Press and Publications

September 2017

Why do people do the things they do?

The supportive role of fathers for children’s development of the authentic self - A view through PSI-lense.

This chapter will address a critical component for the development of the authentic self, that is, emotion regulation with reference specifically to the supportive role of fathers. Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory opens a window for more detailed answers addressing children's needs for individual support by fathers during childhood. In my adult-study, I retrospectively assessed quantity and quality of mother-child and father-child relationships and two different sources of childhood stress: fear of emotional loss and fear of material loss. In addition, I assessed the adult’s ability to self-regulate emotions (i.e., action versus state orientation) and several indicators of self-development and self-growth derived from PSI theory. In my analyses on the relationships between childhood stress and self-development, I focused on the role of supportive father-child interactions. Findings show that the experience of stress itself is not as relevant for the development of the authentic self as the way childhood stress is compensated through adequate emotion regulation and individual support by care givers (here: fathers) during stressful times. The application of PSI theory sheds more light on the supportive role of fathers in self-development and resilience building.

18. May 2017

What moves your mind – 7 sources of successful self-leadership

Our behavior and our decision-making processes are ruled by subconscious traits in our minds up to 95%. Our brain seems to be a master of adaption. It only transfers the most relevant information to our conscious mind in order to stay action-focussed. What exactly is steering those adaption processes? What is driving you within your own action and decision-making processes? Get to know the 7 sources of personality development. What is ruling your mind and how will you be able to effectively utilize your sources of successful self-leadership?

31. October 2016

Harvard Innovation Lounge

CCC proudly presented itself at the first Innovation Lounge of the 8th annual German-American Conference at Harvard, Boston/Massachusetts.

The GAC2015 at Harvard University is the largest student-led conference of its kind, and brings together American and German leaders from business, politics and academia.

It provides an exceptional platform to strengthen the bridge between the U.S. and Germany. During these two days we had the great chance to immerse into a dynamic exchange with very interesting people who stopped by our CCC booth to discuss the “Seven Reasons to Procrastinate” with us, to learn more about our teaching model, based on Prof. Julius Kuhl’s PSI-Theory, and to talk about our aim to support leaders and people in their personal development.

With our coaching method COLOUREM® (by Dr. Kerstin Liesenfeld) we were able to further arise curiosity to our approach and introduce the implementation. We enjoyed these two days a lot and we are very happy to have expanded our network with remarkable people and look forward to joint future projects. What a great start for our new office in Boston!

11. January 2017

The COLOUREM® Concept for Nurses

Does this sound familiar? - In your day to day life you work yourself to your physical and psychological limits, you feel exhausted and burned out?

PDF: The COLOUREM® Concept for Nurses (german)

1. May 2016

Neurofunctional coaching with the COLOUREM® method

What you did not learn as a child, you should really be able to learn as an adult?

The COLOUREM® Method aims to train self-perception as well as the flexible interaction of different brain systems in order to use different brain functions in various contexts.

PDF: Neurofunctional coaching with the COLOUREM® method (Lebenlang No.6 Mai 2016)

1. August 2014

The five steps to the active promotion of health in the company

Responsible management includes good health management. These are the ways that lead to a healthy work place.

Particularly in growing companies, systematic health management enables a balance between company interests and the healthy performance capability of the employees. Kerstin Liesenfeld, Managing Partner of the Corporate Coaching Company and communication psychologist, recommends five measures for promoting a well-founded health culture.

Step 1: Exchanging information and experience in responsible circles and in further training
As a preventive measure and a structured help for dealing internally with sickness, the exchange of experience and information provides help. Information presentations, for example on the subject of "burnout" or "self-management", which enable across-the-board clarification, and targeted training measures are meaningful and bring about sustained benefits. A topic-oriented health circle, in which professional groups and specific risks are supported by trained moderators, ensures that the employees remain fit.

Step 2: Creating the right structures within the company
In general, company health promotion should be viewed as a task of management. According to the size of the company, parts of the health management system can be assigned to the company medical services or social services. Supplementary network solutions (such as health training and preventive measures) can be offered by an external service provider and can be combined well with the company's own structures.

