My leadership journey: from engineering teacher to global executive to leadership (team) coach

Leadership was not a title I chased. It was something that emerged, slowly and consistently, as the red thread running through every phase of my life and work.

In fact my first leadership experiences started when I was 14-20 years old.

Managing people at the age of 14-21

First of all I was born on and spend most of my time at the farm and later, when my parents left the farm, I continued working on farms. At the age of 16 I was leading the work processes in a farm’s shed where tulip bulbs were processed during summer holidays. Usually 40-50 kids of my age were in the shed and I had to take care of the productivity, the issues, sometimes small conflicts or fights. I also had to do the admin to make sure each individual got paid the correct amount on Friday afternoon. Sometime I had to take a team of approx. 10 persons to the land to weed for 1-2 weeks. I do remember getting regular feedback and especially tips and tricks from the farmer, for leading groups and how to behave like a leader. A lot of conscious and even more unconscious learning about leading and especially about myself.

Secondly, at the age of 14-15, I started as a DJ. The old-fashined one of course because this is in 1977-1978. Together with a friend, we build our own drive-in discotheek and organized our marketing, so we were invited (and paid) for various parties and youth clubs. After a short while we performed once or twice a week, driving our parents crazy who had to transport it all, and do the pick-up, often late after midnight. They never complaint and later I learned they really enjoyed us being such young entrepreneurs. They also mentioned it was a great way to keep a handle on our whereabouts and behavior, and for instance the use of alcohol. Making people happy with music and our performances as DJ’s was a great experience, especially for a somewhat shy person as I was in my early years. We also build our own equipment, even the amplifiers, etc.

Thirdly, I also was a fanatic basketball player, being almost 2 meters tall from 15 years onwards. I played often in 2 teams – being a junior I also played with the senior team already. Around my 17th I was even invited to join some trainings at the Dutch national team, but after 4-5 times I concluded this was a bridge too far. In the club where I played, I took on several side jobs, next to being a player. I became the trainer/coach of the junior team that played in the national competition, even got myself formally certified to be a trainer. Next to that I did run other management jobs in the club and organized various big events, obviously not alone, this is always teamwork. Again, great learning and experiences that still play a role today.

When you lead but are unaware, and others see a leader in you, you are in your blind spot (unknown to self, known to others). This includes behaviors, habits, or impacts you don’t see, but others notice. I learned everything from experience and was carefully guided by others, for example how my tone affected others, my impact in group meetings, or perceived strengths I underestimated. I was blessed with great people guiding me the exploration of my leadership abilities.

The Early Years: Learning How People Learn

I went to university at the age of 21. Yes, I had been too busy with sport, playing being the popular DJ and enjoying life in all its dimensions. When I graduated as a teacher in electro-engineering at the age of 26, I stepped into my first leadership role without realizing it. Leading a classroom requires presence, clarity, authority, and empathy — often more than many corporate roles do. Especially when the class is made up of 32 long-term unemployed people, ranging from 20-60 years old and many of them – if not all – had more life experience than me. There was a person just released from being 6 years in prison, a person still addicted to heroine, a few women who raised kids till they were 15-16 years old and wanted to return to a job. This was in 1987 and the labor market in the Netherlands was horrible. Unemployment rates were at the level of 10-12% and reorganizations and mass-lay-offs were in the news weekly. My task was to spend 5 days a week with the group and make them computer engineers from nothing. This also included organizing days with companies to make the group known with the type of jobs they were preparing and learning for, how to write a application letter and build-up an attractive CV, etc. A very rewarding job and I learned by far more from the students than they learned from me….

In those early years, I discovered Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle during university and watched my students learn best when they could experience something, reflect on it, conceptualize it, and then try again. The moment I understood that people grow through experience rather than instruction, something clicked. Now I know:

Leadership is fundamentally about enabling learning, developing people and teams.

These insights became the foundation for everything I later did in management, operations, and executive roles. I did not know it yet, but the seeds of my coaching philosophy were planted right there, among cables, circuit boards, and curious minds.

From classrooms to corporate life: the first transformation

When I transitioned from teaching into the corporate world, I carried one assumption:

People everywhere want to understand how things work, systems, teams, organizations, just as much as students want to understand how circuits work.

