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Leadership Coaching

Responsibility needs a
counterpart without
an agenda of their own.

Whom am I supposed to discuss this with? Everyone here has their own interests.

MLI supports board members, managing directors and executives in demanding situations — personally selected, confidential and with a clear goal.

We work as sparring partners and coaches with individuals and teams — on request as a call-off contingent under a framework agreement.

The occasions

Do you want to work through an individual challenge?

Coaching is neither a sign of weakness nor an incentive. It is a method for situations in which a benevolent, neutral mirror is better than solving a problem alone.

01 · Taking up a new role

The first hundred days

The start in a new position shapes the years that follow. Listening, building trust, recognizing pain points. The work focuses on the concrete levers of success for visible progress and a clear position.

02 · Conflicting goals

Legitimate interests, a necessary decision

Whether employees, colleagues or stakeholders: the task is to bring about a decision whose gain outweighs its consequential costs.

03 · Complexity

Despite great effort, you are not getting anywhere

You do not feel effective and want to achieve more. The work focuses on priorities, time and the concrete situations in which impact gets lost.

04 · Leadership team

Strong individually, laborious together

Roles overlap, critical issues go unaddressed, decisions do not hold. Coaching for individual members plus joint sessions for concrete alignment and decision-making.

05 · Change processes

The direction changes, and so does the role

Anyone charged with executing a transformation changes their own job in the process. Positioning, levers of success and one’s personal leadership system all need to be put to the test.

06 · Strain

When the reserves are used up

Constant time pressure, inner restlessness, the question of deeper meaning. A subject rarely talked about at the top — yet a widespread one.

The pool

No coach fits every assignment.

Leadership is complex work. Depending on the situation, different things matter: communication, strategy execution, conflict resolution, motivation, AI‑competence.

Portraits of coaches and specialists from the MLI network

What connects them is their stance: helping leaders become effective, as a benevolent partner.

Former board members work alongside psychologists, experts in agentic systems alongside journalists, coaches from Singapore alongside mediators from the Ruhr region. This range is no accident; it is the precondition for staffing every occasion with the right person rather than merely an available one.

MLI is responsible for selection, quality standards, impact architecture and the contract. You have one point of contact, not a platform.

Where our coaches come from

From line management

Former board members and managing directors

People who have themselves carried responsibility at this level. They know the loneliness of the position from their own experience and are not impressed by titles.

From research

Psychologists and organizational researchers

Industrial and organizational psychology, group dynamics, transactional analysis. For questions where experience alone does not help because the pattern lies deeper.

From practice

Experts in technology and AI

People who use agentic systems themselves and understand what they change in organizations. For executives who are responsible for exactly this shift.

From public life

Communication, presence and media

Former journalists and presenters for leaders whose impact is debated in public — before the workforce, the supervisory board or the press.

From abroad

International experience

Coaches with years in Asia, North America or Africa. For executives with distributed areas of responsibility and for conversations held in English.

Always

Three conditions for everyone

Personal leadership experience at the level one works for. A recognized coaching qualification. And at least one mandate carried out jointly under supervision before anyone works independently.

Quick test · free · no sign-up

The leadership coaching quick test

Twelve statements, about three minutes. You will see immediately in which of four leadership areas coaching can make the biggest difference for you — your answers are not stored. Please rate each statement as honestly as you can.

The network

Coaches from our network

Portrait of Sebastian Morgner

Sebastian Morgner

Managing Partner, expert in strategy activation and strategy coach

Executive advisory and top executive coaching since 2011, close collaboration with more than 120 leadership teams. Author of the book Expedition Zukunft, host of the podcast Tiefgang (Spotify), founding member of the Zukunftsallianz Mensch & KI. A person who looks for meaning — at home by Lake Ammersee.

Leadership is like an expedition. You need a destination worth striving for and a joy in adventure.

