Why you should choose Tree Trunk Partners for your next business coaching workshop

Tree Trunk Partners was established six years ago in Switzerland. It’s about time we tell you a little more about the roots of our company, who the souls behind the operation are, and most crucially, what sets us apart from the rest.

The world of business coaching is a busy one; many companies offer similar products, workshops and training. It can be difficult to distinguish differences between organizations and to decide who is best suited to helping you. Here, we interview our managing partners Hartmut and David to highlight what makes Tree Trunk Partners distinct.

Where it started

Hartmut and David have known each other going on 30 years, having met at a multinational corporation in their early years of employment. Through varied and fast-paced careers, they stayed in touch. They each took their vast experience and respectively started their own consulting companies. For a long time, they would meet, discuss the strengths they brought to the table and ponder the idea of unifying their offerings to fill a gap in the world of consultancy. They initially tried hard not to work together, keeping their annual conversation as merely friendly discourse. At some point or another, they realized it really did make sense to merge all their best bits. Hence, Tree Trunk Partners was created. 

Their idea was born of the belief that self-reflection and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses is the first step to having successful interactions with others. This was a lesson they’d both learned over time in a variety of leadership roles. They believed they could create something unique in Switzerland, a self-development training of sorts. 

Alongside their independent coaching methods, they went on to learn about a tool that could support their efforts – Insights® Discovery. Tree Trunk Partners is proud to have been selected as the first, official distributor for Insights® in Switzerland.

The dynamic duo

Hartmut and David believe they’re a complimentary duo, the ideal mix for running a company that successfully helps individuals and teams realize their full potential. Having interviewed them for this article, it’s hard to disagree. The way they bounce off each other – in both personality, creativity, conversational style (to name but a few) – they really do exhibit the perfect balance.

Both are fluent in English and German, with Hartmut’s first language being German and David’s English. This allows them as a team to recognise and understand cultural differences and language nuances of all clients. Hartmut spots things David might miss and David pushes forward with ideas that Hartmut may initially be wary of.

Their preferred Insights colour energies reflect this complementary partnership too! Hartmut exhibits green as predominant energy and David yellow. As you can see, even their second, third and fourth colours are in different positions.

Hartmut considers his best strength to be his ability to put himself in other’s shoes; contemplating their perspective, logic and way of thinking. He notices all of this and mirrors it back to the individual. Naturally, he draws on these skills when leading the majority of Tree Trunk Partner’s one-to-one sessions. 

David is proud of his creativity, with years of channeling his imagination into successful ideas (acknowledging that some do need filtering first…). His sunshine yellow leaning means he thrives in group settings and thoroughly enjoys sharing that enthusiasm in team workshops. 

Whilst they predominantly work remotely, they regularly meet at Tree Trunk Partners’ physical premises in Zug, Switzerland.

What sets Tree Trunk Partners apart

Many of our peers in the coaching and training space have teams from a variety of consultancy and psychology backgrounds. Both provide valuable groundwork for what we do. What sets Tree Trunk Partners apart is that Hartmut and David both have real experience, on the ground, from over 25 years each in leadership roles. Their specialty areas were HR and operations, giving them the ability to understand teams from a range of perspectives. This is in addition to a thorough educational background in systemic, solution-focused coaching and team coaching.

When they first met during their time in a prominent multinational company, their roles overlapped and they had intensive periods of working together. Understandably, this included disagreements, conflict management and learning a lot about each other’s working styles. They have a wealth of practical experience in high-stake roles in known organizations. Their leadership backgrounds have revolved around conversations about how different people interact in the workplace, how to resolve disputes and how to improve team dynamics. All of these factors contribute to their extensive skill sets for business coaching and team development. 

Hartmut and David have a natural curiosity relating to how people think, act and most importantly, how individuals’ differences can be optimized for teamwork on a professional level.

As the first, and largest, official distributor of Insights Discovery in Switzerland, Tree Trunk Partners has spent over a decade helping individuals and teams understand and value their unique styles, and implement strategies for realizing their full potential.