Trainers

“My working methods are based on a strategy of connective appreciation and characterised by depth, humour, group interaction and personal reflection. The use of ‘affectionate confrontation’ and ‘respectful provocation’ in order to get people into the development zone is what makes this strategy so powerful.”

Paulien ten Asbroek graduated from Codarts Rotterdam University of the Arts in 1990. She ran her own theatre group and put on a vast range of productions for third parties before making a series of transformations: from dance to total theatre, from performing on stage to guiding performers in the roles of choreographer/director, and from art to business. She was co-owner and founder of Sense of Leadership and worked for the Laboratory of Applied Psychology. She developed and conducted the leadership programme ‘Being There’ for the directors and top managers of all kinds of businesses. Paulien is now the owner of Moving Sense and specialises in supporting clients with organisational development issues. She supervises change processes at both the group level and individual level for national and international businesses and non-profit organisations as well as organising and teaching modules for many different educational institutions. To do her job, she combines her expertise in leadership issues with her theatrical background.

“How you say something is much more important than what you actually say: your mood substantially influences how you come across and the impact that you have. The sound of your voice is the vehicle you use to make contact with the people you are talking to. Good interpersonal contact is essential for optimising information exchange as it means the information is more easily accepted and more accurately remembered. Experience shows that we can consciously establish contact by using our tone of voice within 15 seconds.”

Elizabeth Ebbink is a voice trainer, psychologist (University of Amsterdam) and an opera singer (Rotterdam Conservatoire). She is the author of the book ‘Ik hoor het aan je stem’ (‘I Hear it in Your Voice’) and also provides voice training for professionals. She also organises training courses for consultants and coaches, although anyone from a shouty shopkeeper to a shy bar owner can (“and should!”) call upon her services. Elizabeth’s extensive vocal expertise and psychological insight allow her to quickly and easily transform the way people come across to others and the impact they have.

“When working with groups of women I tend to start an inquiry into precious moments of true leadership and how to build authentic leadership on the basis of success.”

Karin Jironet is a practising executive counsellor and a Jungian psychoanalyst with established client bases in Amsterdam and Rome. She has devoted her professional career to leadership development in times of transformation. She specialises in applying spiritual principles to modern problems that can occur within boardroom dynamics. Together with Harry Starren, she is co-founder of In Claritas, a foundation for new forms of governance. She is an internationally published author of articles and books on new approaches to organisational development as well as on the daily practice of leadership. Her work on Female Leadership has been nominated for several awards.

“My executive programmes feature aspects such as Shakespeare, leadership and speech-writing: participants learn the power of Shakespeare’s plays, which are full of timeless dilemmas and famous speeches.”

Henriëtte Koomans is an independent organisational consultant and also teaches leadership programmes. She is a guest lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston, Nyenrode Business University and Comenius. She also conducts intervision groups for mayors and provides coaching for managers. In her programme Speechmaking, participants learn rhetoric and theatre exercises, how to take up a position and how to consciously deal with criticism. She also considers questions such as ‘What is it like to be so visible?’, ‘How do people perceive me in the public arena?’ and ‘How do I create the right setting?’

“Leadership is a complex interplay reflected by the leader’s ability to influence employees and enable them to make an optimal contribution to successfully realising their department and/or company’s goals. What makes a good leader is the compatibility between the leader, the employees and the situation. Without followers, you’re not a leader.”

Jaap van Muijen studied occupational and organisational psychology at VU University Amsterdam and gained a doctorate in organisational culture. He combines an academic career with his practice as an organisational consultant and specialises in translating the strategic decisions of national and international organisations into the type of leadership they are striving for. During his career, he worked at VU University Amsterdam before serving as a director of LTP and later a rector at Sioo. He is now associate partner at the Galan Group and has his own consultancy Sense of Leadership. He is also a professor at Nyenrode Business University.

“Women have to get used to the fact that they will be asked to take on big jobs both because they are good and because they are female. This is simply because being a woman is a valuable asset, just as since time immemorial, men have seen being a man as a valuable asset.”

