Guy Wuyts

I encourage employees to look beyond their area of expertise and to think along with the business and the organization.

For Guy Wuyts, coaching leadership within IT is inextricably linked to a strong corporate culture of involvement, respect and equality. More than ever, he succeeds in getting his international IT teams to work in direct connection with the business. In this way, they can crunch deadlines, to great satisfaction of both committed employees and senior leadership. Guy’s excellent skills in the field of coaching leadership is further proven by this nomination for ICT & Digital Coach of the Year.

What does inspirational and coaching leadership mean to Guy Wuyts?

“Coaching leadership is, above all else, the art of stimulating growth and development in your employees as well as the organization. The foundation for succeeding in this is to create a supportive corporate culture in which close collaboration between IT and business is central, and where everyone has the chance to fully realize his or her potential.”

“I listen to my teams, ask the right questions and provide useful feedback, so that employees come up with solutions themselves. I encourage them to look beyond their area of expertise and to think along with the business and the organization. For some highly technical profiles, this is not self-evident.”

“When employees are given the space for self-development and autonomy, they feel more involved. They see the impact of their work for the organization much more clearly, which significantly increases job satisfaction.”

Which personal achievements is Guy most proud of?

New model of working

“We have implemented the Safe-agile way of working at group and brand level. In concrete terms, this meant a new working method for 150 people in 3 countries. Product teams with people from business departments and IT are now working together to build new capabilities. The effect? Both the work performed and job satisfaction have significantly improved. Employees from both IT and Business feel valued. They now support each other to achieve goals.”

Servant leadership

“We thoroughly reformed the IT organisation, so that the operational part and the management are aligned. Servant leadership is very important here. And because that’s not a common leadership style in the retail world, the necessary training was provided for executives.”

Soaring confidence

“Currently, there is a mega implementation of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) in 3 countries simultaneously. Thanks to the new Safe-agile way of working, we were able to meet every deadline with IT. As a result, there is enormous trust among senior leadership, but more importantly, that trust is now also there between colleagues across different countries and teams. Refreshing and motivating!