Where new partner Edwin Bouwman focuses on the importance of human values when looking for new generations of leaders, Pamela Boumeester explains how best to let talent grow, Jan Berent Heukensfeldt Jansen highlights the power of culture within organizations, and Dries van der Vossen realized in a wine cellar that life is a matter of passing on.
1. The request for advice
In which a partner from The Board of Directors talks about a specific assignment and the chosen approach.
Edwin Bouwman: “I spent eight years in the executive committee joined an Irish listed company that has grown through 'buy and build'. Very big, in fact: sales have risen from more than 50 million in the early 1970s to 35 billion today. A huge acquisition machine, with a takeover every week. Often, they were family businesses that were purchased because there was no follow-up or to further develop the company with the knowledge available. It is a company in the building materials sector: by definition, it is organized locally and therefore decentrally — and should stay that way, whether such an establishment became part of a large club or not. That often made follow-up an issue. The reserve bank was empty to provide all those companies with the right follow-up. I was faced with a type of query: “We are missing the next layer of leadership to develop this company over the next decades.””
“Leadership considerations involved not only dealing with scaling up, but also how we added layers of management so that the company can remain as decentrally decisive as possible. This is how we formed business units with companies that fit together. And which leaders then fit in with such an ever-growing company while we can maintain decentralized control?”
“Within that context, together with the CEO, I have specialized heavily in this succession issue, and, consequently, in leadership development. We were looking for hands-on entrepreneurial leaders who were strategically and financially savvy, but were also good with people. And especially people who 'living the values'. And those values are creating safety, caring for the community and for the long term, stimulating integrity, organizing opposition, being a team player. Men and women who showed too much ego in their behavior had a hard time.”
“People get hired for content and fired for behavior, that's something I discovered while working at this multinational. I myself was trained as a financial, including at Shell. Useful, even highly relevant knowledge — but business success is ultimately determined primarily by human behavior. If your communication is poor, when you let unsafe situations run or take control and don't realize it — that kind of human behavior can get a team off the rails and even harm a company. In positive terms: personality, drive, ambition, resilience, cooperation — these are qualities that cannot be expressed in monetary terms but are invaluable for an organization. I often said when I hired someone: this or that's what I expect from you. But what I always said was: above all, make the others in your team better and ensure your own follow-up as soon as possible.”
2. Three relevant questions
In which a partner from The Board of Directors answers three questions about current trends in the business labor market.
Every employee must be an eight or be able to become an eight, you sometimes say. Explain.
Pamela Boumeester: “Many people have tons of talent, but are not in the place in an organization where that talent is optimally addressed. Or they're not in the right company at all. But you have to recognize that friction for yourself, and your environment must want to see it too — especially your manager. The questions you should keep asking yourself: Am I doing my job well enough? Am I still making a good contribution? Does what I do still match who I am? A problem in many organizations, including commercial ones, is that many bitter pills are being gilded. The verdict is often: someone does their best. That seems like a huge disqualification to me. After all, that often comes after that: but it could be better. A thorough, human analysis of what's not going well enough — and why that's the case — is much more important for both managers and employees.”
Suppose you find that you are not quite at home in an organization. What can you do to avoid misery?
“First of all, the ball is yours. You will have to convert your gut feeling into taking a mental step: taking responsibility for your own happiness at work. The next step is just as courageous: find someone who can help you, preferably your boss. Ideally, you'll fight your boss figuratively, I sometimes say. After all, he has an obligation to cast his people optimally, to get the best out of his people. And you can hold him or her to that. Often, your own ambitions, shortage in the labor market or complacency cloud this matchmaking.”
“Of course, the Board of Directors can help you take this difficult step, with coaching and interventions. As a boss at the NS, I myself had to deal with a subordinate who wanted to go one step higher in line. Super nice man, philosophically strong, but I didn't think he was the ideal person for the tough executive position on the table. So it's not going to work, I told him — only to go in-depth. What do you really want? What can we do for each other in that area? After a few conversations, we found out that he would prefer to become director of a Free School. I told him: fly, I'll give you a boost and help you move forward. In the end, that also worked — so cool!”
What if you're not eight years old but you don't want to fly either?
“Nothing is optional, as far as I'm concerned. Even if someone is consistent with themselves well finding an eight, in whatever field, while you don't see more than six as a manager, will eventually create an insurmountable problem. As a manager, you must then tackle every mismatch with an outplacement procedure. But a good manager is of course ahead of that situation. He has long started a conversation with someone who 'underperforms' on the basis of that discrepancy between wishes and reality. So it must also have come into the picture a long time ago, and that can be done by consistently having good conversations about the employee's talents, opportunities and wishes.”
3. Sources of inspiration
In which a partner of The Board of Directors shares sources of knowledge that inspire him or her.
Jan Berent Heukensfeldt Jansen: “A book that suggests someone, a presentation you're invited to on a night you can't really do, or an internal course just outside your field of expertise — things like that are kind of fruitmen. You can pass up a nice apple, as the extra thing you don't necessarily need. But I prefer to say: get what you need. It always provides at least one insight.”
A woman who worked for a German car company had to research and present something to the board. She had finished her story and a painful silence descended. Then one of the directors cleared her throat and asked a question: what data do you rely on exactly? Another chimed in: how exactly did you investigate it? Germans are quite process-driven. If you give such a presentation in the US, everyone will ask about your experiences, about your best story. As soon as you start talking about the technical side, everyone looks glassy into the distance. Totally different assessment — and policy outcome. Here's how coercive cultures can steer.”
“Read good books, I tell as many people as possible. Erin Meyer, The Culture Map, made me happy myself. If you've read Geert Hofstede's “Cultures and Organizations” and are completely up to date with the differences in cultures in a business environment, this book literally provides a world of reflection. Meyer's global history of experience provides enriching your mind and an energy for leadership that's right for today.”
“Other fruit in the basket: Dr. Steve Peters' TED talk. It says: your emotional brain is infinitely more developed than your rational brain. You can't control that, you can only learn how to deal with it. In the sport, where I worked for years, you can see that perfectly. People think of a clean-cut process to work, in a straight line from A to B. But they are now getting through endless amounts of emotional triggers affected. You can watch the amazingly inspiring speech on YouTube.”
“You can tinker with these kinds of basic triggers. From the wonderful book “Power of the Negative”, by American journalist John Tierney, the following example. Imagine hearing from a valued colleague about an upcoming business relationship: well, good luck with it, I know that guy and it's a hell of a job. Then there must be twenty good experiences in return if I want to change my image. That's how powerful those kinds of signals that nest deep in our brain are.”
4. The world outside
In which a partner from The Board Room provides a personal suggestion that helps to make life even more beautiful.
Dries van de Vossen: “In a summer, about half a century ago, I drove to Spain with a friend's father. He had to stop in Burgundy along the way: pick up wine. He knew an address, he had told me, where I would also meet really good wine. In Morey-Saint-Denis, a paradise of the Grands Crus, we stopped before the domaine by the Lignier family. Refreshed, we moved on after a few hours: that experience shaped me for life as a wine lover, or ruined me, who knows.”
“Last summer, I was standing, for old times sake, with my wife in the exact same wine cellar. While I was talking to the grandchildren of the men who introduced me to one of the most perfect burgundies at the time, I got an intense realization: life is passing on. Of course, this also applies to leadership in organizations — but actually to all dynamics, all movement in society and nature. New generations are always learning the profession, adding their own elements each time. This applies to wine, to companies, to life itself. When I walked out this time, the refinement was the fact that I felt completely happy as a husband and father of two wonderful daughters — who are all going to do better than us in their own way.”
