Onno Koelman

My personal leadership journey began with my high school and college athletic career. I was captain of several water polo teams, and my college career culminated in an unofficial vote of MVP during the National Championship my senior year. I became fascinated by teams as I played on team after team, and this seed of curiosity flourished years later when I became a leadership consultant. After college, I led as the first engineer and then early sales leader at a fast-growing start-up in the Silicon Valley. And then when I left that national Director of Sales position, I started my own start-up, co-founding one agency with an excellent leader and mentor, and then leaving that to focus more on my own ventures. So both within and outside of companies, I've been on leadership teams and close to the biggest and most stressful decisions and moments. Now, as a coach and consultant, I've worked with hundreds of leaders - from managers, directors, and VPs right up to the CEO and CTO levels - so I've developed a suite of tools along with a business acumen that allows me to serve each leader what they most need in a given moment. I've done a lot of work in the tech sector, and my engineering degree and background serves me well with technical audiences - both white and blue collar. I've also worked with physicians and nurses in healthcare, with biotech, the federal government, and also NGOs and electric utilities.

I'm happiest when clients (individuals or teams) emerge after our engagement as more aware, more capable, and more relaxed. In simple terms the journey is from our 'reactive' ways of being toward more 'proactive' ways of being, and when I can help clients either in 1:1 coaching, or in a team setting achieve growth in this direction, I'm most satisfied and fulfilled (and - so are they!).

Some of my strengths that help foster this growth are:

* Empathy - I learned early on in life to be extremely attuned to what others are feeling, and this is now one of my greatest strengths. I've also lived in multiple cultures and speak several languages, which allows me to switch perspectives more easily than most.

* Pattern Recognition - whether it's my engineering degree, or the various frameworks I've absorbed, I'm quite good at seeing the bigger picture quickly and then distilling down to the essence. From there, I can match the problem with the appropriate tool or mindset or previous situation to get traction. The more clients I coach, the larger my internal database of patterns becomes and the sharper and more helpful I am becoming.

* Positivity - I bring positive, can-do energy to even the most difficult individual or team situations. This sometimes includes a little humour, but even when it's not overt, my buoyancy (so I'm told!) is contagious.

Adult Development theory (Kegan), IFS (Schwartz), Growth Mindset, and ideas from The Culture Code (Coyle) are all important influences that underpin my approach as a Leadership Development facilitator and coach.

One of the key reasons I work with LIW is our unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality learning solutions at every level. I deeply appreciate the organisation's culture, characterised by introspection, continuous improvement, and a purposeful desire to excel. LIW's genuine care and concern for its staff, clients, and all stakeholders is part of the behind-the-scenes secret sauce that allows us to create meaningful and impactful experiences for our clients.

I like to create an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to participate fully and get what they came for. My participants have described me as approachable, warm, and engaging.