Step 3: For continuous progress
The constant maintenance of data regarding all aspects of employee health is a basic prerequisite. Regular procedures, such as preventive health measures, and incident-related processes, such as targeted interventions, must be organized, prepared and made available to the employees in understandable form, for example in the form of news, manuals or online tools.

Step 4: Defining goals
Managers must define strategic and operational goals together with company doctors and the existing experts and service providers. The behavior of the managers, measures taken, consulting, etc. must then be judged and evaluated according to the goals defined.

Step 5: The health report
The embedding of anonymized data on health issues in the personal data is one of the basic principles for health-conscious personnel development. Particularly during growth phases, the evaluation of employees' performance competence with the help of a health report is recommended. In this way, activities affecting the health can be controlled and adapted to growth scenarios. Activities serving to maintain and improve performance can be implemented preventively.

PDF: Aktive Gesundheitsforderung im Unternehmen

1. June 2012

Increase motivation, ensure performance – success factor health

For successful and sustained growth, healthy and productive employees are indispensable. With this in mind, companies are increasingly implementing health management.

A "healthy life style" cannot be simply decreed, however it can be furthered by adhering to certain basic conditions. Industrial health management begins with the awareness of how to deal with resources and incorporates infra-structural measures. It also entails training and coaching – such as burnout prevention – up to supporting the private sphere, for example by assistance programmes.

"Naturally there is a conflict between the healthy rationing of resources and the requirements arising from the company targets and the challenges posed by the market and the competition". Sebastian Jochheim, spokesman for the GGW executive management, knows this. "For us, though, dealing with this topic is also a question of the attitude and the values for which a company stands. Respect for the employees also means respecting their limits."

HEALTHY EMPLOYEES AS A DRIVING FORCE FOR COMPANY GROWTH

For the GGW Group it is therefore logical that the creation of the framework for the long-term sustaining of health, performance capability and motivation is an important task of management. Consequently, some time ago – in addition to existing measures, such as large-scale sporting events, health tips in the Internet and ergonomic office furnishings – the company introduced an external support program. "This enables us to offer our employees assistance for different on-the-job and personal situations: From business coaching, to arranging child care, to consultation in times of crisis." Such assistance programs can help the individual to take responsibility for his or her own personal work-life balance.

The company profits as well from systematic health management: Besides the sustained performance capability of the employees – including lower absence rates due to sickness –above all, this has a positive effect on the working atmosphere and the readiness to perform well. A manager who supports the wellbeing of the workforce conveys a large measure of solidarity and, not in the least, respect for all colleagues in the company.

Interview with Kerstin Liesenfeld

HEALTH AS A MANAGEMENT TASK

What should industrial health management offer?
A good health management program must be part of a responsible management strategy and therefore also be embedded in the overall strategy. The employees are the central success factor in the company – and this is why their health and their performance capability cannot be valued highly enough. In addition to the comprehensive structuring of the basic conditions, it is important to address the health needs and personality constellations of the employees flexibly and individually.

When is it particularly important for a company to establish such a health management program?
Health management can be equated with the implementation of management responsibility in practice. It should not occur only when problems arise, but must be viewed from the very beginning as a contribution to the performance capability of the organization and the individual employees. Seen in this light, it also prepares one for phases in which unusual challenges must be mastered and helps to weather these relatively well. Company growth always entails change and therefore abandoning familiar structures; that is, one's own comfort zones. Growth therefore means tensions, intensive working, stress and sometimes even threats. Under these conditions we must have unrestricted performance capability, and the basic prerequisite for this is good health. The company that undertakes these adaptations faster than others can more successfully sustain growth. One can consider establishing such a "growth-oriented" health management system as practically a pre-requisite for stable growth capability. Only employees who are healthy, motivated and able to give their best are capable of bringing about growth.

