I am a human being.
And I am a father.
My wife and I have three children. That is not a family status. It is a daily field of learning in which I recognize so much about myself – and in which I repeatedly see how much there still is for me to learn.
Perhaps that is exactly why you are here. Not because you are looking for a coach. But because you sense that something in your life no longer quite fits.
A question that
would not leave me.
At some point I asked myself a question that would not leave me: What makes me, as a man, a strong man? Behind it was another, even deeper question: What truly makes a human being strong at their core?
Today my answer is clearer than it once was, because I have not only thought about it. I have lived it: Power is often the absence of strength. Strength is a force that does not need power.
When I sense “strength” and real “force”, an image appears: the father I always wished for. Loving. Patient. Attentive. Someone who holds when holding is needed – without clinging. Someone who gives freedom so a person can unfold.
“Power is often the absence of strength. Strength is a force that does not need power.”
Felix KlemmeI come from
the body.
Sport. Training. Discipline. Performance. That was my world – and I loved it. I learned what the body is capable of. What is possible when one truly wants.
I studied sports science at diploma level and worked for many years in the fields of health and training. I wrote books, published through traditional publishing houses, became a bestselling author. In 2015 I was named Germany's best personal trainer and hosted a television program in which I worked with people suffering from severe obesity.
For me their value does not lie in the titles. It lies in the way they repeatedly brought me back to the same question: Does what I am doing truly serve the human being – or does it serve my image of myself?
Because when you look into the eyes of a person who has fought against themselves for years, you understand something that no training program teaches: Shame does not set anyone free. Pressure does not heal anyone.
Diploma in sports science. Many years of work in the fields of health and training. The body as the first access to truth.
Several books published by Knaur Verlag. Own television program. Germany's best personal trainer 2015. Public reach, media, visibility.
Over ten years. Around twenty locations across Germany. Built, led, grown – and confronted by my own patterns.
HeartNetwork Coach Training. Heartwork Leadership. Being Human community. More than 10,000 people accompanied.
“At night I woke up drenched in sweat. In my stomach, an almost unbearable pressure. Formally I was in a leadership role. In truth I was a human being in survival mode.”
My company was close to private insolvency. I was afraid of conversations with my employees. Not because I disliked them – but because I feared rejection. I feared disharmony.
I knew what needed to be said. But I did not demand it. I held on to harmony while the truth had long since been knocking at the door.
At some point a wave of anger and clarity rose: “I will not continue like this. Period.”
In that sentence there was more truth than in all my attempts to appear strong.
“I will not continue like this. Period.”
The sentence that changed everythingIt did not fail
on the idea.
“My company did not fail because it was bad. It failed because I was not led.”
My parents separated when I was five. From one day to the next, my childhood sense of safety was gone. I grew up early, to give my grieving mother steadiness and strength.
I learned to feel responsible for other people's well-being. Later that pattern showed up everywhere: in my leadership, in my decisions, in my fear of letting people go – because for my system, separation meant danger.
As long as you do not heal your own wounds, you lead out of them. And as long as you lead out of them, you cannot truly lead any human being.
That changed my field. Not a method. Not a training. But the willingness to meet myself – honestly, consistently, with support.
Leadership is not a tool.
Leadership is a state.
Through all of this it became clear to me: Leadership is a state of safety, truth, presence and heart. It is not your title that leads – it is your nervous system. Your capacity to feel your truth, to hold it, and to live it.
How I show myself as a leader is sensitive. It triggers something. It carries effect. My task as a leader is not to discharge. My task is to hold – to create space in which the other can grow.
- People do not follow a title. They follow a nervous system that has learned to hold itself.
- A dysregulated nervous system leads into control, hardness, pressure. A regulated one leads into clarity, connection, spaciousness.
- Leadership is permission – not entitlement. It is given to you, not taken.
- Truth is the most energetically efficient principle of leadership.
Three connections.
One field.
Today I connect what belongs together – yet is rarely thought of together. This is not theory. This is the field that emerged through my own life.
The body is not an instrument of performance. It is the first access to truth. To presence. To the moment. Your body is an organ of truth.
Those who know their nervous system understand why they react the way they do – and reclaim choice. Leadership is regulation.
Presence is not a state you reach. It is the way you live – step by step, day by day. From recognition into life.
Does the space become wider or tighter
when you lead?
Does the other person become freer
or more dependent?
This is the measure. Not method. Not strategy. Not success. But the question of whether dignity arises near you – or pressure.
that your path
continues here.
I am not here to tell you who you should be.
I am here to remind you of who you are.
You don't have to understand anything yet. Decide anything yet.
Just be honest with yourself.
