Conscious Leadership at Critical Turning Points

The Moment

Do you know the point where what always worked stops working?

A board has launched three transformation programmes in a row, and none of them has really worked.

A managing director has led successfully for fifteen years and realises that this time her repertoire does not reach.

A founder has good numbers and a good deck and still gets no term sheet.

A nineteen-year-old does not know who he is or what he could meaningfully contribute.

Four different lives. The same place.

I call it the developmental edge. At this edge, more of the same brings nothing. What helps is someone who holds the space until your own answer arrives.

At critical transitions, the usual roles fall short. Specialisation is so deep that the view of the whole gets lost. Every perspective is true, but only ever in part.

There are consultants for strategy.
There are coaches for leadership and personal development.
There are project leads for process and delivery.

Development that holds needs an approach that brings these levels together. Because a strategic question is also a leadership question. Because employee engagement and culture decide whether a good decision holds. Because a new direction has been found and the old patterns keep running anyway.

That is where I work. I connect strategy, leadership, and the development of people and teams. And I help integrate learning and development into everyday work, so that insight becomes decisions and decisions become results that last.

So what belongs together doesn’t come apart. The direction, the people who carry it, and what actually runs differently on Monday.

The Method

Future intelligence emerges in generative dialogue.

What comes out of it wasn’t visible before: a direction the team found itself, and therefore one that holds.

The real problem is rarely a lack of information. What’s needed is space to recognise what actually matters — and connection, to turn that recognition into concrete results.

That’s what I built a four-step method for. I work with it in executive coaching online, in workshops with leadership teams, and in the forests of Finland. The process stays the same. What changes is the place.

Letting go. Making space.

So that what is old and non-essential can go and space can open again.

In the organisation: letting go of old certainties and old knowledge. Saying out loud what no longer carries, even if it was right for years.

In the forest: making space to hear the whisper of the future. Two days without a feed and without everyone else’s opinion.

Connecting. Back into contact.

Because development succeeds better in relationship than alone.

In the organisation: safe spaces where difficult emotions also have room and can be worked through. Only then can the threshold to the new be crossed.

In the forest: recognising yourself by being witnessed and reflected by others. Development happens in relationship.

Recognising. Developing a positive vision of the future.

So that inspiration and future intelligence can emerge.

In the organisation: recognising and creating well-founded confidence. Developing new strategies together, releasing collective strengths, and building a future from them that will hold.

In the forest: recognising your own strengths and your own contribution, without measuring them against a feed.

Shaping. Building the next step.

So that recognition becomes concrete next steps.

In the organisation: a decision the team carries, and a development sprint that ends with a first concrete result.

Back from the forest: one concrete next step and a buddy system at your side, with which you achieve something you would not have achieved alone.

Where I work

Three paths, one developmental edge.

Leading. For executives, leadership teams and organisations.

When the business model no longer carries. When an executive or an entire team can no longer get further with their existing repertoire. Tailored programmes, leadership team support, one-to-one work at executive level.

To the Leading page →

Growing. For young adults between 18 and 28.

The Threshold Program: six days in the forests of Finland, for anyone facing a decision that will shape what follows. Small groups, dates on request.

To the programme → For parents, foundations and companies: fund a place →

Founding. For founders.

How presence and the ability to lead relationships decide funding and team. This work runs under Founder Resonance.

To Founder Resonance →

About David

Why I do this work.

I love enabling people, teams and organisations to build relationships that work. The relationship with themselves, with their team, with their market and with the world around them.

I have followed this mission for more than 25 years. It led me to work as a coach, trainer and facilitator with more than 20,000 leaders in 25 countries, from team lead to the C-suite of large corporations.

I know leadership from operational reality. And I know its price.

In my early forties I came close to collapse myself. Because I had ignored my own needs for decades, and had overlooked that the most important stakeholder relationship is the one with myself.

Where it began

At 22 I sat for four days and nights alone on a mountain called Vision Mountain in the US state of Washington. Fasting. With two questions: who am I, and what is my contribution?

What showed itself then still guides me today: the work on relationships that succeed, and the inner call to create spaces and generative dialogue that allow my clients to recognise their own vision and bring it powerfully into being.

I follow this mission in the forests of Finland. In online meetings. In the meeting rooms of companies and hotels.

4.98/5

from 10 customer reviews on ProvenExpert ↗

My work rests on two pillars, and it needs both.

One is evidence-based: 25+ years in leadership development, strengths-based development following Gallup research, award-winning blended-learning architectures for organisations.

The other comes from the wisdom traditions: over 30 years of my own meditation practice, contemplative work at the level of body, emotion and language, retreats lasting several months, my own vision quests in wild places. Not borrowed theory.

This combination is the integral core of my work. Structure alone doesn’t reach the depth. Depth alone doesn’t hold in everyday work. Together, they open up development steps that are otherwise easy to miss.

