CEO Today - Executive Coaching Awards 2022

CEO Today Execut ive Coaching Award s 2022 - USA -

Dr.

Katharina Schmidt PsyD Founder of Inspiration & Discipline

Listening - forgotten half of Leadership We learn to give presentations but nobody has listening as a subject at school. Listening, including being fully present and guiding thinking with the right questions is a key leadership skill. Most of her clients need to be reminded of the magic of listening.

Katharina has worked as executive and leadership team coach for over 20 years. Next to her role as coach she is a dedicated and regularly challenged mother of two teenage boys and happily married to her husband for more than 20 years. She takes care of her body as if she will live to over 100. She has lived in 6 countries and speaks 5 languages. She has explored the concept of leadership, influence and power since building sand castles as a toddler. She is in awe with leadership potential in people and she loves to push people to maximize that potential. She is a learning and growth junkie: ICF certified Master Coach, ex- CEO, Kellogg MBA, doctorate in leadership psychology and certified in numerous methods and frameworks. She loves them all and follows when relevant. She always looks for gorillas in the roomof her senior and C-suite executive coachees. She cares for her coachees and she kicks their butts around their (sometimes limiting) beliefs. She wants to change the face of leadership and overcome addictions to (white male) charisma. She supports her coachees in designing and developing their own authentic executive presence. She deeply enjoys to witness people reflect, experiment, embrace and grow. Leadership is a team sport In her years as professional volleyball player in the Spanish Superleague, she discovered that leadership is a team sport. It is not about a person, it is about the collaborative process that co-creates in a team. She has supported numerous leaders to navigate and find their dynamic equilibriums in engaging, directing and committing people towards a shared vision. Compassion versus performance One of the struggles her coachees come up with in their coaching sessions is the paradox between people and results, relationships and tasks. By exploring, expanding and reframing their thinking around their roles, coachees become more conscious and ambidextrous in switching modes and enabling their people to follow the switches.

Thinking versus Doing In hyperchange mode, most of her executive clients tend to go in the weeds too much and don’t create enough time and space to think. Thinking deeply is a universal human struggle; she supports leaders to get into a space of deep thinking.

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