To what extent has the management level given the necessary attention to health management up to now?
In the meantime, the burnout syndrome is increasing particularly at the management level, and the need to confront this topic has increased enormously. Nevertheless, apparently other aspirations apply for the management level in respect of continuous availability, overtime as the normal situation, working over the weekend, and possibly availability at all times while on holiday. Rings around the eyes and pallor are sooner viewed as signs of dedication to the job. Yet, those aspiring to be successful managers over the long term must remain highly capable and also enormous self-regulation.

PDF: Erfolgsfaktor Gesundheit

1. January 2012

New learning campus for companies

Further training and personnel development tailored to the company: The "Coaching Campus" is a Web-based solution that, for the first time, allows personal and individual coaching at a time and place that suit the customer.

For one thing, the Coaching Campus embodies three learning offers: presentation, burnout prevention and leadership. The customers can structure their online coaching by modules and acquire the existing learning offers for their employees. Furthermore, the Coaching Campus can also produce your own company-specific learning material in neuroscientific video modules. Alternatively, it is also possible to construct the customer's own online company campus based on neuroscientific principles and filled and coached with company-specific contents.

The training combines learning units for conveying knowledge, interactive exercises and modules for reinforcing and regularly refreshing the knowledge presented. The core of the "Coaching Campus" comprises the video modules and the accompanying individual online coaching, where – together with the personal coach – the learning material is made personal, evaluated and discussed. The online coaching on the campus takes place by video or by live video conference, as required. Modern technologies therefore do not replace the coach, but simplify the learning process according to the most recent knowledge in educational and brain research.

The Online Coaching Center was developed by the psychologist and economist Kerstin Liesenfeld and the media expert Petra Neftel. Both have more than 10 years of experience as businesswomen and coaches – the latter also in connection with presentation and moderation, as well as personnel development and support for change processes. Their customers include executive managers and directors of DAX-listed companies and from middle-sized industry, as well as experts for personnel and organizational development. Liesenfeld is the founder of Coaching Campus GmbH and Co. KG.

Personally supported in all phases
The participants get to know their coach from the start in an initial personal meeting in the company. "A learning relationship can only be built on a personal basis. This is why all coaches concerned travel to our customers at the beginning", explains Petra Neftel. "Learning requires sound relationships". In the online coaching that follows on the campus, the regular virtual-interactive contact between the participants and the coach is an integral part of the process. "The exchange is the same as for face-to-face coaching", says Neftel, "except that we have the huge advantage that we are able to operate according to certain times and places. This allows our participants the greatest possible flexibility. And, for the company, this represents significant cost savings." In this way, training is also multiplied for larger teams. The person coached can make use of our Coaching Campus learning material or create his or her own tailor-made learning material – with company experts in front of the camera – based on neuroscientific knowledge and produced in high quality.

Discover and further personnel potential – according to scientific knowledge. Neuroscientific knowledge are the basis for the "Coaching Campus" modules. During the learning process, all – for knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer central – areas of the brain are addressed, since only their smooth interaction leads to long term success. "Our coaching systems are applied science – tailored to the individual and goal-oriented", emphasizes Kerstin Liesenfeld, who is conducting research with a scholarship from the Mind-Brain Education program at Harvard University. An important foundation of the "Coaching Campus" is the theory of personality-system interaction (PSI theory) of Professor Kuhl. "A proven process that serves for the better understanding of personal competences and is therefore utilized frequently in economics and teaching", explains Liesenfeld.

The most modern learning processes for sustained success
What the participants learn on the "coaching campus" is not forgotten after two weeks' time. Online coaching takes place over a longer time than a workshop or a seminar. It is possible to try out the material learned in the work routine and to identify needs for improvement and refresh the material learned. Even after training has finished, the digitally stored modules can be called up again at any time. The coach then individualizes the content of the video modules in online coaching in such a way that each person coached can relate the new knowledge to his or her work routine and derive concrete actions from this. Furthermore, the persons coached are reminded of the new knowledge for up to two years with a reminder system and checks. The persons coached can view the video modules and the courses of individual coaching as often as they want, since their access to the campus remains active. "At the present time the "Coaching Campus" is unique on the market with this guaranteed lifetime value", adds Petra Neftel.

