Leadership in transition: Why good bosses get coached

With 139 employees, 14 managers and between ten and 15 trainees per year, Laura and Lionel Ferber have their hands full running Ferber hair&style, as the family business, founded in 1928, never stands still. As the owners of the company, the siblings not only have to take care of strategic planning, financial management and customer satisfaction, but above all their staff, without whom the business would not run. New hairdressers are trained every year, but learning is not only on the programme at the lower rungs of the career ladder – everyone receives further training, even at management level.

"We were born in curlers, but had no practical experience after university, plus we are like yin and yang and very different in character, " says Lionel Ferber, who experienced the generational change in the company as a challenge. The transition phase lasted nine years. A key element for the final success was the company's mindset, namely that people are constantly learning. "We took part in many programmes and received coaching, which was a great help for us and our teams, " says Laura Ferber.

Cooperation at all levels

One important contact person, that has helped the siblings from the beginning, is Anabela Dias, Ferber's Director and Support Manager, who has been with the company for over 35 years. "My career path is relatively atypical, as I actually trained as a hairdresser, but worked in sales for the first 24 years and am now here thanks to a lot of internal training and external coaching." Self-confidence, respect, effectiveness, but above all empathy and an open ear – Dias had to acquire all of these skills in order to be able to coach others herself. She has always been interested in people, but in the coaching sessions she learnt to trust her own abilities and to pass this on to others: "I was fascinated by how coaches speak with such ease and manage to get everyone to listen to them and join in. I wanted that too."

You have to learn to be credible and give your people the tools they need to find solutions themselves, because most of the answers are already there. Coaching is therefore provided both internally and by external consultants at Ferber. In 2023, the company took part in the "Fit4Service" programme run by the Ministry of Economic Affairs together with Luxinnovation in order to receive an external evaluation. "We try to take advantage of such advisory services every two or three years, but we also carry out internal evaluations with our managers every semester and they do the same with their teams, " explains Lionel Ferber.