Training and seminars
Management training
Managing in Switzerland means leading teams of several nationalities, working languages and employment statuses. Our programmes start from there, and from the search for consensus that governs Swiss decisions.
6 courses
The manager-leader toolkit
The firm's core programme. Three days to stop settling everything case by case and to have tools that hold: set a frame, correct without humiliating, delegate for real, and adapt how you work to each person.
- Set a working frame from the day you take the job, and hold it without raising your voice
- Give corrective feedback that is about a fact rather than about the person
Non-financial motivation levers and team coaching
In a country where salaries are already high, a pay rise is no longer what keeps someone. Two days to organise motivation differently: twelve practical levers, mediating a conflict, and a team vision that people take on as their own.
- Build a team's motivation agenda over a year, rather than reacting when someone switches off
- Use twelve non-financial levers and know which one works on which person
Hybrid and remote management
Managing at a distance is not doing the same thing through a screen. One day to set clear rules from the start, install rituals you genuinely keep, and learn to recognise and to correct people without body language to lean on.
- Know the stages of managing at a distance
- Set clear objectives for remote and home working
Visual management — first level
A badly designed team board becomes a noticeboard nobody looks at after a month. One day to choose indicators that genuinely serve, a ritual you can hold, and rules that stop the tool turning into surveillance.
- Understand the strengths and uses of visual management
- Strengthen your team's performance and sense of ownership
Managing with the Enneagram
The same piece of feedback prompts useful reflection in one person and a month of withdrawal in another. One day to recognise the nine Enneagram bases in your team and adjust how you set the frame, delegate and motivate.
- Know the 9 bases of the Enneagram
- Know your own personality base in the Enneagram
Leading change with the Kotter method
In Switzerland, change is rarely decided alone: it is built by consensus, and that is often where it stalls. Two days on Kotter's eight steps, applied to your own project, to involve the right people without giving up on deciding.
- Understand the human mechanisms of change, and adapt your posture as a manager accordingly
- Master the 8 steps of the Kotter method to steer a transformation project in a structured and effective way
Many management courses assume a common foundation: everyone in the room is supposed to have learned roughly the same things about hierarchy, disagreement and how to say no. In Switzerland, that assumption does not hold up well. A team of ten in Geneva or Basel routinely brings together five nationalities, two or three working languages and cross-border colleagues whose reference company culture is not that of head office.
Add a local feature that few programmes take seriously: Swiss decisions are built by seeking consensus. A manager trained to decide fast and own it alone loses credibility here, where they would gain it elsewhere. Conversely, a manager who confuses consensus with unanimity never manages to decide. Our programmes work on that balance explicitly.
Before the technique — delegating, setting objectives, holding a difficult conversation — participants map how they themselves operate, and how the people around them do, with DISC and the Enneagram. That is what makes the technique hold: a delegation method that works with one profile fails with another, and the manager needs to know which one is sitting opposite.
Every programme is modular. A manager who already holds good one-to-ones but freezes in conflict does not need the whole programme: they need two modules. Tell us the gap, and we will assemble the shortest programme that closes it.
Some of the companies that have worked with ABP
Frequently asked questions
Who are these management courses for?
Team leaders, middle managers and executives in Switzerland, from the manager taking on a first team to the one who has led people for ten years and wants to work on a specific point. Groups are usually formed by level, so that the examples stay useful to everyone.
In which languages are the courses delivered?
In French, English or Spanish. The choice is made per programme, not per participant: a group settles on one working language before the session. The site is published in French, German and English, but sessions are not delivered in German at this stage.
How long does a management course last?
One to three days depending on the programme. A course can also be split into half-days spread over several weeks, which often suits managers who cannot leave their team for several days in a row.
Do you deliver at our premises?
Yes, and it is the most common format for management. It allows work on your team's real situations rather than generic cases. Sessions can also run online, or combine the two.
Do participants receive a certificate?
Participants receive a certificate of attendance from ABP Consulting stating the programme and its duration. These are professional development programmes, not qualifications recognised by a certifying body, and we say so rather than let anyone believe it is a diploma.
Is prior management experience required?
Not for “The manager-leader toolkit”, which is the entry point and also suits someone taking up a first management role. “Non-financial motivation levers and team coaching” comes afterwards: it assumes the first programme has been completed, because it builds on what participants took from it in the field.