The Empower! Masterclass.

The transformative leadership program for founders on their way to becoming great CEOs.

Start 15 November 2023

Apply now!

Being an entrepreneur is the best development program in the world.
If you don’t grow, your business won’t grow.

The Empower! Masterclass is an intensive leadership and coaching program that helps founders of fast-growing companies to step out of the day-to-day and create a high-performance team.

Over six months, you’ll join 9 other founders to learn how to get the most out of yourself and your team, create a strong culture of trust and accountability, and find pragmatic solutions to the tough leadership questions.

Next Start: 15 November 2023

Number of participants: Max. 10 founders

Registration is opened.
Sign up now to avoid missing out on this opportunity.

Apply now!

Do you recognize this?
4 signs that you need to transition from doer to leader.

You are exhausted.
The flow of the first startup period is over. Your work is becoming more and more exhausting, you are physically and mentally drained.

Understand what saps your energy, manage your own powers, and become a source of energy for your team.

You’re only putting out fires now.
Everything still depends on you. You are the bottleneck. This can’t go on. You finally want to work on the company again.

Hand over responsibility and empower your team. You can be sure: They want and can do much more than you think.

Orientation has been lost.
You can’t see the forest for the trees anymore. You’re getting bogged down in the day-to-day details and losing your effectiveness.

Become clear on what kind of leader you want to be and learn all the skills necessary to get there.

Your founding team is drifting apart.
There’s so much to do. You hardly see each other anymore. . Frustrations keep coming up that you never quite resolve. You feel alone.

Create a true high-performance leadership team, support and challenge each other. That’s your support team!

Apply now!

Testimonials

“The Empower! Masterclass is an excellent experience for me. The exchange with like-minded founders. To completely take one day a month out. Smartphone off, Slack off, focus on leadership. The content is also great. Good methodologies, directly applicable.

My team notices the difference: “Hey Alex, great that you give me such objective feedback, and hint on how I can improve.” Six months ago, that would have been unthinkable. It’s a complete gamechanger.

I wish I had tackled leadership earlier. When we were 20, 30 employees. That’s the perfect time for the Masterclass. But it’s never too late for this topic. On the contrary. Better late than never.”

Alexander Michel, Co-Founder & CEO Finanzguru

“My biggest learning: leadership is based on clear communication and trust. And it has a lot to do with self-leadership: Only if I am clear am I a good leader. If I’m stressed and in inner drama, I’m not.

This awareness in combination with everyday tools is super helpful and has changed a lot. Even in difficult situations, I now feel really comfortable in my leadership role.

I really appreciate that we meet once a month in a small, intimate circle. Together we get new input, reflect on what we’ve learned, apply it and make our own experiences. The sessions with successful founders like René Ruhland are incredibly inspiring.”

Felix Schlenther, CEO Zenloop

“We have a team of just under 20 employees. Before the Masterclass, I was trapped in the hamster wheel of micromanagement. It was clear: If we want to build something big and sustainable, we have to get out of it. Now.

My leadership has become much clearer and more reflective with the Masterclass, not so gut-driven anymore. I listen more, motivate with confidence, actively shape things instead of being driven. This benefits myself and also our employees, colleagues and customers, even my family.

If you want to develop your startup into a healthy, growing company, you definitely need the Empower! Masterclass.”

Roman Wienert, Co-Founder and MD of ambiHome

The Masterclass deepened my understanding of the importance of leadership and provided me with practical tools like the Drama Triangle and team onboarding.

My most important learning: Leadership is achievable and enjoyable for everyone: both for the leaders and the team.

I recommend the Masterclass to entrepreneurs with 20-100 employees looking to develop their leadership skills. It has profoundly changed my life and our company and will help you elevate your leadership skills to the next level as well.

Ralf Schmelter, Co-Founder and MD of ambiHome

In the Empower! Masterclass you learn and practice the mindset and toolset of leadership. A true milestone on the journey from founder to CEO.

From Founder to CEO

You want to scale your business, go from founder to CEO. But what does that mean? In the first session, you reflect on the leadership challenge of scaling. You explore the mindset and toolset of successful leaders. We take time to get to know each other and build trust – the foundation for every high-performance team. A key competency: active listening.

Handing over responsibility safely

Radical self-responsibility is the basis of good leadership. Only if we set an example will our team also take responsibility. Therefore, we start with the question: Where are we passive players in the drama – where are we creators? We learn to make our team take responsibility. With clear role profiles and an efficient instrument of responsibility transfer. Finally, we look at great 1:1 meetings.

