And better doesn’t mean more polite.
Some of the organizations I’ve enjoyed working with, then and now
When people call me
01
Your strategy is decided. And yet, nothing has moved.
02
Your leaders are strong individually. Together, they run separate kingdoms.
03
Everyone in your meeting agrees. That’s what worries you.
04
Your team works well. You sense it could be exceptional.
05
You’ve stepped into a bigger role, and the strengths that got you there are starting to get in the way.
Three ways to work with me
Retreats
Your annual retreat, made to count. Two or three days away, designed around the questions your team is actually facing: the strategy, a stuck decision, the conversation everyone postpones.
Team coaching & facilitation
A series of sessions over months, built around what your team has to get done: a new growth phase, an integration after a merger, a strategy that has to land in many places at once.
Assessment & coaching
One-to-one coaching and assessments at the senior level. Honest, specific, and something you can actually use.
Keynotes
Book me to speak at your next leadership event or conference. I deliver two interactive talks: one on Collective Intelligence, one on the Power of Professional Closeness.
Client stories
Five companies merged into one. Then a new majority owner. Two years, one leadership team.
“Govert worked with us to clearly define our goals and desired outcomes, particularly with a focus on leadership development. […] His contributions have been significant to the team’s development and success.”
Trond-Øystein Bjørnnes
Group CEO, Kiona
Six years, five continents: growth plans for markets and whole cities, built by the people who had to deliver them.
What I see today: many of those participants run whole markets at the executive level. They left the program with a whole new way of looking at their business.
Global retailer
In my words, as lead facilitator · 2016–2022
High touch, low tech
The room
is the medium.
Hardly any slides. Floor cards, walls, flipcharts, music, the outdoors. People on their feet, out of their heads. Serious work tends to happen standing up.
The thinking behind my work
Professional Closeness
★ Amazon #1 bestseller
Most leaders think staying detached keeps them objective. Usually, it just means their own biases go unchallenged. Closeness turns candor from a risk into an asset. I wrote The Power of Professional Closeness in 2019; the work has been testing it ever since.
About
Hi, I’m Govert.
I began my career assessing suspects for the courts, where maintaining strict professional distance was the priority. I quickly realized it fails. For 20+ years, I’ve been using Professional Closeness, the exact opposite approach, to facilitate leadership teams across the globe.
30 minutes, by video or phone. You’ll leave with an honest view, even if the answer is that you don’t need me.