Karl-Heinz Hirschberger

Business & Leadership Coach

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Leadership coaching · Berlin & online

Experience meets perspective.

A decision you have been putting off for weeks. A team that no longer pulls together. Or the quiet question of what comes after this role. These are things you rarely talk about with your own manager – but you should talk about them with someone who has carried leadership responsibility himself.
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Is this for me?
40+ years of leadership & sales
PayPal · IBM first-hand experience
Systemic certification, recognised by the DBVC

Situations

What is on your mind right now

Hardly anyone books coaching because coaching sounds good. People book it because something has happened. Do you recognise yourself? Tap a card – behind it is the question we would start with.

“I’ve taken over the team – and half of them aren’t on board.”

01 · Tap

The first question

What is good about leadership – for you, not for your manager?

“The same role for years. Is this still really me?”

02 · Tap

The first question

What should your business card say in one to three years?

“Next week I’m sitting across the table from procurement. And I know how it went last time.”

03 · Tap

The first question

In this negotiation, what are you happy to take responsibility for – and what not?

“We’re restructuring. Everyone is looking at me – and I don’t know the answer myself yet.”

04 · Tap

The first question

Which people and places allow you to be completely yourself?
None of these? Then simply tell me about it in our initial conversation – that is exactly what it is for.

Coaching

Where I support you

Four areas in which specialists and managers come to me. They often overlap – a team conflict is rarely just a team conflict.
01

Leadership coaching

Developing your leadership role and your personal leadership style – whether you are new to the role or, after years, have reached a point where what used to work no longer does.
Typical: a new leadership role, growing responsibility, a team in transition.
02

Career development

Gaining clarity and thinking through your next career steps before others decide them for you.
Typical: an internal or external move, returning after a break, the last big chapter.
03

Negotiation

Preparing and conducting conversations and negotiations with confidence – with the perspective of someone who sat on both sides of the table for years.
Typical: annual review, salary negotiation, key account, procurement, works council.
04

Change management

Leading teams and yourself through change while keeping your bearings – even when the direction from above is not yet clear.
Typical: restructuring, new technology, merger, a generational change in the team.
Karl-Heinz Hirschberger im hellen Sakko, nachdenklich auf einem Stuhl

How I work

No rah-rah. No mind games.

You don’t need someone shouting motivational slogans at you. You need someone who listens, asks questions where it gets uncomfortable – and who knows what it feels like to carry quarterly targets, a team and your own doubts all at the same time.
A systemic view, an honest tone – and an understanding that everyday business is waiting for you again on Monday.
My approach combines a systemic, psychological perspective with intuition, life experience and business acumen. Constructively challenging, not comfortable.
confidential
systemic
practical
in German and English

Process

What happens after you get in touch

No package you have to buy in advance. First we talk – then you decide.
1
Day 1

You get in touch

By phone, email or the contact form. A sentence or two about what is on your mind is enough. I will get back to you personally.
2
around 30 minutes

Initial conversation

By phone or video. We clarify what it is really about – and whether the chemistry is right. In coaching, that is half the battle.
3
in writing

A clear framework

The goal, the number of sessions, the location and the costs are agreed before we start. If your employer is paying, we agree the framework together with them.
4
in Berlin or online

The sessions

At your own pace, with time to try things out in between. At the end, we look back together: what has changed, and what will you take with you?

Verifiable

How you can tell who you are talking to

Trust grows in conversation. But before that, you are entitled to know what it is based on.

40+

years of working life – from branch manager in the social sector to sales leadership at global players

16

years at IBM, including the Leading@IBM leadership programme and as a mentor in software sales

20

salespeople led as Senior Team Leader in PayPal’s inside sales team in Berlin

2+

years of part-time training as a systemic consultant for individual and team coaching

Certified Systemic Consultant

Institut für systemische Beratung, Wiesloch – recognised by the DBVC (2017)

Certified Coach at CoachHub

the digital coaching platform for companies, since 2020

German Federal Association for Coaching (DBVC)

Profile with the DBVC, the German business coaching association
Karl-Heinz Hirschberger, Porträt in Schwarzweiß
Karl-Heinz Hirschberger, Berlin

Career

From coachbuilder’s son to coach

I grew up at the foot of the Swabian Jura, in the family business. Since then the world of work has reinvented itself several times – and I was usually right in the middle of it, often as the one who had to sell something new that nobody wanted at first.
1983 – 1992

Industrial clerk, then business economist

Apprenticeship as an industrial clerk (IHK), followed by a qualification as a state-certified business economist specialising in marketing.
1990er

Leadership in the social sector

As branch manager of a charitable service provider: responsible for people long before it was called “people management”.
1998 – 2014

IBM

Solution sales, leadership and mentoring in a matrix organisation – a manager in one project, a team member in the next.
2014 – 2017

Systemic training

Part-time at the Institut für systemische Beratung in Wiesloch, completed as a certified systemic consultant.
then

PayPal

Senior Team Leader Inside Sales in Berlin: up to 20 salespeople, pipeline, forecast – and a sales culture that helped the team grow by double digits.
today

Business & leadership coach

For specialists and managers from corporations, mid-sized companies and start-ups – in Berlin and online, in German and English.

Testimonials

What clients say after coaching

Many of my clients work internationally. Their words therefore appear here exactly as they wrote them.
Original quote
“Working with Karl-Heinz was simply a gift […] You can simply feel that he did it already as a sales and senior business professional and he really knows what he is talking about.”
Christian Goetz
Director Presales Success, CyberArk
Original quote
“Karl-Heinz let me tap into his wealth of knowledge and experience in leadership and team development. […] I couldn’t have hoped for a better coach.”
Christoph Fichtmüller
Head of Engineering, Tenera
Original quote
“From the first moment I have met Karl-Heinz, the atmosphere was very trustful. […] I got many helpful advices for present challenges and also for the future.”
Patric Lampe
Head of Ocean Bulk, DHL Global Forwarding

Frequently asked

What you may want to know first

The questions that almost always come up first in the initial conversation.

How long does coaching take?

That depends on what you want to work on. For a specific negotiation, two sessions are sometimes enough; a new leadership role I tend to accompany over several months. We set the framework together in the initial conversation – not me alone.
Both. In Berlin I am happy to meet in person, otherwise we talk by video. My work for CoachHub has shown me that online coaching works remarkably well when the framework is right.
Often, yes – coaching for managers is an established part of staff development in many companies. If you wish, I will agree the framework with your HR department without any content from the sessions reaching them.
Yes. Whatever is discussed in the sessions remains confidential – even if your employer pays for the coaching.
A consultant tells you what to do. In coaching, you find your own answer – I make sure you ask the right questions and don’t settle too quickly for the comfortable answer. Where my experience in sales and leadership helps, I bring it in.

Contact

The first step is a conversation.

No obligation, around 30 minutes, by phone or video. Afterwards you will know whether coaching is the right thing for you now – and whether I am the right person for it.

+49 172 2112675

Call – or send a WhatsApp message

info@karlheinzhirschberger.com

A sentence or two about what is on your mind is enough

Send a message

Short form – I will get back to you personally