Achim Nowak
Achim Nowak is an Executive Coach, Business Thinker, TEDx Speaker, Mastermind Convener and Virtual Masterclass Host. The author of 3 books on Personal Presence, Achim has helped hundreds of CEOs and C-Suite executives in global enterprises such as Takeda, Sanofi, Owens Corning and Dover Industries to amplify their personal influence. His eclectic background includes training as a Mediator at the Brooklyn Courts, co-founding an acclaimed theatre company in Washington DC, serving on the faculty of New York University for over a decade, and spending a year windsurfing on the island of Tobago. Learn more here .
Articles by Achim Nowak
- Opinion
Don’t Let Success Talk You Out of Your Next Chapter
I owned an international training and coaching firm that helped CEOs and C-Suite leaders around the world to amplify their personal impact
- Opinion
Beginner’s Mind: A Better Response to Uncertain Times
These themes transcend simple adaptation tricks and go to the core of how you and I show up in the world. They call for a beginner’s mind.
- Opinion
Leadership in Chaos Starts With Thinking Like a Startup Again
The world seems nuts just now. Genocidal wars. Proliferating natural disasters. More tariffs – or are they mere bluff?
- Opinion
When Everything Feels Unstable, Leaders Must Think Like It’s Day One Again
Shifting the work of your knowledge workers online and then conducting business-as-usual misses the point.
- Opinion
The Power of No: How Strategic Refusal Creates Your Biggest Yes
This works in business. It works in all other facets of our lives. How and where will you be saying NO in 2026?
- Opinion
Impatient for Change? Why Great Leaders Learn To Weaponize Their Frustration
I want it right-here-right-now impatience. That’s the easy kind, the one that may have gotten us what we wanted when we were a toddler.
- Opinion
Why the Holidays Are the Best Time To Stop, Reflect, and Reset
Quiet can also feel a little scary after an intense year, with a world in turmoil. It can bring up a whole lot of not so pleasant thoughts.
- Research
Mastering Time in a World That Never Stops
All of us are the CEOs of our own lives. Here is just some of the rich wisdom from Porter’s research that resonated with me.
- Opinion
Brilliance Isn’t the Issue—Behavior Is: How To Lead Without Becoming the ‘Brilliant Jerk’
While Freud recognized that there are a near infinite variety of personalities, he identified three main types: erotic, obsessive, and narcissistic.
- Opinion
Trapped in Conformity Jail: How Your Brain Makes You Say ‘Yes’ When You Know ‘No’
When you submit to group consensus even though you believe the group is blatantly ignoring contradictory evidence?
- Opinion
Feeling Stuck in a Conversation? Use These 4 Reframing Moves To Shift Everything
An expert reframer takes a comment or idea that’s on the table and shifts it in a new direction. They do so by asking a question.
- Opinion
You Say You Have an Open-Door Policy—but Do You Really?
How available to folks are we really when we have ambitious and perhaps unrealistic performance goals and never enough time?
- Opinion
Why Staying Silent in Executive Meetings Is the Fastest Way To Become Invisible
Let’s get this straight: Someone has decided that you deserve a seat at the table at your firm’s most senior decision-making body.
- Opinion
To Hug or Not To Hug: A Guide for the Conflicted Professional
So yes, I hug friends in my personal life. And I hug some of my professional colleagues. Men and women.
- Opinion
Why Telling the Ugly Truth Might Make People Like You More
If you have been trained by a media consultant, you have likely been taught to pivot and deflect. Think again.
- Opinion
How I Learned To Shut Up — And Became a Better Coach
Somehow, I had gotten the most basic piece of active listening right. I had shut up and allowed Jack to talk.
- Opinion
Hands-Off Leaders: Are You Helping or Hurting Your Team?
There is a vast playground between being the leader who nurtures and the micromanager from the dark side.
- Opinion
Why the Quietest Person in the Room Leaves the Loudest Impression
Many of us are too polished. We work for the Wow. Sometimes consciously, more often not. Usually we work for it a little too hard.
- Opinion
What Fast Talkers Get Wrong — And How To Speak So People Actually Listen
Fast talking with no impact is, in the end, an act of narcissism. One-way satisfaction. Wasted time.
- Opinion
Why a Little Less Self-Control Might Be Exactly What You Need
These gifts are subtle and delicious, and they have the potential to elevate any business conversation we have. Let’s take a look.
- Opinion
What Happens When You Stop Pretending You’re Sure of Everything
These themes transcend simple adaptation tricks and go to the core of how you and I show up in the world.
- Opinion
“Act Like” — The Two Words That Shape How We Lead, Sell, and Succeed
It tends to cement a fixed notion of self, and any personal exploration now occurs within the narrow confines of who we think we are. #views
- Opinion
Are You Managing Up—or Just Managing to Survive?
Look at 4 specific Managing UP behaviors. These behaviors strengthen our relationship with any boss or authority figure. #behavior #boss
- Opinion
Who's Your VP of First Impressions?
VP of First Impressions. Elevates the importance of the first moment and demonstrates a reverence for the artistry involved.
- Opinion
The One Daily Habit That Transforms Stress Into Clarity
Exhale. Not just the big life transitions. No, our need for simple everyday transitions as we navigate our packed lives. #life
- Opinion
Energy Is the New Leadership Currency. Are You Using It?
We’ve all had that thought at the end of an excellent meeting, right? After a great conversation. We may have, in fact, uttered those very words.
- Opinion
Boost Clarity and Impact: Why Adjectives Matter More Than You Think
We communicate via 2 languages. The language we write. The language we speak. And that’s merely our surface conversation. #language
- Opinion
Unlimit Your Limits, Please!
I had made this dream happen. And it was time for another dream. This compound was the dream of a younger version of myself. #dream
- Opinion
Why Pushing Harder Isn’t the Answer (And What To Do Instead)
The action demon is the voice of our insidious cultural conditioning that says whatever we’re doing is not enough. #enough
- Opinion
Is Speed Undermining Your Influence? The Perils of Fast Talking
Whenever I’m with a fast talker I’m reminded of the wisdom of the basics. How simple they are. How profound. #talking #communication
- Opinion
The Productivity Power of Getting Lost in Time
You were in a state where time no longer mattered. You were involved in an experience that rendered our notion of time irrelevant. For a while. #time
- Opinion
How Do YOU Define SUCCESS?
Work/life balance is a term invented for professionals who work too darn hard. I get it – but it’s a fake corporate phrase. #success
- Opinion
Unexpected Wisdom from the Cat Lady
My fury grew. And still, there seemed no clear path forward. No inevitable next step. All the while the cats were being fed, every night. #cats
- Opinion
4 Powerful Mental Levers to Slash Stress
Consider some ways of undraining the tasks that drain you. Choose to undrain yourself. Here are a few mental levers that may help you do so. #Stress
- Opinion
The Bystander Effect Is Real—Here’s How to Break Free
Here are some specific ways of minimizing The Bystander Effect and creating an environment where open secrets actively get addressed.
- Business Growth
5 Simple Phrases That Strengthen Business Relationships
Here are my top 5 verbal cues that I know will strengthen any business relationship you’re in – and all other relationships, as well! #advisors