About Karla Schlaepfer
You built your career on expertise. Now the rules are changing.
You are not new to leadership. You have navigated restructuring, guided teams through crises, and built your reputation on sound judgment.
And yet there are those moments. The AI mandate from above that your team meets with a mix of nodding and quiet anxiety. The status meeting where you are expected to decide on an AI feature you have not fully got your head around yet. The evening when work stress spills into family time.
AI is everywhere. And suddenly, decades of experience no longer feel like solid ground.
You are not afraid. But you are not sure either.
The challenge is not technical. It is human.
You can learn any tool. Read any whitepaper. But at the intersection of hard-won leadership expertise and fast-moving technology, information alone is not enough. What you need is confidence in your own judgment. And the ability to anchor that confidence in your team. So that resistance becomes curiosity. Silence becomes open dialogue. AI anxiety becomes a clear position.
This is exactly where I work with you. As a thinking partner at eye level. Not as a trainer with ready-made slides. But as someone who thinks alongside you, asks the hard questions, helps you sort through the noise, and speaks plainly when it matters.
I know this terrain because I have walked it myself.
When I co-founded the tech startup V4P in 2020, I believed: if the technology is right, people will follow. The opposite turned out to be true. The money ran out, no bank would invest, and tensions grew within the team. Not because of the VR technology. But because alignment was missing. The trust to move in the same direction together.
That experience changed my work: technology fails because of people. And people do not fail because of lack of competence, but because of missing confidence and missing psychological safety.
I am a natural learner. I moved fast, kept thinking, rebuilt. When clients started asking about AI (ChatGPT) in 2023, I already knew: the answer is not in tool knowledge. It lies in supporting experienced leaders to bring their judgment with them into the new world. That is where my AI Confidence Coaching was born.
And I know what it feels like to be the only person in the room who thinks differently. Through my volunteer work with a legal organization, I experienced firsthand what happens when psychological safety is absent. I have not forgotten that feeling. It keeps me alert to when my clients experience something similar. Whether as a team lead whose people go quiet on AI topics. Or as a project manager caught between pressure from above and resistance from the team.
What I bring to your journey.
Over 28 years of coaching and training experience. More than 3,000 coaching hours. Keynotes. My own founder experience. And a rare combination: I am equally at home in the world of technology and in the depth of systemic coaching work.
ICF-certified systemic coaching (PCC accredited until 2028) forms the foundation. My 4Cs Framework for clarity in thinking and decision-making was not developed at a desk. It grew out of the experience of watching smart leaders face AI decisions without a compass. I have also worked through these experiences in two books: “Das dynamische Unternehmen. Wie Wertewandel, Innovation und Digitalisierung zum Erfolg führen” and “DesignThinking, Frag mich was” — written from practice, for practice.
My qualifications range from Scrum Master and Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute to Change Management at INeKO University of Cologne. But what clients remember is something else: the moment they recognize where their drive strengthens them and where it holds them back.
I also work with art-inspired coaching methods and facilitate ArtTalks in Cologne museums. A deliberate counterweight to the digital working world, opening new perspectives.
Born in the US, at home in Germany, educated at UC Berkeley. I bring American directness together with European depth.
What changes when we work together.
You walk into a status meeting about an AI project. Your breathing is calmer. Your questions are clearer. Your team responds differently. More engaged. Less defensive. Someone asks a real question instead of staying silent.
Or: you and your team design an AI pilot for a concrete use case. Not because it was mandated from above, but because you identified the impact together. Resistance becomes initiative. In the evening, your head is no longer stuck in the meeting room.
This is not wishful thinking. This is what my clients describe.
What clients say.
“Karla combines coaching expertise with a deep understanding of the impact of new technologies and transformation. Her approach is rooted in emotional intelligence and clear, actionable guidance.”
“Taking action between sessions helped me tackle tasks one by one, even in a chaotic environment, always with a clear goal in mind. Over time, I was able to take the next step even without talking to Karla. She really helped me change my behavior. Karla’s American background also helped me understand cultural differences better — her insights gave me a broader worldview and enhanced my ability to navigate diverse environments and relationships.”
“Significantly more confident.”
92% of my clients rate our work together as excellent. 35% extend their mandates. Not because change is easy, but because they find their bearings.
Your experience is not outdated. It is the foundation for what comes next.
If you are looking for someone who thinks with you, not for you. Who strengthens your humanity while you integrate new possibilities for yourself and your team. Then I invite you to take this path together.
Pragmatic. At eye level. With clarity about your own direction.