Portrait of Brigitte Deden

Brigitte Deden

Senior executive coach with a focus on Asia

Fourteen years of coaching in Singapore and Germany, before that thirteen years of consulting at Accenture in Germany, England and Singapore. MBA, degree in mathematics, certificates from Henley Business School.

Coaching with compassion and professional distance.

Portrait of Sue De’Ath

Sue De’Ath

Transformation, culture and high-performing teams

Founder and director of an international consulting and development firm, previously in HR and leadership development at the BMW Group. Mandates at adidas, BMW, Allianz, Porsche, RWE and Airbus, among others. Trained mediator. Expertise: the interface of strategy, culture and leadership, resolving conflicts in leadership teams.

You will not have this day again — make it count.

Portrait of Andreas Kuhndörfer

Andreas Kuhndörfer

Strategy activation and transformation

Twenty-five years of corporate responsibility for strategy, transformation and HR — as CSO at BSH Home Appliances and Global Head Executive HR at Giesecke+Devrient. Senior Advisor at McKinsey. Expertise: transformations from the client’s and the advisor’s perspective, sparring for board members.

Strategy is the prerequisite. People and their motivation make the difference.

Portrait of Christine Schmitt

Christine Schmitt

Leadership culture and organizational development

Division head in sales and operations at Schindler elevators, post-merger management of several acquisitions, president of a business association in Poland. Expertise: organizational development and executive coaching after mergers, with new leadership models and in distributed teams.

Leadership by Commitment, Appreciation and Effectiveness.

Portrait of Nina Zitouni

Nina Zitouni

Leadership coach and expert in personal development and communication

Some twenty years of coaching. Clarity of goals, effective communication, an understanding of group dynamics and the leadership role. Conflict management. Strengthening women in leadership roles is a particular concern of hers.

Be yourself. Create your life. Achieve your goals.

Portrait of Sarah Rietze

Sarah Rietze

Senior expert in New Work, self-organization and team development

Industrial and organizational psychologist, agile coach and organizational consultant, systemic group dynamics. Previously in strategic HR development at Vorwerk International.

Healthy New Work — shaping healthy, agile and self-determined work.

Portrait of Dr. Stephan Gross

Dr. Stephan Gross

Executive presence, rhetoric and negotiation

Ten years of management consulting at Booz & Co. in Europe and the Middle East, head of talent development at a major strategy consultancy, then Head of EMEA Learning & Development at PwC. Expertise: impact in business-critical situations — supervisory board meeting, town hall, negotiation.

Leadership is credible storytelling.

From the leader’s perspective

Your executives choose for themselves.

The most frequent reason coaching mandates are broken off is a lack of fit between coach and coachee. That is why, with us, your leaders choose — from a selection you have approved beforehand.

The MLI coach and expert portal: overview with filters by language, location and topic, plus coach profile cards

Original view of the MLI coach and expert portal.

The coaching process from the leader’s perspective

  1. You receive a linkIt leads to a preselection of coaches and experts made by your company. No login, no password, no onboarding.
  2. Profiles with an introductory videoEvery coach has a competence profile and a short video. Ninety seconds say more about fit than three pages of résumé, and fit is exactly what the choice is about.
  3. You choose one to three favoritesOne of the coaches and experts then reaches out to you personally to arrange a first meeting — two, if you wish.
  4. In the first meeting, you clarify the assignmentWhat it is about, what will be worked on, what the approach looks like. Only then does the mandate begin.
  5. The work draws on a contingentUsually, 7 hours are set aside to begin with. As the coachee, you decide on dates, rhythm and format together with your coach or expert.
  6. Switching remains possibleIf the chemistry is not right after the first meeting, or if your topic changes, you choose again at no extra cost. That applies later in the process as well.

From the coordinator’s perspective

One contract, one contingent, one invoice.

Whoever is responsible for coaching in a company usually administers more than they accompany. We make the administration easier for you, without you giving up control.

