Research & Higher Education » Vienna · Austria · Europe
Congratulations on your tenure. Now what?
You reached your long-term goal. But instead of doing research, institutional politics and endless meetings eat away your time and colonise your attention.
I work with newly appointed professors and senior scientists who want to get research done, build productive teams and turn administrative responsibilities into opportunities for impact.
Coaching · Facilitation · Training
For the half of the job no one trained you for.
Coaching · Facilitation · Training
For the half of the job no one trained you for.
Congratulations on your tenure. Now what?
Coaching · Facilitation · Training » Higher Education
I work with newly appointed professors and senior scientists who want to get research done, build productive teams and turn administrative responsibilities into opportunities for impact.
I work with newly appointed professors and senior scientists who want to get research done, build productive teams and turn administrative responsibilities into opportunities for impact.
Your challenges
Do you recognise these situations?
Do you recognise these situations?
It's quicker to do it myself
You became a professor because you love doing research: generating data at the bench, in the field or at your workstation. It is what built your reputation. Now your impact depends on helping others do their best work. That transition can feel like a loss.
Now others do the work you used to love
You became a professor because you love doing research: generating data at the bench, in the field or at your workstation. It is what built your reputation. Now your impact depends on helping others do their best work. That transition can feel like a loss.
Your own priorities come last
Supervision, teaching, committee meetings, budgets and email fill the day. By evening, the paper or proposal you meant to work on has slipped to tomorrow again.
It doesn't feel like success
You worked fifteen years to get here only to find that your week is meetings, politics, administration, and difficult colleagues in a system with no clear chain of command.
Conversations you know you need to have
A postdoc has been underperforming for months. Two collaborators are no longer speaking openly. A PhD student needs clearer expectations than you’ve been giving. None of these conversations gets easier with time.
Urgency crowds out important work
Building relationships with partners matters, but rarely feels urgent. So it gets postponed until a grant deadline forces you to act. You may secure a nominal commitment, but that’s not a working relationship. Funders can tell the difference.
It's quicker to do it myself
You became a professor because you love doing research: generating data at the bench, in the field or at your workstation. It is what built your reputation. Now your impact depends on helping others do their best work. That transition can feel like a loss.
Now others do the work you used to love
You became a professor because you love doing research: generating data at the bench, in the field or at your workstation. It is what built your reputation. Now your impact depends on helping others do their best work. That transition can feel like a loss.
Your own priorities come last
Supervision, teaching, committee meetings, budgets and email fill the day. By evening, the paper or proposal you meant to work on has slipped to tomorrow again.
It doesn't feel like success
You worked fifteen years to get here only to find that your week is meetings, politics, administration, and difficult colleagues in a system with no clear chain of command.
Conversations you know you need to have
A postdoc has been underperforming for months. Two collaborators are no longer speaking openly. A PhD student needs clearer expectations than you’ve been giving. None of these conversations gets easier with time.
Urgency crowds out important work
Building relationships with partners matters, but rarely feels urgent. So it gets postponed until a grant deadline forces you to act. You may secure a nominal commitment, but that’s not a working relationship. Funders can tell the difference.
Services
How I help you succeed.
You're on the inside and I'm on the outside of your situation. You bring the knowledge of that situation and I provide the methods for us to work through it. Every engagement starts with the question that matters now. We begin with a meeting to understand the situation and agree how we work together.
A confidential, regular space to think through what you cannot easily discuss with your team, your colleagues or your boss. Clients come to me looking for levers of influence rather than putting out one fire at a time, wishing for a new perspective on a deadlocked professional relationship, or searching for grounding in an uncertain professional world. You leave each session with a clearer view and a concrete next step.
Coaching
A confidential, regular space to think through what you cannot easily discuss with your team, your colleagues or your boss. Clients come to me looking for levers of influence rather than putting out one fire at a time, wishing for a new perspective on a deadlocked professional relationship, or searching for grounding in an uncertain professional world. You leave each session with a clearer view and a concrete next step.
Coaching
Some problems cannot be solved alone at your desk. When your group needs to agree on direction, work through tension, or learn to function as a team rather than a collection of talented individuals, I run that process. You take part as a member, not as the person who also has to steer the room.
Facilitation
Some problems cannot be solved alone at your desk. When your group needs to agree on direction, work through tension, or learn to function as a team rather than a collection of talented individuals, I run that process. You take part as a member, not as the person who also has to steer the room.
Facilitation
The craft of leading researchers is learnable, even if it isn't widely taught: running a lab meeting with clear objectives, giving feedback that changes behaviour, chairing a committee, setting priorities and sticking to them. I deliver this as focused workshops, for your group or alongside peers facing the same transition.
Training
The craft of leading researchers is learnable, even if it isn't widely taught: running a lab meeting with clear objectives, giving feedback that changes behaviour, chairing a committee, setting priorities and sticking to them. I deliver this as focused workshops, for your group or alongside peers facing the same transition.
Training
A confidential, regular space to think through what you cannot easily discuss with your team, your colleagues or your boss. Clients come to me looking for levers of influence rather than putting out one fire at a time, wishing for a new perspective on a deadlocked professional relationship, or searching for grounding in an uncertain professional world. You leave each session with a clearer view and a concrete next step.
Coaching
The craft of leading researchers is learnable, even if it isn't widely taught: running a lab meeting with clear objectives, giving feedback that changes behaviour, chairing a committee, setting priorities and sticking to them. I deliver this as focused workshops, for your group or alongside peers facing the same transition.
Training
Some problems cannot be solved alone at your desk. When your group needs to agree on direction, work through tension, or learn to function as a team rather than a collection of talented individuals, I run that process. You take part as a member, not as the person who also has to steer the room.
Facilitation
About Dr. Raffael Himmelsbach
Hi, I'm Raffael and I'm looking forward to working with you.
I am an organisational development consultant and leadership coach with an independent practice. Most of my clients work in universities and research performing organisations.
My own path through academia has taken me from a PhD in comparative public policy at the University of Lausanne to research and leadership roles across the US, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Austria. Along the way, I studied how expertise shapes policy decisions, designed interventions around complex societal challenges, and built and led teams of researchers and research managers. That experience helps me understand both the ambitions of academic work and the institutional realities that can make it difficult.
I work in English and German – and, if French feels more natural, pourquoi pas?
I work in English and German – and, if French feels more natural, pourquoi pas?
Let's talk about what you're facing.
Tell me a little about where you work and what issues you face. I read every message myself.
Let's talk about what you're facing.
Tell me a little about where you work and what issues you face. I read every message myself.