Video – How does Stijn (Telenet) switch between management roles?

In this episode of the Kanaal Z series Leadership in Action (in Dutch), Stijn Eulaerts shares how, in his new role as manager, he felt as though he was constantly being pulled along by others. “I felt like I always had to be available.”

Stijn Eulaerts, VP Product Management Residential & Soho – Telenet Group: “The biggest challenge for me as a manager is the wide range of roles you're expected to switch between throughout the day. One moment you're solving an urgent issue, the next you're in a meeting with senior management discussing the roadmap for the next eighteen months. An hour later, you're having a coaching conversation with a team member who isn’t feeling their best. In a single morning, you're a coach, a strategist, an incident manager.”

Gerrit Sarens, Leadership Expert – Ambits: “When you move from expert to manager, you go from a job with a narrow, defined focus to one with a much broader scope. And that’s often where leaders feel like they're being lived—like their agenda is constantly being dictated by others, racing from one meeting to the next.”

Stijn: “What I struggled with the most at the start was this idea that a leader always had to be available. I sometimes compared myself to a GP seeing patients all day. I was always around. Which meant I still had loads of other work to finish in the evenings. I’ve learned that I have to protect those boundaries myself, and that it’s okay to say ‘no’ from time to time.”

Gerrit: “Research shows that we, as humans, need 47% of our time to do what’s called ‘wandering’. That means doing nothing, letting our minds drift, disconnecting completely, doing something totally unrelated. Definitely not being on your smartphone, of course. But we need that time. And I see many leaders don’t come close to that 47%. The impact is real—it affects your focus, your productivity, and even your ability to connect with others during the day.
And as a result, if we don’t take that time during the day, we end up taking it at night. Our brains force us to process everything then. That’s the classic pattern many leaders recognise—difficulty falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night. It’s simply your brain trying to claim that 47% of ‘wander time’—not during the day, but at night.”

Stijn: “By nature, I’m quite chaotic. I really need structure. During coaching, I learned that this is actually what helps me most in my role. And I communicated that to the people around me. So now, the people who help with my schedule—and even my team—know that I need those moments of calm during the day. ”

Gerrit: “Showing vulnerability has only positive effects. Your colleagues and team members will feel more comfortable being open themselves if they know their manager is still learning and occasionally hits a wall. It sends the message that it’s okay to make mistakes. And ultimately, that’s exactly what we want: to create a growth mindset in our teams where everyone feels safe to experiment and learn from failure.”

Stijn: “The biggest step forward came when I started openly communicating this to the people around me. They can really support me by scheduling and protecting those focus blocks in my calendar.
At Telenet, we get a lot of support. A great example is the Accelerator programme—an 18-month track open to anyone who wants to grow within the company. On top of that, we receive personalised coaching on relevant topics.”

Geert Degezelle, Chief Commercial B2B – Telenet Group: “If you're new to leadership, you can take a management training course. We also offer an Accelerator Track for ambitious colleagues looking to grow. That growth can be vertical, but also lateral. We strongly encourage that. In addition, we offer various e-learning modules to support leadership development.”

Stijn: “If I had to name one thing that’s made the biggest difference in my career, it would be the fact that here, you can speak openly about your ambitions. There’s absolutely no issue with saying you’d like to do your manager’s job one day."