Leen Verraest

20 years of leadership experience in organisations ranging from 7 to 750 employees in the profit, non-profit, and public sectors.

Experience in setting up organisations, with large and small change processes, mergers, and restructurings.

Analytical, creative, and a connector. Furthermore, a strong believer in the power of humour, courage, and kindness.

I divide my free time between my friends, family, drawing, gardening, travelling, and visiting exhibitions at home and abroad. I also sincerely believe in the importance of downtime. There is little as beneficial and inspiring as ‘doing nothing’.

When asked ‘who is your hero,’ I struggle to choose: do I pick someone who has contributed to better women's and human rights, or someone who has fundamentally improved living conditions through technology? I cannot decide. In my eyes, anyone who dares to question what is wrong and looks for ways to do things better is a hero, even if they do not necessarily make the front page.

To my younger self, I would say that it's okay to take your time, that leadership is a process, that perfection is not of this world. ‘Better is perfect’ someone once told me. Those words opened my eyes.

And this is also why I consider mentoring to be so important: being able to exchange ideas with someone, gain experience, ask questions, test a strategy, and discuss an approach makes the work so much richer and more interesting. Learning from each other is not always straightforward when you are a manager, and mentoring offers a way to address this.