Leadership tips for managing directors
This site provides managing directors with tools for managing and developing their company. The impulses are tried and tested, compact and based on practical experience.
Questions to which you will find answers on this page include
- How do I build a change story?
- How do I develop employees into change agents?
- How can simple tips increase the productivity of meetings?
Change communication
This is Leo.
He is the managing director of a medium-sized company.
He wants to change a few things.
But how can he best explain it to his employees?
How do I build a change story?
1 | Target image
Why do we want that?
2 | Change reason
Why do we need this?
3 | Urgency
Why now?
4 | Effect
What exactly will change for employees? From when?
5 | Next steps
What are the next steps?
6 | Appeal
What am I asking you for?
7 | Benefit
What do you get out of it?
Application examples
Example 1
- Target image:
- "It is our goal .... ."
- Change Reason:
- "In this way we achieve ..." (benefit)
- Urgency:
- "It is important that we start now, because ..."
- Concrete effects:
- "For you, this means ..."
- Next steps:
- "In the next step, we will therefore ..."
- Appeal:
- "Let's ..."
- Benefit:
- "So that we can ..."
Example 2
- Change Reason:
- "You all know the problem / situation ..."
- Concrete effects:
- "That's why, from January..."
- Target image (positive future):
- "This will help us in the future..."
- Urgency:
- "Why are we tackling the issue now? At the present time ..."
- "If we only met next year ..."
- Next steps:
- "So the next step will be ..."
- Appeal:
- "I beg you ..."
- Benefit:
- "This enables us to ..."
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly here.
Combining strategy with everyday life
This is Nina.
Nina is the managing director of a medium-sized company.
She realises that for many employees, the company's strategy is something abstract.
She would like to know how she can integrate the strategy even more strongly into everyday life in terms of communication.
How do I make it clear that our strategy is part of our everyday life?
- Justify decisions
- Explaining investments
- Enquire about the strategic fit of proposals
Application examples
- Justify decisions:
- "The central aspect of our strategy is ... .
That's why we ...
For this decision, this means ..."
- "The central aspect of our strategy is ... .
- Explain investments:
- "As a company, we want to achieve ... To achieve this, it is of central importance that we build up expertise in area X. That is why we will invest in ..."
- Enquire about strategic fit:
- "How exactly does this contribute to our strategy?"
- "What strategic goal is this bringing us closer to?"
- "For which strategic field of action is this intended?"
Summary
- To make strategy less abstract, you can integrate it more strongly into your everyday communication.
- The best way to do this is to scrutinise the strategic fit of decisions and proposals or to justify your decisions with the strategy.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
Increase meeting productivity
This is Holger.
Holger has changed companies in his role as Managing Director.
The management meetings in the new company are unproductive: his colleagues are not prepared. There is too much talking and too little decision-making.
Holger wants to know how he can take countermeasures without alienating his colleagues.
Enable subconscious preparation:
agenda with questions. The subconscious searches for answers and so helps preparing the meeting.
Actively lead meetings:
Application examples
- Formulate the agenda in the form of questions:
- What does the business situation look like?
- Where do we stand in terms of our strategy?
- What do we have to decide?
- …
- Steer the meeting with control questions:
- What is the goal you are pursuing with this proposal?
- What do we need to finalise this agenda item?
- We have now discussed a lot, what do we decide?
Summary
- If your agenda is formulated in the form of questions, the subconscious mind will help you prepare.
- Because: Questions trigger the subconscious to find answers. Minimal preparation happens on the side.
- Use control questions to bring colleagues back to the common thread and achieve results in the allotted time.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
Leading effectively with targeted questions
This is Thomas.
Thomas is new to the role of Managing Director.
He wants to work with his management team as equals and at the same time spread the entrepreneurial responsibility over several shoulders.
He is looking for a simple but effective tool for day-to-day management.
How can I use questions to lead in a targeted way?
- Open question
- Motive question
- Hypothetical question
Open questions:
Formulate the open questions Solution focussed. This ensures constructive and forward-looking answers.
- What do you need so that ...?
- How do you manage to ...?
- Where do you start to ...?
- Who will support you to ...?
- What else do you need to ...?
Motive questions:
Exploring motive issues Causes, reasons and drivers. Motive questions provide you with important information to elevate the conversation from the position level to the target level.
- Why is that important to you?
- Why do you want to do exactly that?
- Why do you need the decision immediately?
Hypothetical questions:
Hypothetical questions minimise the hurdle of the next step.
- Assuming you solve the problem, what was the decisive step?
- Suppose we were to take the risk, what could be the benefit?
