Blogs

On Reddit it is one of the most discussed workplace themes of the moment: quiet cracking. People who do not leave, but quietly crack. You do not recognise it by what someone does, but by what someone no longer does.

Your drivers shape how you naturally lead. Real leaders connect with what drives the other person.

A drivers assessment reveals what naturally motivates people, one layer deeper than behaviour. Discover what it measures, why seven colours give more nuance than four, and how to start for free.

Why the best professional does not automatically become the best manager. We promote people for what they did yesterday, then wonder why they get stuck tomorrow. The best salesperson becomes sales manager. The best specialist becomes head of department. The most experienced professional “gets a team thrown in”.

Two colleagues. The same education. The same experience. The same role. And yet they respond completely differently to the same situation. One wants to act immediately. The other wants to think first. One calls that “getting on with it”. The other calls it “rushing in”. Both are right. And that is precisely where the problem begins.

Ten years ago I wrote an article with exactly this title. It became the most-read piece I have ever published. The message: organisations invest heavily in developing competencies but forget the drivers of their people. And those drivers determine whether someone truly performs or merely functions.

When we think of burnout, we often picture overflowing calendars, endless meetings and inboxes that explode faster than popcorn in the microwave. That does not change the fact that workload genuinely plays a part. On the other hand, there are people who put in sixty-hour weeks without batting an eyelid. How is that possible?

Every year, many thousands of people resolve to live healthier, work more effectively or take greater control of their lives. If you are one of them, you may recognise the pattern in which a strong start is often followed by a swift relapse.

It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. With this fine line from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, the Red Queen lays bare a fundamental truth: in a world of constant change, standing still is not an option.

You know them: that one colleague who always seeks connection, another who loves rules, or the one who cares about achieving success. And do not forget yourself. In the seven-colour theory of MyDrives, every colour has its own strength, but also its own pitfall.

Whoever laughs last did not get the joke. Is that humour? What even is humour? To stay close to home for a moment: one person is mad about a particular comedian, another about a different one, while a third makes a swift exit the moment a third act appears on screen.

Everyone knows them. Tasks you dread like the plague. That report that has to be finished, that difficult conversation that has to be had, or that inbox crying out for a major clear-out.

Do you also get stressed when you hear the word ’assessment’? The idea that someone is judging you on your skills, personality and potential really can feel like being put under a microscope.

Sure. Your outward presentation can help you win a customer over. They are most likely to do business with a sharply dressed salesperson rather than one in a faded T-shirt. Although, in certain sectors, you should not attach too much importance to that either.

Ask any random person what a colleague is. Nine times out of ten they will tell you it is someone you work for the same company with. In that case the emphasis lies on working alongside one another, and not so much on truly working together.

The US presidential election is coming up. Tuesday 5 November is the day. Who gets to live in the White House for the next four years? Will it be Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? The most recent exit polls point to a neck-and-neck race. Which presidential candidate would you stick your neck out for?

Every person has their own personality. So does every animal, for that matter. You should not play games with that personality, or you will be found out. Take this recent example from China. A zoo in the southern province of Guangdong could not get hold of real pandas.

Relax. You do not have to lose your composure the moment the word ’stress’ comes up. Because stress does not always work against you. It can help you stay alert, sharpen your concentration and challenge you to come up with fresh perspectives.

The idea that your mindset can shape your world almost sounds too good to be true. Yet it is. You really do not have to be a rudderless ship drifting in frustration on a sea of situations that arise anew every single day.

As part of the complete MyDrives MyHabits MyMatch methodology, the seven-colour theory of MyDrives provides insight by uncovering how people perform better by drawing on their drivers.

Today is the final day of the world’s largest tech fair, CES. There you can marvel at a host of new AI applications that make consumer products smarter.

Why do people do what they do? How is it that an employee with less experience is more successful than a colleague with more experience in the same role?

From a formal meeting to an informal coffee break: every gathering calls for a different kind of leadership from a manager. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every situation.

Team-building workshops are a great way to build the best teams by improving collaboration, communication and productivity.

Half-hearted work arises when the interests of employers and employees stand apart from one another and therefore fail to form a unity.

'Surely people have no desire to be forced by their employer to listen to a coach?' I was told this when visiting a relative. My answer was simple: 'Someone who only talks and expects the other person to follow their advice is no coach at all.

’Move fast and break things’ was Facebook’s internal motto for years. Why did this organisation encourage its employees to get going quickly without having to fear making mistakes? And what do the seven MyDrives colours think about making mistakes?

You simply put talented employees together and success follows of its own accord. As a leader or manager you know this is a fairy tale. But what should you actually do to put together a good team that performs even better than well?

You want to grow personally too, do you not? To do so, follow these five steps. At the same time, they make collaboration and communication in your team more effective.

Lobsters are soft creatures that live inside a hard shell. That shell cannot expand. The question is how the lobster manages to grow regardless. It works like this: when a lobster grows...

