Nicolas Van Kerschaver

I trust in the collective intelligence of a team, that’s how you get better results.

‘Inspire instead of delegate.’ This advice was given to this ICT & Digital Coach of the Year award candidate by his predecessor in his first managerial position. At this moment, he immediately discovered Coaching leadership to be his calling. And some 20 years later, Nicolas Van Kerschaver still refers to collaboration, empowerment and continuous learning as the keys to success.

What does inspirational and coaching leadership mean to Nicolas Van Kerschaver?

“When I first got into a leadership role, I realized that many colleagues have more experience and expertise than I do, so it would be a shame if they only carried out what I ask them to do. I’ve always maintained this basic idea: I trust in the collective intelligence of a team, in which all members make maximum use of their expertise and talents. That’s how you get better results.”

“As a coaching leader, I see it as my role to inspire, with the emphasis on ‘motivating’. When employees are deeply engaged, their passion stimulated and talent recognized, the organization will continue to work faster and more innovatively.”

“In addition, I encourage a strong growth mindset , which I translate as: make sure you learn something every day and make sure your team learns something from you. What helps is to clearly identify everyone’s talents and competencies within a team. This feels like recognition to the employees and at the same time ensures that others are more likely to be coached on that topic by that person. So, for me, organizational learning goes far beyond the formal training framework.”

What personal achievements is Nicolas most proud of?

“The achievements I am most proud of are the work of a leadership team. My most important role is to inspire them in this. In my eight years at Liantis, this organization has become an attractive employer for IT talent as we have created a stimulating and challenging working environment for the new generation of digital professionals. We create space for innovation and creativity, use modern collaboration methods, offer plenty of learning opportunities and use state-of-the-art technologies. We also continuously look at processes and technological solutions that increase the independence of teams. That has a stimulating effect.”

“In addition, there emerged a transparent strategy to deploy competencies and capacity both efficiently and purposefully. We made clear choices: for what do we use and train our own employees, for what do we hire consultants and for what do we use external suppliers?”

“We recruit on the basis of attitude and develop the competencies. When I recruit people, I place at least as much importance on their growth mindset, resilience, empathy, analytical thinking and learning ability as I do on their purely technical competencies and experience. This is how we build talents for a robust organization. I also think it’s important to select employees who fit into the team they end up in – in terms of skills, complementarity and personality.”