Brigitte Ballings & Steve Vandenberghe

Speaker
Dutch
Brigitte Ballings & Steve Vandenberghe

Who are Brigitte Ballings and Steve Vandenberghe?

Brigitte Ballings threw the helm of her life in 2017 after a 31-year career within the corporate financial world, 17 of which were within Human Resources. From then on, she gave full shape to her fundamental mission: to guide, inspire and grow others, no longer as an executive but as a coach, trainer, keynote speaker and author.

Today, she is an ICF-certified leadership and resilience coach, business manager of Bounce Back Coaching. She works with several national and international coaching organisations, reaching out to professionals - employees, teams and executives - at crucial transition moments in their lives, in search of greater self-confidence, resilience and meaning.

Her expertise ranges from mental fitness coaching, perfectionism coaching, , stress & burnout coaching, outplacement coaching to career coaching.

After a first book in 2016, A Step Back? I don't think so!, she wrote her second book, Hostage by Yourself - Seven Keys for Powerful and Connective Leadership, in 2024 together with Steve Vandenberghe - one of her coachees.

Her motto: We all have two lives, the second begins the day you realise you only have one - Confucius

With their book in hand, the authors aim to break down some of the taboos around leadership and, above all, send the message that, as a leader, you do not have to go it alone. They highlight the paradox of powerful and vulnerable leadership and underline the added value of coaching for leaders.

Together, they give a number of keynotes and workshops on this book. They are also happy to tailor work to the needs of your organisation/company.

Steve Vandenberghe is the mayor of Bredene today. Before that, he was a member of the Flemish Parliament, a teacher and headmaster of a primary school for almost 10 years and an alderman for 15 years. He is the inspirer and driver of the transition within his local administration from "the classical or outdated or traditional secretary model" to "a more progressive management" in which shared and secure base leadership is central.

His interest in people and history and his intrinsic drive to change things, improve things and do something for his fellow man and society led him - after a stint in education - to politics. Inspiring, convincing, connecting people and making things move, that is what drives him.

During his educational and political career, he discovered his passion to lead, motivate and inspire teams. He further developed his leadership skills building on my interpersonal qualities, his networking "gene", his communication and negotiation skills.

Together with his coach Brigitte Ballings, he wrote the book 'Hostage to yourself - Seven keys for powerful and connecting leadership'.

"Everything can always be better" is his motto.

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    Never again held hostage by yourself: the paradox of powerful and vulnerable leadership

    "You don't hit people with perfection, you hit them with vulnerability and emotion.
    It's no different for leaders."
    Steve Vandenberghe and Brigitte Ballings

    People in leadership positions are often expected to do it 'better' than the rest. They must be stronger, they must not fail, they must never fail, ... They are also themselves influenced by beliefs such as I must do it perfectly, I must not make mistakes, I must have an answer to everything.

    But how do these leaders really feel? How do they deal with the many challenges that hold them hostage. And what if they fall out? How to make this negotiable? How to finally break the taboo? Simply asking "How are you doing?" is almost never the start of a conversation.

    Leaders today are still far too often on their own and therefore occasionally hit a wall. In this keynote, Steve Vandenberghe and Brigitte Ballings - drawing on their own authentic experience from different sectors and without any taboos - enter into the real conversation with leaders. Together, they will explore external factors that can kill leaders, as well as personal qualities that sometimes become pitfalls.

    Would you like to be inspired by this complementary view of leadership?
    Do you want concrete answers to the questions you struggle with as a leader?

    Besides awareness, this keynote also brings concrete keys and strategies for leaders so that they would never let themselves be held hostage again. Not even by themselves.

    Perfectionism and leadership: a healthy cocktail?

    "Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it's the thing that's really preventing us from flight."
    Brené Brown

    During our upbringing, we are given a number of messages that implicitly refer to leadership. Beliefs that we carry unconsciously throughout the rest of our lives and that are also reinforced by common ideas in society and the business world.

    Thus, we continue to believe in the ideal image of the perfect leader, who must have an answer to everything, who must not make mistakes and certainly not admit that he/she does not know.

    But what do we see? Leaders who try to conform to that ideal image of the perfect leader, who think they have to take everything on their shoulders, who don't allow themselves the slightest mistake, these are leaders who end up overstepping their bounds and finaly often heading for burnout.

    Yet perfectionism remains a talent we don't want to throw away.

    In this keynote, Brigitte Ballings and Steve Vandenberghe take a closer look at exactly what perfectionism is, what its symptoms are, how perfectionism comes about. They will look at the lies your brain uses to sabotage you? They answer the question of whether leadership and perfectionism are compatible, starting from Steve's authentic and vulnerable story. And above all, they provide some keys to help you harness your perfectionism in a balanced way.

    Your brain: friend or foe? Mental fitness for executives

    "Don't believe the story in your head".

    Don't believe the story in your head! You are not your thoughts! ... If only you knew all the things our brain does to us ... Yes, our brain is our greatest friend and enemy!

    Our brain, without which we wouldn't be able to function, takes us for a ride without us even realising it and more so than we would like. Especially in difficult, stressful situations or when we face adversity sadness, loss, ... our brain creates a set of beliefs that block and sabotage us rather than move us forward. Like leaving our hand on a hot stove. Then emotions become states of mind and we become hostages.

    How can we deal with challenges and setbacks differently. How do we gain control of our brain so that we can see an opportunity or a gift in every difficult moment?

    Using their own personal story and other testimonials, Brigitte and Steve take you into the wonderful world of your brain, with theoretical background and practical exercises. They let you discover what PQ - Positive Intelligence - is and what it can bring you. They teach you to recognise the critical voices in yourself and others. So that you can become mentally fit and resilient, use your full potential and be fully empowered in life.