# THE COACHING LEADER: Coaching Training for Business Owners > Neuroscience-based coaching training for business owners, managing directors and leaders by VANTISGO. Mentor: Dr. Frederik Hümmeke. Four in-person modules in Enschede, accompanied by an online learning phase, small-group calls and implementation support from VANTISGO coaches. Website: https://www.vantisgo.com/en/the-coaching-leader As of: 29 October 2026 ## In brief ### What is THE COACHING LEADER? THE COACHING LEADER is a coaching training for business owners, managing directors and leaders by VANTISGO. In four consecutive in-person modules (10.5 seminar days in total in Enschede), participants learn to understand people, initiate development and anchor change for the long term. An online learning phase with small-group calls, a learning academy and support from VANTISGO coaches makes sure the tools become second nature in everyday work. The training is led by Dr. Frederik Hümmeke. ### What is Deep O.C.E.A.N.? Deep O.C.E.A.N. is the personality model on which the training is built. It uses not only the five main dimensions of the Big Five model but the finer level of the ten aspects (Big Five Aspect Scales) according to DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson (2007): Openness (openness to experience, intellect), Conscientiousness (industriousness, orderliness), Extraversion (enthusiasm, assertiveness), Agreeableness (compassion, politeness) and Neuroticism (volatility, withdrawal). Unlike type assessments such as DISC or MBTI, Deep O.C.E.A.N. does not put people into boxes. It measures each trait on a continuous scale. The result is a differentiated profile instead of a label, so coaching and leadership can be tailored precisely to the individual. Source: DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C. & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880–896. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880 ### How is it different from a classic coaching training? Classic coaching trainings usually prepare you for a career as a coach. THE COACHING LEADER was originally developed specifically for business owners: all tools are built for everyday leadership and business, grounded in neuroscience and taught in a compact format. The goal is not a career change, but leadership that brings people to their own solutions and to real behavioural change. ## At a glance - **Provider:** VANTISGO GmbH - **Led by:** Dr. Frederik Hümmeke (philosopher, economist and neuroscientist, founder and Managing Director of VANTISGO) - **Target group:** Business owners, managing directors, leaders and people who develop others (including coaches and trainers) - **Format:** 4 consecutive in-person modules (10.5 seminar days in total) plus an online learning phase - **Language:** German. All modules, materials, the online learning academy and the small-group calls are in German. - **2027 cohort:** Module 1: 11–13 March 2027 · Module 2: 15–17 April 2027 · Module 3: 13–14 May 2027 · Module 4: 17–19 June 2027 (starts 17 June at 2 pm) - **Venue:** U Parkhotel, De Veldmaat 8, 7522 NM Enschede (Netherlands), on the campus of the University of Twente - **Group size:** a maximum of 25 participants, one cohort per year - **Investment:** on request in the free training consultation - **Qualification:** THE COACHING LEADER certificate - **Reviews:** 4.94 out of 5 stars from 374 reviews on ProvenExpert (as of October 2026), covering seminars, coaching sessions and trainings with Dr. Frederik Hümmeke - **Methodological basis:** Deep O.C.E.A.N. personality model (ten aspects of the Big Five according to DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, 2007); method from Dr. Frederik Hümmeke's doctoral dissertation - **Registration:** Free training consultation (30 minutes): https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/vantisgo/kennenlernen · Phone +49 2383 924399100 · kontakt@vantisgo.com ## What's included - 4 live modules at the U Parkhotel Enschede - Work with the Deep O.C.E.A.N. personality model - Learning phase with an online learning academy - Small-group calls and practice coaching sessions - Support from VANTISGO coaches - Invitation to the Alumni Leaders Day - Materials, pocket guides and worksheets - Catering on all seminar days - THE COACHING LEADER certificate ## Modules and content ### Module 01 · Understanding people Understand why people do what they do. - You learn how to ask yourself and others the right questions to get to the heart of the matter quickly. This is the first method for identifying problems and making decisions. - The neuroscientific basis of behaviour addresses the question of why people do what they do. - With Deep O.C.E.A.N., you get to know the most well-founded personality assessment, which helps you understand yourself and others in depth. - This allows you to apply change processes in an individual way, tailored to you and the person in front of you. ### Module 02 · Initiating development How change happens in the mind