- Assuming we win the contract, how would you manage the project?
Application examples:
Guiding others through an appointment with questions:
- What benefits do you expect from the project?
- What should a decision proposal look like that is immediately convincing?
- Who else would we need to involve from the outset in order to ...?
- Suppose there was a more elegant way, what would it look like?
- Suppose we were to omit one step, what would it be and why?
Benefit
- With targeted questions, you encourage others to think. This allows you to share entrepreneurial responsibility.
- Effective questions open up solution spaces that are not visible beforehand.
- Effective questioning saves you time when preparing for appointments.
- Effective questioning is always at eye level. It accepts that you, as the managing director, only see part of the truth.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
The balance between fault tolerance culture and quality
This is Verena.
Verena has taken on the role of Managing Director in a company characterised by engineers.
Its aim is to extend the company's innovative strength to areas beyond pure product development.
The central hurdle in this change process is the company's prevailing zero-defect tolerance.
She would like three tips on how to break them up.
How can I establish a culture of fault tolerance?
A differentiated view:
A differentiated view makes a difference:
- Where do we still need a zero-error culture, as errors are associated with high entrepreneurial risks?
- Where is more tolerance permissible?
Deliberate rule-breaking as an experiment:
Defined together:
- Which rule do you want to deliberately break in a defined period of time?
- Which team is the pilot team for this rule break?
- When will you look at the results of this experiment together?
Talk openly about your mistakes:
Make it clear that mistakes are part of the learning and development process by talking openly about your own mistakes and what you have learnt from them.
Verena's conclusion:
- I discuss with my team in which areas a greater tolerance for mistakes is more likely to create business opportunities than risks.
- We look for a rule that we deliberately break in a pilot team over a defined period of time in order to then discuss the results and derive a decision.
- I openly share my mistakes and what I have learnt from them.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
Developing employees into change agents
This is Anke.
Anke has been part of the management team of a medium-sized company for 6 months.
Together with her colleagues and the entire workforce, she wants to make the company fit for the future. This requires change.
She wants to know how she can develop her employees into shapers of this change.
How can I develop employees into change agents?
Three recommendations
- Short, continuous sprints instead of long, large projects
- Co-creation instead of top-down
- Recognising progress, not just the end result
I will give you specific guiding questions for each recommendation.
Short, continuous
Sprints instead of marathons:
- What specific steps will you be taking over the next two weeks to address a particular issue?
- Who is taking these steps?
- What does the individual or team need to make progress on the issue?
Co-creation - initial questions:
Initial questions to start the process:
- Which everyday problem would you like to solve?
- What developments would you like to drive forward?
- What new idea would you like to realise?
Co-creation - your role as a GF:
As managing director, you tend to take on the role of moderator:
- Scrutinise the teams' change plans
- Make decisions together with them
- Take care of the necessary resources
- Accompany the implementation with solution-focused questions
Recognising progress:
- What has changed in the last four weeks - in terms of the issue and in terms of cooperation?
- What has been achieved?
- What was experienced and learnt?
- How did each individual make this possible?
Anke's conclusion:
- Together with the teams, I will look for problems that they want to solve because they expect to benefit from them.
- We will work in short sprints and recognise the development at the end.
- I take care of the necessary resources, provide support with decisions and essentially guide the process by asking questions.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
Enabling the realisation of potential
This is Nadja.
Nadja has taken over the management of the family business.
In order to make the company fit for the future, it needs the creativity, commitment and willingness to take responsibility of all employees.
She asks in coaching:
How can I empower my 80 employees?
Four recommendations
- You help everyone to formulate their why.
- You consider together in which role and with which questions this why can unfold most strongly.
- You enable everyone to transform their limiting beliefs and personality patterns.
- You combine the various team roles depending on the issue in such a way that further potential is realised from the interaction.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
Filling leadership roles correctly
This is Andreas.
Andreas is the managing director of a successful medium-sized company. But this company is also struggling with a shortage of skilled labour.
The company conducted an employee survey this year, which did not turn out well. In addition, staff turnover is increasing.
The root cause analysis left Andreas with the following question:
How can we fill management roles in our company correctly?
Six recommendations
- You define your leadership culture with competencies and behavioural anchors.
- As managing director, you exemplify this leadership culture.
- You provide regular feedback on management behaviour through
- 360° feedback and job shadowing.
- You support further development through personal coaching.
- You identify high-potential employees in a structured selection process.
- You are establishing an alternative career path for specialists.
Book your personal coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me directly.
If you are looking for answers to your questions, why not book an initial coaching session or a free introductory meeting with me?