Insights. What is on our minds right now.

What a bad hire really costs

Replacing a leader costs 200% of their annual salary. On a package of 300,000 euros, that is 600,000 euros. For a single bad hire. And 42% of all resignations could have been avoided.

Do you know your own values?

Most leaders cannot name their own values. I don't mean the values on the office corridor wall or the website. Not the ones from the last workshop. I mean the real drivers, the ones you make decisions by when nobody is watching.

Is efficiency killing corporate evolution?

I have been filling leadership positions for 20 years, and what I am noticing right now gives me pause. The role profiles landing on my desk contradict themselves more and more often. They say "drive transformation", but without any risk, please. "Think like a visionary", but only within the approved budget line. "Drive innovation", but with guaranteed results in the first quarter.

82% of promotions go to the wrong people

82% of promotions into leadership positions go to the wrong person. That's not a gut feeling. That's three independent studies.

Friends at work

Friends at work, and a number many managers refuse to believe. If employees in your company have just one person they would call a close friend at work, the likelihood that both feel productive and engaged rises by a factor of 7.

AI makes everything interchangeable. What remains?

AI makes every product, every service interchangeable. So what is left to set you apart? Hardly any German CEO has an answer to that.

High performers are hard to lead?

I hear it again and again. But it isn't true. High performers aren't hard to lead. They are uncomfortable. And they are hard to control. That's a difference.

Who to hire, who to fire

Culture doesn't come from values on the wall. It comes from decisions. From the people you hire. From the ones you promote. And from the ones you part ways with.

7 rules for a healthy culture

There is always a culture. The decisive question is which one.

"How's it going?" is not leadership.

If that's your opening line, you're not leading. You're wasting oxygen. That question gets vague answers, forced smiles and zero clarity.

Lethal Leadership

Cultural corporate suicide. I have been observing this phenomenon for so many years. The biggest wrong decisions in companies are not made on strategy, products or markets.

Great Leaders make a huge Difference

One chart. 66,869 leaders worldwide. This study by Zenger Folkman makes visible what we know but rarely act on consistently enough: teams under weak leaders reach an employee engagement score at the 21st 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙚. Under average leaders: 51st. Under the best: 86th. That is not a gradual difference. That is a different world.

3x more effective on the way to top leader! But not the way you think.

For years I believed good leadership meant eliminating weaknesses, working on everything, getting better everywhere. Until I came across a study by Zenger & Folkman that turns everything on its head

Digital Matters Podcast: values as a competitive advantage

What corporate culture really means. Values. The word is plastered across glossy brochures, hangs as a poster in the corridor, and is still broken every day. But what if values are the decisive lever for real transformation in mid-sized businesses?

The real C-Suite Skills

What sets top C-level leaders apart from other executives: anyone who wants to rise to the top tier of leadership needs a completely new skill set. It's no longer about working harder, but differently.

Hiring is culture building

You want a high-performance team? Make sure you're not just building a house of cards.

Leading hybrid teams: leadership for humans and machines.

It used to be only people at the table. Today AI agents sit beside them. They make suggestions. They take decisions. They deliver results.

7 tips for values-based leadership

At a time when everything is supposed to be measurable, stance and character quickly become an afterthought. Yet this is exactly where leadership parts ways with management.

The leadership paradox

Everyone talks about leadership as if it were a checklist: develop a vision, set the strategy, make decisions. But anyone who truly leads knows: leadership is a constant balancing act.

Burnout vs. Purpose

Middle management is at stake!

Leaders, time to come clean!

Values aren't decoration. They are your company's DNA.

Your company has cancer.

Shadow values: the cancer in your company. They are often recognised too late, they eat deep into the system and destroy structures from within. They emerge out of sight, not in strategy workshops or purpose meetings, but in everyday work, in the corridors, in emails, in stress reactions.

If it’s not a hell-yes, it’s a no

Hiring: every leader's most important job!

Your AI executive interview trainer

For more than 15 years I have guided leaders through selection processes, always in the context of innovation, change and growth.

