Coaching and counselling

Personal and engaged

  • Coaching and counsellingA confidential space for you as the person behind the role. Coaching focuses on your development: what drives you, what holds you back and what you need to lead with more calm and direction. Counselling makes room for what touches you in your work and your life, so that you can choose clearly again.
  • Teams and networksWhat matters happens in the space between people. I work with executive teams, teams and networks that want to collaborate better: holding the conversations that are being avoided, making clear agreements and being able to rely on one another again, also across the boundaries of departments and organisations.
  • Transformational leadershipTransformational leadership changes not only what people do, but also how they see and what they commit themselves to. It begins with yourself: who you are shapes how you lead. I help you give direction that moves people, challenges them to think for themselves and gives them room to grow, especially when everything is in motion.
  • Intelligent organisationsAn intelligent organisation learns from its own experience. It draws on the knowledge and judgement of its people, makes room for reflection and renewal, and connects human and artificial intelligence so that AI strengthens people rather than replaces them. I guide organisations in that development, from the inside out.
René de Baaij

Executive Counselling

In key positions you carry more than your task. You carry the tension of the system, visible or not, wanted or not.

Do you recognise this?

I function well. I deliver what is asked of me. But I notice that I carry more and more, receive less and less in return, and find it ever harder to say where my limit lies.

I see what is happening in the organisation. I know what needs to be said. But I do not say it, or not in the way that is needed. Something holds me back: loyalty, caution, the relationship, the moment.

I use AI more and more in my work. It helps, but it also unsettles me. I wonder what my own judgement is still worth when systems think, write and advise alongside me.

In key positions, development is rarely a private matter. Whoever governs, leads or carries ultimate responsibility is never only themselves. You are a carrier of tension, a symbol of direction, a mirror for others and sometimes a lightning rod. Yet the room to speak honestly about this is exceptionally small.

In executive counselling I work with that field of tension. Not as therapy, not as coaching in the traditional sense, but as a serious professional conversation about what your role asks of you, what that does to you, and what you need to keep doing it well.

We look at the patterns that repeat under pressure, we examine loyalties and unspoken contracts, and we translate that into concrete action. The aim is professional maturity that becomes visible in practice: calm in the middle of tension, clear language, consistent boundaries.

Psychodynamic. I look at the inner logic behind your professional style: the patterns, defences and loyalties formed by earlier experience that now travel with you into your work.

Systemic. Personal functioning is always tied to position, mandate and organisational context. I look not only at the person, but also at the place.

Human-AI. AI makes much easier, but it can also numb. I help you get clear on what you want to stay present for, and what that asks of courage and boundaries.

"He makes the conversation mature: clear, firm and without drama." CEO, international professional services firm

Publications on this theme

  • 23 March 2026

    Agency Without Illusions 12/12

    You do not have to win. You do not have to heal anyone. You do not have to rescue anyone. Above all, you do not have to lose yourself. The twelfth and final instalment in a series on dealing with a leader who bends rules.

  • 16 March 2026

    Escalate Formally When Boundaries Are Structurally Violated 11/12

    You notice something dangerous: that you are starting to normalise the abnormal. Formal escalation sounds heavy, but sometimes it is the only adult move. Part eleven of a series on dealing with a leader who bends rules.

  • 9 March 2026

    Build Exit Dignity 10/12

    Dominance works best on people who feel trapped. Exit dignity takes the sting out of that feeling, even if you go nowhere today. Part ten of a series on dealing with a leader who bends rules.

  • 2 March 2026

    Choose Your Battles 9/12

    he rule of the strongest does not only feed on your silence, but on your exhaustion too. Choosing is not weakness, it is strategy. Part nine of a series on dealing with a leader who bends rules.

  • 23 February 2026

    Change the Playing Field with System Interventions 8/12

    In a room without fixed agreements, a strong personality can shape reality. In a room with rhythm and record-keeping, that same personality suddenly has to run on rails. Part eight of a series on dealing with a leader who bends rules.

  • 16 February 2026

    Build an Allyship Map 7/12

    The system would prefer people who each think they are the only one. Shame does the rest. Shame creates silence. Silence becomes agreement. Part seven of a series on dealing with a leader who bends rules.

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