and how you trigger it deliberately. - You learn how to use a clear vision to create motivation in the minds of your employees and clients and to build sustainable, successful change processes. - We also look at goal-oriented stress management on a neuropsychological basis and give you a proven method you can use to reduce stress noticeably and immediately in any situation. ### Module 03 · Anchoring change So that change lasts: resolving blockages, building self-efficacy. - You get to know methods that help you and your future coachees resolve mental blockages and clear any hurdle. - We shed light on the science behind self-confidence and show you how to build genuine self-efficacy. - You learn how to increase the likelihood of success with mental techniques and the right growth mindset. ### Module 04 · Understanding social systems Moving teams and social systems. Even in a crisis. - You learn to understand our social systems, influence them sustainably and use them to your advantage. - With our unique narrative coaching approach, you learn how to condense your marketing message into a few concise sentences. - We also show you how to handle crisis management with confidence and respond competently and calmly even in extreme, critical coaching situations. - This gives you the tools to deal confidently even with setbacks and to use them as fertiliser for even more growth. ### Bonus · Implementation support From knowing to doing: support beyond the modules. - You receive exclusive access to our academy with learning impulses on all content. - You have the opportunity to take part in our small-group masterminds and deepen your newly acquired knowledge. You can also network with the other participants. Our trained VANTISGO coaches answer all your questions along the way. - We run practice coaching sessions so that, by the end of the training, you fully master the tools and methods and can apply them confidently in practice. - You are invited to our exclusive Alumni Leaders Day live event. - You receive all materials, pocket guides and step-by-step worksheets! ## The method: how change becomes a habit Five steps that help employees truly live something new. Basis: fully individual for every person through the Deep O.C.E.A.N. personality model. 1. **Find the real problem:** Many solutions fail because they address the wrong problem. You learn to uncover the actual cause together with your employee. And you make sure that they feel for themselves why something has to change now. 2. **Ignite the inner drive:** Everyone is wired differently. One person is driven by recognition, another by freedom, the next by security. Together you develop a vision that strikes exactly the right chord. One that makes them want to get started right away. 3. **Their solution, their plan:** Your employee develops the plan themselves; you ask the right questions. Because the solution comes from their own mind, it fits their everyday work. And they implement it with a completely different level of energy. 4. **Lead through hurdles:** Overwhelm blocks exactly the part of the brain we need for solving problems. You learn to help your employee regain clarity quickly in such moments. After that, they find their own way, and the problem stays with them. 5. **Stick with it until it becomes a habit:** You anchor the new behaviour in everyday work, spot early where things get stuck and make targeted adjustments. Until your employee no longer even thinks about it. ## Dr. Frederik Hümmeke Founder of VANTISGO, philosopher, economist and neuroscientist. He founded his first company at 17 and, at its peak, led 150 employees, until he realised that he himself was the limiting factor. A coaching changed that: he rebuilt his company, learned to lead systematically and founded VANTISGO. He combines scientific depth with more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience. The training is backed by a team of 16 experts in psychology, coaching and leadership development; VANTISGO has supported more than 1,000 clients and more than 10,000 training participants. - **Doctorate:** Dr. phil., Witten/Herdecke University (2017). Dissertation: „Dissipativ-Emergente Ökonomie: Entwurf eines komplexen Verhaltensmodells als Basis einer transaktionsorientierten, stabilen Nichtgleichgewichts-Ökonomie“ ("Dissipative-Emergent Economics: Outline of a Complex Behavioural Model as the Basis of a Transaction-Oriented, Stable Non-Equilibrium Economy"), funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. - **Studies:** Diplom-Ökonom (degree in economics), Witten/Herdecke University (2010) · Post-Graduate Certificate in NeuroLeadership, Middlesex University (2013) - **Press:** "He is considered one of the most sought-after business coaches in Europe." (translated from German) (Founders Magazin, 27 August 2024: https://founders-magazin.de/2024/08/27/leadership-ist-mehr-als-kicker-und-bier/) - **Award:** 100 Top Coaches & Berater 2024 (ERFOLG Magazin, issue 05/2024) ## What participants say - "I would