Testimonials

Transformation

At a time when as a leader I was struggling to find balance and purpose, my coach gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: she believed in me and enabled me to gather the courage to realise that I, a caterpillar, can become a butterfly… I am well on way to a more fulfilling and harmonious life.

Facilitation as an art

Over the past four years I had the opportunity to attend a series of events where Heidrun was the main facilitator/trainer. Her ability to communicate effectively, particularly her ability to translate complex issues into simple words, her enthusiasm, patience, self-control and empathic listening skills, all contributed to creating the conditions for understanding, self-awareness and insight by the participants. Through attending the sessions facilitated by her I understood that facilitation is an art and I got a particular interest in it.

Inclusion

I have known Heidrun since 2011 in her capacity as a colleague, manager and facilitator. During this period Heidrun has been the best facilitator with whom I have worked. She has the rare ability to direct effectively, is an excellent listener, and takes the time to fully understand the dynamics of a situation before attempting resolution.

Heidrun is very sensitive to the needs of individuals as well as the needs of a group and her conflict resolution skills are excellent. She has amazing abilities to bring a diverse group of individuals together towards a common goal. Her style is one of inclusion. She draws from all participants whilst facilitating a focussed conversation. In dealing with a contentious issue, Heidrun is able to motivate all parties towards a common win-win conclusion in spite of individual differences, and she is able to guide the group to consensus. She relates to people with positivity, honesty, approachability, integrity and a great sense of humour.

It is a pleasure working with Heidrun in every way, and I cannot imagine how anyone could surpass her skills or her positive attitudes and leadership. If I were to have a need for a facilitator, I would call Heidrun first.

Engaging

I have worked with Heidrun for about 4 years and have positive experiences of her interventions in the areas of Coaching, Team Building and Leadership Development. I and my team have benefitted immensely from the various innovative and engaging methodologies which Heidrun employs to move individual staff members and teams from one level to another. Her learning and development skills are enhanced by her coaching and mentoring mindset. This enables her to support colleagues/clients to remain anchored in a positive space and to channel their own energies towards achieving specific goals. She brings out the best in one by conflating the physiological, physical and practical! I have really enjoyed my interactions with Heidrun, which I can honestly say has resulted in growth.

Laser-like insights

I have found the coaching sessions with Heidrun genuinely transformational. At each session, Heidrun gave her 100% commitment and professionalism, ensuring that none of our time we had together was wasted. It was clear she placed high value on me as a person and to what we could achieve together in our time. I found that I had a shift in how I saw things each time we met and that by the end of the sessions, I was able to face a number of issues that I had previously felt too uncomfortable to consider. Shifting how I saw these things has had a significant impact on my behaviour and approach at work. This was particularly impressive as the sessions all took place over the telephone. Heidrun blends a gentle and kind approach, with an objective, firm and laser-like insight. The sessions often took an unexpected direction but always in a way that stopped me from staying too superficial and got to the heart of the issue.

I am extremely grateful for the way in which Heidrun shared her skills and insights with me. I am more confident, more calm and feel much freer to be the best of myself as a result of her input and commitment to our work together.

A positive vision

At the time of starting the coaching sessions I felt frustrated and disappointed because of difficult relationships with my team which was affecting my role as head of programmes. At the beginning of the sessions I was unsure how much this process would help me improve my performance. Sharing my experience with my coach meant I was able to observe its real dimensions in relation to past situations and my own responsibility in the situation and to learn how to improve in the present and future. Self-observation was fundamental to detect those areas in which I could express more confidence and openness and share my feelings. It allowed me to become aware of how I react somatically and emotionally to specific situations and individuals and learn how to manage my feelings in my interaction with colleagues more effectively. The most important achievement was the opportunity for recovering my personal enthusiasm: the positive vision about my role as a team leader and the acceptance of what I can’t control and what I can.

