Frequently Asked Questions

Executive sparring is a confidential one-to-one conversation for members of the executive board and the board of directors, in which a specific leadership or strategy question is thought through in a short space of time. A session lasts 60 to 90 minutes and requires no preparation. It can end after a single meeting or continue over several, without becoming a mandate. It differs from coaching in that the focus is not personal development over months but a decision that is pending. It differs from consulting in that no finished solution is brought to the table. At transformind, Bernhard Nitz conducts every conversation personally.

Two kinds of question belong in a sparring session. Strategic questions: a course-setting decision with three plausible options, an acquisition, a reorganisation, an investment decision whose assumptions nobody is testing any more. And leadership questions: a personnel decision that does not feel right, a difficult conversation at executive board level, a conflict nobody discusses internally. The two often belong together, because a strategic decision founders on the question of who will carry it. What sparring does not do is the drafting. It tests a decision; it does not produce a concept.

Sparring is for people who no longer have an internal counterpart at their own level: CEOs, members of the executive board, members of the board of directors, owners of family businesses. The typical constellation is one in which the board is an interested party, the conflict involves one's own superior, or the executive board itself is the blind spot. The work is with Swiss SMEs, mid-sized companies and corporate groups across the German-speaking region. For questions below this level, leadership coaching is the more suitable setting.

Sparring fits when the question is specific and the timing is tight: a decision due by the end of the week, a negotiation whose position is not yet settled, a course-setting choice with too many open variables. A coaching process fits when a pattern shows itself over months and your own effectiveness in the role becomes the question. If you are unsure, ten minutes on the return call will settle it. Moving between the two formats is possible at any time, because the same person conducts both.

The return call comes within 48 hours, usually on the same working day. The number is +41 43 883 317 0, available Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm. Two or three sentences about the situation are enough; there is no form with mandatory fields, no documents, and no initial conversation before the initial conversation. The session lasts 60 to 90 minutes, in Kilchberg near Zurich, at your premises or by video. Whether it stays at one conversation or others follow is your decision afterwards. The invoice follows per session and is payable within 14 days.

Three signs can be checked before the first meeting. First, whether the person has carried leadership responsibility themselves, because otherwise the questions come from books rather than from experience. Second, whether each conversation stands on its own or leads towards a follow-on mandate; anyone who needs a mandate no longer argues freely. Third, whether confidentiality holds without exception, including towards the employer paying the invoice. There is no objectively best sparring partner. What matters is whether the experience fits the decision at hand.

Strategic decisions are often made under uncertainty, time pressure, and political observation. Sparring offers a confidential setting to sort thoughts, illuminate blind spots, and play through options before they are presented to the leadership team or the supervisory board.Unlike classical coaching, the focus is not primarily on personal development. The strategic question is at the centre: an upcoming investment, an acquisition, a restructuring, or a difficult personnel decision. The sparring partner asks uncomfortable questions, holds assumptions against the reality test, and provides outside perspective without a political agenda.At transformind, Bernhard Nitz offers sparring for executive-board members, owners, and supervisory boards. The typical form: one to three sessions before an important decision, confidential and without downstream reporting.

Wirksames Sparring unterscheidet sich von durchschnittlichem vor allem am Zuschnitt der Sitzung. Im Zentrum steht eine konkrete, anstehende Entscheidung, nicht die persönliche Entwicklung über einen längeren Zeitraum. Das Format bleibt auf eine Sitzung von 60 bis 90 Minuten begrenzt, ohne Folgeverpflichtung, statt sich zu einem offenen Beratungsprozess auszuweiten. Und der Sparringpartner prüft Annahmen gegen den Realitätstest und stellt unbequeme Fragen, statt eine fertige Lösung mitzubringen. Den objektiv besten Sparringpartner gibt es dabei nicht; entscheidend ist, ob die eigene Führungs- und Beratungserfahrung zur konkreten Entscheidung passt. Bei transformind in Kilchberg bei Zürich bietet Bernhard Nitz Executive Sparring persönlich an, für Geschäftsleitungs- und Verwaltungsratsmitglieder im DACH-Raum, die eine Führungsfrage in kurzer Zeit durchdenken wollen.