News & Cases

Winning Excellence: The leverage of woMen who lead

Three days before Easter-Sunday the police rang at our door, the officers looked at us and said: We are very sorry, but your father has passed away in a car accident.

"Lonely at the top"

After four hours of intensive coaching, my coachee - CFO of an automotive supplier - looks at me and says: "You know, some of the results we developed today in coaching may be obvious from your point of view. The solutions are - I see this again and again at the end of the coaching - 'actually' easy to find. Provided you take the time and reflect.…

When passion becomes a burden ...

New York. Investment Forum 2021. A "highly decorated", internationally renowned top leader, the keynote speaker delivers his speech with passion. Afterwards, people queue up - everyone wants to talk to him. He devotes himself to each interlocutor with unbelievable devotion - visible empathy. At dinner, he "engages" me in conversation. It quickly…

Nothing comes from nothing - how to cope with the agile working world

"Agile transformation is often seen purely as a process issue. The personality of the executives who are to drive this change is usually neglected. However, executives with an agile mindset are the decisive factor for successful business transformation," writes Prof. Dr. Martin Puppatz, Co-Founder of the LINC Personality Profiler, in an article…

5-Star technique for your relaxed appearance

After more than 20 years as a TV anchorwoman and executive coach, Dorette Segschneider has developed the 5-Star Technique - for a fear-free appearance in front of the camera.

Finally time for your vision

The complexity of the world - upcoming transformations in many companies require new thinking, new skills, and new expertise. I work with top leaders on these very issues, e.g. when complexity leads to micromanagement - because, in the turmoil of the VUCA world, the entrepreneur fails to prioritize issues, to engage in...

Authenticity is allowed to grow - and so is satisfaction!

Happiness or for the 'moderates' among my readers: Satisfaction can be learned by everyone. This insight is not based on 'crackpot' eso ideas, but it is based on the findings of science. It is almost a truism that research has demonstrated a centre in the brain for positive thoughts and feelings - a happiness area - that anyone can train. The…

Diving into the depths of the self - self-observation as a recipe for success

A central solution formula that I develop again and again with my clients is the observer posture. The implementation is undoubtedly individual - the 'background', how to succeed in looking into the depth of one's consciousness, on the other hand, is universal:

Key to coaching success

Over the decades, Executive Coach Dorette Segschneider has filtered out four keys that make coaching successful.

Confident appearance in four steps

"I want to prepare for a job interview series that's coming up in the next few weeks." "And what exactly do you want to work on?" I ask my coachee - a prospective COO from the telecommunications industry.

"How can I quickly find out what's important to my counterpart? I'm less concerned with the stereotypical issues - the 'typical' external…

6 steps how transformation succeeds - part 1 of the blog series about change success

"What is the key to change success? How do we manage to go through the planned transformation process successfully?" my client Johannes M., CEO of a family-owned company in the real estate industry, wants to know from me. "Why does one company succeed in change and the other does not?" "Today, the coachee continues - I want to listen to you first…

When the morale account is full

Time and again, board members/company owners ask me why compliance violations continue to occur in their company despite all the compliance training. A current case, which is currently occupying me in a coaching session, relates to an automotive supplier's previously very successful sales director, who committed a compliance offence during the…

Out of the complexity trap - 6 effective tips

Over the decades, Executive Coach Dorette Segschneider has filtered out six tips that help out of the complexity trap.

More sovereignty in meetings

Carola M. has already overcome many challenges on the way to her current position as a director in a medium-sized company. Her most recent one, on which she has often received feedback from colleagues, concerns her insecure manner in meetings, especially with "higher-ranking" colleagues. Her self-confidence plummets, she shakes like a leaf inside,…

She shouldn't make such a fuss

"You can't imagine. I really give everything to my employees. I motivate them to the best of my ability. There are incentive trips, the employee offers without end, a gym in the company building, yoga classes, etc. Now we are going through hard times in the company, and there is extremely high pressure on the market. My employees really get…

Appointment? Appointment! How planning actually becomes implementation

"I hate planning! No wonder my competence is shown as moderate", said Martina M. - spokeswoman of the board of a medium-sized company - when we scrutinized the results in her LINC Personality Profiler on an intensive day.

