References, Coaching

Hildegunn Lyngfjell, Head of Development, Føtex

‘Vibeke Heckmann has been my coach for approx. 10 years, and she has been by my side through thick and thin. She has played a significant part in my life, and she has been a great support as well as a mentor and guide, enabling me to find my way and achieve my set goals, in terms of career and management as well as on a personal level. She is able to see the whole human being and one’s development path as one great big picture – and if there is an imbalance somewhere along the way, you won’t be able to perform at 100% somewhere else – and this has helped me get rid of the obstacles that block my career and my development.

To me, coaching means time for reflection, time to take stock and set new goals. Vibeke Heckmann creates the space needed, which enables me to see my challenges from a new perspective, which affords me new energy and a desire to continue my development – personally and humanly as well as in relation to my career and management position.

Vibeke Heckmann is a greatly experienced coach, and she is highly professional. She only works with people whom she believes she can move forward … We’re all continually developing – and Vibeke Heckmann is my “fixture” along this path.’

Henriette Jensen, Manager, Customer Care & BPO Operations, Bluegarden A/S

”Over the past five years I’ve had the pleasure of using Vibeke Heckmann as a personal coach and management consultant. Vibeke is great at giving feedback and coaching on actual and concrete issues as well as in relation to long-term career development and personal goals.

She has challenged my plans and goals through frank and constructive dialogue, and helped me to concretize ambitious professional and personal goals. Vibeke is focused and very committed, she always starts at the given situation I’m in, and contributes with energy and guidance to help me chase my goals.

Vibebe has my full confidence and utmost respect, and I’ve gained and learned a lot over the years of our collaboration.

If you need a push in the right career direction, I would definitely recommend Vibeke Heckmann as your sparring partner.”

Claus Pakmor, Senior Vice President, Controlling & Accounting, MAN Diesel & Turbo

‘Vibeke Heckmann has been both coach and consultant for our Controlling & Accounting department over the last 5 years. She has helped develop our strategy and she was an excellent sparring partner during its implementation into our 3 main focus areas: Clients & Service, Working Culture and Management.

She has coached both me and my employees in connection with management assignments, and in addition, she has been acting as trouble-shooter and mentor in terms of improving our working culture in several departments as well as across different departments. She is always incredibly well prepared and an excellent facilitator of workshops.

Vibeke is a great listener and she always asks the right questions. She helps find solutions while simultaneously developing and following up on specific plans of action. She knows an awful lot about how people collaborate and communicate, and she knows how to improve their skills in both areas. She also exudes excellent social competences, adding credibility to her advice and recommendations. As far as I am concerned, it is very much to her credit that collaborations across departments and among the employees in my area have developed in a very positive manner.

Personally, I value her positive appearance and great humour – she always knows the right thing to say and which stories to tell. I appreciate her direct, open and constructive face-to-face communication, which has improved my own performance and strengthened my managerial skills.

I recommend Vibeke Heckmann as both coach and consultant to anyone in need of hearty, professional and committed help.’

Marlene Ramsing Gudman, former HR Business Partner with NNIT

‘I can warmly recommend Vibeke Heckmann as both coach and business sparring partner. She knows how to combine business with more personal aspects – which is a win-win situation for companies and individuals alike. She’s there when needed and she has much life experience to share. She’s full of ideas and highly capable of thinking “out of the box”, so to speak. She’s a very warm and lovely person, whom I gladly recommend.’

Anne Rasmussen, former HR Director at Vin & Sprit

‘It always makes a positive difference when you meet someone who’s able to angle solutions in ways that make them both new and unconventional while also remaining tenable and sensible. And you cannot help but be impressed and drawn in when these qualities are combined with awareness. This is what it’s like working with heckmann. For a number of years now, I’ve had the pleasure of being inspired by heckmann’s competences and their holistic way of thinking.’

Eva Thulesen Dahl, HR-Manager Nordic Region, Invacare A/S

‘I have worked with Vibeke more than 15 years in different jobs and with different projects.
Working with Vibeke is always positive and beneficial for the organization. She does not have any mandatory concept she has to follow, and therefore my experience is that her starting point is the customer and let things develop from there.