Exploring unchartered territory

I have benefited tremendously from the coaching Heidrun has provided me in my senior management role. Her balanced approach made me feel both safe to unpack my management and personal challenges, and challenged to explore uncharted territory and grow in new competencies. A thorough, attentive, and supportive coaching over several months has helped me profoundly shift how I work and how effective I feel I can be. Beyond coaching, I have worked closely with Heidrun over several years, and I have witnessed time and again her gifting in leadership and organizational development – Heidrun combines a really strong methodological approach with a natural personal integrity, which makes her a trusted and influential advisor in the organization. ‘Unblocking’, ‘shifting’, and ‘transforming’ are the words that come to mind when I think of Heidrun’s impact in the organization and her partnerships with others.

Wisdom and discernment

I worked with Heidrun over a period of 10 months. I was in a challenging environment and had been encountering difficulties working with colleagues. Through the coaching process Heidrun helped me uncover my beliefs and my own thinking processes, getting to the bottom of some of my default approaches. She helped me discover that in the new context I was finding myself I needed to develop new ways of doing things. She enabled me to identify and test alternative ways for my leadership presence, and observe the outcomes. The result has been a much greater awareness of myself and of my impact on people (wisdom and discernment), which is very important for the ever higher levels of leadership and responsibility I am achieving in my career. Heidrun is in touch with what can be called the “superconscious”, and will help you achieve deep insights and find solutions and inner peace where you may not have expected it. I recommend her coaching services strongly to anyone desiring to acquire higher levels of understanding and personal greatness for executive leadership.

Present and resourceful

Working with Heidrun Kippenberger over the past 4 years as a personal coach, OD practitioner and professional colleague, has been an enriching experience. I have come to admire, and greatly benefit, from her ability to make accurate observations of people’s behaviour, and to use those observations tactfully, to steer them towards making choices that enable them to shift their circumstances significantly.

Professionally, Heidrun and I have worked together to deliver leadership, management and team development interventions to different groups. Her creative nature constantly availing ideas which are simple and practical to deliver, yet profoundly impactful. Heidrun uses a combination of well tested resources and an introspective capability to ensure that she is fully present and, resourceful in the moment, at every session.

As a personal coach, Heidrun has skillfully helped me focus on what is really important, confront what stands in my way and choose the steps I need to take to reach my goals. In that, she has listened generously, established the level of trust needed to support my journey, been a cheerleader and a champion, and by her own journey, an inspiration.

In her pursuit to become a great coach and OD interventionist, Heidrun invests unsparingly into her own personal growth through continuous learning and spiritual practice. I have not encountered anyone more resolute to give credence to her practice through academic, practical and spiritual study. Heidrun also possesses a consistent work ethic, which makes her highly dependable as a coach and consultant.

Exceptional accompanier

Heidrun’s coaching had an exceptional impact on both my personal leadership development, and on the development of my team. I started on a journey to being a balanced leader bringing a higher people focus into a predominantly task focussed leadership style. Heidrun applied sophisticated yet accessible and participatory diagnostic approaches and supported me to identify tools and behaviours that I continue to work on. The coaching shifted my perception and made me aware of my leadership presence and the way I was engaging with the team.

Using a highly organic and emergent coaching approach, Heidrun helped my team to conduct a diagnosis on how we are functioning, communicating and interacting. From these, she facilitated a process during which we identified personal and leadership commitments to foster team performance. This significantly helped shift mind-sets in the team and improve communication and relationships.

Heidrun brings to her coaching excellent multidisciplinary knowledge and extensive leadership and coaching experience. I find her ability to apply her knowledge and tailor each session to immediate development needs very instrumental. I left each session challenged and with field work that would push me outside my comfort zone.

She is obviously well coached herself, influenced by great coaches that she references. I highly recommend Heidrun’s coaching services without any reservations.

Talented and experienced coach

Through her insightful and intuitive approach, Heidrun has enabled me to progressively transform my thought processes, and become a more effective and passionate communicator. Creating a safe space in which to experiment, and using tried and tested methodologies, Heidrun’s valuable insights, observations and practical suggestions helped me build self-awareness. In this way I was able to understand and change deeply-engrained, default habits which stood in the way of my development.

