Sparring for Executives
Sparring is a professional and goal-oriented preparation for specific high-level tasks. While staying in the role of a decision-maker, you have the opportunity to discuss crucial issues with your coach, who acts as a partner for reflection, and who plays a role of a neutral and critical secondary observer. That means your coach observes you while you describe or observe other people or situations.
At first glance, this method might seem unusual, but it has a huge advantage. With your coach, you can discuss and analyze complex problems about which you would probably never talk with your colleagues or superiors at work. The focus of attention is your own thoughts, concerns, fears, ideas and visions which need to be explicitly expressed and analyzed.
Sparring helps you gain clarity of thought and create a degree of predictability in diverse situations. It can be applied to both work-related and private situations; insofar your coach, as your sparring partner, can help you recognize problems early enough and eliminate them quickly and effectively. Moreover, sparring allows you to think new ideas through to the end, to generate plans and to increase the number of your alternatives.
If you are willing to talk about certain issues within the bounds of confidentiality, let us meet. We will be glad to be by your side, wherever and whenever you need us.
Workplace Conflicts
Workplace conflicts are common in all companies and at all levels of the corporate hierarchy. Interpersonal conflicts among employees with equal rank and no authority over each other can easily be localized, identified and solved. Usually this type of conflict does not pose any threat to the company.
However, it is different when conflicts arise between a manager and a subordinate. Such conflicts are rarely open and usually take place in the shadows of normal work activity. Sometimes they are not obvious even for the affected manager. This situation conceals a real danger which a manager should be aware of.
There can be different reasons for the conflicts. However, some particularly widespread causes of conflicts can be summarized as follows:
- Manager’s lack of social skills
- Lack of trust in management
- Employee’s concerns about consequences after expressing critical remarks
- Time-dependent problems in a team
- Lack of flexibility in a company
- Unclear structures
- Limited managerial authority
- Intercultural misunderstandings
Against this background, it is therefore important that you, together with your coach, analyze the problem - both the causes of conflict and conflict amplifiers. The next step is to work purposefully and be goal-oriented towards conflict resolution.
If you recognize your situation while reading the causes of workplace conflicts; then, you already have a relatively clear description of your problem, and now are searching for the right solution. We are ready to support you on this search.
We will be happy to assist you in solving workplace conflicts successfully - wherever and whenever you need us.
Career Planning for Expatriates
The career planning process is generally one of self-discovery, in which one attempts to identify both strengths and opportunities for improvement, specific skills, abilities, aptitudes, interests and values concerning the requirements of different career fields. It is a process that many people are unaware of or simply prefer to ignore, since it is perceived to be too much work for the benefit derived.
Whether you are an executive, a manager or an ambitious professional, you will want to get the utmost from your career. A professional coach is totally committed to helping you identify and achieve exactly what you want in life. Since our working lives underpin most other aspects of our lives, anyone intent on achieving personal fulfillment needs to address his or her career issues.
During sessions you can analyze your own key challenges related to current developments in the job market and strive balance, while allowing yourself to reflect and build a career plan that makes the best possible use of your assets, education and skills.
Political intrigue and power games
Politics is an important part of life and plays a significant role in organizations and companies. Companies, in turn, constitute the specific organizational units of various sizes which constantly interact with society. It is therefore not surprising that companies, to a certain extent, are political. However, differences must be drawn between a company’s internal political activities, which usually take place among individual functionaries, departments or stakeholder groups, and external political activities between the company and other market players.
Among various management activities in the companies, internal political activities prevail; In profit-oriented companies, the urge for influence and financial enrichment is particularly noticeable. A conflict of interest between two or more executives then turns into a fertile ground for political intrigue.
Former colleagues and friends become competitors striving for power and neglect basic principles of human coexistence. Eventually it can go even further – you can feel exposed to slander or bullying. Subsequently, you may become annoyed, disappointed and even ready to play against the rules.
If you happen to be in this situation, please feel free to contact us. We have both psychological knowledge and experience in dealing with politically and socially motivated power games. We will be happy to assist you in solving your problem - wherever and whenever it is most convenient for you.
Cultural conflicts abroad
As an expat you work and live abroad and interact continuously with several companies or organizations of the host country. The fact that you are on business in a foreign country already indicates your principal willingness to engage with other cultures. However, even though your employment abroad is voluntary, you may still have an uncomfortable feeling that you do not really get along well with your foreign superiors, colleagues and acquaintances.
With intercultural trainings, you will know the most important indigenous customs, business practices and traditions relatively well. Nevertheless, you may experience the life-views or work-habits of your surroundings to be very stressful. People around you are different, and may even sometimes be too different for you to feel comfortable. As a consequence, you may become irritable and prone to erratic behavior. You switch from a factual to an emotional level, and cause irritation to your foreign colleagues. Such incidents lead immediately to unpleasant confrontation, and in worst cases, to open conflict.
If a conflict breaks out, whether in an open or a hidden form, it affects both the working climate and those around you. Soon you would not be able to bear emotional and social pressure anymore and you would quit - whether formally or mentally. Further successful commitment to work would be impossible.
When facing this kind of problem, it is beneficial to have prompt and professional support from an experienced crisis-coach. If you do not hesitate for too long and try to solve your problems actively, then you have a good chance to resolve your difficulties. We would be happy to support you and assist your intentions.
However, your willingness to talk openly about your difficulties is vital. If this is the case, then we will be able to supervise you professionally in order to minimize your conflict in a foreign country, and probably even solve it.
Career and family planning abroad
A foreign assignment is a proven way for career success for many expats. The decision to work abroad can be easier if nothing ties you down - no family, house in the homeland, or even a dog; then you are flexible and free in the truest sense of the word. You travel where you want to and nobody complains. You live for yourself.
But this is not the case for people with a family who have to make all relocation decisions taking the well-being of all family members into consideration. All is well when your partner agrees with a long-term stay abroad and the children do not mind changing friends, climate and language every now and then. In real life, however, such a situation is relatively rare. A significant amount of prematurely terminated stays abroad is caused by the decision of family members who cannot bear life abroad.
Building a career is great, but it might become less attractive if interests and needs of other family members are not or are insufficiently taken into account. Financial bonuses have no value when your child is crying and the partner complaining. A quarrel is inevitable.
In this context, an early involvement of a professional coach while planning your career abroad, is a worthwhile consideration and investment which will certainly pay off. Coaching will provide a valuable assistance for your professional development abroad, while taking needs and circumstances of your family members into consideration. After all, they are a strong emotional support for you; one you do not want to miss.
If you are already in a crisis situation, there are still some solutions possible of which you might not have thought yet. Sometimes, a different view or a new thought of the third party is sufficient to find a needed solution.
Let us discuss your situation. We will do our best to assist you and your family members find the right solutions. We look forward to meeting you wherever it is most convenient for you!