Anne Geuther has always been the person people turned to for advice – at school, at work, among friends. But at some point, she wanted to go beyond giving well-meant advice based on her own experiences. She wanted to learn how to truly help others find their own answers.
After attending a three-day introductory seminar, she knew: This is it. Today, Anne is a certified systemic business coach (Artop Institute) and practices coaching as a passion project alongside her full-time job.
Her approach is grounded and holistic: she always looks at the bigger picture — the person within their organization, their role, and their relationships. Clients come to her with a variety of topics: career direction, workplace conflicts, perfectionism, overthinking, or simply feeling stuck.
For Anne, coaching is "helping others help themselves." It's not about giving advice, but about opening up new perspectives. What makes a great coach in her view? Listening. Creating a safe space where someone feels fully heard can already spark real change.
Her simple but powerful tip for everyday life: notice your energy. When are you in flow? And what happens when you stop judging and just start observing?
Anne: How did I get into coaching?
On paper, I'm a classic business-school type: I studied business administration and went through the usual stations — internships in banking, consulting and startups. At some point I found I liked finance and startups, and that's how I ended up in venture capital. My first job was at Project A, the venture capital fund in Berlin, which is also where Till and I first met. I spent five years there. After that I moved to an agency, because I have a creative side too, and for about a year now I've been working in our family business. Honestly, all of that is only semi-relevant to the coaching.
I'd say I've always been the kind of person people turn to for advice — already back in school, later at work, and among friends. I've always felt honored by that, and I genuinely enjoy helping others. For a long time, though, I was mostly sharing advice based on my own experiences. At some point, I started feeling a bit uneasy about that and thought, I'd actually love to learn more objective tools — tools that help others find their own answers instead of me telling them what to do.
So, I took a three-day introductory seminar, and that was a real confirmation for me: Yes, this is it. I want to go deeper. I want to do a full training. I've now been a certified coach for about a year — though of course, you never stop learning. I completed my training at the Artop Institute, which is based at Humboldt University; what convinced me is that the people teaching coaching there are usually psychology professors. It's a business coaching program — a systemic business coaching approach. What does that mean? It means always considering the whole system. So, for example, if you were my coachee, I'd want to understand the organization you work in: your role there, the people you interact with, your relationships with them, and how all that shapes your situation.
Typically, my sessions are remote, simply because I coach on the side. I have a full-time job, but coaching is something I'm deeply passionate about, so I do it in addition. That also means I don't have a physical practice space. A session usually lasts between one and one and a half hours. Three sessions are a good starting point. Ten-session bundles bought up front, on the other hand, I find difficult: I've felt fully "coached out" by session seven or eight myself. How frequently we meet depends — let's say, how "urgently the shoe pinches." Often, it makes sense to start more frequently than just once a month, to keep the momentum up.
Anyone can come to me with a business-related concern — something that arises in a professional context.
When shouldn't someone come to me?
If you're looking for a mentor who gives concrete input or expertise on a specific topic, like "Anne, can you teach me how to build a great pitch deck?" — that's not really my area. Or, on the other end, if someone needs psychological counseling or therapy, that's also a completely different field — I don't have that qualification.
Typical topics I work on with clients include things like:
"I feel stuck. I don't know what direction to take." Sub-topics could be: "Should I quit my job?" or "What might be the right next role for me?" Or: should I develop further as a specialist, or stay a generalist in my team — maybe even take over as team lead? Should I take a break?
Other common themes are conflicts with a manager or colleagues, or noticing certain behavioral patterns at work — like self-doubt, perfectionism, or insecurity. Those are very typical coaching topics.
So what is coaching, actually?
There are many definitions — the term isn't protected — but the way I learned and understand it is: coaching is helping people help themselves — supporting someone in finding new perspectives and their own solutions.
So a good coach doesn't constantly push in input and suggestions. There are devices that allow exactly that, though — for example the "reality waiter," which I think is a wonderfully funny term. Say I'm coaching you, and something is on the tip of my tongue that I really want to give you, because I can see you're genuinely not getting there on your own. Then I offer it the way a waiter offers a tray with a Coke or a water: "Hey, how about this?" And you can take it — or say, "No thanks, waiter, I didn't order that." Then the waiter moves on to the next table with the Coke. You can do that occasionally, but not all the time, or the whole point of it is lost.
Why does it matter so much that you arrive at the perspectives yourself? Because that's what makes it sustainable. The solutions you find yourself are more authentic — and they're more likely to actually work in your context.
What makes a good coach?
Three things:
A safe space. That's the foundation.
Deep listening. Think about it — you might have great friends who listen and give advice, but how often does someone sit with you for an hour or more, listening fully, without saying things like "Oh yeah, that happened to me too…"? True listening is rare.
Not giving too much input. Some great coaches simply listen. We underestimate how powerful that can be — simply really listening, with full attention.
There's a difference between hearing and truly listening. When someone gives you their undivided attention, that alone can trigger big shifts. You should basically never hear your coach say "well, in my case…" — my coachee learns essentially nothing about Anne.
Then there's paraphrasing, or mirroring — rephrasing what the coachee said in the coach's own words. That can highlight contradictions or hidden insights. If someone talks for ten minutes straight, the coach might combine sentence three with sentence 21 — and perhaps those two statements were slightly at odds. Sometimes clients react like, "Wow, when you put it like that, I realize I just contradicted myself." Or they suddenly notice something important. Sometimes they even say, "You said it yourself," and I'll laugh — "Well, you actually said it!"
What can people practice on their own, outside of coaching?
Ideally I'd hand you three methods right away. One wonderful exercise I use in coaching is the "inner team" — if you're being coached at the moment, feel free to ask your coach about it. I find it applies to just about everyone and can shift something.
Independent of coaching, it comes down to simple things: notice when your energy goes up or down. When do you feel in flow — neither over- nor under-challenged?
And another powerful one: notice when you start to interpret or judge instead of simply observing.
For example: "My boss came in and asked what I was working on." If you just observe, what happens inside you?
Versus when you judge: "My boss came in, asked what I was doing — oh no, he must think I'm not doing a good job, that's why he's checking up on my work."
See the difference? That awareness alone can already change a lot.
You want to get in contact with Anne? Reach out to her via Linkedin.