I have had the pleasure to have worked with and be inspired by so many wonderfully gifted intellectuals before and during my pulsating career, and I would like to thank all those who contributed small and large to my professional development over the years. In no particular order, thank you to the following people without whom I would not have ever come to develop the professional experience or knowledge needed to write this book. Claudia Ott, Prof. Frau Dreier, Dr. Jochem Kießling-Sonntag, Marion Schopen, Dr. Klaudia Fork, Markus Rempe, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Klippstein, Prof. Dr. Volker Wittberg, Christian Ott, Daniel Klarhorst, Jo Gordon, Beth Hinton, Dr. Ausberto Torres, Marc Pavey, Verena Hanke-Neuland, Christian Ott, Dale Heffron, Peter Chisholm MBE, Mr. Travett, Britta Landermann, Rita Mintert, Jens Ott, Guido Neuland, Michael Tulipan, the employee at the job center, Detlef Dammeier, Zoran Nikolic, Sören Heidemann, Miron Tadic, Glynn Turner, Denise Bickert, and the guy who escorted me to the train in Bremen. Special thanks to Adam Orchard for teaching me how to say “my mother is a budgerigar”. Thanks to Fernando M., Aldo O., and Nancy S. for kindly letting me use their leadership compass collages.
To my mentor and hoser Christiaan Lorenzen, I give particular thanks. Your ceaseless advice at the beginning of my career in management training was invaluable, and I feel hugely in your debt. I thank Dr. Phillipa Ward for teaching me how to chain logic together and structure argumentation and for convincing me that even a jock is allowed to sit at the intellectuals’ table.
My dear friends (and their families), spread across the world, steadfastly gave me the self-belief to follow my star, no matter how badly I nurse our relationships. Thank you boys! Chris Jones, James Laing, Arron Edwards, Björn Herbath, John Carr, Neil Clarke, Peter Hill, Stuart and Andy Henderson, and Chris Rayment.
I am hugely grateful to my two trainer hotshot friends Gabor Holch and Klaus Dürrbeck for their great help with editing, consulting, and tweaking, in particular, the chapter on the brain. My thanks to Nigel Whyatt for first approaching me about writing this book and to Rob Zwettler at BEP for publishing it. The collaboration has been a pleasure, and I hope it is not our last.
My thanks go out to all of my colleagues at SYNK Group, in particular Eva Hönnecke, Uli Moehler, David Liebnau, Dr. Martin Friedrich, Christine Ait-Mohktar, Lutz Pickhardt, and Udo Krauss. Your faith in me and the collaboration with you on myriad projects over the years has been a great honor and has helped me develop as a consultant immensely.
To all my colleagues at the Munich Leadership Group, led by the inspirational Dr. Paul Schurmann and Dr. Hans-Werner Hagemann, and in particular Michael Knieling, Doreen Koehler, Natalie Rosengart, Stephanie Jagdhuber, and Anja Wiendl, I say thank you for your belief and motivation and for the dynamic, transformational way you run your company and serve your clients.
My endless love and thanks go to my mum and dad and to my brothers, Richard and Jack, who brought me up in an environment drowned with words, and at the same time, taught me how to swim. Thank you Emily and Lenny for reminding me of the why, every day. You are the reason I do everything I do.
My final thanks go to my raison d’etre, my muse, my dearest friend, and the most selfless listener I have ever met. You are an extraordinary woman, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for every iota of support you have ever given me.
For GB