My way to become a coach in Munich

I actually have many good memories of my school days. But one memory still makes me shake my head sometimes today. I encountered limiting beliefs for the first time, even though I didn't know it at the time, of course.

I was in the IT elective, and since there were only a few PCs, we had to work in groups. Our teacher put the few girls in one group - which annoyed me beyond measure. From the beginning, most of them had the attitude: "As a girl, I can't do that anyway". Accordingly, they didn't even try to understand and we didn't get very far :-(.

At the time, I wondered firstly why they let themselves be talked into something like that, and secondly, why they went to the course with that conviction in the first place. Today I know how such beliefs come about, how limiting they can be and how difficult they are to discard without support. What has not changed is my lack of understanding of such prejudices against other people.

Since my youth, I have always done competitive sports. First athletics and then over 15 years of ballroom dancing.

I have experienced many things. But two insights stuck with me above all:

1. Only those who dare win.
   Our dance club, which is now around hundred years old, was almost on the brink of extinction when the premises were cancelled. As a board, we had the choice of downsizing or taking a risk and renting large rooms directly at Stachus. By expanding, we have become the biggest club in Munich.
2. Skill is only half the battle
   Because it also takes mental attitude and strength. Our thinking, our attitude to a situation massively influences our actions and accordingly also the result. No matter how good you are, if you assume that you will lose, it will happen.

"On the job" training and rotation through all departments in Amadeus including marketing in Madrid and software development in Nice.

The (international) trainees were selected in a 2-day assessment centre. It was an incredibly exciting experience and my first contact with psychological methods and personality models. Of course, the assessment centre also focused on skills, for example with an IQ test, but it was more about the right attitude, which was tested in numerous games, for example building a bridge out of Lego or a discussion on how best to survive after our (imaginary) plane crash in Antarctica.

With our second daughter, our family is complete and at first everything seems perfect.

But then comes an initially devastating diagnosis. Both girls are moderately to profoundly hearing impaired - or as we and many affected people prefer to say: differently hearing.

That was a difficult time for us. We had an incredible number of appointments and had to learn a lot of new things. But what really got to me was that the children's future was suddenly "thrown out the window" - at least it seemed that way in that moment. Which school will be the right one, will they be able to do the job they would like to do, etc.? But above all, one thing was clear: they will always have a harder time than others.

Because I know how good it is to have outside support in such a situation, I am also a coach who is passionate about supporting relatives of people who have experienced a stroke of fate.

Leading an international team of direct and functional reports, responsible for the correct planning and budgeting of the infrastructure in the Amadeus Datacenter.

Sometimes it was a bit nerve-wracking to be responsible for the functional topic but not have the disciplinary responsibility. You are doubly dependent on the "good will" of the people, you have no power that you can use.

Conflicts with the second manager are also practically pre-programmed. The employees are quickly confused as to which instruction is ultimately valid. But as we all know, one grows with one's challenges.

Even as a child, I loved to ride and have always dreamed of riding a Friesian. Just like dancing, the movement in harmony is absolutely fascinating.

Unfortunately, having my own horse was out of the question at that time.

When I started riding again with the girls, the desire to have my own Friesian soon came up again. Of course, a horse is a big responsibility and also a liability. Therefore, the head clearly said "no", while the heart loudly screamed "yes". Fortunately, I eventually listened to the feeling and have never regretted it. Besides the many wonderful hours, I wouldn't want to miss out on the personal development.

Leading a department of 5 teams with a total of 45 people spread over 4 countries, responsible for all transversal topics of the infrastructure and cloud area such as purchasing, capacity planning and project management with a budget responsibility of more than 100 million Euros. Scaling of the agile teams company-wide with the help of SAFe.

In my day-to-day work, I realised more and more that what I enjoyed most in the leadership role was supporting my people in their own development. I decided to focus on that, regardless of company politics. Finally, I made the decision to become a self-employed coach.

Training at the EMDR Akademie in methods for reducing stressful situations. Brainlog is a further development of EMDR, WingWave and Brainspotting, which are also used in trauma therapy.

Brainlog has exceeded my expectations of having a method to get results even if the trigger is not known. The best feedback I got was: "I can still remember the (bad) feeling, but it's just gone."