  1. Preselection You decide which coaches and experts your executives get to see at all — matched to your company and to your leaders’ topics. Changes at any time, with no effort on your side. Once, then maintained
  2. Contingents A framework agreement with call-off hour contingents. Seven hours per coachee over a period of up to twelve months is customary. You receive a regular overview. As needed
  3. Satisfaction survey Every six to twelve months, we provide a standardized survey of the coachees. You receive the results in aggregated form, without the content of individual sessions. Semi-annually
  4. Invoicing One invoice for the contingent drawn, regardless of how many coaches were involved. No individual contracts, no travel expense claims. Transparent

What you will not learn

Confidentiality is our currency. Supervisors or HR contacts can be involved in the assignment clarification meeting. After that, the content of the sessions stays between coach and coachee. As the coordinating function, you receive confirmation that sessions took place, the status of the contingent and the aggregated feedback from the survey. This rule is part of the contract — and the reason people speak openly in these conversations.

Our signature format

Strategy coaching: time to set your course.

For board members, managing directors and entrepreneurs who want to set the course for the next stage of their professional life. A compact process: five confidential interviews with long-standing companions and an in-depth interview on your self-image produce a robust external view. This is followed by a full-day coaching workshop on Lake Ammersee — a forty-five-minute drive from Munich. Time for distance, reflection and important insights.

Here your drive is sharpened, your positioning clarified and your personal levers of success worked out into a coherent leadership system. The result is a logbook with a concrete implementation plan. Progress is reviewed in quarterly follow-ups.

Sebastian Morgner accompanies this format personally. Learn more about strategy coaching here.

For individuals

If you are looking for strategy coaching as career coaching for yourself rather than buying it as a service for your company, you will find the process, formats and terms on Sebastian Morgner’s personal website (in German).

sebastian-morgner.de

Sunrise over Lake Ammersee with moored sailboats in the morning mist
Lake Ammersee near Dießen, a forty-five-minute drive from Munich.

The evidence

What coachees and program owners say about MLI.

All testimonials with name and position, approved by those quoted.

Working with MLI inspires me and gives me the courage to try new things and to grow in my impact. Sebastian Morgner is incredibly structured and data-driven, and he never loses sight of the big picture.
Dr. Lena LindemannCHRO ERGO Group
With the right mix of strategic expertise, empathy and effective tools, MLI helps me gain clarity and optimism even in stressful times.
Dr. Dirk GoldnerCTO, Diamant Software
What sets Sebastian Morgner apart: his questions go straight to the root of every challenge. In doing so, he has made an important contribution to our development.
David NeuhausPartner and CEO, SocialHub
Working with MLI is cooperative, trusting and reliable. The smooth handling and the fast, competent responses deserve special mention. The coaches deployed stand out for their high quality and many years of experience. I expressly recommend MLI.
Claudia SticherGlobal Change Manager, ERGO Group AG
Close-up in a coaching session: one hand passes a cup of coffee, the other underlines an argument

One on one

Two people, one topic, full attention, and a question no one else hears.

The next step

A trial access says more than any description.

We set up a sample selection in the portal so that you can see what your executives would see. Without obligation and at no cost.

45 minutes

Personal conversation

A first meeting, an exchange about your needs, not a sales pitch. Choose a time directly in the calendar, with no intermediate step and at no cost.

Choose a time

Five fields

Contact by e-mail

Describe your topic briefly: one or two sentences are enough. We reply within two business days.
Prefer to talk? +49 8807 244446-0

Go to the contact form

PDF · 21 pages

Institute dossier

Methodology, survey instrument, reference architectures, fee models and network profiles — for forwarding internally when an initiative still needs to be justified.

Download the dossier

Questions and answers

What program owners ask us most often.

Short answers to the questions that come before every engagement.

How large is a coaching contingent usually?