Why or why not?

The coaching process had just begun for Dominic L., an equity partner in a large law firm. In the pre-coaching session, he had emphatically requested that the coaching should not start with a search for his personal WHY or neo-German "purpose", but with very practical, directly implementable examples from his everyday entrepreneurial life. His…

A CEO reveals: What he took away from an intensive coaching day

The CEO did not (yet) have a clear goal - concretely formulated or, even better, defined according to SMART criteria - when he signed up for a "clarity day" with me. In response to my inquiry during the pre-coaching phase, he wrote: "It's really about sorting out my priorities, distinguishing the important from the unimportant, and getting me to…

I really don't have time for that...

Last week, a client told me one of the secrets of my coaching successes: "Dear Ms Segschneider, I have to admit that I have 'cursed' your weekly 'Reflection Action Tasks' many times and I remember very well when I told you at the beginning that I could not fit regular reflection into my tight timetable - now, after a year of working with you, I…

5 golden rules for transparent communication

Modern leadership methods rely on open communication and the sharing of information and are thus very successful. Transparency lived in this way creates trust, which in itself is an essential feel-good and productivity factor for employees.

Double - Hammer! Ex - VW Executive Board Member Winterkorn is alleged to have lied

This was one of many headlines about the diesel scandal. Was there a 'Winterkorn system'? How could systematic fraud develop? It is up to the courts to judge this. How does it come about that more and more people in a company become accomplices? And above all: How can one avoid being sucked into the 'complicity maelstrom'? I talk about this with…

Banal yet genius - Why simple solutions are sometimes the best ones

More energy in everyday leadership

It's always the others' fault

An exchange of letters with my coach

I thought I was...

"The goal at my old employer was just to bite people to death or beat them down. I'm extremely conditioned by the culture I worked in for twenty years. That's why I thought I was competitive - when I'm not!"

That was my client's core insight - a real eye-opener after we had listened to her...

The power of state control - everyone in top management should master it

"Staying relaxed in stressful situations despite pressure on margins - functioning in complex work environments, difficult decision-making situations or crises - that's what I want to be able to do," said Karin S., Sales Director of a medium-sized company. And she was not the first top manager to come to me with this wish. "That's what I want to…

Make something out of it

Commitment - I am still looking for the proper German translation. I am happy to receive ideas. "The commitment to deliver something" - I already like the definition quite well because it is at the same time exactly what I expect from my clients. When goals and options for action are agreed upon in coaching, sustainable coaching success is only…

I would like to be so different - I just get to do it so rarely......

"I still remember when a colleague once said to me: 'With you, one thinks one has booked a ticket for first-class and then finds oneself in the luggage compartment'. There are two reasons for that: First, my powers of persuasion are indeed notorious - second, I have a talent for selling the worst situation as great, and I use that. And here's my…

As a board member in the SME sector: When owners do not give feedback

"I just don't get any feedback. Yesterday I had - at my urgent request - the first feedback meeting in years. I had to pull the words out of his nose and ask specifically: 'What would you like me to do differently?' And even then, the answers were very nicely packaged. I still don't know where I stand," reports the COO at the beginning of his…

Confusion instead of clarity - why type tests are misleading

Executive coach Dorette Segschneider explains why type tests cause more confusion than benefit.

The great silence of the board members

In the top echelons, problems are often "solved" by being hushed up. Emotional issues are often completely ignored. Board members refuse to address issues that make them uncomfortable. Silence has many causes and far-reaching consequences, also, for my client, who had been silent for a long time - far too long.

Successful Leadership - 7 Guidelines for Top Leaders

Over the decades, Executive Coach Dorette Segschneider has filtered out 7 guidelines that characterize successful leadership.