For more than 20 years, internationally renowned executive coach and consultant Herma Schmitz has changed lives with high-level people from varied backgrounds, management teams, governments, and communities. She has given presentations on the effects of executive coaching and ECG‘s methodology at corporate conferences all around the world, as well as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and LaGuardia College.

She is recognized as a passionate and engaging speaker who has successfully supported numerous events. She has been given the opportunity to lecture both in the United States and in Europe, notably before the American Association of Orthodox Jews, the European Roundtable, and the German American Chamber, to mention a few.

Her heartfelt dedication to her clients has led to the accomplishment of ground-breaking projects, leadership development, and cultural transformation. Community leaders, management teams, cross-functional teams at major corporations, and representatives of foreign government offices have all benefited from her transformational leadership workshops.

In addition to the United States, Herma has worked with groups in South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Eastern Europe. She has an unusual capacity with Artificial and Social Intelligence to quickly comprehend the business challenges of diverse industries because of her extensive professional experience working with multinational corporations. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Marsh, Duff & Phelps, NYCHHC, Bellevue Hospital, Hackensack Medical Center, Atlantic Health Center, Royal Bank of Canada, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, Colgate, Warner Music Group, and numerous other companies were among the executives and executive teams she worked with.

Herma had successful careers in international shipping and commercial real estate prior to joining Executive Coaching Group as a principal. She started her consulting and executing coaching business by affiliating with the worldwide consulting firm LEBD. She was the first woman to hold an executive position in the global shipping sector. She received the Broker of the Year award during her time in the commercial real estate industry.

German-born and educated Herma holds an MBA in International Trade and Shipping. She participates actively in New York’s foreign community and belongs to both the American Chamber of commerce and the German American Chamber.

She devotes her free time to delivering public seminars on subjects like leadership, excellence, integrity, and breakthrough performance. She has served on the boards of Youth at Risk, Aging in America, and the Germanistic Society.

Life Before Starting a Professional Career

Herma came to the US/New York with an MBA in International Trade and Shipping and started her career with a global logistics company overseeing their import clients. Shortly after her arrival, she received a call from the CEO in Zurich telling her that the largest import client complained about her being arrogant and insensitive. He said: “We can’t have that, and you need to take care of yourself, or else you have no future here.”  Herma then overheard a conversation her sales manager was having, which was quite interesting. She recalls, “I asked him what he was talking about, and he was more than willing to share that he had just done a coaching intensive called the Landmark Forum, and he suggested I do it. I did, and it blew my mind. Not only did I come face to face with my arrogance, but I also discovered that I was not insensitive, I was outright nasty.”

Those ways of being became her armor to survive in the shipping business, where she always was the only woman. Herma immersed herself for years in this unique methodology, and it resulted in her realizing three things: “I am the opposite of risk-averse; I am socially intelligent, and I know how to make money.” She quit her job and joined the commercial real estate community in Manhattan as a woman and an immigrant specializing in Fortune 500 Western European companies. She practiced real estate very successfully, representing major international companies.

Simultaneously, Herma continued her development with Landmark. She grew to be a global leader and left her real estate practice to create a coaching and consulting business.

Motivation Behind Becoming an Executive Coach

Herma decided she wanted to make a difference with others after experiencing the profound effect coaching had on her life and her career. She started running programs across South Africa, the US, and Europe. After seven years of largely European travel, she partnered with Trisha Scudder, a long-time friend, at Executive Coaching Group. The team quickly advanced the business, coaching top executives one-on-one and leading group sessions on leadership development, executive alignment, shifting cultures, and developing game-changing initiatives. Herma engaged in volunteer work in Upstate New York, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and, to cap it all off, a transformational leadership program for Romania and post-communist Eastern Europe.

Executive Coaching Group, Inc

Founded in New York in 1987, ECG Inc. has delivered discreet, practical coaching to thousands of individuals and teams.  As Herma states, “Your ECG coach will see things you and your teams don’t see blind spots, self-limiting strategies, and faulty assumptions.” In her opinion, incredible breakthroughs are possible by working 1-on-1 with America’s top leadership and executive coaches. The Executive Coaching Group provides transformational consulting for the C-Suite, other leadership bodies, and Board of Directors, in addition to one-on-one coaching for middle and top management. According to Herma, Mission Control, a revolutionary time management and existence system that causes a paradigm shift in one’s relationship to time, it is particularly effective with young, ambitious professionals, according to Herma.

ECG offers immediately applicable, transformational coaching for executives and managers seeking to accelerate their own performance, as well as their organization.

“From our first session, my ECG Coach shifted and lifted the way I look at leadership … This discovery is life changing.” Herma M. Schmitz

The work of the organization focuses on transformation. According to Herma, transformation is the capacity to create an empowering context in any situation. One’s perspective on oneself, management, other people and leave you empowered in the current circumstances and with new actions to take. It enables performance that is unparalleled.

As a master coach, Herma is committed to resolving conflicts that seem unresolvable. Her responsibilities at Executive Coaching Group include overseeing its marketing, working with its most senior executives, and mentoring less experienced coaches. Her commitment for the future is to create an extraordinary consulting and coaching company for generations to come.

A Visionary and Transformative Person

This special approach, Ontology, has influenced Herma’s entire life, starting with her own coaching intensive. She is married, leading a romantic, adventurous, and impactful life, pursuing numerous occupations, being an enthusiastic skier and sailor, and enjoying the life she loves.

She advises aspiring leaders to start declaring the future and making bold commitments that will put them and the populace to the test. She says, “It’s not about you, it’s all about the people. Be an inspiring leader and empower your people.” She also feels that when people are empowered, they will grow and perform beyond their and others’ expectations.

Recognition Received as a Professional

Working with a senior partner at a global law firm who went from not getting along with anyone to cooperating with other lawyers and generating millions of dollars in additional revenue left Herma inspired. Doing work with miners in South Africa who discovered that they are not victims of the circumstances and started taking on their community. She gets reaffirmed in her resolve, “When our clients send testimonials about transforming their relationship with the CEO, or how they empower their direct reports and resolve difficult situations.”

It leaves Herma being acknowledged, when a woman lawyer who for years got a negative report because of her behavior is promoted and now reports directly to the executive committee in charge of a global project. She adds that she considers it an achievement when an executive proposed a reorganization for a division that could have eliminated his job and instead, he was promoted.

Another inspiring moment for Herma was when the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bucharest said that she is the only person who can create a new future for Romania, which she and the Executive Coaching Group did.

Achieving New Millstones

Executive Coaching Group, according to Herma, is dedicated to making a difference with major organizations around the world while also causing a small organization for future generations. She says, “We believe for all people to live peacefully together, it requires transformational leadership on all levels.”

Executive Coaching Group’s results and those of its clients are a function of the company’s unique and effective intellectual property. The team brings distinctions in language to situations that seem difficult, if not impossible, to transform. The company’s intellectual property has allowed its clients to grow and develop in ways that they never imagined. Herma states that the clients become agile and inspiring leaders and managers.

Clients Views

“I wish everyone could get an opportunity to work with ECG: through her structured program, she enabled me to visualize my future by first de-coupling from the past, and then by capturing a world of possibility in a concrete yet limitless state of mind. By embracing the process, I felt empowered to realize my potential, not only as a businessperson, but as a human being of the highest integrity.”– E. W., Venture Capitalist & Entrepreneur

“A banker, a priest, an entrepreneur, a social worker, a pop music singer, a student, all in the same room, in the same conversation. Committed to making a difference to the country they live in: Romania.” Anca Harasim – Executive Director – AmCham Romania

Website: www.executivecoachgroup.com