Throughout this journey, Heidrun’s encouragement and coaching prowess enabled me to feel confident in the process, reassuring me that I could achieve my goals, especially when the going got tough. This has been a truly life-changing experience. Heidrun has imparted to me valuable new insights and skills which will serve me throughout my career.

Change from inside

Heidrun helped me to become a better me. In times of competing commitments and a feeling of powerlessness, she helped me find the strength, power and inspiration inside of me. She taught me processes for focus, prioritisation, presence and visualisation. The coaching process enabled me to become highly self-aware and to become a change actor and effective doer. Thanks Heidrun, you are a light and a star for me.

Truly unlocking my potential

Taking coaching sessions with Heidrun from mid last year could not have happened at a better time in my professional and personal life. Through her insightful observations, open and reassuring approach, Heidrun helped me to get to a deeper level of self-awareness and to progressively shift my self-disempowering thought processes and habits and be more confident. She has helped me gain new competencies that enable me to effectively integrate strategic and intimate competencies, truly unlocking my potential for effective leadership and management.

I can confidently say that I am at a much better place and strongly motivated to taking further steps into the big, wide and varied space of self-belief and determination.

Transformational journey

I had an opportunity to work with Heidrun as a personal coach over the last 2 months and it has been a truly transformational journey. Heidrun’s approach to coaching is empowering and rooted in each person’s unique values. She has helped me understand myself better and start a process of leading to a more resilient version of myself. As a result I am more positive, more confident and more centered, and therefore more able to tackle life important questions. I would highly recommend Heidrun to anyone looking to grow as a person.

Transcend limiting beliefs

Heidrun’s coaching helped me discover things about myself that I was blind to before. She helped me see and transcend my limiting beliefs. Consequently I have much more control of my choices and reality and I am soaring to new heights of happiness and freedom!

Meaningful impact

Heidrun has been an absolute pleasure to work with! Her approach is personal and her coaching has had a meaningful impact on my life and career. Her presence helped me tap into deeper levels of thoughtfulness and reflection that meaningful transformed outcomes for me. I am deeply appreciative for her time and recommend her whole-heartedly.

Tailor made

Heidrun created a tailor made Leadership Training Program for Freight in Time with 3 full day training sessions and a number of online refresher sessions.The tools and content were incredibly relevant and useful and our managers have really seen huge personal and professional development from this program. Heidrun understood the level of our management and created content that was pitched perfectly for our level – however each module then raised the level significantly. I would strongly recommend Heidrun to any organisation or individual as a personal coach or leadership trainer.

Unorthodox method of delivery

When asked to attend another leadership training I was hesitant since I’ve attended many only to come back with the usual cliché outcomes. I therefore needed an unorthodox method of delivery. My sixth sense told me to try Heidrun’s workshop. I am glad I did. As the captain of my organisation I needed to understand my leadership personality, what it means to the overall delivery of the organisation and how to leverage this awareness with team dynamics. Heidrun’s style of delivery and her coaching prowess ensured that my skills across a number of key areas were rapidly sharpened. I learnt how to be a better speaker and negotiator with our stakeholders, and how I can reframe my own competencies and those of my organisation to improve execution and achieve our objectives.

As a CEO I highly recommend Heidrun.

New ways of approaching leadership challenges

Heidrun coached me for almost a year in 2018. Her coaching has been instrumental for the leadership transformation I have had to undergo due to the growth of our organisation – as well as that of our senior management team. I found her structure, method and temperament very conducive for a logics-based leader set in his ways, like me – her style prompts an opening to new and alternative ways of approaching typical leadership challenges. I can comfortably and with no reservations give her my best of recommendations!

A positive space to dialogue

It was very great to have Heidrun facilitate our team development session in Nov 2018 in Nairobi. She prepared very well for the session, getting out some real issues that the regional team needed to talk about, challenging us well and creating a positive space to dialogue. She looked at the issues from very different perspectives and cross cutting lenses. We really benefitted. Thanks Heidrun.