COACHING

I started management coaching about 20 years ago. Coaching at that time often had a stigma as a corrective action, a last attempt before dismissal.

Even today there are traces of this negative image of coaching in the brains of some people.

Coaching, however, is just a highly personalised form of learning.

While training programs have a rather pre-determined structure, each coaching process develops its own dynamics between coachee and coach. A trainer rather provides answers while a coach rather asks questions. With targeted questions – similar to those asked more than 2,000 years ago by the philosopher Sokrates – the coach unearths knowledge and insights which already pre-exist in the coachee’s mind. A coach does not say “You have to become more customer-oriented!” but asks the coachee: “If you were your own customer, what would you expect from someone like yourself?”

About 4 years ago I also started to provide team coaching. Even highly motivated and highly skilled individuals may fail to deliver high performance as a team. A team is not just the sum of all individual talents but has to develop a culture of trustful and effective cooperation to be high performing. I support teams in developing this culture of cooperation.