The journey is the destination. Then came AI

I used to know phone numbers by heart. Today I don't even know my closest friends' numbers. Why? Because my brain has learnt: the phone does that for me. What began as a small convenience is everyday life today, and artificial intelligence (AI) is taking this development to a new level.

Speak like a true Leader!

Good communication means clarity, responsibility and respect. Over recent years I have met many leaders: brilliant strategists, charismatic figureheads, clever visionaries. But the truly effective ones had one thing in common: they were excellent communicators. And without any jargon or buzzword bingo.

AI FOMO?

Companies are stuck in a dangerous state between hype and standstill. They know AI changes everything and believe everyone else is already doing it. And what happens? Nothing, or the wrong thing…

Fire the be(a)sts

No matter how well someone sells. No matter how brilliant the code. No matter how “irreplaceable” a person seems: anyone who behaves toxically has no place in any company. Full stop.

"Whose values are built into our AI?"

Why we need to talk about the cultural imprint of AI.

Top 6 "best boss habits"

6 things that make you the best boss! 20 years of working with diverse and inspiring leaders have shown me what really matters

Open the box, put the person in?

Personality diagnostics as precise as a horoscope! “I'm an INFJ.” “No way, me too! Then we're a perfect match.” We have conversations like these in coaching sessions, interviews and when selecting leaders. The Myers-Briggs test (MBTI) has cult status. 16 types, four letters, a sense of orientation. But what does it really achieve?

Becoming a VAMEous Leader

As a leader, you know that one of your most important tasks is to foster your teams' sense of responsibility. That is how you create more autonomy and personal ownership for reaching shared goals, and can stop having, or wanting, to control your teams all the time.

6 questions to find out how your employees are really doing!

The wellbeing of many employees is under great pressure. According to Gallup, 60% of employees say they are struggling with engagement, and one in five feels lonely. Employees who don't feel well are less productive, less engaged and have a negative impact on morale and culture in companies.

Top 10 Mistakes to kill your Team!

These are the top 10 leadership mistakes that damage team morale and performance.

References: more important than Amazon reviews

Much like Amazon ratings, references provide a reality check beyond advertising promises. They show how candidates are perceived in a real working environment, not in a controlled interview setting. Just as we feel uneasy buying a product without reviews, we shouldn't select leaders without well-founded first-hand accounts.

Don`t Motivate! Inspire!

I often hear leaders say how proud they are of their ability to motivate people. My clients, too, routinely ask in interviews: "How do you motivate your employees?"

Mastery vs. Performance

Have you ever noticed that the most successful people of our time aren't driven by mere performance or by hitting some KPIs, but have committed themselves to something bigger?

Culture is Strategy

“Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast!” True! But couldn't it, or shouldn't it, be part of the strategy?

Chief Vision Officer

With every C-level executive, the title immediately tells you which area of the organisation they are responsible for: Chief… Technology / Finance / HR / Data / Sales / Digital / Product / Marketing / etc. … Officer

Big 5 questions for teams

The five questions every leader should ask their team regularly

If your employees are having fun, you're doing something wrong!

I often feel that things like new/remote work and more flexible working are criticised so heavily only because most employees see them as positive achievements that increase their satisfaction.

Letting go: the hardest task for leaders

When it comes to tasks within our core competence, we trust ourselves the most. We are convinced that we do this work best. So why shouldn't we simply do everything ourselves?

Leader type: crime scene cleaner

In the world of startups and growing companies there are two very different kinds of leaders: the founders and the fixers. Both play decisive roles in different phases of a company.

How do I get the most out of my employees?

We are often asked how to get the most out of your teams. The answer is crucial for a company's culture and success.

What skills do leaders need?

The 9 most important skills a leader must have

10 "green flags" for a healthy corporate culture

A healthy corporate culture is marked by clear performance expectations, a shared vision and an appreciation of failures as learning opportunities. Other key traits include valuing employees' time and commitment, open communication, zero tolerance for toxic behaviour, recognition of good work, acceptance of differences, commitment to company-wide values and the promotion of diversity.