Today Max Verstappen receives the world cup at the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony in Paris. He has earned that trophy on the basis of his individual talent. But equally...

Answer the following question: ‘A hockey stick and ball cost €1.10 together. The hockey stick costs €1 more than the ball. How many euro cents does the ball cost?’ After professor Shane Frederick put this and similar questions to students at universities such as MIT and Harvard, he reached a striking conclusion.

Wherever people work together, a culture emerges of its own accord. Usually unconsciously, we adapt to one another so that a fixed and recognisable pattern forms. And that is a good thing, too. Otherwise working together would become a very difficult business.

An old master takes a morning walk with his pupils. After a while the sun breaks through. Dewdrops are visible everywhere. He gathers his pupils around a large drop that catches the sunlight and asks: ’What colour is this drop?’ ’Red’, says the first pupil. ’Orange’, says the second and ’yellow’ the third. And so each pupil names a different colour, right down to the last, who genuinely sees purple. They are amazed that everyone sees a different colour.

Stephen Covey sold more than fifteen million copies of his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Afterwards he realised once again that trust is the foundation of successful organisations and individuals.

At the bottom of the iceberg, your personal drivers, your intrinsic motivation, answer the question: what do I want? These underlying drivers steer the visible behaviour at the top of the iceberg. That is where the question is answered: what do I do? Through the specific behaviour that individuals and teams display, collaboration runs smoothly or, conversely, becomes strained.

How is it that one student settles for a pass mark while another strives for top marks? How come one student loves solving mathematical problems while another looks forward to the next practical lesson?

The coronavirus crisis is new to everyone. That raises a lot of questions. Am I taking enough precautions? How long will this last? Will I still have my job afterwards? In such uncertain times, it is only logical that we fall back on our preferred behaviour. That is our comfort zone. And it feels familiar and safe.

By combining wanting, being able and doing, a more complete picture of a person emerges, and as an individual or organisation you can make better decisions and genuinely move forward. Since the early last century, countless models have been developed to better understand human behaviour. A few well-known models: the Big Five is a theory based on five personality traits...

Two questions sit at the heart of the Tuckman model: where do you stand now as a team and where do you want to be in future? To answer those questions, the model uses four phases: forming, storming, norming and performing. In the forming phase, a team of employees and a manager have only just come together, and communication largely runs through the manager, who sets out the line to follow.

During the annual MyDrives consultants’ meeting, Marc Stijfs, together with Jos Crijns the founder of MyDrives MyHabits and MyMatch, once again brings up the example of the British Men’s Rowing Eight, one of the topics at the previous meeting for MyDrives consultants in Thorn.

How is it that someone who has fully mastered a role is still not happy? How do you explain that someone who graduates with distinction does not succeed in their job? And how is it that someone with little experience sometimes performs better than a colleague with plenty of experience?

Years ago I read ’Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us’ by Daniel Pink. When I came across the book again during the renovation of our office, I realised how timeless its content is.

Where better to begin a boat trip than in Waterstraat (Water Street)? Here, at Kasteelhoeve De Grote Hegge in Thorn, around thirty MyDrives consultants from all corners of the country gather on Thursday 15 March.

The cobra effect arises when a solution makes the original problem worse. Where does the name come from? From here: the British government of India was, at the time, concerned about the large number of venomous cobras in the city of Delhi.

The MyMatch method clearly indicates which type of personality, with its accompanying drivers, best fits a particular role. But what are the consequences for an employee and their employer when there is a mismatch?

Suppose that, as an HR or department manager, you are tasked by your superior with organising a team meeting so that everyone gains more insight into each other’s personality, strengths and weaknesses.

A year ago I read an article about Ethereum. I thought: there we have yet another digital coin in the list of bitcoin, dash, monero and so on. Until then I had had little interest in digital currencies, or cryptocurrencies..

Date: Thursday 16 March 2017. Location: the Hotel Management School in Maastricht. In these natural and relaxed surroundings, around thirty MyDrives consultants from across the country are present at a MyDrives gathering. The topic is stress.

Everyone deals with stress at some point. That is not necessarily a negative thing. A little healthy stress is even desirable. You need that accompanying tension in order to get moving. Many students, for example, wait until the last moment to start studying.

A year ago I send the final version of my first management book ’De aard van jouw beestje’ to the printer. A few weeks later I hold a stack of copies in my hands.

On the last day of August 2016, the MyDrives team is in Tilburg to deliver an interactive MyDrives workshop for the Destil Trappers. For those who do not yet know this ice hockey club: because they are too good for the Dutch league...

How is it that someone has fully mastered a role and yet is unhappy? Why is an enviable qualification no guarantee of success? How is it that someone with less experience delivers better results than someone with years of experience?

Culture is a word I hear often when I give workshops on individual drivers and behaviour. Wherever people work together, a culture emerges of its own accord. Usually unconsciously, we adapt to one another so that a fixed and recognisable pattern forms.