Photo: Kai Müller
Sabrina Eilers.
ENCOUNTERING CONTRADICTIONS WITH OPENNESS AND EMPATHY The modern age is characterised by contradictions: mobility vs. protection of the environment, mandatory changes vs. status quo… the list goes on. Professional environments are no exception to this. TEXT: SILKE HENKELE | PHOTOS: SABRINA EILERS
Berlin-based coach Sabrina Eilers focuses on coaching, personal, team and management development, conflict management, communication training and the breakup of blockades. As a former manager in executive positions with large international companies, Eilers knows pretty well what makes businesses tick. As a coach she brings business teams together and supports aspiring and experienced managers in proactively addressing contradictions and the resulting professional challenges, while also discovering and developing their own resources. In her work, the trained mediator and systemic coach challenges doctrines, she supports the coachees in becoming the best versions of themselves. “I see people and their abilities as treasures. Treasures that have often remained hidden for a long time and which 78 | Issue 88 | December 2021
I help to recover. Here, doctrines very often become an obstacle, and by challenging, I enable people to discover their strengths and capacities, and to fully develop their professional potential and personality.” It follows quite naturally that Eilers looks beyond a coachee’s professional life and hence will also take a closer look at personal backgrounds and living environments. “True: no-one’s personality fundamentally differs from working or private life, so it’s always useful to take a good look at personal backgrounds.” Looking closely - an important precondition? “Oh yes! I need to understand the goal of my actions. It very often becomes evident that neither the expected outcome nor the issue at hand is clearly set. A goal needs to be pre-defined right at the beginning of my assignment.”
Beyond expanding know-how or skills, Eilers is increasingly focused on identifying and promoting soft skills, i.e. social and cognitive competencies. “No team or business,” underlines Eilers, “can function without empathy in the long run. This holds particularly true in times when an increasing number of people are becoming more and more attentive towards a healthy work-lifebalance. To put what has been said into practice is becoming more and more important. It does not suffice to pay lip service to equality but at the same time to continue to discriminate against women – even if subconsciously. With my work, I want to support coachees opening up to people and new ideas. Times are simply too volatile to insist on tradition.” www.sabrinaeilers.com
Sabrina Eilers offers individual study and career counselling for career starters at www.karrierestaerken.com