Vibeke is very honest and tells you when things are not good enough or you are not performing at your best level. She is very business oriented but never compromise her integrity.  Therefore, you will always get an honest feedback from Vibeke that will support you and the organization over time.

Vibeke always follow the work to the end, and is very good to give reminders and cover for my/the customer’s weak areas. Vibeke follow the project to the end, and will not leave you/the organization before implementation is finalized and the outcome is in line with the target.’

Peter Lykke Thomsen, CEO at Max Fodgaard A/S

‘I’ve had the pleasure of working with heckmann aps and Vibeke Heckmann for a number of years now.

Vibeke is able to quickly gain an understanding of relevant problems. She’s capable of solving assignments in the best possible manner, and both the company and the people involved experience the outcome as very positive.

Vibeke is constructive and she has the determining focus and willpower to make a difference.

All assignments are solved with positive energy, with a wealth of ideas and new ways of thinking as well as with the ability to challenge and coach. Her focus on solving a given assignment combined with her wish to contribute to further development is a core and genuine characteristic in Vibeke’s work.

Which is why I believe that the assignments that Vibeke takes on will also be solved, and what is equally important; they will be implemented.

When we need to recruit applicants for central positions, we collaborate with heckmann aps, benefitting from Vibeke’s insight into our company. This secures the important match between company and candidate.

I give heckmann my recommendations and am happy to elaborate further.’

Lars Peter Olsen, Vice President, Production Copenhagen, MAN Diesel & Turbo

‘Since 2014 we have used Vibeke Heckmanns’ consulting services for various HR related tasks. The assignments have been very varied including management support related to organizational changes, HR development, coaching, leadership, training, and recruiting.

I have come to know Vibeke as a person with a great presence, ability and skill for manoeuvring on all organizational levels – from the C-suite to blue-collars. She has an eminent ability to take the stage when needed and to participate as an observer when that is more suitable for the process. Always a source for new inspiration and ways to improve leadership, she masters to challenge the existing and makes sure things stay on track.

From the differing assignments Vibeke carried out while working with us, she has displayed a fully equipped HR toolbox. But what truly distinguishes Vibeke from most other consultants is her practical oriented approach to HR. She knows how to make HR work in practice at a level only few others master, while still applying the more methodical aspect of HR.

I hereby recommend Vibeke Heckmann to anyone seeking a consultant who uses both heart and brains when solving assignments, and transforming organizations.’

Per Storm, former Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Bluegarden A/S (formerly Multidata A/S)

‘I’ve known Vibeke Heckmann since 2006, when I became acquainted with her in connection with a job application. Then she became my coach for the next four years, and I continue to use Vibeke as my sparring partner in relation to my own career, but I’ve also used her in connection with Bluegarden (formerly Multidata), my management team and my sales team.

Coach
Vibeke has a very strong personality, exhuming positivity and joy yet she also pulls you out of your comfort zone, which allows you to develop. Vibeke is a very powerful coach and sparring partner both in terms of personal development and the situation you find yourself in. On a personal level, Vibeke’s coaching has been crucial to my personal development and my leadership abilities. Vibeke has been trusting and confident in me; she has shown me new paths, the value of stamina and willpower as well as usable tools. She has been inspirational and she has introduced to her extensive network, where I’ve met people who have been through many of the same things as I have.
 
Business
Vibeke has a wonderful ability to combine individual development with furthering business. Vibeke knows how to make something delectable and intimate while keeping it simple and easy, even in the face of the long haul that is personal development.

Concretely, I’ve used Vibeke for individual coaching session with the five team-leaders in my management team with the aim of freeing up 40% of the time spent on management, which can then be spent on business development instead. And we did just that. Today, I have a management team that have progressed from being merely leaders who spent their time focusing on details and control to becoming leaders who delegate, who are able to work from a helicopter perspective and talk shop at the same time. This development is of huge benefit to the company, and not only today but also in the future.