wholeheartedly recommend this training to every business owner and every leader who wants more employees who develop and improve on their own initiative." (translated from German) (Stephan Heinrich, business owner · THE COACHING LEADER graduate) - "Frederik is the first person working in this field with whom I had the feeling that he also sees me as a human being." (translated from German) (Thomas Diehl, family business owner) - "For me, coaching is a protected space in which I really come into my strength and increase my effectiveness. Support like a satnav." (translated from German) (Daniela Hartmann Ege, business owner) - "Frederik knows how to connect the tools and theories, ground them and present them so engagingly that in the end you simply can't help but follow." (translated from German) (Insa Bäumker, education innovator) - "What I like: in a relatively short time and in a very compact format, content is taught that would normally take considerably longer and require more background." (translated from German) (Daniel Niewrzol, coach and consultant) ## Video testimonial transcripts ### THE COACHING LEADER trailer (participant voices) (translated from German) Well, it was already important to me before, and now it has become even more important, and I think it's actually part of mental hygiene. Who gets into their car today and drives without a satnav if they have one? In that sense, business coaching is a similar kind of support for me. What I really like about the Coaching Leader training is simply that, in a relatively short time and in a very compact format, information or content is taught that would normally need a lot more training time or background to piece together. And what fascinated me from the very beginning was, for one thing, the topic of neuroscience. I don't know anyone who has such well-founded knowledge and gets it across so charmingly and effectively. Frederik was the first person working in this field with whom I had the feeling that he also sees me as a person and not just as a client or customer; I had the feeling that he was emotionally interested in me. The support between the individual sessions, too, in short podcasts, in conversations with the colleagues who took part, is a really sensible didactic structure, and what comes out of it in the end is, to put it colloquially, a seriously big deal. Personally, it helped me enormously to know, okay, these methods exist for tackling the following points. The methods work like this and like that, and I have experienced it myself. But there isn't just one way, there is only your way, and he really supports you sustainably in finding your own way, because in my view that is the only one that is sustainable at the end of the day. All the things I learned have led to very big changes for me, and in that respect the original reason was to train further, and the result is that I have grown. ### Stephan Heinrich, business owner (translated from German) Companies are complex social structures with rituals, with convictions, with almost religious patterns of thought and belief. And we live in a world in which change is needed more often than perhaps 20, 50 or 100 years ago. That's why modern business development, modern business leadership has to deal with the fact that people change their beliefs, their thought patterns, their behaviours. And to do that genuinely and without resistance, you need a coaching approach. You need something that can't be achieved with leadership and key figures alone. I would recommend Frederik, as a coach or rather as a trainer for coaching situations, to every serious leader who wants to keep developing, who may so far have understood leadership more as giving orders. And who may therefore, in a certain way, have raised a larger number of people who depend on them for content. In other words, people who wait to have things explained to them. If such a leader is perhaps looking for a different path and thinking about how to tap into the thinking power of the many and get people to develop and improve on their own initiative, and to build coaching elements into their leadership work, then I can definitely recommend this training from the bottom of my heart. ### Thomas Diehl, family business owner (translated from German) Frederik was the first person working in this field with whom I had the feeling that he also sees me as a person and not just as a client or customer; I had the feeling that he was emotionally interested in me. And in the coaching situations, which of course took place within the set formal framework, you also interact differently at times, and what was special was that in these informal situations, at the dinners or at the events outside the coaching seminar and during the breaks, you could always approach him, you could always talk to him, and he also really took care of people. So if I gave him the feeling, okay, I'm not doing so well right now, he came straight up to me and asked, can I help you, are you doing okay. And