301. The Why Whisperer: Aligning Teams with Hans Lagerweij

Strategy isn’t supposed to live in a slide deck. It should breathe in daily choices, team rituals, and the way people talk about their work. We sit down with Hans Lagerweij, author of The Why Whisperer, to unpack why 95 percent of employees can’t state their company’s strategy—and what leaders can do to fix it without adding more meetings or more slides.

Hans introduces the Six C’s of execution—clear communication, consistent reinforcement, cultural alignment, continuous improvement, collaborative engagement, and celebrating success—and shows how they turn plans into momentum. We dig into the reverse elevator pitch, a simple test that forces clarity: if you can’t explain your strategy in 30 seconds, you aren’t ready to roll it out. From there, we explore how to link the macro why (direction and purpose) to the micro why (the meaning behind each task and decision) so everyone can see their part in the bigger picture.

We also tackle silos and misaligned incentives, revealing why functions often work at cross purposes and how shared objectives and cross-functional teams restore speed and trust. Hans shares practical ways to invite frontline ideas—idea boxes, listening forums, lightweight feedback loops—and how small, timely celebrations create pride and keep energy high. Instead of chasing buy-in, we make the case for shared ownership, where people help shape the how and feel responsible for results.

If you’re ready to turn strategy from an annual event into a daily habit, this conversation will give you the tools and language to start today. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who needs it, and leave a review to tell us which “C” you’ll implement first.

🌐 Connect with Hans:
• Website: http://www.hanslagerweij.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanslagerweij/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hansblagerweij/

📚 You can purchase Hans' book on Amazon:
• The Why Whisperer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4PSP7R3/

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Strategy Fails On Monday
• 0:25 Meet Hans Lagerweih, The Why Whisperer
• 1:52 Reverse Elevator Pitch And The 95 Percent
• 4:52 From Buy-In To Shared Ownership
• 10:44 The Six C’s: Clear Communication
• 18:03 Consistent Reinforcement In Daily Work
• 20:38 Cultural Alignment And Incentives
• 23:22 Continuous Improvement Over Rigid Plans
• 26:36 Collaborative Engagement And Killing Silos
• 31:03 Celebrating Success To Build Momentum
• 36:56 Rapid-Fire Wisdom And Book Recs
• 43:20 Reflection, Actions, And Next Guest

Transcript

Mick Spiers: 0:01

Have you ever walked out of a strategy day feeling energized, only to watch nothing really change on Monday morning. Do your people know what the strategy is, but struggle to see how their day to day work actually connects to it? Or worse, are you one of the 95% of leaders whose teams don't even know the strategy in the first place. In today's episode, I'm joined by Hans Lagerweij way the why whisperer, and together, we unpack why strategy so often feels boring, distant or abstract for most people. Hans introduces his powerful 6c of strategy execution, we explore why buy in isn't enough, and why the real magic happens when you move from buy in to shared ownership, whether you're a CEO, a functional leader or a frontline supervisor, this conversation will help you become a why Whisperer in your own organization. Hey everyone, and welcome back to The Leadership Project. I'm greatly honored today to be joined by Hans Lagerweij. Hans had a decorated executive career, and he's also the author of a best selling book called The why whisperer, how to motivate and align teams to get your strategy done. And that's what we're going to unpack today. There's often a disconnect between strategy on the paper and what's said in the executive boardroom compared to how it arrives in execution. We're going to talk about some practical strategies on how you can break down that barrier, and I'm really excited to get into today's content. So without any further ado Hans, why don't you say hello to the audience. Give us a little bit of a flavor of that decorated career and what inspired you to write this book and do the work that you do today?

