Exec Coaching & Consulting / Team Facilitator
Profile
I coach and train international managers.
Why?
After two and a half decades of leadership experience in media companies, I know why so many things go wrong in so many organizations. And I learned how to do it in a better way – and how to lead successfully.
Why are so many people unhappy in their jobs? The answer is simple: Very few really understand what makes people in organizations tick.
Many are stuck in magical thinking: „If I want something,“ thinks the boss, „my employees have to do it!“ And is surprised that it does not work. The team player thinks: „It is obvious what is the right thing here to do – why don’t we just do it?“ And cannot understand that the others see it in a different way and don’t buy in. Then comes frustration, followed by resignation and in many cases a mental cut with the job: „Nobody gets it right here …“
We are constantly stuck in the jungle of the organization. Moving but not making progress. This does not need to be the case – if everyone involved knew how successful cooperation in an organization works. There are just few basic and always recurring patterns to observe. If everyone involved knew them, working life would be much easier and more successful.
Clear and understandable communication. Reflection and self-reflection. Working on your own persoanl patterns. Learning successful attitudes and actions. These are „magic skills“. Good leadership is surprisingly straightforward and easy to implement.
Magic Skills
It is one of the most beautiful professional experiences to get a team to fly. When the group is suddenly more than the sum of its parts. When there is an ascending dynamic and the performance soars.
Three steps to get there:
Clarify your professional roles!
It is extremely useful to keep asking yourself a couple of simple questions: What exactly am I here for? What does my company pay me for? Should I really be doing my colleague’s job? Does it make sense that the boss takes care of her employees‘ jobs on an operational basis? What is my purpose as an employee – and what are my colleagues’ functions? Where do our roles complement each other and where do they overlap? Most of the time, people don’t ask such questions. And even more seldom they negotiate their roles in a continuous and transparent way. This is exactly what you should do: Clarify the different roles so that they complement each other as well as possible.
Take on your responsibility!
Once roles and responsibilities have been clarified, everyone knows what to do. And can get started right away. The boss no longer needs to direct everything. Every member of the team knows what is required in their respective position. But most importantly: All employees are responsible for the success of their area. And of course, also receive the praise for their success!
Give trust!
An irresistible strength arises from clarified roles and personal responsibility: Trust. Everyone does their best at their place – because they know their job and their responsibility and because they have the freedom to do it their own way. In clarified roles there is no longer any need to compete – on the contrary, they are the prerequisite for relaxed and productive cooperation. Appreciation and bonds between the team members develop: You are competent for your field, I am competent for mine. You leave me alone, I leave you alone. I can be as happy about your success as I am about my own. Teams suddenly become more than the sum of their members. An upward dynamic emerges: Commitment, appreciation, performance, joy. It is a delightful experience to see a team grow beyond itself in this way, enjoy success and have fun. This is what successful leadership is aiming to.
About me
- Journalist, manager, coach.
- Born in 1956, married, two grown children.
- Skier, through-hiker, Tango dancer.
- International Leadership Development and Executive Coaching.
- European Broadcasting Union / Geneva: Faculty Member EBU Academy (Masterclass „Leadership“, Peer-to-peer reviews on Public Service Broadcasting Values for SRF / Zürich, RTR / Chur, RTE / Dublin, Cesky Rozhlas / Prague, moderator of international events).
- Teaching at Hochschule der Künste (HKB) Bern / Switzerland.
- Serving as Director-General of Radio Bremen (ARD) for ten years.
- Editor-in-chief of the national news program ZDF heute-journal.
- Head of Program Management of television at Hessischer Rundfunk.
- Head of content of the TV program “hr fernsehen” (Hessischer Rundfunk).
- Head of content of the radio program „hr1 – Das Informationsradio“ (Hessischer Rundfunk).
- ARD foreign correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and Czechoslovakia.
- Research trips to Central America, USA and the Philippines.
- Radio reporter, editor and moderator at Hessischer Rundfunk.
- Studies of history, politics and sociology (MA) in Freiburg, Berlin, Mexico D.F. and Frankfurt a.M.
- Fellowship „Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst“.
- Community Service with „Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste“ in Israel.
- School attendance in Darmstadt and Mexico D.F., Abitur in Darmstadt.