Your own company campus
The "coaching campus" offers companies the chance to implement ideal-typical further training and personnel development concepts – without the restrictions of earlier times, such as the time and cost factors. Without the need for on-site presence, larger teams can be trained without problem and with savings in costs – even beyond national borders when the companies utilize the existing offers of "Coaching Campus". And thes3e can be individualized and developed to perfectly suited training units. The result is practically the "company's own campus".

PDF: Neuer Lern-Campus für Unternehmen

14. December 2011

Feeling Research

Why highly cognitive thought and sensory functions are important for successful researchers

BY KERSTIN LIESENFELD.

"Such a creature cannot exist", a newly honored Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, is supposed to have said, as he saw an arrangement of atoms which contradicted all previously accepted natural laws under his microscope for the first time. His discovery fundamentally changed our understanding of the structure of solids.

Much of the pioneering knowledge obtained is the result of years, and often decades, of meticulous research. What is the driving force for researchers in their often arduous search for "what holds the innermost world together"? A healthy portion of curiosity, together with the overwhelming need and the capability to understand complex processes. "Researcher spirits" from Alexander von Humboldt to Einstein and today's Nobel Prize laureates do not allow themselves to be relegated to a certain type. It is the special properties of a personality from which these particular competences evolve, which make them particularly well suited for research: the combination of thought and feeling, together with persistence, ambition, self-motivation and – not in the least – a high frustration tolerance.

Interestingly, the combination of thought and feeling plays a very special role: Besides the thought and analytical processes, precisely the so-called parallel higher sensory functions help researchers to successfully arrive at new ideas. Psychology refers here to highly cognitive thought and sensory functions. These evolve from maturing processes in the brain. A child starts by perceiving a single object, such as a flower. In the next stage the child recognizes: a red flower, or a white flower.

Later the child learns to recognize and distinguish between a red rose and a white carnation. This ability to differentiate is one of the prerequisites for the development of complex networks in our brain. In this way, we develop our competences for the perception and processing of different impressions, then of systems, and finally abstraction capability.

High energy consumption
Higher-level cognitive thought and analytical functions entail high consumption of energy, and the "working memory" for these thought functions is relatively small. It is therefore not at all simple to break down complex thoughts into individual steps and maintain these over a longer period. This functions more effectively when the thought processes are combined with the higher sensory functions, because the "working memory" for this function of the brain is much larger. The sensory system also supplies the energy required to cope with strenuous phases. By addressing the question of the meaningfulness of one's own actions, with vision and inner conviction the researcher can tap the energy of this system.

One can imagine that the interplay of thought and sensory functions functions like the tensioning of a bow. The sensory system defines the direction, and the thought system defines the specific target. The tension is then maintained until the arrow optimally points to the target.

And what lies behind the ability of researchers to remain on target in spite of drudgery and setbacks and continue on the path towards achieving meaningful results? "Researcher spirits" possess a high degree of self-motivation. This presupposes a certain level of personal maturity and a healthy portion of tenacity and discipline. Work processes in our brain function according to an internal reward system. What we like brings us "positive affects", and what we don't like brings us "negative affects". Within the framework of the psychology of personalities, personal maturity and discipline mean, among other things, the ability to defer one's positive affects as long as a concentration phase for analysis, planning and action requires – and this can be long and strenuous.

The "researcher spirit" therefore requires self-motivation and endurance. In the face of setbacks, the researcher requires a high frustration tolerance and the ability to remain calm. Remaining calm is one of the central self-control activities and describes one's own emotional stress level can be controlled in order to arrive at further ideas and be able to carry out further actions.

Perseverance
Overall, persons with the ability to restrain themselves feel more at home in research and teaching than persons who are strongly motivated by external stimuli and spontaneous rewards. Researchers are mostly persons possessing highly cognitive, complex processing capabilities, who are prepared to investigate issues in great depth and with the greatest conscientiousness and who are able to successfully confront problems, even in the face of adversity.