Serious Business

After many months of taking it easy, enjoying life in the Netherlands and preparing for China we are now getting fully back on track. It’s time for serious business – back to work!

Living at a boarding school campus means that work and private life get quite intertwined. Especially during the pandemic, when not all colleagues or students have managed to return to campus yet, the working hours stretch over multiple timezones. So some meetings are planned in the evening and students may ask for help in the weekend. And since most of the socializing happens with colleagues, the work becomes a big part of daily life. And in return, daily life becomes a bigger part of…work.

Never before have I been able to witness so closely Hendrik Willem’s daily educational activities. Surely we used to share how our days went over dinner, but being able to sit in on on actual teaching activities is adding a new dimension. I have been able to watch him teach Theory of Knowledge, discussing with approx 50 students wether we should hold people responsible for the application of technologies they create. And I was invited to his presentation at the Global Issues Forum on how sport is impacting our daily life as individuals, as a global community and how it impacted major historical changes.
It’ was good fun and it made me proud seeing him in action in such a professional way. It’s a side we do not get to see from our spouses too often. Which is a pity as it’s actually such an interesting side to see!

But he is not the only one who has been busy. Besides my few teaching hours at the University, I have been quite actively broadening my horizon and developing my coaching skills.
Recently I successfully completed the E-Coaching module which I started in the Netherlands early September, enabling me to offer coaching per email to clients anywhere around the globe. And more recent I started the Transformational Executive Coaching Certification Program which will keep me busy till April at least, and which should result in a proper coaching certificate. The program is offered through Mindspan, a Chinese Executive Coaching company and it has participants from China and many other parts of the world. So it’s a great way to connect to people and get a close up view of the Chinese culture and their way of doing business.
And I have been actively networking in Shanghai, where I have traveled twice since we arived here. Meeting great and inspiring people with whom I hope to deepen the connection going forward. So little by little I am building my toolbox and network, getting ready to get back in business.

So our adventure is continuing. Stay tuned for more!
See ya’ll!

Immersing myself in the Chinese coaching network during the 5th China Executive Coaching Conference in Shanghai.