Services

A consultant deals with purely expert questions and tasks for the client. The consultant is a subject matter expert and can help the client with his or her expertise. The relationship is fact-oriented; a personal relationship that goes beyond this is at best a “by-product”.

The consultant determines the content and the process and, if necessary, takes responsibility. He or she analyzes the task in all details, research necessary information and, if necessary, holds joint workshops with the client. The consultant may also discuss the task with team members and stakeholders. A consultant develops concrete proposals for solutions, plans the consulting and project process, and defines the necessary KPIs for the measurability of (partial) goals together with the client. The characteristic of consulting is intensive, often daily collaboration. A consultant can optionally implement the elaborated solution proposals in an accompanying manner. Clients also benefit from consulting activities by broadening their knowledge and experience horizons.

In Austria, the professional title of “consultant” is bound by the wording to the professional groups of management consultants, life consultants or psychological consultants. The professional title may therefore only be chosen if one belongs to one of these professional groups.

ASEP Austrian Senior Experts provides management consultants with many years of professional experience and distinctive expertise.

Service of an experienced person (mentor) who passes on his or her professional knowledge and experience to a less experienced person (mentee). Mentors can provide long-term support for young or new employees within a company; very often, external mentors take on this role, e. g. in the case of company founders. Although there is usually a clear, often hierarchical relationship gap between mentor and mentee, there is a confidential, open relationship. Respect and commitment are essential factors for the success of mentoring. No fixed time frame is defined for the cooperation.

The goal of mentoring is professional development and reflection on current actions. The mentor can also provide access to his or her network and introduce people and companies which might be important to the mentee. The mentor’s personal opinion always included in the activity.

There is no training to become a mentor. Therefore, it is important to us at ASEP to prepare our experts for their work as mentors.

Sparring partners interact with the client to find a solution together for concrete tasks, they question existing ideas and develop them further. Sparring partners are like-minded people who discuss and act as equals – “at eye level”. They are allies and often the only opportunity for entrepreneurs and CEOs to talk openly about even delicate issues, Ideally, a sparring partner has the same mindset, gives honest feedback, holds up the mirror and points out the reality. Nevertheless, he is neutral, and above all, he does not follow only his own interests. There is an absolute relationship of trust. A sparring partner is bound to absolute confidentiality and may not use findings for his or her own advantage.

In sparring, entrepreneurs, managers and company founders improve their own skills, discuss problems and tasks and reflect on possible solutions. They can test themselves against sparring partners, discuss their own ideas, take the sparring partner’s advice to heart and develop these further together. Ideally, the sparring partner has or had the same status, so that entrepreneurs and managers can openly and jointly think about and reflect on difficult situations in the company, or critically examine plans and projects for their strengths and weaknesses and risks. The result of sparring should be clarity and a more optimal solutions. This is better than learning the hard way in real situations, damaging one’s own career or putting the company’s success at risk.

There is no training for sparring. The integrity and skills of a sparring partner are therefore particularly important. Our experts who work as sparring partners continue their education and, as members, are subject to the strict code of honor of ASEP.

Coaching is a process counselling with the goal of self-help. It can be carried out by external and internal coaches. Coaching is the professional counselling, guidance and support of persons with management and control functions and of experts in companies. Coaching is task oriented. The activity is mostly short- and medium-term and it is focused on personal competencies of the coachee (self-reflection skills), the development of general competencies (e. g. presentation skills) and not on the area of expertise.

There is little hierarchical relationship between the coach and the coachee; a relationship gap is not desired and does not make sense. A coach is neutral and does not express his or her own opinion or point of view. The relationship is at eye level and the goal is to improve the coachee’s performance. The coach leads the coachee to develop his or her own solution by asking questions. To do this, a coach uses various methods and techniques from personnel and management development. The goals of coaching range from assessing and developing personal competencies and perspectives to overcoming conflicts with employees, colleagues and customers.

Coaching is a collective term for different counselling methods. It is not the term “coach” that is regulated by law and trade law, but the type of activity. Accordingly, different certificates of competence and trade licences are required. Coaching in the professional sense requires the trade licence of a management consultant. Coaches are not therapists, but they also take into account the concerns of the coachee, even in the private sphere. The joint work requires voluntariness.

At ASEP Austrian Senior Experts, the focus is on leadership coaching, executive development and CEO coaching.