Formula 1 for Managers

What is your greatest wish? Most top managers we know don't wish for money (they already have more or less enough of that). They don't wish for the biggest career success of their lives (they take care of that themselves every single day). And they don't want problem-solvers (managers don't have problems, they have challenges).

Amazingly enough, what most (top) managers want the most is something very simple: someone they can talk to about the things they can't or don't want to discuss with others, not even with their own wives, friends, priests or advisors. And definitely not their boss. Namely, about business.

This is why it's so lonely at the top: The manager has no one he can talk to about the things that occupy him the most every day. Someone who can offer him what no one else can: another point of view on things, new ideas, overlooked potentials, promising alternatives, unexpected chances for success, but also hidden risks that could turn out to be ticking time bombs. Completely discreet, but with years of top management experience. A competent specialist, but without the usual smart-aleck allure of the corporate consultant. With his own leadership experience at the highest level.

"I myself, when I was an executive board member, often wished I had a conversation partner. I couldn't find one. Now I am one myself, and I'm very surprised by how many managers today are experiencing the same things I once did. My telephone is ringing off the hook", says Klaus Schuster.

Word has gotten around fast about the advantages of a confidential one-on-one discussion. It's not the increase in performance - although a manager naturally performs better after a consultation than before. It's also not the solutions we find to problems - of course we find solutions. And it's not the improvement in employee performance - although this is clearly important. The feedback we get the most from the managers we work for as an attentive listener and pathfinder in the business jungle is very simple: "Finally I'm having fun at work again. I'm completely motivated. The old enthusiasm is back." That's just how it should be: We're standing in the pit lane, refueling your racecar. But you're still sitting inside at the wheel.