My early career moved through IT, transport, and logistics before touching the semiconductor industry later on. I stepped into environments filled with pressure, performance demands, and constant change. Yet everywhere I went, one pattern remained true: success depended on how well people worked together.

In these years, I learned to lead not through authority, but through influence. I discovered the difference between managing and changing behavior. I learned what it means to build trust in environments where targets are non-negotiable. And I developed the ability to see both the system and the individual inside it, a skill that became invaluable later as a coach.

Leading in a VUCA world before the word existed

By the time I moved into senior leadership roles — first in learning and development, operations, then HR, and later in operations excellence and at last program, project, and portfolio management, the world of work had become undeniably VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

I experienced global competition, supply chain disruptions, cultural frictions, cost pressures, reorganisations, and the rise of digitalisation. I worked in organisations where operational demands collided with strategic ambitions, and where leaders often had to decide without ever having the full picture.

I trained and led teams across 50+ countries, worked in highly sensitive political environments, and managed initiatives where a single wrong decision could impact thousands of employees.

Through this, I learned one of the most important lessons of my career: In a VUCA world, leaders must learn faster than the environment changes.

Traditional leadership behaviors, control, authority, predictability, were no longer enough and far less relevant. The world demanded adaptability, reflection, transparency, and continuous learning.

And I began to understand why so many leaders struggled.

The turning point: leadership development as strategy

I eventually became responsible for setting up leadership development programs that touched hundreds of leaders across the globe, including the now well-known 4-year program for 400 operations managers and the Edelman award winning Global Optimization (GO) Academy.

I learned what happens when:

• multi layers of leadership learn together
• people confront their own patterns
• psychological safety becomes a strategic asset
• operations-driven cultures shift from independence to interdependence
• senior leaders share their real struggles, not their polished presentations

Those years cemented my conviction that leadership drives culture, and culture determines performance. The most successful organizations were not the ones with the best systems. They were the ones with the best leaders — leaders who could both understand themselves and create environments where others could succeed.

Executive leadership: complexity at scale

My roles as senior manager and managing director required leading at scale — orchestrating teams, processes, and strategies across multiple continents. I learned to make decisions under pressure, navigate difficult politics, and guide transformations where certainty was not possible.

I also saw, up close, the cost of poor leadership:

• disengaged teams
• ad-hoc firefighting culture
• decision paralysis
• blaming cultures
• rework, misalignment, unnecessary conflict
• loss of purpose

And I saw the opposite — what happens when leaders are open, self-aware, human, and courageous. Performance improves. Alignment strengthens. People speak up. Teams innovate. The organization breathes again.

These experiences shaped the philosophy I bring to coaching today.

Becoming a leadership coach: making 35+ years useful to others

After decades in global leadership roles, I realised that the most meaningful part of my work had always been helping people grow. I have always trained and coached people and sometimes teams. I decided in 2017 to become a co-active coach and in the same moment I founded Salomons.Coach, everything aligned:

• my passion for human development
• my experience in operations and complexity
• my understanding of organisations under pressure
• my belief in continuous learning
• my coaching mindset rooted in Kolb, VUCA, and experiential leadership
• my global perspective
• my desire to help leaders lead themselves first

I did not want to become just another coach.

I wanted to help leaders change behavior — for real, sustainably, and visibly.

Today, my clients include executives, senior managers, and leadership teams across industries. I support them in navigating complexity, building resilient cultures, and becoming the kind of leader people want to follow, not because they must, but because they trust them.

What I believe now

After more than 35 years in leadership, one truth has become clear:

Leadership is not about power. It is about presence.

Not about controlling outcomes, but enabling growth.

Not about protecting yourself, but expanding your awareness.

Authentic leadership starts with self-leadership — the willingness to look in the mirror, to reflect, to reset, and to realign. Everything I teach, coach, and design today is built around this principle.

Whether I work with an executive team in a high-tech factory, a senior leader facing personal transitions, or a global organisation in need of cultural transformation, the underlying message is the same:

• Leaders who know themselves lead better.
• Leaders who reflect adapt faster.
• Leaders who grow unlock growth in others.

This is my life’s work. This is my leadership journey. And this is why I continue to help leaders become the best version of themselves — especially when the world around them becomes the worst version of itself.