Mr Kroning looked out of the window of his office on the 20th floor. It was 7:30 p.m. and the supervisory board meeting of WERT AG had ended a quarter of an hour ago. He had expected it to be tough, but he had not expected it to turn out like this. It was still ringing in his ears now. "Mr. Kroning," the chairman of the supervisory board had said after a long discussion, "we have come to the conclusion that the company needs a fresh start in terms of personnel. The Supervisory Board has therefore decided by majority vote to release you from your duties with immediate effect. Please coordinate all further steps with me personally". What had gone wrong? Hadn't he made good progress with the company in recent years, increasing sales and earnings? Yes, there had been occasional grumbling, but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. And of course there are always a few people who work against you. But he'd had it all under control, hadn't he? How was he going to tell his wife, his family? What would the friends and colleagues say? What was going to happen? Okay, he was financially secure for now. He had two years left on his contract. But it was clear he needed a strategy and professional support. He picked up the phone and called his lawyer. He had known him for over twenty years, from their time together at university. Dr. Weber greeted him as usual: "Well Ralf, are you alright?" Mr. Kroning swallowed briefly and then answered, "Unfortunately not. I have just been fired". "Excuse me?" Mr. Weber seemed totally taken aback. After a short conversation, he suggested to Mr. Kroning that he should come to his office directly tomorrow. He could, of course, handle the legal side, but he really needed someone to help him develop a communications strategy and come out of this situation positively with new responsibilities. He gave him the number of an executive coach with whom he had been working confidently for several years and recommended that he contact him immediately. We met the next day in my office. Mr. Kroning was a handsome man in his early 50's. You could tell he was used to being in charge and in control of things. And yet he seemed somehow helpless. He briefly described his situation and asked me how he should best proceed. I answered him: "Mr. Kroning, the most important thing now is that the public image of you remains positive, then we can take the next steps." He looked at me expectantly and asked, "How do you propose to do that? What do you propose?" My answer was, "First, let's analyze the situation. From that we will derive the necessary measures of communication internally and externally. If you wish, I can also get in direct contact with your chairman of the board." "That won't be necessary," he replied. He began to describe his situation in detail. How he had taken this job eight years ago with hope. How he had restructured the entire company and put it back on track for success. How he had succeeded in taking over the strongest competitor. And that it had been perfectly clear that his contract had been extended three years ago. Yes, he had received a particularly high bonus for the past year. And now suddenly this. I asked if anything had changed in the shareholder structure? "Yes," Mr. Kroning replied, "a year and a half ago, a hedge fund took over a substantial share of the stock. But they were primarily interested in returns. Of course, there were discussions about the direction of the company, but I always prevailed with my strategy." I asked him how he worked with his colleagues on the board. He replied that this had generally always been collegial. However, when he looked back on it now, he noticed that the colleague responsible for finance had recently been reserved and often critical. I went to the flipchart and we began to sketch out the relationships with the key people, starting from the time of entry to the current situation. And it became increasingly clear how much they had changed. He was dismayed. He had not seen it like this before. But he had an initial idea of why what he had never expected had happened to him. Now we could go into concrete work. Together we drafted a statement for communication to the company, formulated a press release and the essential points for the termination agreement, the legal drafting of which was of course done by his friend the lawyer. Thus equipped, he went into the discussion with his supervisory board chairman. The communication strategy worked. The chairman of the supervisory board and the persons acting in the company adhered to the agreed language regime. This was the first step in the repositioning. We continued to meet often, and shortly afterwards launched the complete NewPlacement coaching program. And within a year he was in appropriate new responsibilities. His nicest feedback for me was when we met for coffee that he told me, "You helped me see things differently. I pay close attention today, and I'm pretty sure I won't be in a situation like that again." You helped me to see things differently