What makes me unique?

As my client, you will have access to the following attributes that will enable you to achieve your goals faster:

• Born in Germany, raised and educated and having developed my career in South Africa, I have lived and worked in Australia for 20 years. This diverse background and innate cultural curiosity and diversity enables me to think outside of the square from multiple creative perspectives.

• 55+ years of life experience and wisdom from a lifelong track record of living, loving, parenting, travelling, working, leading, enterprising, coaching, mentoring and learning. I have read and applied at least one personal development book each month for the last 18 years. Leaders are readers!

• 35+ years of business leadership in large, complex, global, matrix organisations; while maintaining high integrity and values across numerous diverse and successful leadership roles across Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.

• A successful management and leadership track record as a corporate CIO. This included finding, leading, developing, coaching and mentoring "clever people" all over the world to achieve successful ventures. By implementing the smartest technology and business processes, I have always used a soft skilled "head and heart" approach to overcome and thrive in the traditional, "I win - you lose" business environment.

• Years of applied consulting, coaching, mentoring, grooming and training experience for clients both big and small; or near and far.

• Years of training and certification as a professional coach, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) practitioner, trainer and speaker with a Diploma in Coach Mastery through www.thecoachinginstitute.com.au

• A non-judgemental, non confrontational, supportive, encouraging, inspiring, sharp, challenging, enjoyable and friendly approach to life, work and to my clients.

• Use of the latest trends, technology, tools and techniques to help you achieve desirable outcomes; whether you are based in Melbourne, Massachusetts, Mumbai or Munich; provided we can do so in English or in German.

Follow up Programs

After completing a 6 -10 session coaching program with me, many of my clients then choose to continue with ongoing coaching support. If you like, we can add to our coaching support agreement for a year by meeting (via phone, in person or online) once a month for an hour or two. This will keep you on track and will hold you accountable for continued growth. It will also allow you to continue using the coaching service as your sounding board or to seek additional perspectives and prepare for upcoming events. Most clients see this to be a valuable arrangement based on the results they will have experienced up to that point. It's a bit like a mobile phone... could you imagine working without one today?

Corporate Triangle

When is a coach necessary? Individuals are not the only clients who will benefit from the services of a personal and executive coach. Many managers of corporations will propose coaching for a subordinate in conjunction with a performance review, succession planning exercise or 360° review. Having an external third party coach often helps to smooth out rough edges, offering a bipartisan approach to overcome potential blind spots in far less time than conventional training alone.

Prior to working with the employee (client), I work with the client's manager(s) to prepare an agenda that will serve both their expectations. Although the manager has input, my job is to provide the client with support solely. Hence, my confidentiality is maintained with the client and to work with that person to achieve the desired results.

At the end of the program, a debriefing may be held between the three of us - the manager, subordinate (client) and I - to make sure the outcomes were indeed achieved to everyone's satisfaction.

The Coaching Conversation

Very rarely do I give advice, unless it is posed within a mentoring context. In that case, I will seek permission first. Believe it or not, you have all the answers to what you seek already within you. Perhaps you have just not asked yourself the right questions yet. That's where I come in. My expertise will direct you with a lot of incisive questions that will lead you to the right answers.

Why does this work? We often formulate our best thinking while explaining things to someone else, don't we? Someone who has wisdom to listen and direct you on your path, without judgement or poor guidance. The quality of my listening assures the improved quality of your thinking. That's the coaching conversation. I have no other agenda than to discuss what matters to you. However, I will not enable you to adhere to past conditioning, beliefs or unresourceful thinking that may be prohibiting your success.

At the end of each session, we will reflect upon where we are within your program. We may agree on homework and will discuss the content, venue and time of our next session.

I also write up a summary of the content of each session immediately afterwards. It captures any homework you committed to and I attach relevant material from my training IP for your consumption to prepare for the next session. My clients also find this valuable as a future reference document when from time to time they go back to it to reflect on how they are doing, how far they have come and polish up on what they may have forgotton.

My primary purpose as your coach is much like a running mate, thinking partner and sounding board. I will challenge your thinking and help you to prepare for those critical meetings, presentations and negotiations. I will hold you accountable to what you have committed to initially. Make sense?

Contact me for your free, friendly and informative exploratory conversation.