what was special for me was also the time in between, that is, between the coaching seminars, that he simply kept getting in touch, proactively, and asked how I was doing. He is simply a companion along the way. ### Daniela Hartmann Ege, business owner (translated from German) Well, I'm truly firmly convinced of it, because I've been working in a complex world for many years, coming from software development. And in business we lived for a very long time with the narrative: there is one person at the top who does the thinking, and he has many helpers below him in a company, a hierarchical system. And then things will work out as long as you have enough rules, enough knowledge and steer everything as well as possible. And I think we can all feel that big changes are in the air. Digitalisation is a typical keyword. And today we are basically confronted with very complex systems that no single person can fully grasp any more. Where you depend on having a kind of sounding board, sparring partners you can exchange ideas with. And who also help you reflect, so to speak to look behind your own blind spot. And you simply can't do that alone. For me, coaching is a protected space and framework where you can look at yourself: how do I become effective, what helps me, what perhaps doesn't help me. So that I can find my way in this complex world. So simply a kind of navigation aid again. And honestly, who gets into their car today and drives without a satnav if they have one? I certainly wouldn't. In that sense, business coaching is a similar kind of support for me. One that has always helped me so far, no matter in which context, whether back then in the corporate world or today, to increase my effectiveness. ### Insa Bäumker, education innovator (translated from German) A great deal, it really makes a clear difference. I come from the education sector myself, have taken part in many seminars and trainings, and at the same time I know what it takes to build a good learning setting. And you definitely don't find many of those, but Frederik knows how to connect all the elements with all his tools and his theories, to ground them and to present them so engagingly that you really can't help but follow. And he doesn't just put a theory or thesis out there, he backs it up with all the foundations and examples, above all not only from theory, but from his own personal practical experience. You notice that in every single sentence. And getting it to the point so concretely, I have never seen or heard anyone do it that strongly. ### Daniel Niewrzol, coach and consultant (translated from German) What I really like about the Coaching Leader training is simply that, in a relatively short time and in a very compact format, information or content is taught that would normally need a lot more training time or background to piece together. And what Frederik is really good at is preparing different content from science, but also from entrepreneurial practice, in a way that is genuinely understandable even for laypeople. And the nice thing is that you even get concepts that are so well pre-structured and relatively easy to remember that you can apply them quite well in practice, and you don't have to, well, sometimes you have seminars where people just muddle along and you first do a whole lot of theory up front. And the problem in the end is that you know a lot of theory and can't really apply it. And what really sets this training apart is that from the very first module you move into practice very quickly, have your first experiences of success, get to know your first small tools, and build on these skills step by step by step, becoming more and more complex. And that gives you the opportunity to keep improving from the first module onwards and, through being introduced step by step to relatively complex structures and schemas, also through many exercises, many practical elements and a lot of feedback you can get from your fellow coachees and also from Frederik, to increasingly reach the point where you can say, okay, I feel confident with the methods and I can handle more complex cases with them too. ## Frequently asked questions **I don't want to become a coach. Is the training still right for me?** Yes. Coaching skills can be a targeted addition to your role as a business owner or leader. You learn to have more effective conversations and to develop people better. **I have a lot of leadership experience. What will I gain from it?** You add professional coaching methods, a deeper understanding of behaviour and targeted self-reflection to your experience. **Is coaching also suitable for difficult leadership situations?** Coaching can help identify causes and foster personal responsibility. Clear decisions, standards and consequences remain part of your leadership role. **How is the training structured?** The training is divided into four modules and complemented by an online learning phase and implementation support. You will find the dates and investment on this page. We will clarify all other questions in the training consultation. **What is included in THE COACHING LEADER coaching training?