I also used Vibeke as coach for my Key Account Managers and Heads of Sales in 2014 and 2015, with the aim of reaching our sales targets. An individual approach to professionalise the team members, ensuring that meetings are properly prepared, effectively executed and then followed up. The work included collective meetings with our customers to determine how they experienced their meetings with Bluegarden and what could be improved upon. And once again, it was a very positive experience for employees and customers alike.

The Customer at the Centre
We have also conducted a number of meetings where Vibeke focused on the customer, where my team leaders and I have meetings with customers to get their input for “our“ 40% development plan. This has already made a huge difference in how we see our business and the approach we need to take, i.e. that everything we do has to make sense to our customers. The goal is for management colleagues throughout the organisation to meet customers in the company of my team leaders, who will then bring that part of the organisation into closer contact with customers whom they otherwise never get to meet.

Vibeke has provided the framework for this journey and her personal clout, experience and ability to listen and turn everything into something positive as well as her numerous and creative ideas makes this a prioritized project that everybody looks forward to.

I can but give Vibeke Heckmann my warmest recommendations.’

Mads V. Olesen, CEO at STRÖMMA Denmark A/S

‘On request, I hereby submit my recommendation of heckmann aps, provider of varying consultancy assignments.

During latter years, I have used heckmann aps in relation to recruitment, personal coaching and as facilitator in connection with a larger organisational process of change.

I would particularly like to highlight the help I received in connection with a big project where I, in a former position, had to secure the complete turn-around of an entire organisation’s culture. The project ran for approx. one year and the change to the way employee came to view customers as well as cross-organisational collaborations were shockingly positive, to put it mildly. Thus a negative downward spiral with dwindling trade and profits were turned into greatly increased trade (periodically double-up) and a positive bottom line. The fact that the personal involvement and wellbeing of employees also improved greatly, speaks for itself.

I am of the opinion that heckmann aps made a very positive difference, not least by way of the consultants’ professional approach. Their understanding of each individual employee and their direct responses to wrong behaviour helped the process of change immensely.

What characterises all the assignments is the unusually vivid engagement that we have been met with through all our challenges.

heckmann aps have always delivered and I can warmly recommend their services when action is needed. I am happy to elaborate on my recommendations if needed.’

Carsten Reves, former Area Director at Nordea Bank Denmark A/S, Roskilde/Frederikssund

‘For many years now, we have collaborated with Vibeke Heckmann and her consultancy company heckmann aps.

We have used heckmann for organisational development, sparring, personal coaching (for myself and my leaders), and we have attended many inspiring events and workshops.

heckmann balances brain, hart and hands incredibly well. Collaborations are always both serious and light.

Vibeke is incredibly sharp, yet she also manages to maintain her focus on good working environments, called wellbeing in heckmann-lingo. Wellbeing generates profits for employees, customers and leaders. And profits include both monetary and human benefits.

Finally, it is important for heckmann to put action to words. If we come up with an idea, we must make something happen.

I give the consultancy company heckmann my best recommendations.’

Mogens E. Pedersen, former Head of Personnel at Sterling European Ltd.

‘Trust, attention and empathy towards the individual as well as professional, informal and innovative in relation to the company. These are natural key words when you choose to collaborate with heckmann on replacement assignments.

When you have to let employees go, it feels really good to be able to help those concerned to move on with their lives, and to me it was very important to find someone with whom we could collaborate, whose attitude and basic values in terms of human beings and life in general ensure that fired employees re-establish their sense of self as well as renewed faith in their abilities.

For years now, I’ve had the pleasure of working with heckmann through different networks, but I have also personally experienced the positive effect of a replacement process, sustained by competent and humane consultants.’

Anonymous employee

‘I’ve bee through a replacement process with heckmann, which was both very positive and educational. I was met with great support and understanding. Having worked in one company for many years, many things had changed in relation to writing applications for example, and heckmann were able to help me define my competences and structure my CV in order to write applications anew.’