Leader

IN-HOUSE IMPACT LEADER. COALITON BUILDER. IMAGINE LEADER.

Guiding teams, organizations and ecosystems to move from ambition to action. Most recently, in-house as Director Health & Sustainability (Europe & Indonesia) at Ahold Delhaize.

In today’s reality of constrained organizational resources and competing priorities, addressing environmental and social challenges is tough. Organizations that want to deliver progress often have a difficult time connecting business and societal interests. In addition, while an intention to do good is a great start, having the desired positive impact is not a given. There are many reasons for this, for example:

• Sustainability in isolation: failure to credibly integrate sustainability efforts within the broader business strategy (and as a consequence, its targets), brand mission or culture of an organization.

• Counterproductive outcomes: poorly informed strategies can deliver results that actually (unintentionally) harm people or nature.

• Disconnected ecosystem: efforts that are not moving in synergy with industry peers (competitors - in some cases), value chain partners (suppliers), communities or societal needs can create inefficiencies, ineffectiveness or undesirable overlap with existing efforts.

Fortunately, many organizations I’ve worked with have shown that complexities like these can be overcome. From my experience, it takes a team that is, among other things, able to:

• Create strategies that challenge the status quo in a critical yet constructive and positive way.

• Combine business sense (which includes knowing how to create value) with sustainability knowledge and systems thinking.

• Engage with stakeholders, enabled by a broad, relevant and diverse network.

• Demonstrate perseverance, resourcefulness and open-mindedness.

CONNECTING HEARTS & MINDS

A crucial enabler of the qualities above, is an ability to (and genuine interest in) building and nurturing meaningful collaborations and human relationships: both within and between organizations. Emotional intelligence and innovative communication skills are essential, in order to:

• create a spirit that collectively acknowledges the progress already made;

• engages everyone (to be) involved about the work that lies ahead;

• build a shared sense of meaning - tailored to what motivates each functional department and geography (market).

The examples below show my leadership journey, putting all of the above in practice, in a chronological order. Feel free to also check out my non-executive board roles.