** Included are all four in-person modules, work with the Deep O.C.E.A.N. personality model, the online learning phase with the learning academy, small-group calls and practice coaching sessions, support from VANTISGO coaches, the invitation to the Alumni Leaders Day, all materials, catering on the seminar days and THE COACHING LEADER certificate. We discuss the investment with you personally in the free training consultation. **How does Deep O.C.E.A.N. differ from type tests such as DISC or MBTI?** Type tests assign people to one of a few categories. Deep O.C.E.A.N., by contrast, measures ten personality aspects, each on a continuous scale. It is based on the Big Five, the most thoroughly researched model in personality psychology, and their subdivision into ten aspects according to DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson (2007). The result is a differentiated profile instead of a type, which allows coaching and leadership to be tailored to the individual. **When and where do the modules take place?** 2027 cohort: Module 1 from 11 to 13 March 2027, Module 2 from 15 to 17 April 2027, Module 3 from 13 to 14 May 2027 and Module 4 from 17 to 19 June 2027 (starts 17 June at 2 pm). All modules take place at the U Parkhotel, De Veldmaat 8, 7522 NM Enschede, on the campus of the University of Twente near the German border. **In which language is the training held?** THE COACHING LEADER is held entirely in German. All modules, materials, the online learning academy and the small-group calls are in German, so you should be able to follow and take part in conversations in German comfortably. **How long does the training take and how much time should I plan for?** The in-person modules comprise 10.5 seminar days in total between March and June. Alongside them runs the online learning phase with learning impulses, small-group calls and practice coaching sessions, which you can fit flexibly into your everyday life. **How many participants are there?** The training takes place only once a year and is limited to 25 places. This leaves enough room for exercises, feedback and personal exchange. **Who leads the training?** The training is led by Dr. Frederik Hümmeke, philosopher, economist and neuroscientist as well as founder and Managing Director of VANTISGO. He received his doctorate from Witten/Herdecke University in 2017 and has worked in management consulting, coaching and leadership development for around 20 years. He is supported by the VANTISGO coaches. **Which coaching approach is the training based on?** The training combines the essence of many coaching schools on a neuroscientific basis. Its foundation is the Deep O.C.E.A.N. personality model, which builds on the Big Five model. Added to this is a five-step method that turns change into a habit: find the real problem, ignite the inner drive, develop a solution of your own, lead through hurdles and stick with it until it becomes a habit. **What qualification do I receive?** On completing the training, you receive THE COACHING LEADER certificate from VANTISGO. The exact scope and conditions are explained in the training consultation. **Is the training also suitable for coaches and trainers?** Yes. The training was originally developed for business owners, but thanks to its neuroscientific basis it is just as suitable for coaches and trainers who want to guide their clients to success faster and more sustainably. **What happens between the modules?** Between the modules runs the learning phase: you have access to the online learning academy with learning impulses on all content, practise on real cases in small-group calls and are supported by VANTISGO coaches. This is how knowing becomes being able, and being able becomes doing. **What if I can't attend a module?** The modules take place live on site. If you can't travel once, you can take part remotely from home or watch the recording. We still recommend being there in person, because you learn more intensively on site and can join the evening get-togethers. **Is catering included?** Yes, catering during the seminar days is fully included. You take care of a room with breakfast yourself. **Does it make sense to take part if I have a mental illness or trauma?** Mental health and stability are prerequisites for participation and learning success. A coaching training does not replace therapy or psychiatric treatment. If in doubt, please talk to your treating doctor or therapist. Exceptions are only possible in close consultation with them. Feel free to contact us directly about this. **How do I register?** Book a free, non-binding 30-minute training consultation via the calendar on this page, call us on +49 2383 924 399-100 or write to kontakt@vantisgo.com. In the consultation, we answer your questions and clarify whether the training is right for you. After that, we reserve one of the 25 places for you.