A sounding board for entrepreneurs, board members and people in leadership

Impact begins
with knowing why.

I have great respect for anyone who steps into leadership today. I am here for the questions their calendars otherwise leave no room for.

Sebastian Morgner · Diessen am Ammersee, Germany

Portrait of Sebastian Morgner, sounding board for strategy and leadership, at Lake Ammersee

What drives me

People who lead sometimes sleep badly.
Often for the wrong reasons.

Leaders expose themselves, take risks and carry responsibility for others — at a time when certainties have a short half-life.

Three decades in leadership roles taught me what keeps a person awake at night. Fifteen years as a sounding board for founders, board members and senior executives taught me what it takes to turn effort into effect. And I have learned that whatever costs you your sleep is rarely the actual problem. What is usually missing is clarity, purpose or structure.

Leadership, to me, is never an end in itself. It is responsibility in practice — for the people you work with, for the growth of an organization, for society, and for the world we leave to those who come after us. In an age that has often lost its sense of proportion.

Purpose and structure

Both or neither.

Purpose means a story about the future that connects you to something larger than yourself. A clear, distinctive position on what you want to stand for. That is where motivation, persuasive force and the strength to absorb setbacks come from.

Structure means knowing your own levers, spending your scarcest resource deliberately, and running an operating system that keeps people in sync — so that goals worth pursuing turn into disciplined execution.

One without the other gives you either unfulfilled intentions or well-organized busywork. And the more work machines take over — analyses, drafts, summaries — the more leadership comes down to what no machine delivers: judgment and direction.

Wide view across Lake Ammersee to the Alps on the horizon — On an expedition, the rule is this: when the going gets hard, the right response is not to move faster. It is time to stop — for a situation report and a look from above.

The offering

Strategy coaching at Lake Ammersee

For entrepreneurs, managing directors and executives who have reached the point where more speed no longer helps. We clarify what you stand for, which decisions are due, which levers truly count — and what your leadership system has to become.

It is my favorite format. The path begins with confidential preliminary conversations, leads to a one-on-one workshop at Lake Ammersee, and continues in quarterly reviews. Some clients need a single round; others I accompany for longer.

How the strategy coaching works in detail →

The first step

Let's talk about your biggest challenge.

No sales pitch and no needs assessment — we go straight to the core. And if I don't have the sense that I can help you substantially, I'll say so. That is part of the work too.

Book an introductory call s.morgner@leadership-munich.org

His questions go straight to the root of any challenge.

David Neuhaus · Founder, SocialHub

How I work

A day when no one can reach you.

Who ever takes a whole day to think about their own effectiveness? Yet that is exactly what a busy mind needs: one uninterrupted block to process what has piled up over months. Nobody makes an important personal decision between two meetings.

That is what I offer: protected spaces in which connections become visible, your own drive comes into focus, goals emerge that are worth the work, and your levers grow sharp.

My job is not to tell you what to do. It is to order your thinking so that decisions stand at the end — and that they are yours. From many years of working with decision makers, I know where clarity breaks down and what it takes for insight to become commitment. The content comes from you. The tools and the observations come from me.

Strategy coaching always centers on one leader and their effectiveness. If it turns out that a major challenge lies in how your leadership team aligns and communicates, we bring the team in as one of the levers. A leadership group that agrees on direction and knows who decides what works shoulder to shoulder — instead of each person on their own.

What changes afterward is rarely spectacular and yet almost always noticeable. You know where you stand with yourself again. You see the effect you have on others. You set clear priorities. You stop pouring energy into things that move nothing. Leading gets easier — and often becomes a pleasure again.

When it is worth it

Seven occasions

In these situations, the journey to Lake Ammersee pays off. And if you bring your biggest challenge with you, all the more so.

You are successful by any measure — but it doesn't feel that way.
Your mind never settles, because work is always on it.
You are preparing for a new and larger role.
You are planning a transformation that goes beyond day-to-day business.
You want to bring structure to your daily leadership chaos.
You want to lead in keeping with your own values.
You have a strategy — and can't get it into execution.

Where you stand

Free · no sign-up

Leadership Quick Check

Twelve statements, about three minutes. You will see at once in which of four areas coaching can make the greatest difference for you — your answers are not stored. Please rate each statement as honestly as you can.

Start the check

Client voices

For us as a management board, Sebastian Morgner is like a highly competent, benevolent friend who accompanies us through our transformation. Working with him helps us combine our strengths as a team, set the right priorities and maximize our impact as a top management team.

Andreas Ronken · former CEO, Ritter Sport

Eighteen months in which I learned a great deal. We took OKR to a new level, developed the strategic roadmap, drafted the guiding principles — and had many fascinating discussions during the offsites.

Jan Semmerling · Co-Owner, Diamant Software

A perfect mix of structure and inspiration. We identified new possibilities and now have a clear plan for embedding AI systematically and putting it to work.

Frank Sattler · Founder and CEO, Techpilot

About me

Briefly, who I am.

I grew up in the Black Forest, studied in Mannheim and Budapest, and then spent fifteen years in the financial industry — first building Germany's first digital investment account, later as Global Head of Marketing for UniCredit in Milan. In 2011 I walked away without knowing what would come next. I spent two months in a convent, read a hundred books and completed several trainings. I have been an entrepreneur ever since.

I live with my wife Celia, our three daughters and our dog Fritz in Diessen am Ammersee. Our eldest, Mara, has Down syndrome. Few people have changed the way I see life as profoundly as she has.

I volunteer to help young people find their mission. In my free time I write literary prose, I like being outdoors and in motion, and I'm fond of a fire under a starry sky. And deep down I'm someone who enjoys doing nothing at all — when the inner taskmaster allows it.