Bart Van der Herten

Bart Van der Herten

  • Industry

    • Logistics & Transportation
    • Public Sector
    • HR Services
  • Functional expertise domain

    • Business Transformation
    • Change Management
    • General Management

Business Mentor profile

  • Value driven professional with a very wide experience (leadership, company culture development, behavioral change, strategy, innovation)
  • Author of 11 books
  • Values : autonomy, creativity , integrity, health

Unique Bart

Long rides on his bike and elaborate cooking experiments while savoring a decent bottle of wine are Bart's favorite pass times. Extensive reading about leadership, organizational culture, change, and psychological safety is one of the perks of his job. On Bart's nightstand lie Siobhán (Shiv-awn) McHale's 'The Insider Guide to Cultural Change' and 'Hostage at the Table' by George Kohlrieser. And Bart is the author of 'Shiftmakers,' a book about the art of (self-)leadership in the 2020s.

Bart glimpses beauty in music, art, nature, people cooperating, in people discovering their talents, and in growing. This beauty is inspirational and incites action.

His hero is Beethoven, who lived - as we do - in radically changing times. He turned that change into revolutionary and deeply humanistic music at the same time.

Bart lives by the motto,' I am part of the solution.' Changing your mindset to being part of the solution instead of part of the problem causes a shift. Another positioning makes energy flow differently.

Young Bart, he'd advise against wasting time. He sometimes lingered too long to take action. It took a few visionary leaders and mentors to help Bart gain tremendous insights into his inner motivations. Not surprisingly, Bart strongly believes everyone should have a mentor during their career. Intrinsically loving people require a good leader and/or mentor. Every leader should be structurally engaged in mentoring and coaching. Mentoring and good leadership work a bit like magic. It is the Pygmalion effect in action: seeing potential and talent in the other leads to high expectations resulting in improved performance.

Bart can be an inspirational mentor with his empathy, listening skills, challenging questioning, Pygmalion view, unconventional thinking, and continuous self-and leadership development work.

"Enjoy each day and see the positive or adventure in everything that happens to you."

  • “Bart is an expert mentor. He is extremely authentic, has immense patience, and is very supportive and positive. The warmth of his personality and daring to share his challenges he experienced in his career enables you to open up and feel comfortable. The time and effort he puts into the mentoring are far beyond what one might expect. Mentoring is not a job for him but a lifestyle and a calling to share his experience and expertise with others to help people grow.“

    • Joke
    • Product Development Manager

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