Organisations

I have built leadership programmes and led them myself.

Over the past 25 years I have designed and led multi-million development programmes for more than 20,000 participants. First as Senior Learning & Development Consultant at Gallup, later as Managing Director and Client Director at SYNK GROUP. During that time, one of the SYNK GROUP programmes I designed and led for Deutsche Bahn received the HR Excellence Award in the category “Konzernführungskräfte”.

Revenue responsibility, leading international teams, handling stacked crises, decisions without sufficient information: I know the side of the table my clients sit on.

Today I work with family businesses, with growing organisations and with corporations. The questions differ in scale, but it is always about a developmental edge. Every programme is built for the specific situation. Off-the-shelf training is available elsewhere.

Certified to the quality standards of the International Coaching Federation and committed to the ICF Code of Ethics.

How an engagement works →

What clients say

From one-to-one coaching to organisation-wide programmes.

In my role as Client Director at SYNK GROUP I have worked for clients including Lufthansa Group, BMW, Deutsche Bahn, ZF and many others.

David is one of the strongest learning & development professionals I have had the pleasure of working with. His sharp mind and refreshing recommendations were highly appreciated by senior executives and had real impact on these leaders and their organisations!

Pa M.K. Sinyan Regional Managing Partner EMEA, Gallup

I have got to know David as a fantastic trainer, with a unique strength and authenticity when it comes to the topic of leading oneself. His guidance and insights have been invaluable in helping our newly announced leaders to build up core leadership skills and navigate these uncertain times. I highly recommend David for anyone looking to embarque on a self-development journey.

Viktor Szücs Senior Director Leadership Development and Cultural Transformation, Lufthansa Group

For years the job was everything. No private life, no distance, never really satisfied — no matter what the team delivered. I wanted to work less in the company — and more on it. I wanted to have a life again.

Thanks to David’s coaching, internal alignment now runs more smoothly, motivation is higher, and it comes more easily to me to express appreciation. That has intensified performance as well.

My people take on more responsibility. And the relationship with my clients is more trusting.

I have had feedback from outside and in my private life that I move through life more calmly and carry more quiet inside me. My communication has improved, my relationships have deepened.

I can enjoy my life considerably more.

Jacob Harz CEO & Co-Founder @Viivi · translated from German

Even in video coaching, David managed to create a striking sense of closeness and connection. What was even more remarkable was how he helped me build a deep connection with myself as well — a challenge that goes far beyond the technology.

Dr. Julian Pott Systemic Coach & Data Scientist, formerly DB Systel GmbH · translated from German

You have a particular gift for showing people how to leave well-worn paths, dead ends and hamster wheels behind, and to pursue what actually matters with fresh energy and motivation. With your methods I was able not only to rediscover my inner drive, but to lift it lastingly to a higher level.

Peter Koch Deputy Head of Sales Digital Media EMEA, Felix Schoeller · translated from German

Client review, in German.

Das Coaching mit David Liebnau war äußerst wertvoll, da er präzise auf meine individuellen Ziele eingegangen ist und mir sofort anwendbare, alltagstaugliche Impulse mitgegeben hat.

Coaching client · ProvenExpert

In a difficult professional situation, David helped me forward remarkably with a single focused coaching session. That mix of empathy and purposefulness — no endless conversations, but clear impulses that genuinely change something. I can recommend David to anyone who is not just looking for answers, but wants to experience real change.

Miriam Burgheim Teacher & Head of Subject Seminars, Senatsverwaltung Berlin · translated from German

Since 2019 we have jointly developed and delivered an extensive leadership programme together with SYNK GROUP and David Liebnau as Client Director and Senior Expert. Several hundred ZF leaders have taken part and given very good feedback. Many THANKS for that.

David Kling Organizational & Leadership Development, ZF Group · translated from German

All recommendations on LinkedIn →

The next step

Three ways to talk to me.

i. 60 minutes · Free of charge · By video

For organisations: briefing conversation

60 minutes, free of charge, by video. You describe the situation, I tell you whether and how I would work with it. Afterwards you receive an outline with format, scope, timeline and price, within a week at the latest. Without this conversation I make no offer.

Request a briefing conversation →

ii. 30 minutes

For Threshold: application conversation

Write me three sentences about where you currently stand. We talk for 30 minutes. Afterwards you know whether Threshold is your next step, and I know whether the group fits you. Yes or no comes in the conversation itself.

Start a conversation →

iii. 30 minutes

For parents, foundations and companies: fund a place

In 30 minutes we explore together whether this programme is the right one, how the six days unfold and what value it creates. We discuss the cost per place in conversation; an introductory rate applies for the founding group. For scholarships: a written reflection from the person you supported, with their consent.

Request a partnership →

Or write to me directly:

mail@davidliebnau.com

For Founder Resonance: light-creators.com

When the old no longer carries and the new has no form yet.