On Tuesday, June 15, Gwen Dudok van Heel, founder of Dudok Consulting, was featured in the Leadership episode of Business Open 3.0 on New Business Radio. “Strengthening people and organizations is Gwen’s passion and she believes that good is not good enough,” introduces Roelof Meijer.
Leadership, an important topic in organizations. “What does leadership mean to you?” begins Roelof.
“Leadership has many definitions. It’s about motivating employees, achieving results, and inspiring people. Inspiring and influencing others with the aim of achieving the ambition of an organization: mission, vision, and goals,” Gwen explains. “This means that you have to know yourself well, that’s where it starts,” she adds.
Listen to the segment or continue reading below
Listening time: 8 minutes
How about yourself?
“Life is a journey of discovery. Development is important for myself and also for my clients.”
What is important for a leader now?
“The mix of things. A good leader stands out with a clear vision. They know how to take their team on their journey. They convey it. Good leaders also know how to adapt their leadership to each individual, each team, and to the context.”
Gwen gives a lot of training to leaders. What do you often encounter where things go wrong?
“I often get the question: can you do something with my team? I always give this question back. I start with the leader themselves. If there is no connection between the leader and the team, it doesn’t make sense.”
How do good leaders distinguish themselves?
“Apart from a clear vision and taking people along, a good leader is also willing to learn. The leader must learn faster than the employees and encourage feedback, that’s how you learn. Emotional intelligence is also very important. This involves 1. the degree of self-awareness and 2. social awareness, also known as empathy: how do you read others and how do you deal with that. EQ is developable, but good leaders naturally often have a high EQ.”
Leaders, directors, entrepreneurs. You work a lot with entrepreneurs. How do entrepreneurship and leadership relate to each other?
“As an entrepreneur, you often have a financial goal anyway. When your business grows, it means you hire people. And then often problems arise. You get caught up in the daily grind, do everything yourself, don’t know your employees well while juggling many balls and trying to maintain control. Then you have to make the shift to leadership. Getting to know yourself better and setting priorities: what are you going to manage and what are you going to delegate. When you start delegating things to your team, team development comes into play. Entrepreneurs who start leading have to develop themselves faster than their employees.”
Should every entrepreneur also be a good leader?
“Yes and no. If you grow and hire employees, yes. My philosophy is that with good leadership, you grow more effortlessly, achieve results more easily, and innovate faster. And you create a safe environment for your employees so that they dare to stick their neck out and go for you. When you grow, you have to learn to lead quickly.”
“I also work with shareholders who say I want to keep growing. Or those who want to buy and sell quickly. But as long as you are at the helm, you have to lead.”
If you want to describe leadership in one sentence, what would that be? A good definition.
“From good self-knowledge, providing tailor-made alignment and guidance to individuals and teams to effortlessly achieve business results. And to create a safe environment for employees.”
Want to learn more about leadership? Click here for all articles Gwen has written about and for leaders. Sign up here for the Dudok Consulting Newsletter for even more new knowledge about leadership, communication, organization, and team development.