Persuasive Communication

Leadership is communication. In all its facets. What makes communication convincing? How do I reach my team? How do I reach my investors? What are the right formats?  In the session 3 we talk the essentials of effective communication, difficult conversations, the power of good feedback. We’ll also take a look at what inner drivers hinder us in communicating at eye level..

People development without HR

Your job as a leader: challenge and coach people, bring them to the next level. In the 4th session, you’ll learn how to develop your colleagues without a big training program. We’ll start from the very beginning: recruiting and onboarding. We’ll discuss the power of personal development plans. And we will look at stress and energy management. How do we act when we’re on “battery low”? What gives us energy and what drains it? And how do we recharge ourselves effectively?

Create a High Performance Team

Lead your team, not just the individuals. You perform best when you don’t each work for yourselves, but when you see yourselves as a high-performance team. Embrace the development of your leadership teams as a process in itself, define structures and processes of collaboration that ensure you are pulling together for the long haul. This is the focus of the 5th session.

My Leadership Manifesto

This is my way. This is how I want to lead. In the last session, we look at our corporate culture: What constitutes a growth culture and how can we actively shape it? We bring together all of our learnings and develop our personal leadership manifesto. And then we celebrate the conclusion of our joint journey.

Accountability & Coaching Sessions

Plans without follow up are worth nothing. In between each two day-long workshops, we will meet virtually for an Accountability & Coaching Session (60 minutes During these meetings, we’ll review what’s working and what still needs clarification. You can bring leadership problems to these meetings and we’ll work together to find solutions.

Impuls Sessions

Learn from role models and understand the requirements of being a leader. How did other founders become CEOs, what did they struggle with, what development steps were particularly important for them?  And what do investors expect from you? Every month we will have at least one impulse session with inspiring startup leaders and investors. Impulse Speaker of the first Batch: Tim Schumacher / World Fund, Anna Ott / HV Capital, René Ruhland / Myposter, Philipp Engelhardt / Scaleon and Alexander Rausch / ex Chronext.

The Faculty

Hi, I’m Dorothea.

As a leadership coach, I accompany founders and founding teams on their journey from founder to CEO and help them learn and implement all necessary leadership skills.

I have been a successful CEO, COO and business leader in growth-oriented startups for over 20 years. Since founding Volate, I have worked with over 100 founders and 40 founder teams

The Empower! Masterclass
provides the perfect blend for you.

From practice for practice

The Volate Leadership approach has proven successful in many start-up coaching sessions. It combines insights into frameworks and leadership tools, intensive reflection, and the practical application of these instruments. Focused, goal-oriented and pragmatic.

Become a Growth Leader

Leadership is 90% mindset and only 10% toolset. In the Empower! Masterclass, you reflect on your personality and develop your authentic leadership style. Because every person leads differently.

You are not alone

We learn best from our mistakes, but we don’t have to make every mistake ourselves. In the exclusive peer group and learning partnerships, you discuss and solve your leadership challenges.

Practice makes perfect

Without implementation, even the best concepts are worthless. Together, we practice the concepts and tools and coach each other in implementation.  We are always at your side..

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And this is how the Empower! Masterclass operates

You and your peers

You will learn in a group of a maximum of 10 CEOs and founders of fast-growing companies who, like you, want to take their leadership skills to the next level and create the company of their dreams.

Through intensive exchange, you’ll grow together into your own Leadership Mastermind. A safe space for the difficult and vulnerable leadership issues.

Your team should have between 10 and 100 team members.

Intense collaboration

6 intensive working days. We meet in Munich or Berlin and work on one field of leadership at a time. With many discussions and space to practice.

5 Accountability & Coaching Sessions. Between the workshops we meet virtually for 1h each to discuss concrete problems together.

6 Impuls Sessions with founders who have already successfully walked the path and investors who will mirror their expectations to you.

Individual coaching can be booked as an option.

Learn with all senses

Every person learns differently. That’s why the joint work is supported by diverse learning formats.

In the book “Vom Gründer zum CEO” (sorry German only) you can read about the essential leadership tools.

In the workbooks you will find reflection exercises and many templates.

You can use the journal for your own thoughts.

A great investment

You invest about 2 days a month for 6 months. Sounds a lot, but de facto it’s not even 5% of your year, while the output of this time will multiply your team’s performance permanently.

€ 8.000 plus VAT.

Start your journey from founder to CEO now!
Take the next step now and register.

Register without obligation