I facilitate leadership teams in fast-growing companies to achieve synergy. This enables them, their teams and organisation to perform at their best.
Jan-Joost Kraal
When leadership teams are not fully aligned with each other or with the company’s direction, the effects ripple through the entire organisation: tensions rise, decisions drag, priorities are unclear and opportunities slip.
Drawing on two decades of leadership in fast-growing companies, I work with leadership teams to align, foster trust and clarity.
The result is true synergy: collaboration that multiplies everyone’s impact and enables the organisation to accelerate towards a shared goal.
Current & previous clients
Services
-
Building High-Performing Teams
Quality of interaction, clarity of direction and the ability to renew are the three pillars of a high-performing team. I facilitate these elements by:
• Co-creating a shared and clear direction.
• Surfacing dynamics and adressing the undercurrent.
The result is more trust, clarity and ownership; a team that performs at its best and delivers sustainable value.
-
Leadership Development
The field of leadership is vast: it’s about navigating complexity, engaging different personalities, and making conscious choices in how you lead, rooted in authenticity.
• Growing self-awareness and how you lead others.
• Learning by doing, and from each other.
The result is leaders who are authentic, confident in diverse situations, and able to inspire their teams to perform.
-
Executive Coaching
Leading at the top can be rewarding and isolating. I act as a sparring partner for CEOs and senior leaders.
• Reflecting and challenging in a safe, confidential setting.
• Sharpening thinking and choices in a complex environment.
The result is leaders who grow personally while steering their organizations with greater clarity and conviction.
Testimonials
-
Inge de Ruyter - Learning & Development Lead @Nestlé
“What I value in working with Jan Joost is his ability to facilitate a training the way a boxer works with a punching bag: with focus, courage, and a surprising flexibility when needed.
At exactly the right moment, he delivers an 'insight punch' that does not knock participants down, but instead helps them rebound stronger and more confident.” -
Brigitte Martens - Senior Advisor @IZZ
“Thank you, Jan-Joost, for your commitment, expertise, and energy.
You more than succeeded in helping us connect with ourselves and with each other every single time. And you did so with a great deal of enjoyment.
As a result, we made significant progress both in how we collaborate and in terms of content, and we laid a solid foundation for the future.”
-
Remco Armee - Chief Product Officer @Zorgdomein
“Thanks for helping us to create our product vision by understanding our most important user problems and aligning how we need to change our product in the coming years to better serve our customers.
It is always a joy to see how you bring people together and create deep alignment.”
Approach
My approach combines depth and pragmatism. I believe in slowing down to speed up: taking time to surface underlying dynamics, so that trust, clarity and ownership can grow.
Always in co-creation: leaders and teams define together what good leadership and collaboration mean in their context.
Depth with lightness: I balance tough conversations with a light touch where needed to keep people engaged.
Theory serving practice: methods and models are tools, never goals in themselves.
From insight to action: every conversation should move the team forward with clarity and energy.
-
‘Challenge to improve’ is something I would often ask to get feedback on a proposal or presentation. But if people are reluctant to challenge each other because of various reasons (power distance, conflict avoidance), you will not get the uncomfortable feedback which is often needed to get to the best decisions and results. And people may not buy into your proposal or presentation, leading to negative downstream effects.
Deep Democracy was developed to unlock the full potential of a group and create an environment where people voice what needs to be voiced. -
A team, a company, a family, all are different systems that influence each other in various ways that we’re not even aware of. Therefore, the rational approach is sometimes not enough to solve issues within a team. We can talk and explain but still without result.
Systemic work surfaces what is unconsciously limiting us, what’s not being said, so that we can have the conversation about what really matters.
-
Understanding the dynamics of your drives is key to unlocking optimal performance. This model delves into the fundamental motivations guiding your behavior and shaping your worldview. It will provide valuable insights, cultivating personal leadership growth, and enhancing team performance.
Discover the "why" behind your actions and elevate your understanding of what propels you forward in the dynamic landscape of personal and team success.
-
Boxing is not about fighting, but about awareness. Even a few minutes in the ring reveal patterns: avoidance, dominance, hesitation, assertiveness.
It offers a safe, physical mirror of how people deal with pressure and conflict. That makes it a powerful way to reflect on leadership and collaboration.
-
Innovation and strategy require more than good ideas; they need alignment and ownership.
Design Thinking provides a practical structure to explore opportunities, understand user perspectives and test solutions quickly. In group settings, it helps teams move from abstract discussion to concrete action.
-
Trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results: Patrick Lencioni’s model captures the most common pitfalls of teamwork.
It provides a simple shared language to discuss where a team gets stuck, and how to move forward. I often use it as a starting point for reflection and action.
Want to discover what approach works best for your team?
Let’s explore it together.
About Jan-Joost
I’ve always been fascinated by what drives people.
Why do they act as they do, respond so differently to the same situations, and what makes collaboration succeed or fail?
For more than twenty years I worked as a product leader at international tech companies like Catawiki, OLX and Marktplaats. I learned that clear direction and a solid proposition are essential, but performance ultimately depends on the quality of collaboration. Processes help, but without trust and healthy conflict things quickly stall.
This insight led me to focus on the essential foundation for success: how people work together.
Education and certifications
MSc Industrial Design Engineering – Delft University of Technology
Coaching with Unconscious Motivations – V-Cirkel Academy
Deep Democracy levels 1-4 – Human Dimensions
System Dynamics in Organisations - Bert Hellinger Institute
Certified Management Drives Trainer