Struggling during your onboarding phase?
Don't forget your intuition and systemic thinking
Published on by Gernot Sauerborn
You made it. The dream job in your new home country – finally. An important step of integration in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. Important for your social and economic security. You're motivated, you want to deliver, to prove yourself.
But then comes the onboarding.
A tsunami of tasks and responsibilities crashes over you. Hectic work style. Language insecurity in German business life. And then the negative feedback. You feel insecure, inferior, maybe even like an impostor.
The obvious question: “What am I doing wrong? How can I get better?”
But what if that's the wrong question?
The system your are new in might be dysfunctional
As a migrant, you tend to doubt yourself easily. Language not perfect, culture not fully understood. So you assume: I am the problem.
But your intuition and rational thinking might whisper something else: “This position can't possibly have so many contradictory tasks.” Or: “Why does everyone work so chaotically here?”
In many organisations, responsibilities have grown wildly over the years. Tasks that someone originally took on out of personal passion – without being organisationally sensible. New employees are then shoved into this system and expected to just continue. That it fails is not your fault.
A systemic view is worth taking. Instead of seeing yourself as the problem, look at the interplay of people, responsibilities, tasks, behaviours, and communication.
Four questions your intuition and rational thinking would ask
- Which tasks and responsibilities are organisationally possible and sensible – and which are just the personal “hobby horses” of the people who've been there?
- Why does this system (e.g., the team, you are new in) seem stable? Who benefits from it staying so hectic and overloaded? (Yes, mostly someone benefits.)
- Are there signals that the system is considered to need to change? Or is the plan just to slot a new employee into the team without changing? (By the way: Is it possible at all, to integrate someone new without changing something in the system?)
- Is the system functional for the purpose of the entire organisation? Or does it serve a different purpose – for example, relieving existing staff or avoiding conflicts?
The pressure you feel is a signal – not a verdict on you
When you feel pressure: Don't look for the cause only in yourself. Your insecurity is not just a sign of “not enough German” or “not enough skill”. It can also be a healthy signal: “Something is wrong with this system.”
Three questions to bring back your intuition and rational thinking:
- What would an external consultant say – someone looking at the organisation without your guilt feelings?
- Which task you're currently doing doesn't actually belong to your job description?
- If you were advising your best friend – would you say “push through and make yourself smaller” or “question the system”?
Moving on With Systemic Solution Oriented Coaching
Systemic solution-focused coaching does not help you “become more resilient” or “speak better German”. It helps you depersonalise the pressure.
We work on:
- Reading your insecurity as a signal – not as weakness, but as system feedback.
- Making the overgrown task jungle visible – what belongs to the role, what is legacy baggage?
- Understanding the hidden logic of the system – why does the team behave as it does? Who gains what?
- Developing small, safe experiments – e.g. one question in the next team meeting: “Which of these tasks actually has the highest priority for our customer?”
- Reclaiming your intuition and rational thinking as resources – instead of ignoring them for the sake of adaptation pressure.
My goal is not for you to adapt better to a dysfunctional system. My goal is for you to recognise: You are not the problem. You are the first one to name the problem.
If you're stuck in your onboarding phase and don't know what to do – let's look at the system together, not just at you. Coaching available in English, Spanish or German.
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My insights are grounded in my daily work with international professionals and executives navigating the job market and workplace culture in German-speaking countries. As an experienced manager, management consultant, systemic coach, and business-oriented German language teacher, I combine a practical understanding of business expectations with a deep appreciation of the challenges of working across cultures. Having lived and worked internationally, I understand how to make professional experience, individual strengths, and personal identity visible in a new professional environment.
I offer a free chemistry call to personally connect, share how I work with clients, and see if my coaching approach aligns with your goals.
It's the perfect opportunity to decide if we're a good match for your interview preparation.