Joep de Jong

Appreciative leadership

Joep lives his beliefs. He believes that trust is better than control, so that is how he leads groups, teams, divisions, and companies. He uses his skills in Appreciative Inquiry to build positive images with his people and with his clients. Joep is currently the CEO of Van Harte & Lingsma. Read more here.

Joep sets high standards for himself—and for others. Years ago when he was running a small IT consultancy, one of his major clients began causing major problems and the relationship deteriorated. Joep finally called the client to say that he was firing the client. He said that he would not work with a company that treated his people unfairly. 

That’s impressive enough. Even more impressive is that Joep did that so gracefully that the client actually came back two years later and asked Joep to work with them again.

That doesn’t surprise me. Joep attended one of my influencing skills courses back in the mid 80s when he was working for Apple. We have been friends ever since and although I introduced him to both influencing and Appreciative Inquiry, he has taken both those skills to the point where I learn more from him each time we talk.