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My name is Bärbel Boy, née Knabe, which means boy in German. So when I married Mr Boy, it was a change of name in two ways: first, a tribute to internationalisation and the new lingua franca English; second, a much more pithy name thanks to alliteration and fewer letters. Later, boy became the name of the game: three children, all boys, and www.its-a-boy.de, our company’s domain. The story carries on with my first name. Please bear with me as I bare all: Bärbel in German is a short form of Barbara, a name derived from barbarians, which means ‘the foreign ones’. And foreign was certainly applicable: I was the daughter of a Baptist minister in a Catholic village in Bavaria; my Bavarian dialect sounded very foreign in the far north of Germany; and the company was founded in the eight month of my pregnancy - another strange thing.
The more this foreignness became a strength, the more its meaning changed. A different spelling of the name opened my eyes: BÄR-bel is a friendlier name for a BÄR, which is German for bear. Those honey-lickers of proverbial strength that look cuddly but certainly know how to defend themselves, that enjoy the taste of ants, and whose hymn to cosiness is a recipe for inner strength, composure and happiness. So now the bear is the heraldic symbol for my aspirations: wakening or reawakening the bear-like strengths of my coachees and clients; raising them to new heights; incorporating the secret recipe for success – cosy, kind, weighty: extending the palette of expressiveness from buzzing to bellowing; and finding the best balance for deploying their strengths in the spectrum between honey, ants and other potential prey. So now I’ve laid it all bare: bearboy is not just my name; it’s my programme for you.
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bearboy.
Nomen est Omen.
Bärbel Boy
Bärbel Boy is an inspiring counterpart. She challenges people and enables them to take new paths.
Susanne Kollmann, Muthesius Transferpark
entrepreneur boy | Strategie und Kommunikation GmbH and coach
Direct or confrontational, clear, pragmatic, analytical, unflinching, full of the joys of life
What i like most is accompanying individual development steps, resolving conflicts and co-designing change processes with businesses. In this I profit from my experience in top management, as a company founder and entrepreneur, and from decades of engagement in church-related structures.
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I have lectured at Muthesius Art College in Kiel and at Witten-Herdecke Free University, and worked at Google Academy as an entrepreneurship trainer. My clients include law firms, management consultants, church organisations, government bodies, public authorities, trade associations, and many other kinds of businesses.
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I am a German, Social Studies and Marketing Economics graduate, Bridgehouse Certified Training Practitioner, Design Thinking Moderator at the Hasso PIattner Institute in Potsdam, qualified business mediator, Competence on Top coach, and Lego® Serious Play® facilitator.
And my private life? Born in 1968 as the daughter of a pastor, mother of three sons, passionate cook, host and fun runner, currently living in Brussels.
Languages: German (native), English (B2), French (A2)
The so-called summit meetings for our young gyno-oncologists have a sensational impact every time.
Dr. Christian Schauer, Graz
Coaching.
As a coach I work with my coachees on their topics and objectives. My focus is on the achievement of objectives. Using a variety of methods, I steer this process through targeted questions and impulses. Though discretion and common rules I create space for ongoing development.
„The team training we experienced during the first 100 days of the new government gave us more cohesion as a cabinet.“
Carsten Maltzan, Government Spokesman ret.
WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER
change processes
Team-building measures for new teams
New year team kick-offs
Individual coaching for people wanting to climb to the next level or open a new door
Training.
Learning new skills, extending your set of tools, enhancing your effectivity – these are the objectives attendees achieve in my training courses. All topics can be tailored to the needs of an organisation and the participants as in-house courses.
Experience shows how highly effective training courses at out-of-the-ordinary places and demanding surroundings are – in mountainous regions, monasteries, while working on a sculpture, or in similar hands-on projects.
„We had very good feedback from everyone in the group! Everyone liked your approach of not giving just “tips and trick” but more a bigger view of what really body language is.”
Ramirez Angulo, Sales Manager at DuPont
SELECTED COURSES
Leading and changing
Body language – The magic of understanding
Personality and performance
Time management and self-management
Playing with power
Self-assertion strategies for women
Appearance and effect
Moderation.
WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER
Strategy moderation
Conflict moderation
Civil dialogue moderation
Event moderation
„Our team kick-off meetings with Bärbel are a course setter every year.“
Michael Gattereder, CEO Digitalwerk Wien
Leadership circles, board meetings, roundtables, project teams, interdisciplinary groups – when numerous clever minds with specialist skills and differing missions get together to achieve some major goal together, a well-designed moderation process and a fearless moderator who applies purposeful methods are worth their weight in gold.
„Thanks to Bärbel Boy we were able to get out of a messy situation with a client.“
Dr. Andreas Meisel,
WKC Hamburg GmbH
„I would always recommend Bärbel Boy as a mediator.“
Prof. Björn Bloching,
Global Head of Roland Berger Digital
Mediation.
Mediation is a voluntary process that aims to maintain and enlarge a common denominator. As a mediator I work with both parties impartially and without decision-making authority to develop a common perspective or agreement that brings greater benefits to both parties than their starting position did.
In this process I make use of visualisation techniques as well as Lego® Serious Play® or Playmobil®.
STEPS
defining the process
nderstanding the conflict history
verbalising the standpoints
developing and evaluating options
reaching a common agreement
Speeches.
Only if a speech impacts individuals or an entire audience by opening a door to a new process, era or understanding can it be truly called a keynote speech.
I develop impulses, keynotes and speeches on a wide variety of topics. Why not enquire about your specific topic?
„Bärbel Boy’s keynote speech totally enriched our event. The feedback was brilliant.“
Britta Brechtel, Geschäftsführerin FLS GmbH
EXAMPLES OF TOPICS COVERED
The magic of understanding – or non-verbal communication
Smart people or smart machines – where automation needs a new humanity
Change is the frog – you only have to kiss it
Self-assertion strategies for women
The church and advertising
Text.
When my youngest son was three, he wrote a whole page for me. I looked at the wavy lines with which he had imitated the hard work of writing and asked him: “What does it say there?” He looked at me and replied: “You should read it to me. I can’t read yet!”
Writing makes me happy. I do it for work and pleasure, with or without a commission, secretly and officially. In my texts you can recognise my way of thinking – or yours. It all depends on how you read them.
The Magic
of Understanding
WORT. KRIPPEN. SPIEL
Gedichtsammlung
Goldauge. Glückseher. Gernesser.
Gedichtsammlung
Düppeler Chancen - Ausgabe 01
Zeitung
Düppeler Chancen - Ausgabe 02
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Düppeler Chancen - Ausgabe 03
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Düppeler Chancen - Ausgabe 04
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Contact.
+49 (0) 173 6188338
Kiel
Knooper Weg 51, 24103 Kiel
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Berlin
Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Straße 9,
10178 Berlin
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