Derk Egeler of De Transformatiegroep: leadership is the ability to make connections | NPM Capital

It’s common to say that someone is a ‘born leader’. This would imply that leadership is an innate quality rather than a learned way of acting and communicating. What is your own take on this?

“I think leadership is certainly a quality that’s intrinsic to some degree, but also that we can learn throughout our careers about what is and isn’t effective in that regard. Since talking about ‘leadership’ in a general sense isn’t particularly helpful, I’ll first tell you how I personally define leadership, which is ‘making connections’. I would describe a leader as someone who can connect the old and new generations, the old with the new economy, and different cultures and religions… I would say that the ability to make connections is the most important quality the type of leader our society needs today should possess.”

Many people think that leadership primarily involves having a vision, being in control, and guiding others…

“There used to be this belief when it came to leadership that you always had to defer to your superiors: ‘The boss knows best,’ and all that. In a business culture with a deeply entrenched hierarchical structure, people will look to the leader as the person who tells them what needs to be done. And sure, they would expect that person to have a certain vision and to always lead by example. But I don’t think that particular definition of leadership really holds up today. Our society has simply changed too much, and while Dutch society used to be neatly compartmentalised along religious, social and political lines, those lines have become completely blurred today. With that social stratification now gone, what makes the difference in our society is the ability to bring people together.”

You have written that ‘you can only lead others if you know how to lead yourself’. What exactly do you mean by that?

“It means you can be a true leader only if you’re able to address your own questions and doubts and are not afraid to pursue your dreams and ambitions. If you’re grounded and stay connected with yourself, it becomes a lot easier to connect as a leader with others members of your team, for example. Leadership means you don’t present yourself as someone who has all the answers, but as someone who is also flawed – yet who is not afraid to explore the strength of our differences.”

You are the chairman of the Foundation for Natural Leadership. The name of this organisation would also suggest that leadership is inborn... Can you enlighten us?

“If we define leadership as the ability to connect, that would suggest that we are all potential leaders, since we all have that ability, the gift of connecting with those around us. But like I said, that requires that you lead yourself first. And that’s what our Foundation aspires to do: encouraging businesspeople to connect with themselves, so as to enable them to connect with others. Our philosophy is that the key to this is nature, since in the natural world everything is connected with each other by definition. That’s why we organise trails for our members, where we spend several days in the African wilderness or in the mountains, without mobile phones, laptops and broadband connections but with plenty of light, air and wide-open space. This allows the participants to slowly reconnect with themselves over the course of the trip. At the airport before taking off, you’ll still see them making calls and wheeling and dealing, but after two or three days they undergo a transformation. That’s when they finally have time for reflection. How do I handle my responsibilities? To what extent have I internalised my parents’ behavioural patterns? Is the type of behaviour that was effective 20 years ago to mobilise others still effective today? And finally, do I still dare to have dreams – both personal aspirations and business goals?”

Experience has shown that shareholders in particular tend to take a dim view of CEOs whose leadership is based on a long-term vision of the bigger picture. In their view, a leader is only as good as his last quarterly results.

“Yes, and that’s something that puts many CEOs in a bit of a bind. They have to find a balance between strong short-term stock performance on the AEX index to keep the shareholders happy and pursuing that long-term vision or dream, if you will, they have in mind for their company. I’m not going to pretend that it’s always smooth sailing – that’s why you also get successful leaders who have less of a gift for connecting people but who are more domineering or have a very strong vision – like Steve Jobs. There are many ways that lead to Rome. But in cases like that you’ll at least need to hire a liaison officer of some sort, someone who can communicate with the rest of the organisation so as to bridge whatever gap may exist.”

Your own leadership credentials are pretty impressive. How do you see yourself? 

“I’ve spent my entire life bringing people together and finding people in my team who were better than I at certain aspects of my job. I also made a point of seeking out industries – first unconsciously and later consciously – that had corporate cultures where my talent to connect people would serve me well. The beverage industry, for example, is heavy on fun and entertainment: it’s an industry where you’ll often find yourself chatting with customers about the finer things in life. I eventually made it to CEO of Remy Cointreau in the Netherlands, and that’s when I noticed certain changes and the fact that I was mainly concerned with creating shareholder value. It’s not that I didn’t know how to do that, but it wasn’t what made me happy. So I ended up doing what I enjoyed more than anything: working with top executives and using team mediation as a resource. Looking back now, I would say that I’m good in some areas of leadership and weaker in others. I also freely admit that there are other industries in which I wouldn’t have got nearly as far as I did, simply because I would have had to meet a different set of demands.”

You were commissioned by NPM Capital to develop a leadership programme for the CEOs and CFOs of our investee companies, partly in association with TIAS Business School. Can you tell us a little more about that?

“I would like to say first of all that I appreciate the fact that a company like NPM recognises the importance of connective leadership and is willing to invest in it without demanding any sort of influence or control over the programme. To me, that shows great confidence and trust in the managers participating in the programme. The programme is divided into four modules. The first module centres on personal leadership, which we define as effectively knowing, influencing and motivating yourself and others. In the next module, we focus on the strategy and the relationships with stakeholders, shareholders and the government. The module after that will examine innovation as a condition for survival and we conclude the programme with an Alpine trail where these aspects all come together. So we’re only at the halfway point right now, but we have already essentially created a strong support and feedback group, with a really special dynamic between younger and older participants and people with various levels of experience bonding together and contributing to each other’s development.”

Final question: wouldn’t you say the ‘perfect’ form of leadership depends on the situational context first and foremost?

“If you mean to say that organisations might need different types of leaders at different stages of their life cycle, I would say: yes. But that’s why it’s so good for managers to take time out to reflect on all that at regular intervals: am I still the right guy for this job? Am I getting to use my talents to their full potential at this stage of the company’s development? Those are not the types of questions you ask yourself when you’re spending 70 hours a week running the business, but all the more so in the type of ‘safe space’ we provide. That’s part of what makes our approach so valuable.”