The year is 1990. A young German university student named Iris Kuhnert steps into the complex, hierarchical world of corporate Japan. She is one of the very first female students from her country to arrive as an intern, a pioneer in a landscape that is both fascinating and bewildering. It is, she recalls, an “impressive and deep dive learning experience that changed my life forever.” She is there to study business administration, economics, and East Asian culture, but her real education is in observing the intricate dance of human interaction in a setting completely foreign to her own.
This experience, of being an outsider, of learning to navigate unspoken rules, of seeing firsthand how culture shapes every aspect of business, would become the foundational chapter in a long and winding career. It would lead her through marketing, cross-cultural consulting, and even a stint as an organic green tea exporter. But ultimately, it was this early fascination with the human element that would guide her to her true calling: not just to build businesses, but to build the leaders who make them thrive.
The story of Iris Kuhnert and her firm, ICM Consulting, is a story about a pivotal realization: that in a world obsessed with technology and process, the most critical and often overlooked component of success is the human factor. It is the story of a woman who had to get coached herself to discover her own passion, and who now dedicates her life to helping other leaders find theirs.
The Pivotal Realization
After her transformative time in Japan, Iris began her career working for a Japanese organization in marketing and communication, even publishing her thesis on the country’s labor shortage. But she felt a pull to work on a more global scale. She began delivering workshops on overcoming cross-cultural challenges and started supporting European-based companies in expanding their business throughout Asia. It was in this role, as a strategic consultant helping a German company triple its turnover in Asia within three years, that she began to notice a recurring pattern.
Iris would see brilliant technology, flawless project plans, and immense market opportunities. But time and again, she observed that “if the topic of leadership was not fully developed and skilled, there was always something missing.” It was a quiet, persistent observation that grew into a powerful conviction. “I had a pivotal realization,” Iris says. “No matter how advanced the technology was, success ultimately depended on strong leadership. I discovered that without the right leadership in place, even the best innovations could fall short.”
This insight sparked a new passion. It was no longer enough to fix the strategy; Iris needed to help empower the people who executed it. This intrigue led her on a new educational journey. She traveled to the United States to enroll in her first coach educational program, which was followed by a master’s study in organizational development and a continuous two-year learning program to become an accredited coach. Today, she is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of the Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches (APAC), a testament to her dedication to the highest standards of coaching.
The Coach Gets Coached
Even as she was acquiring these new skills, Iris’s entrepreneurial spirit was in full force. In addition to her consulting work, she had established another business, exporting organic green tea to Europe. She was a successful, multi-faceted business owner. But it was during her own coach training, when she was on the receiving end of the coaching process, that she had her second, more personal epiphany.
“During my coach educational program, I received coaching myself, and realized what really drives me, and where my passion is, was leadership development,” Iris explains. It was a moment of profound clarity. Iris understood that while her other ventures were successful, they did not ignite the same fire within her. With a deliberate transition phase, she made the courageous decision to let go of her other business interests and focus her entire professional energy on what she loved most: coaching individual leaders and their teams. It was the biggest milestone of her personal journey, a conscious choice to align her work with her purpose.
The Architect of Awareness
Today, as the founder of ICM Consulting, Iris’s work is the culmination of that journey. The firm’s mission is to “empower individuals and organizations with personalized coaching so that they are equipped with the skills, mindset, and confidence to lead authentically and effectively.” Her vision is to cultivate transformational leaders worldwide, creating a ripple effect of strong, visionary leadership.
Since 2004, Iris has coached global executives across a vast range of industries, and she has identified three recurring challenges that leaders consistently face. The first is mastering the complexity of change: how to deal with ambiguity and lead teams through uncertainty.
The second is the critical transition from management to true leadership, especially on an international scale where building relationships and handling diverse cultural expectations is paramount. The third, and perhaps most profound, is helping leaders overcome their own limiting beliefs, which are often rooted in their upbringing and past experiences.
Iris’s coaching approach is unique precisely because it is so deeply informed by her own life. “What makes me unique as a coach is my commitment to lifelong learning and my personal experience of mastering change, which allows me to empathize deeply with my clients,” she says. Her own resilience, growth mindset, and authentic positivity create a safe, motivating environment where clients feel genuinely supported.
