Deniz Aytekin

Deniz Aytekin, whose parents migrated to Germany from Turkey, is a referee for TSV Altenberg and has been a DFB referee since 2004. He made his Bundesliga debut on September 27, 2008, in the match between Hertha BSC and Energie Cottbus. He has also been a FIFA referee since 2011.

Deniz Aytekin’s main occupation is business economist and entrepreneur. For example, he is co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of anwalt.de services AG, which offers an online legal advice platform; also co-founder of the online sales portal fitnessmarkt.de.

Deniz Aytekin Lecture topics

Strategies of seeing, perceiving and deciding – How to make clear decisions under pressure.

Decisions are based, among other things, on information and facts. However, we do not always have clear facts or the necessary information to make a sound and correct decision. and correct decision. Does this mean that we then never decide and wait until we have everything?

As a referee, you get the necessary information and facts on the field primarily by seeing and evaluating an event. However, the human eye and also the brain is limited. Certain processes are not perceptible to the eye and at very high speeds the brain cannot process the information.

Referees need strategies to arrive at the correct decision despite the above limitations. In the lecture, numerous strategies will be shown and explained with video material. An exciting journey into decision making in professional soccer with some interesting parallels for daily use in the decision making process in companies.

Acceptance – The bottom line in decision making. How to get accepted despite difficult decisions.

Managers deliver an average of 4 to 20 pieces of bad news (i.e., news that is not in the mind of the recipient) per day. Examples of bad news include mundane such as negative performance feedback or rejection of requests (for budgets or even vacation requests), as well as strategic issues such as employee layoffs or terminations.

The ability to not be able to deliver bad news or to deliver it inadequately is considered one of the main weaknesses of decision makers and prevents next career steps. There are studies that show that a single piece of bad news has more negative potential than many pieces of good news have positive potential. The delivery of bad news needs to be managed.

So the fact of making a right decision is no longer enough. The art of ensuring that the decision made is accepted and respected is the endeavor of many managers but also referees. In the lecture, ways will be shown how to achieve acceptance in a difficult environment and under high pressure. The art of how bad news is ideally conveyed will be presented from a professional sports perspective with parallels to business.

Deniz Aytekin: „Football has become faster and faster and more athletic. Not only are teams perfectly equipped, but there has also been tremendous progress in the transmission quality of television images.“ The human eye and brain are limited, however, he said. „Certain sequences are no longer perceptible at very high speeds. So referees need strategies to still come to the right decisions.“ And those same strategies can also be applied to the business world, assures Deniz Aytekin.

Distributing tasks in a team and anticipating courses of action are two ways to be successful on the market or to manage a company. Another, according to Deniz Aytekin, is close observation of the environment. „Players often give themselves away extremely. You have to get a feel for recognizing that. Then you can also compensate for limited perception. And the same applies to employees in meetings.“

As in soccer, communication at eye level is extremely important here as well as in business.

Deniz Aytekin: „Get the people who have something to say on board. Then you’ve almost won.“

In 2017, Deniz Aytekin refereed the DFB Cup final between Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. 2019, he was named DFB Referee of the Year.