For leadership coaching, contingents of 7 hours per coachee have proven themselves. A free introductory conversation comes on top of that. Coach and coachee decide, depending on the situation, how the contingent is used: in virtual sessions at regular intervals or in longer in-person work, depending on the challenge. The hours can be drawn flexibly over the term of the contract; in our experience, a contingent should be used within six months.

When someone takes over a new role, for team coaching or in preparation for a transformation, a larger time commitment makes sense. Two contingents can be combined, or individual arrangements made.

Who chooses the coach?

The personal level is central to productive work between coach and coachee. Leaders should therefore be able to choose for themselves. In advance, we agree with the coaching coordinator on a selection of coaches and experts who fit the company. The leaders receive a link to the coach portal, where they can view profiles and short introductory videos. That is the key difference from an assignment: someone who has chosen their coach works differently from someone who was allocated one. If the chemistry is not right in the introductory conversation, they choose again at no extra cost.

What do we learn as the client commissioning coaching?

As the client, you can take part in the assignment clarification in agreement with the coachee. The process after that is confidential. You receive an overview of the sessions that took place, the status of the contingent and the aggregated results of the satisfaction survey. You do not learn the content of individual sessions — that is set out in the contract and the reason why people speak openly in these conversations. Only the coachee can discuss insights from the process with you, never the coach.

How does invoicing work?

You enter into a framework agreement with MLI with contingents you can draw on. It should cover at least 10 contingents of 7 coaching hours each. You receive one invoice, no matter how many coaches were involved. No individual contracts with coaches, no travel expense claims, no reconciliation of timesheets. For coordination and procurement, a lean, transparent process.

What distinguishes your network from a coaching platform?

Platforms broker, we curate. Every person in the network has proven competence that offers measurable value to people in leadership positions. Either they have carried leadership responsibility at the level they work for, or they bring specialist competence, for example in AI adoption or mediation. We have deliberately assembled a network with broad competences and backgrounds, able to support very different leadership challenges at a high level. MLI carries the responsibility for quality, supervision and a consistent approach.

Does coaching take place in person or online?

Both, decided by coach and coachee. In practice, virtual sessions predominate because they fit more easily into a full calendar. For the start and for difficult questions, we recommend meeting in person. Where travel costs arise for the coach, they are invoiced separately or offset against a contingent.

In which languages do you work?

German and English throughout. Through the network, further languages are available, including French and Spanish. Language can be set as a filter in the portal so that your executives see only suitable profiles.

Can leadership teams also work together?

Yes. Besides individual coaching, we offer joint sessions for individual teams — for a co-leadership duo, a newly formed leadership team or the development of shared leadership principles. Separate confidentiality rules apply to these formats and are agreed in writing beforehand. They are billed through contingents or individual arrangements.

What does leadership coaching mean?

Leadership coaching is an accompanying, individual development process that helps leaders reflect on their competences, increase their impact and reach professional and personal goals. It is about taking on new insights and perspectives and translating them into effective action. Coaching works with questions. The coach does not bring a solution but helps the leader find their own. It is about clarity, motivation and the discipline to follow through, not about advice.

What does sparring mean?

Sparring serves to examine and question important decisions from different perspectives, on an equal footing. An expert or mentor brings in their experience and their knowledge from other companies or fields. A sparring partner may hold an opinion of their own, will contradict you and say what they would do differently in your position. It is about scrutiny, and it requires that the person speaks from their own leadership experience. The decision remains yours.

What distinguishes coaching from sparring?

The stance: coaching focuses on questions and leaves the answers to you, sparring brings in answers and thoughts of its own. In practice we combine both — the same session can start with an open question and end with a clear objection. What matters is that both modes are named: you should know whether you are being questioned or advised.

When is mediation needed?

When there is a conflict between two or more people that is no longer negotiated on the substance but on the relationship. Coaching individual parties often makes this worse, because each side strengthens its position. Mediation brings everyone to one table and has a different goal: a workable agreement rather than individual clarity. We will tell you in the first conversation if that is the right path.

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