The step up
Coach
1:1 coaching for leaders — for the step nobody can take on your behalf.
The situation
Someone is ready for the next step. And standing in front of it.
Maybe it’s you. You’ve led for years, it works, and something is stuck anyway: a role that has outgrown the way you fill it. A conflict that won’t dissolve, however calmly you settle it on the facts. Or the quiet question of whether you still want the job the way you’re doing it.
Maybe it’s someone on your team: technically unquestioned, leading for the first time — and suddenly being good at the work isn’t the job anymore. Neither case is helped by another seminar. Nobody takes that step on someone else’s behalf.
What happens
Two tracks, the same stance.
We start with a conversation that doesn’t go on the invoice — in coaching, chemistry isn’t a nicety, it’s the precondition. After that we agree a rhythm, usually one session every few weeks, and a goal concrete enough that we’ll both notice whether anything is moving.
- Executive sparring
- For managing directors, board members, and C-level. The air gets thin up there: the number of people willing to disagree with you honestly drops every year. I’m not inside your organization, I have no career path to protect, and I’ll ask the question nobody in the building asks anymore. The subject is rarely technical — it’s role, power, loyalty, and what you actually want.
- Rising leaders
- For the next generation: the first leadership role, the jump from best specialist to leader, the first team of their own. We work on situations from the current week — the conversation coming up, the decision that has been postponed twice. No curriculum, just what’s in Tuesday’s calendar.
Coaching, the way I do it, is neither consulting nor training. Consulting means I bring the answer. Training means I bring the material. Coaching means both are already with you, and my job is to get you to them — including the places you’ve been walking around.
Straight talk
Not the right fit if …
- … someone is supposed to be “fixed”. Coaching as the last stop before a separation doesn’t work, and I won’t be part of it.
- … you’re paying and expect reports. What’s said in a session stays there. The three of us can agree a goal up front — that’s all you’ll get from me, and it’s exactly what makes it work.
- … what’s really going on belongs in therapy. I usually notice early, and then I say so. Coaching is the wrong tool for that, not the weaker one.
- … you want a fast answer. For “what would you do in my position?”, advisory sparring is the more honest format.
And if after two sessions it’s clear that it doesn’t carry between us, say so. Coaching against someone’s own will wastes everyone’s time.
Track record
Where this comes from.
Systemic coaching training at IFW Munich, 2001 to 2003. And 20+ years of leading since — my own teams and other people’s, from startups to enterprise.
“Systemic” means one thing to me above all: people rarely act wrongly, they act in a way that fits a system inviting them to. So we don’t only look at you, we look at the constellation you’re in — and at your part in it. Surprisingly often a conflict loosens the moment someone sees what function they serve in the whole.
Then there’s the part no training gives you: I have led, I have got it wrong, and I know how a decision feels when there is nobody to delegate it to. I don’t walk anyone through a situation I only know from books.
Certificate and references on request. I don’t name coaching clients — not even the ones who would be happy to be named.
Rate
€3,200 a day.
It’s here so neither of us wastes time — whether it becomes a single day, a series, or a longer mandate is what the first call is for.
The call
30 minutes before anything starts.
Tell me who is facing the step and where it’s stuck. We’ll both know from the call whether I’m the right person. If I’m not, I’ll tell you — and I usually know someone who fits better.