Discover Germany | Special Theme | Germany’s Business Coaches & Consulting Experts
A reliable partner in stormy times As an experienced coach and management consulter, Olaf Hinz helps clients to meet new challenges by visibly enhancing their impact on the organisation for which they work. TEXT: NADINE CARSTENS | PHOTOS: OLAF HINZ
“Leadership is like controlling a ship on the high seas,” says Olaf Hinz. According to the coach and management consulter, there are normally standing rules and responsibilities in professional agencies, as well as a certain course. But when a project gets out of control or something unforeseen occurs, your ship hits stormy seas. In this case, even the best captains have to rely on an experienced sailor. With more than 15 years of experience as coach, Hinz helps out when your ship heads towards unknown territories. Using the motto ‘Hinz – wirkt!’, he promises to make a positive difference within the companies or organisations that ask for his support. “It is decision makers and managers who have an impact in their organisations. They contact me, if they want to enhance their impact visibly; either because they have large and important targets to meet, or because 74 | Issue 40 | July 2016
they understand this as their personal responsibility,” Hinz explains. Before he became a management consulter and coach, Hinz used to be both a project manager and an executive manager.“Back then I realised that both of these parts can learn from each other,” states Hinz, who is based in Hamburg. As a result, the idea to offer professional mentoring in guiding and managing new projects, as well as guiding teams was born. Since then, Hinz gave numerous inspiring speeches and consultations, whether at face-to-face meetings with a single client, or by moderating workshops, and offering guidance for leadership teams. In 2017, Hinz will publish his fourth book Segeln auf Sicht – Führungshandbuch für ungewisse Zeiten. Here, he advocates to stand up for what you believe in and to actually represent essential values
and principles instead of using old management methods when facing growing changes or ambiguous situations. “When a storm comes up, organisations need to have a real leader who embodies attitudes, and not a manager without any ethics who just wants to make a deal,”Hinz says. Visualising ideas is another aspect he recommends in his latest book, as well as acting rather quickly and incompletely than acting completely but too late. ‘Sprint decisions’ instead of the extravagance of a planning process is yet another strategy Hinz suggests to his clients because, according to him, it is necessary to take responsibility in order to succeed. www.hinz-wirkt.de