Family Dynamics

In 2022, HARVARD BUSINESS MANAGER magazine published an article on how our family background can influence our career. It states “Family dynamics is rarely a topic in executive coaching. Unjustly so. Since who we once were has an impact on our behaviour on the job – and on our careers.”

An essential part of my approach is to go in search of family roots together with my clients. Family dynamics teach us a lot about authority, success and identity. When similar dynamics arise in the workplace, we can easily fall back into old childhood patterns – reacting emotionally or aggressively. Later, we often feel ashamed that we didn’t handle things differently. Awareness alone is not enough to change though. We must take action, or else we will just keep repeating the same thing over and over again.

And this is exactly where I come in with my systemic coaching approach. A system consists of a number of dynamically interconnected elements. If one element of the system is changed, this automatically feeds into all the others. Families and teams are systems and their individual members are also dynamically interconnected. What one person in the team does has an impact on the others.

My approach to coaching has developed organically through my own biography: I’m able to combine my experience as a leader, my life history and my resulting transformational journey with my competencies as a systemic coach. Through this, I can show my clients what lies behind an obstacle and encourage them to try out new behaviour patterns – and in so doing, change old patterns and dynamics in a way that is truly self-empowering.

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