Jeroen Smit studied business administration at the University of Groningen. He soon switched his focus to the field of journalism, working for Dutch newspapers such as Het Financieele Dagblad, Het Algemeen Dagblad and the weekly business magazine FEM/De Week. Since 2004, he has worked as a freelance journalist, writing columns and commentaries on business economics and management issues, presenting radio and TV programmes and being a much-in-demand commentator on national Dutch TV shows such as De Wereld Draait Door, Pauw/Pauw en Witteman, Nieuwsuur and Mediaforum. He has also established a solid reputation as an investigative journalist with the books Het Drama Ahold (‘The Ahold Disaster’, 2004) and De Prooi (‘The Prey’, 2008), for which he received a wide variety of awards. He also presented the TV programme Leiders Gezocht (‘Leaders Wanted’) and has been a professor of journalism at the University of Groningen since 2011.

“To gain insight into undesirable recurring patterns, we need to stop zooming in on isolated incidents and look at the system as a whole.”

Marijke Spanjersberg is a trained psychologist who has worked in academia, the government sector and the business world as an organisational consultant, a director and a programme manager of learning tracks for directors and professionals.

She has her own consultancy practice, within which she predominantly focuses on collaboration issues within organisations. Her repertoire is based on systems theory and solution-oriented strategies and focuses on making constructive and productive connections in situations where collaborations are breaking down: difficult change processes, faltering trust within the line, teams that have lost their team spirit and friction between colleagues. She is also a guest lecturer for educational institutions such as Sioo, De Baak and The Lime Tree, as well as serving as a supervisory officer.

In her research, Bianca focuses on how the dilemma between individual and collective interests can be optimally managed to create cooperation, collaboration and effective group performance. For team members, collaboration means finding a balance between their own interests and those of the team as a whole. This can create both opportunities and problems, and Bianca’s research focuses on how individuals and groups deal with this. For this reason, her research questions address the motivational and contextual factors that determine behaviour within scenarios such as teamwork, conflict resolution and negotiations.

“I like to hold up a mirror to participants to show them the beauty of their humanity as well as giving them insight into their dark sides: the shadow selves that we all possess.”

Rozemarijn Dols is an occupational and organisational psychologist and a former director of the consultancy LTP. She has her own practice – Dols-Consult – as well as being a partner at De Nieuwe Verdieping. Her everyday duties focus on leadership and talent development, team coaching, career advice and ‘movie coaching’. The central aspect of her strategy is to use a variety of working methods to unlock undiscovered talent in people. By working with clips from films, she gets inside her participants’ minds by asking penetrating questions and conducting compelling thought experiments. She works in the medical sector as well as for various types of government bodies and commercial organisations. She has a variety of publications to her name in the field of coaching and leadership development, the latest of which are about the lessons that leaders can learn from films. In March 2019, she will release a publication about female leadership.

Marleen Stoltz is actrice, programmamaker and integrative Counselor/Coach

Marleen Stoltz is an actor and creator of TV programmes. She has over 25 years of on-stage experience, has acted for nearly all major theatre companies in the Netherlands and was nominated for a high-profile theatre award for her role as Cloaca in Maria Goos. Her main role at the moment is editor-in-chief of various talk shows in De Rode Hoed and De Nieuwe Liefde in Amsterdam.

Marieke Van den Brink studied organisational anthropology at VU University Amsterdam. In 2009, she earned a PhD cum laude from Radboud University for her doctoral thesis entitled ‘Behind the scenes of science: Gender practices in the recruitment and selection of professors in the Netherlands.’ Based on her doctoral thesis, she published ‘Hoogleraarbenoemingen in Nederland (m/v). Mythen, feiten en aanbevelingen’(Eng: ‘Appointment of Professors (M/F) in the Netherlands: Myths, Facts and Recommendations’). She has won numerous prestigious accolades and grants during her career, including the Dr I.B.M. Frye Stipend in 2007, the Praemium Erasmianum Research Prize in 2009 and the Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in 2011. In 2015, she was appointed as a member of the Young Academy within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and since 1 April 2016, she has been Professor of Gender & Diversity at Radboud University.

Her all-encompassing field of research examines the position and function of gender and diversity within organisations as well as factors that both facilitate and hinder the prevention of indirect and subconscious exclusion of specific groups on the labour market. She also provides teaching and training in the field of gender and diversity policy, leadership and interventions.