How Laura found a different way of leading From the outside, Laura Kunnen’s career looked like a success story. She was preparing for a management buy-out and a future CEO role at a growing international logistics company. The path ahead seemed clear. But internally, something no longer fully aligned. “I felt I needed support to stay connected to myself throughout the process,” Laura explains. “I was operating in a very rational, performance-driven environment. Over time, I s

There is something paradoxical about June. The days are long. Energy rises. In organizations, it often feels as though everyone wants one final push before summer. Deadlines need to be met. Projects are wrapped up quickly. The accelerator gets pressed one last time. And that is precisely why June is also an important month for leadership. Because while the outside world speeds up, something else often begins to happen internally: fatigue, fragmentation, a system that is still

May is a particular kind of month. Past the early days, not yet a full harvest. A space in between, where you can start to see what is taking shape. Organizations know this phase too. Initiatives begin to form, ideas come alive, movement builds. It often feels like progress. And at the same time, this is also where a quieter challenge appears. Not everything that grows deserves your attention. The misconception of growth Many leaders respond to growth by doing more. As if eve

Bart Vanhalle (49) was balancing two large, successful careers. His schedule was overloaded, and the question that brought him to coaching was clear: do I have to choose? What followed with Debbie Baute was not a simple time management course, but a deep, holistic journey back to himself. Bart, a fast thinker whose neurodivergent mind is constantly in motion, felt the connection with Debbie immediately. He was looking for a coach for his work, but found a facilitator for an i

After the eruption A while ago, I visited Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote. At first glance, it feels like a place where life has disappeared. The landscape is dry and dark, shaped by lava and silence. It is difficult to imagine that anything could grow there. In the 18th century, a series of volcanic eruptions covered a large part of the island. Entire villages were destroyed and the land became uninhabitable. What had once been alive turned into a barren surface. For a

Leadership is not only about logic and strategy, but also about who you are as a human being. Malik Azzouzi truly discovered this when he started a coaching journey with Debbie. What began with energy loss and stress, ended in a radical, more aligned choice, both professionally and personally. With a strong set of skills, Malik Azzouzi (41) built an impressive professional path, marked by leadership roles with a focus on marketing, advertising and media, as well as general ma

In times of transition, one reflex almost automatically appears: acceleration. More initiatives. Faster decisions. Speed feels like decisiveness. It gives us the sense that we are in control. That we are acting rather than waiting. But often we accelerate because it is uncomfortable not to know. Because stillness confronts us with what has not yet fully taken shape. In complex systems, additional speed rarely brings real clarity. It may create movement, but it can also hide w

Roberta Bosurgi, a senior executive with a strong corporate background, was serving as CEO of Impact Europe, a not-for-profit network of impact investors, when she met Debbie Baute. In that role, she was facing a profound leadership dilemma: would the corporate leadership toolkit, that had served her so well in that context, help her navigate the organic, network-driven environment she was now supposed to lead? Her initial search for new leadership tools, quickly transformed

Some silence feels spacious and clear. It brings focus, breathing room and perspective. Other silence feels different. Polite. Pleasant. And empty. Meetings run smoothly, but little is actually said. Teams deliver what is asked, but rarely take initiative. Decisions are made and quietly fade into the background. This is not rest. This is freeze. Becoming frozen is not resistance When pressure lasts too long, or uncertainty becomes too great, systems can freeze. Just like peo

January has its own rhythm. Nature turns inward. Not much happens above the ground, yet important things are taking shape underneath. Leadership follows a similar pattern. When we create a bit of quiet inside, we start to sense the field around us and what is ready for our attention. Field awareness is this simple listening. Not dramatic, not mystical, just a softer way of noticing what the system is already doing. January is a helpful month for that. The pace is slower. The

December carries two rhythms at once. On the outside: deadlines, lists, lights. On the inside: a quiet pull to slow down and listen. Nature is already in winter mode. It turns inward, stores energy, prepares the soil. Meanwhile we are still speeding up, trying to finish everything before the year closes. That tension is real. The push and the pull. The noise and the silence. We often think we need to choose between them, but maybe the art of this month is learning to hold bot

Autumn has arrived. The air smells of wet soil and change. Nature isn’t building right now. It’s pruning. What no longer feeds, can go, so that what’s truly alive gets the space to grow. Last month, I joined a program called Illuminating the Hidden Dynamics of Founder-Led Businesses taught by John Whittington. The theme struck a chord, because it starts from a truth I recognize deeply: The family dynamic you grow up in often becomes the blueprint for the organization you bui

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