Field of work
Leadership
Managers and leadership teams that grow with the company, and a counterpart for the decisions that cannot be delegated.
Most managers in growing companies were promoted because they were strong at the work itself. Nobody prepared them for leading people. Then come the difficult conversations, the first conflict in the team, the question of how much to hand over, and leadership becomes the thing that keeps them awake.
At the same time, growth changes the job itself. Leading twenty people means knowing every piece of work. Leading eighty means leading through others and giving away decisions you could take faster yourself. This transition is rarely named and even more rarely practised.
Sparring for the CEO
For founders and managing directors I am a counterpart for the decisions that cannot be discussed openly with anyone inside the company: separations in the leadership team, conflict between shareholders, your own role as the company grows. Internally, every one of those conversations is political. From the outside it is not.
I listen, ask, and disagree where that is warranted. What I bring comes from my own responsibility in comparable situations, not from a method.
Leadership teams that actually decide together
Many leadership groups meet regularly and still decide little. Usually what is missing is clarity about which questions this team has to answer together at all and which belong in the line. That is where I start: how responsibility is cut, how decisions are taken, how disagreement is handled.
Where it helps, we develop leadership principles for your company: a small number of concrete expectations that everyone can be held to, the CEO included.
Managers who grow with the company
Work with managers runs on real cases: holding difficult conversations, resolving conflict, giving feedback that lands, delegating without giving away accountability. New managers I accompany through their first months, when the habits that stick are decided.
Every session ends with something concrete, and a few weeks later we meet again. That something of it lasts matters more to me than a session that went well.
When leadership is stuck
Sometimes conflict has already gone so far that the people involved no longer talk to each other but about each other. Then I work as a mediator: structured, impartial, aiming at a resolution that holds. It takes more resolve than a workshop and usually gets to a resolution faster.
What changes
Problems are raised earlier, while they are still small. Decisions are taken where they belong and are not reopened three times. Conflict escalates less often because someone takes hold of it. And the CEO no longer takes the hard decisions alone.
If leadership is the smaller problem and the shape of the organisation the larger one, that belongs under organisation. If a change is coming that will demand months from the leadership team, transformation is the better entry point. And if you first want a picture of where your organisation stands overall, the Organisation Readiness Check gives you one in eight to ten minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Why does leading get harder in a growing company?
Because the job changes without anyone saying so. Leading twenty people means knowing every piece of work. Leading eighty means leading through others and giving away decisions you could make better yourself. Most managers were promoted for their expertise and never practised that transition.
When does an external sparring partner make sense?
When there are decisions you cannot discuss openly with anyone inside the company: separations in the leadership team, conflict between shareholders, doubts about your own role. Internally every such conversation is political. From the outside it is not.
How does work with a leadership team run?
Usually across several sessions. We first establish which decisions this team actually has to take together and which it does not, then work on the topics genuinely on the table. Preparation and follow-up are part of it for me, otherwise the session fizzles out.
What qualifications do you have as a coach and mediator?
Eighteen months of training as a mediator and conflict manager at the IMB Institut für Mediation und Beziehungsmanagement, followed by six months of coaching. In a People leadership role that is an unusual combination, and it sits inside the daily work: a mediative approach to communication, individual and team coaching, resolving conflicts and the question of how to keep them from arising in the first place. Beyond that I know the situations we discuss from my own responsibility: I have led teams and People functions in growing companies, had to work through conflict in leadership teams myself, and decided on separations.
Do you work with theory or with real cases?
With real cases. Managers bring the situations that are currently open and we work on those. Short inputs for orientation belong to it, but the practice happens on whatever is back on the desk on Monday. A follow-up session comes a few weeks later. That something of it lasts matters more to me than a session that went well.
Let’s talk about your organisation.
30 minutes, no strings attached. You describe your situation, and I tell you honestly whether and how I can help.