To facilitate this journey of discovery, Iris utilizes a suite of powerful assessment tools, including Lominger’s Voices 360®, Extended DISC, and FIRO-B. These are not personality tests, but mirrors. “It is important to reflect how you see yourself, and equally important how others might perceive you,” she explains, “because intention and impact are often not the same due to different personalities.” These tools help create the essential foundation of self- and other-awareness from which all meaningful growth begins.
Beyond the tools, Iris integrates signature coaching methods, including structured reflection exercises, systemic constellations, and role-playing to practice new behaviors, and guided perspective-shifting conversations. These approaches help leaders step out of their comfort zone in a safe coaching space, test new behaviors, and build the confidence to sustain change long-term.
“Low to Medium Satisfied” to “Highly Satisfied.”
Clients often emphasize two aspects of Iris’s approach: her ability to quickly grasp complex situations and her balance between empathy and gentle challenge. “Iris understands me faster than anyone I’ve worked with,” one executive notes. “She gives me the courage to try new approaches while making me feel completely supported.”
Another adds: “She helped me see perspectives I would never have considered on my own, and that has changed the way I lead.”
In one of her recent coaching engagements, Iris has been working with a leadership team in the pharmaceutical industry since July 2024. When she started, the team was highly dysfunctional, filled with distrust and unable to address conflicting topics. Within months, the team experienced a breakthrough: they created psychological safety, became open to vulnerability, and began expressing needs and concerns in true dialogue. This shift led to increased efficiency, better-informed decision-making, and genuine collaboration. According to an internal employee survey, satisfaction with leadership jumped from “low to medium satisfied” to “highly satisfied.”
The Human Factor
At the core of Iris’s philosophy is the “human factor.” In today’s agile and matrixed organizations, she argues, this is more crucial than ever. “Agile thrives on flexible, adaptive teams that can respond quickly to change, which requires strong interpersonal relationships and effective communication,” she says. “Developing humans is not a linear process; people are not machines.”
Iris shares the story of a Sales VP, a client who had been highly successful but whose top-down decision-making style had created a deep disconnect with his team, leading to low engagement and missed targets. Through coaching, the VP had a breakthrough. After six months of coaching, the Sales VP implemented a new team-based approach to problem-solving, leading to a 22% increase in quarterly sales and a 40% improvement in employee engagement scores, as measured by the company’s internal survey.
“Iris helped me realize that my team’s potential was being stifled by my own top-down approach,” says the Sales VP. “Her guidance has been instrumental in creating a more collaborative and effective team.”
This, for Iris, is the human factor in action.
A Leader’s Compass
Iris’s own leadership style is guided by a clear set of internal values: passion, fairness, optimism, and learning. Her passion is evident in her energy and persistence. Her fairness comes from a deep need to explore both sides of any conflict, asking the “what, how, where, and who questions” to understand the drivers and triggers behind people’s actions.
Her optimism is a quality that has, in her words, “helped me through the darkest times of my life.” It’s a deep conviction that things will go well in the end, an ability to embrace the unknown and search for options no matter how complex the situation. And her commitment to learning is the engine of her energy. “If there is nothing to learn, it feels like standing still,” Iris says.
This compass has guided her through her own career challenges, from being a young woman in Japan trying to become a respected business partner—a feat she achieved through sheer perseverance and a commitment to always going the “extra mile”—to the delicate act of balancing her demanding career with raising her two wonderful daughters.
Looking ahead, her goal is to continue her work with global leaders, with a new project focused on helping young, emerging leaders and students identify their true purpose. She envisions building communities of future-ready leaders who can lead across cultures, industries, and rapidly evolving technologies.
Her own purpose, it seems, is now perfectly clear, and it is a life she pursues with intention and joy. She is an avid outdoors person who loves hiking in the nearby mountains and riding her horse. Being in nature, she says, gives her the time to “ground and recharge my batteries.” It is in these quiet moments, away from the complexities of the corporate world, that she finds the clarity and energy to continue her vital work of guiding others on their own complex journeys.
Quote
“Being optimistic is about embracing the unknown and being able to deal with the uncertainty that comes with it.”
Also Read: The Top Five Most Remarkable Business Coaches of 2025.
