Brigitte Witzer. Executive Coach, Rednerin und Autorin. Executive Coaching and Top Executives

Who would ever say no to a job as a member of the executive board? However, the complexity of this role has increased significantly over the course of the last years. When the candidate is expected to be ready to take great risks, he or she needs not only legal or economic advice, but also support in personal reflection. Here, coaching is the approach, but it is about more than this:

100 days of counselling
for self-reassurance, for drafting change management and choosing clever “quick wins”. The key issues can be swiftly set in motion, the new role can be implemented confidently and successfully. As always, the process is also useful for gaining personal clarity.

Reflection of distortions
Heightening one’s own perception and reflecting internal feedback. Please be aware that internal counsellors always have distorted angles of perspective and they are part of the system, maybe even part of the problem – no matter how attentive and loyal they are.

Over time, the following possible applications tend to emerge:

• Sincerity and confrontations
  with the familiar “plain truths” – by way of a credible feedback
• Recognising options for action in risks
  and being able to distinguish risks from dangers
• Having an outlet for frustration and grief
  as well as for dealing with the occasional humiliations that are part of the role
• Sparring partner
  for self-doubt and for dealing with unawareness and uncertainty
• Elimination of isolation
  when the ability to act informally is lost

One of your personal goals might be the activation of your capacity to reflect, as well as to generate and to consolidate your own tacit knowledge, all of which leads to a general process of maturation. You will be rewarded with maturity, wisdom and the so-called “deep smarts”.

Find a PDF here: Top_executives_feb2015_en

Look at Transition.

The taboo: Why we always do our best and often lose.

We’re dependent on recognition and confirmation – and in their pursuit we often reach the limits of our strengths. Alcohol and nicotine help to extend these limits somewhat, shopping or running a marathon provides us with the satisfaction that our daily lives lacks. We’re always connected via mobile and Facebook but have less and less time for social contacts as our job and career demand all our energy. Almost all of us are more or less addicted though we often don’t realise it since many of our addictions don’t draw attention to themselves and are socially acceptable; the boundary where moderation in taste leaves off and addiction begins is a grey zone.

Or we just don’t want to know because that understanding would be associated with feelings of guilt and shame. Even experts conservatively estimate that in Germany more than every fourth person is addicted in one or another way. An alarming figure! In addition, a large number of relatives, friends, acquaintances, co-workers and colleagues suffer massively and most of them, like the addicts themselves, ignore the problem, and without realising it act as accomplices.

The economy never had it so good. But how is it for us?

The hundred dollar question: What does our successful economy mean for our personal well-being? We hardly experience the feeling of well-being and plunge headlong into a variety of addictions. Our daily life is a binge played out between computer games and vegetarian cooking.

Addiction in our individual, family and work contexts makes us needy and draws us into a web of entaglements, impossible to unravel. Our economy is based on the main features of addiction: overestimate of ones own value, avoidance of relationship and incompetence in conflict situations – and reviews itself as a system of addiction par excellence.

For every addict there are co-dependents. For every addicted manager there are co-dependent employees who create a stable system. Rigid game rules and frictionless functions are a part of co-dependency and at the same time the best career guide. Where in the economy can be found presence, groundedness, and a focus on a reality that relates to us and that enables a true feeling of wellbeing?

There is no satisfactory answer to this question – that we as individuals are challenged makes us uncomfortable.