Business language courses and coaching at ConText®

Ever increasing numbers of international companies use foreign languages in everyday work, and Germany’s no exception – or you probably wouldn’t be reading this. The march of globalisation and increasing dominance of the European internal market brings you together with business associates, suppliers and customers that work in a different language and culture from yours – and you still need to negotiate with them.

Our language trainers and coaches at ConText® provide specific language courses for companies – both private lessons for managers and group training for groups of participants at around the same language skill level or requirement set, such as project teams or marketing departments that need to prepare for business alignment to a new parent company.

We at ConText® organise our language courses in individual course units. You give us your requirements on language, location, time period, and time frame, and we’ll put together an offer for a bespoke programme with the appropriate trainers – native speakers, of course – to ensure full satisfaction.

Coaching for managers

Need to prepare for a presentation in America or important contract negotiations in Asia, or discuss your company’s annual report with potential investors?

Our voice coaches provide help and support geared towards preparing you for your presentation, meeting or negotiation in a neutral, discreet environment.

Apart from language coaching, we also provide intercultural coaching for managers – e.g. in preparation for a posting abroad in cultures that you are not so very familiar with. We provide recommendations for everyday life behaviour – intercultural competence – as well as seminars and personal training in business activities such as presentation technique, successful negotiation, and conflict management.

Of course, our language and staff coaches are sworn to secrecy, and are fully versed in the attitudes and behaviour expected of them at managerial level.

Intercultural coaching

Even with all this globalisation, there are not only linguistic, but also cultural differences between different countries and continents that you need to be familiar with and respect – and this is also part of intercultural coaching.

Intercultural coaching as an individual consulting and training service entails management support from a professional coach – especially in intercultural communication – and a positive understanding of the foreign culture in a process of intercultural learning. The coach’s job is to sensitise you to cultural differences, and to support you in taking on different perspectives while promoting and extending your cultural skills in the international arena. Our aim is to empower you to recognise and act on potential disputes and issues more rapidly and effectively for an appropriate response, and to help you in honing your decision-making capabilities.

Major companies often have their own coaches who provide their coaching services in-house, sometimes within an international group or organisation. Smaller and medium-sized businesses tend to subcontract instead – at ConText®, for example – when they need to prepare for business or management assignments abroad. Coaching comes into the picture for language-related issues as well as culturally determined behaviours and business practices, especially where conflicts or misunderstandings might arise. Intercultural coaching may also help employees reintegrate after returning from long assignments abroad.