GenV • Our last hope?!

The time has come: the baby boomers are leaving the world of work day by day, and over the next ten years that will leave around 13 million unfilled positions in Germany.

May the force be with you.

Or maybe not? I recently read that power is necessary to really make a difference. Is that really true?

AI & the era of the generalists

Homo universalis: AI and the rise of the generalists. Over recent decades, specialists have shaped our world in science and business, right up to AI.

Stop hiring Mini-Mes!

In more than 15 years of executive search I have seen far too often that hiring managers chose the candidates most similar to themselves.

How do you lead GenZ successfully?

To win over and motivate GenZ, companies and their leaders need a new stance on leadership that matches their values, preferences and expectations. The key traits of this modern style of leadership include

Why we need leaders.

Engage, Empower & Decide

Leadership in the age of AI

In an era in which artificial intelligence and technological progress are accelerating rapidly, leaders face new challenges and opportunities.

Grow up, but do it right

Mistakes in fast-growing ScaleUps: in my current work with two fast-growing GrownUps, I notice once again how fast-growing organisations keep making the same mistakes

Superpower: multiple perspectives

Birds of a feather flock together, and that applies to the leadership floors of many companies too, even though it would be so important to tolerate uncomfortable difference. Because today's already overwhelming pace of change will keep increasing, and companies that want to succeed need resilient structures.

Why Values Matter!

Over the next ten years, almost a million baby boomers will leave the labour market every year. This poses a significant challenge, and Germany's limited openness to immigration makes the situation even worse.

Will AI kill the video interview?

During Covid, for the first time I had to rely exclusively on video interviews with candidates.

Why cultural fit is the wrong path when building leadership boards.

Cultural fit should be a thing of the past when filling C-level positions.

A new category is needed!

Simply appointing a new advisory board (supervisory board) will not be enough: the “legacy” has to change in order to find an answer to today's challenges that fits the spirit of the times!

Leadership 101

What leadership is really about! Over the past 15 years I have worked with many leaders at C and D level. Many are luminaries in their field, but not all of them were leaders. So what, besides professional expertise, marks out true leadership personalities?

The sandwich manager: probably the toughest leadership role.

Middle management faces an enormous challenge. It is the bridge between the corporate vision and the reality of employees on the ground.

Podcast: How leadership works

“As a hiring manager and leader, a Chief Technology Officer matters far more to an organisation than as a pure technology expert. And yet, of course, street credibility counts too...”

Why CFOs often don't make good CEOs.

There is hardly a position in a company with deeper insight into an organisation's data and KPIs than the CFO, and I often see owners and investors floating them again and again as successors for the CEO position.

10 routines for sustainable peak performance

Top managers, business leaders, executives and managers are often under enormous pressure. They are the role models who should always act calmly, rationally, empathetically and efficiently. But how can they sustain their peak performance over the long term?

Praise is counterproductive for a growth mindset!

You're so intelligent, or so talented at this or that. Who would have thought that this kind of praise not only has no positive effect on the person praised but, on the contrary, reduces their willingness to perform and their intrinsic motivation to make an effort.

AI in recruiting: the silent killer of diversity or the saviour of fairness?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is like a wolf in sheep's clothing that has made its way into the world of recruiting. It promises to make the process more efficient and even to eliminate bias. But is that really the case? Or is it just a wolf in sheep's clothing that threatens diversity in our companies?

Waiting is not a strategy!

10 traits that set Bold Executives apart.

The CDO: just a relic of the past?

If companies today still need a Chief Digital Officer (CDO), is it perhaps already too late?

Collaboration between headhunters and HR/People departments

The right positioning for your next career move

“Position yourself on LinkedIn the way your next (!) role would call for!” In fact, one of the most common tips we give candidates for leadership roles.

Don't cut corners on leadership

Companies are cutting costs at every turn. Even on their CEOs?!

Headhunting between bias and the women's quota

Headhunters fill some of the most sought-after leadership positions in Germany, an incredibly responsible task! After all, they are the ones who preselect talent and act, in a sense, as gatekeepers.