Eike Westerholt
Global Leadership and Mental Fitness Coach
A Global Explorer, Eike Westerholt’s adventurous curiosity and an innate ability to forge cross-cultural connections has led her from Germany, to living and working across Asia for the past 20+ years. Living in Hong Kong, Japan and now Beijing, Eike has established a highly successful business as a dedicated leadership, team and personal coach, specializing in mental fitness and cross-cultural leadership.
Born and raised in Bochum, Germany, a multicultural industrial area in North Rhine – Westphalia, Eike’s adventurous spirit and intrinsic motivation was supported by her family who encouraged her learning and development. Her self-drive and talent for learning languages enabled her to be fluent in German, English, Italian, French and conversational Mandarin.
Eike joined the global MNC Siemens in their dual education program of vocational training and business administration and gained a degree in Business Administration at the end of the program. She excelled in corporate administration working in business, project management and controlling. An opportunity to move to Hong Kong for a year in 2003, gave Eike her first taste of global intercultural adventure within the corporate world and she loved it!
“Some people might be daunted with a move across the globe, but I took to living in Hong Kong as an opportunity for intercultural connection and immersed myself in the Asian culture,” she tells us.
A move to Japan for 3 years with her husband and young daughter, gave Eike the rare opportunity to take a break from the corporate world. She embraced the time to study the Japanese language and forged cultural connections with people from other nationalities.
This ability for cross-cultural connection as well as Eike’s spirit and sense of adventure led her to owning a bike tour company after she arrived in Beijing, China, with her family in 2014. In addition to meeting new people, it gave her the space to contemplate her next career move.
Eike could have easily launched herself back to a successful corporate role. Instead, she listened to her intuition and realized that her love of psychology and her natural ability for people development had given her the desire to help leaders find the best version of themselves. It was during her first professional coaching course (CPCC) that Eike realized she had found her true vocation!
“My own sense of adventure, together with my natural ability to connect with people, have been key motivators throughout my successful career. I realized it was a natural progression to utilize these abilities to help managers and leaders unlock their true potential for growth,” she adds.
Eike’s purpose driven training has led her to specialize in a particular area of interest: Mental Fitness coaching through the Positive Intelligence Programme. Following her training with CRR Global, an integrated coaching model based on Relationship Systems Intelligence: Organizational and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC), Eike also offers her expertise with team coaching. With a shift of focus away from the individual towards a team perspective, Systems coaching significantly helps to improve team dynamics.
Eike’s role as a faculty member and coaching trainer for JT Coaching Certification is one that she is particularly proud of. The transformation in people’s lives once they discover their own passion for coaching makes this a particularly rewarding part of her coaching career.
Eike’s mantra for success is: Explore, Encourage and Evolve, while her leadership coaching is ‘transformative’. She strives to empower leaders to gain higher performance in technology driven and innovative industries. Her strategy of co-creation and working together is a key driver of her success. Working to consciously raise her client’s awareness of existing behavioural patterns which may be hindering their full potential, Eike encourages the establishment of new
strategies to enable personal growth from within. This individualized approach allows change to be long lasting and sustainable.
Speaking about her global clientele, Eike says, “My clients are all committed, highly educated individuals who are keen to develop their full potential. Following our coaching, they go on to lead more fulfilled professional lives and enjoy a greater balance and harmony in their personal and family lives too.”
Eike’s future aim is to continue to grow her business on a global scale. Currently working across most Asian time zones, she would like to develop further into the US and Europe. She’s currently working with a global MNC on some exciting future global coaching programmes.
One of Eike’s strengths has always been the balance between personal and professional. “My family adapted to the challenges which my professional life brought, through mutual support and a strong foundation of routine. We take the time to explore and travel together whenever possible. I also enjoy hiking, biking, and enjoying quality time at home,” says the wonderfully inspiring Eike Westerholt.
