Where and what that is will be part of our clarification and development process. Getting to know the places where these very particular steps and moments work best for you is a matter of trying out and discovering. Over the years, I have come to know many favorite places, if you would like some inspiration. For short and quick, practical sessions, I make any place work. And if online is the best place, working with me there is very rewarding, too.

If you would like to work with me at my place, I am happy to offer, by arrangement, our wonderful and unique retreat in the Bavarian countryside, in the triangle of Munich, Augsburg and Ingolstadt. Here you will find the classic Art Nouveau coaching couch, the English literature corner, the cozy 19th-century kitchen, many spots in the garden, the 150 m² (1,600 sq ft) creative space with a pool table, gramophone and painting corner, sunny and shady spots under birch and apple trees, and endless forest and meadow paths for working and relaxing walks. Right next door, or right in the middle of it all: our FASZINATIONPIANOLA setting. For all piano and music lovers, a place unique in the world. And as a child of the Baltic Sea, of course I am passionately happy to meet at my or your favorite places by the water up there in the true north.

UNUSUAL TRAINING

For more than twenty-five years now, I have been learning from some of the best consultants and coaches: live, through observation, through reading, as a client and through critical engagement with models and methods. And as a passionate autodidact, I always remain in training. Every new day means learning more. The best training is still real life. I have never been able to get excited about certificates. My references speak for the quality of my work.

I have years of experience in applying proven models, always adapted to the situation at hand. At the same time, I have the greatest passion for developing my own effective interventions. With all of this, today I draw on a large repertoire that I use with a very fine feel for people, language and situations. You can find out more about me and my background here.