What is your role at Bolster?
“At Bolster, alongside leadership and strategy, my primary focus is on the underlying dynamics of people, teams, and organizations. I quickly get to the core of how individuals manage their qualities and energy, so I can clearly see whether they are effectively utilizing their potential. This results in valuable insights for improved leadership or overall team performance.”
Can you tell us a bit about your experience?
“I have decades of experience with people. For many years, I have observed how they make choices in their work or personal lives and how they manifest themselves under pressure from deadlines, ambitions, expectations, and targets. It provided me with insights into how people organize themselves or their organization in a way that ultimately does not yield the desired results. The transition to consultancy seemed very logical, but it was not based on a fixed plan. The direction emerged from the moment I started coaching Rogier ‘t Hooft and Thomas Beerepoot (founders of Bolster). It was the prelude to engaging conversations about embracing discomfort, experiencing and harnessing individual and collective energy. Slowly but surely, we became aware of the added value for Bolster, starting from consciously embracing boundaries and limitations to make the intended result more concrete, realistic, and feasible. Once we reached that point, I was on board in no time. Thus, a path unfolded that I had not foreseen.”
What makes working in this area so appealing to you?
“Working with people helps me to simultaneously look at myself; through others, I see myself and the world. I find that fantastic; this way, I monitor myself and continue learning continuously. I find it important, and I love it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to do my job at all. It’s a reciprocal process of providing services and automatically translating what I experience in return back to myself.”
What is your area of expertise?
“In guiding reflection and translating that reflection into immediate execution. Facilitating teams to create a clear shared vision. I am an expert in challenging people to see what is truly needed by making things small and manageable. I do this at Bolster with teams but also through personal coaching.”
What do people tend to achieve under your supervision?
“They become better at their work, live more consciously and effectively. The better you know yourself, the better you understand where your boundaries lie and realize what you avoid, the easier it is to adjust yourself. It’s about paying attention to the image you have of yourself and the behavior that stems from it.
I help people align with what they are working on, make clearer choices, and handle their time more carefully. They achieve more with less effort. And they can, in a stronger connection with themselves, simultaneously collaborate better with team members, address and motivate others. They become better leaders. You cannot look at an organization without looking at the people.”
Can you tell us about the photo?
“This image is from the Top Leadership Program for Total Specific Solutions. You see me in talking with one of the emerging leaders set to progress to a higher leadership position within TSS. I find it fantastic to work for organizations with senior leaders, first-time managers, and high potentials. I find that diversity fascinating.”
What makes your expertise so important for professionals?
“It’s especially important to be self-aware in the workplace. It gives me the opportunity to get close to someone and see what really matters. That’s where the opportunities for structural growth lie. Because when someone succeeds in transforming small, but recurring undervalued aspects of themselves, then you can make great strides in terms of energy, communication, thinking, and acting.
We, from Bolster, are involved, deeply engaged. We observe and safeguard the process. I experience how someone operates. The program becomes the workplace. How does someone position themselves? There’s a lot to see and learn during a program. As a result, participants gain better insights into what’s happening.
We get close and also zoom out; we like to work on two levels. We create an overview and make the process tangible. We observe how they interact, what is disrupted. Then, we bring it back to a better functioning and usually effortless way.”
How would you describe working at Bolster?
Andy, smiling: “Like a gift! It’s an amazing adventure. There are so many different perspectives and teams. Each time, it requires something different from me, and each time, it offers the opportunity for new things to explore within an area I already have so much experience in. This process is always on-going and in motion. The way Bolster works with leadership, hard skills, human skills, strategy, it’s incredibly versatile.”
From your experience, what kind of advice would you give teams and companies?
“That people work with pleasure and in connection with each other, that they create something that generates energy. Consciously bringing out the best in each other and making constructive use of each other. Not just in or after a crisis but right from the beginning of collaboration. Undertaking together in such a way that you can reap the rewards together.
We often make ourselves subservient to the goal. We put too much pressure on ourselves and are too willing to walk on tiptoes. That is the opposite of treating yourself sustainably. It’s an art to take good care of yourself under pressure. Pay attention to your energy, how you’re doing, and reflect on whether it’s working for you.
Simple; it either works or it doesn’t. You must be sharp on that. Does it really work? Do you have spare time? Or are you just running around? Do you have space to see clearly what you’re doing? Do you check in with yourself every day and adjust course on time, are you still on track? Check this. With yourself, each other, and the organization.”
Andy van de Poel lives in the southernmost part of the Netherlands. He thoroughly enjoys the space and the people around him. Incredibly enough, his southern home opens the door to expeditions to Terschelling, the lakes of Friesland, or the many places where his work for Bolster takes him. Garnished with a touch of love for crystals, this forms a solid foundation for a relaxed life, while his view of the world continues to expand.
