Leadership Labs

Challenge

In the rat race of the daily management routine, managers can lose sight of the fundamentals. Having to react quickly and effectively to crises under pressure and deliver a high level of performance at the same time leads to exhaustion, constant stress and the inability to react to the current challenge in an open and present manner. Added to this is the constant visibility and simultaneous loneliness for managers at top or middle level. The basis for their own actions – leading themselves – often falls by the wayside. My Leadership Labs offer a space to focus on self-leadership and to grow as a leader.

Guidance on an equal footing

In my Leadership Labs, I act as a guide for personal development processes. There is a safe framework for this, outside of everyday management life, in which managers can reflect on themselves. Through dialogue and encounters with other managers, new perspectives and opportunities for self-awareness open up. My labs are designed in such a way that each participant has the opportunity to better understand their own patterns and needs and to further develop their individual leadership style in an authentic way. I focus on self-awareness and consciousness development. We work together on personal development issues of individual participants and learn together through careful process reflection. This creates an intensive process in which I make the hidden visible and support the exploration of uncertain new territory.

Leadership Labs: A breeding ground for modern leadership
through personal growth

Different topics - always focussing on personal development:

I will support you with the following laboratory topics:

Coaching Competences for Executives

Leading dialogues - guiding others in open processes - being more aware of yourself and others

Men as leaders

Developing identity - recognising diversity - sharpening career prospects

Personality Development and Resilience for Managers - Basics

Recognising patterns - perceiving needs - developing your own management style

Personality Development and Resilience for Managers - Intensive

Dealing with insecurity and uncomfortable emotions - experiencing resonance in encounters - strengthening body awareness

Personality Development and Resilience for Managers - Self-awareness

Focussing on personal development - dealing with inner experience - maturing

Important aspects of collaboration:

Where do the Leadership Labs take place?

Especially outside the organisation. In places that inspire creative thinking, heartfelt encounters and powerful decision-making. It is important that the participants get out of their familiar surroundings and find themselves in a place where they can encounter themselves and others in a new way.

I am happy to provide you with my recommendations for such places within Germany.
What is important for a successful start?
I always design the exact setup together with you and customise the labs to suit your situation.

I usually start by finding the right composition of participants for you. For the leadership labs mentioned above, the following has proven to be successful:
- Executives from upper or middle management who do not have joint leadership responsibility
- Potential leaders who are currently developing into middle management
- Internationally assembled
We also look at the challenging situations in your organisation and align the content of the labs accordingly.

Depending on the size of the leadership lab, I bring in trusted advisors.
How does the design of a Leadership Lab look like?

The workshop design is often developed in co-creation with you. It is important to know that every Leadership Lab lives primarily from the situational work on the topics brought in by the participants. I moderate the process, provide feedback and introduce methods that suit the group dynamics. This makes every leadership lab a unique learning process in which everyone will learn something.
Which methods do I work with?

My approach in Leadership Labs is based on methods from group dynamics, theme-centred interaction, peer counselling, supervision, liberating structures, agile tools, systemic coaching, transactional analysis and mediation.

In addition to the methods, I concentrate on the common focus for the major topics, personal resonance and contact between the participants and myself.
What theoretical background do I use?
I orientate myself fundamentally on the metatheory of change by Klaus Eidenschink.

For the coherent processing of your topics, I use my knowledge and experience with the following approaches:
- Coaching skills for managers
  - Gestalt, schema and hypnosystemic approaches
  - Transactional analytical and systemic coaching
  - Emotion-focused, body and mindfulness-orientated methods (many years of Zen and mindfulness practice)
- Men as leaders
  - Being a man in a changing world
  - Identity and personality issues
  - Leadership role and career perspectives
- Personality development for managers
  - Psychodynamics and driver concepts
  - Resilience and stress competence
  - Introvision and personal coaching
In addition while working on topics, all labs always focus on group dynamics, the quality of relationships with each other and joint focus formation.
In which language are Leadership Labs held?

I speak German and English.

References

I have worked with clients from various industries and company sizes:

AOK*

Biotest*

Bischof + Klein

Caritas

Computop

Datev

Deutschlandradio*

Eberspächer*

Fiducia*

Fraunhofer

Internationaler Bund

Malteser

Media-Saturn

Minimax

N-Ergie*

Radio Bremen

Rehau Group / Meraxis

Schnellecke Logistics

Siemens*

Stadt Nürnberg

Teambank

Volksbank

in collaboration with co-operation partners

Oliver is a very experienced coach. Something special happened in every coaching session he was involved in. I had the feeling that even more hidden things could have emerged if more time had been available. It was very interesting to see how Oliver built a connection with the coachee and then with us during the coaching sessions. This gave us an open, trusting and calm atmosphere in the entire leadership lab – starting with Oliver’s presence in the room.
Participant in the leadership lab "Coaching Competences for Executives"

As I mentioned in our live feedback session: Oliver is the spark that lit the fire in our group. Oliver showed us from the beginning that he is 100% attuned to each of us and to the group. He allowed us to organically develop the process together and the focus of the modules based on how we dealt with each topic and each other. My expectation before our first meeting was that our company’s standard leadership training would continue. The reality has exceeded my wildest dreams, because the way this group and Oliver’s approach has developed us together has touched me deeply.</strong
Participants in the leadership lab "Coaching Competences for Executives"

It was impressive how Oliver’s way of presenting made ALL participants enthusiastic about the content. Every minute made sense, the time passed extremely quickly and it was always exciting to see what was coming next. I learned a lot by being able to observe human behaviour more intensively and in more detail. We took the time to question why people (including myself) react the way they do and what basic needs are behind it – a crucial leadership skill for me. This was helped by our open schedule, a calm and relaxed trainer and the fact that we focussed on a few things that we discussed in depth and in a practical way.
Participant in the leadership lab "Coaching Competences for Executives"

Due to my stressful situation, I thought that the timing for the seminar was very bad. But it was exactly right, because leadership begins with my self-reflection. Oliver encouraged the group to have an open and often very intimate exchange. With a good mix of closeness and distance, I was able to see things from a different perspective and look behind my own façade in order to reflect on my situation objectively, but above all emotionally. The trusting and open group was extremely helpful for this – especially our walks in the forest with individual personal conversations.
Participant in the leadership lab "Coaching Competences for Executives"

I have clearly more clarity about my professional and personal goals – things that are really important. For my current role, I see an improvement in being able to focus on the priority issues and communicate my feelings and expectations better around me, both professionally and personally. All of this is primarily due to the fact that I understand myself much better as a person and know what my inner needs and drivers are. The group led by Oliver was the most important influencing factor for this effect on me. It created a safe place in a professional environment that helped me to reflect and discuss on a much more personal level than is expected in a general management development programme.
Participant in the leadership lab "Coaching Competences for Executives"