Hans Lagerweij: 1:51

Right. Good questions. I can probably fail an hour with that, but I was born in the Netherlands, and the first nine years of my career actually worked in fast moving consumer goods. Had a marketing and sales career, and after that, I made the switch into hospitality. And hospitality is is really a product that makes me passionate, because you deliver a product to a customer, you know, they look forward to it, maybe a year, maybe multiple years. And if you do it, well, it will be a memory of a lifetime. So it really excites me. And yeah, and I have managed several companies, adventure travel companies, expedition cruise companies, so one of them was Quark expeditions. We took guests, even with a nuclear icebreaker, to the North Pole, nuclear icebreaker that we charted at that time from the Russian government. And I've managed victory cruise lines, another small luxury cruise line. Managed albatross expeditions. Albatross travel worked on the start of four seasons yachts. And, yeah, now I have my own consultancy company. And as you said, I wrote that book, the Y whisper. And how did I write the Y whisper? Now let me, let me tell you, I never thought I would ever write a book, but I like writing, and I wrote regularly articles and and blogs. And at some point, I decided to write a blog about what I call the reverse elevator pitch. And the reverse elevator pitch is, you know, as a young executive, you're told the elevator pitch that if you get into the elevator with the CEO, pitch your idea in 32 to 40 seconds. And actually, I learned over all those years that it is much more important as a CEO or as a leader to pitch you know, your strategy, your thoughts, back to the team in 30, 40 seconds, instead of using 100 PowerPoints. So I started writing that blog, and then I did some background research, and I found something that really shocked me. So 95% of the employees in the world have no clue what the strategy of the company is that they work for. And I wrote about it in my book. There's several other studies that I found, and it's actually shocking. So at that time, I had also eight pages, which is way more than than a block article should have at that time, I said to myself, let's write a book about it. And, you know, I'm quite open about it. So I told people around me like, I'm going to write a book about strategy, about strategy implementation. And then I got a couple of different reactions. The first one was like, strategy, oh, that sounds boring. And I thought like, Oh, totally wrong. Strategy should be an adventure. And then also reactions like, oh, book about strategy that's intellectual, that's complex, but. Oh, I mean, strategy should be simple. And another reaction was, that's a theoretical book. I thought you were very pragmatic. It is a practical. Strategy should be practical. So I learned during this, this journey of writing the book, that it's absolutely necessary to, yeah, write a book about that strategy is something that needs to be implemented, needs to be executed with your whole team. Should be exciting, should be an adventure, should be a joint thing at a team event. Should be fun and should be absolutely focused on pragmatic challenges.

Mick Spiers: 5:38

Yeah, really good, Hans. Are some interesting things there already. The reverse elevator pitch has certainly got my attention. But what, what I want to go into is, I think that is very common. The word strategy has often a visceral reaction from even the leadership team, let alone the the people on the shop floor, where they go. Ah, here we go again.

Hans Lagerweij: 6:00

Yeah, here we go.

Mick Spiers: 6:02

The word boring. And certainly one of the things is, oh, we're off to our our annual strategy day, the one day of a year that we that we think about strategy, which is also a little bit bizarre when I think about it. But the one that really caught my attention is when you said that 95% of people don't even know the strategy. Well, how on earth are we going to connect the everyday activities to strategy if no one actually knows what that strategy is? What do you think is going wrong that we end up with a stat that is so alarming, 95% of people don't even know what the strategy is?

Hans Lagerweij: 6:38

Yeah. I mean, that's a good question, and maybe this is an old fashioned split between top management and the workflow like, oh, strategy is, you know, something for us and the rest of the company should just do their daily work. Well, of course, the daily work should be aligned with your strategy. And I think that is a reason. But I also think a reason is there's actually, as far as I could find, no books or lectures or authors or speakers about Yeah, but how actually do you implement strategy? So that's why I thought it was time to write a very practical book. Like, yeah, basically it's, it's, in the end, I give you a couple of checklists how to implement strategy, how to align teams behind something that is critical for your company.

Mick Spiers: 7:32

So what I'm loving here is the idea to get it out of the theory books and make it a bit more simple and exciting, and something that people might be interested. If you make it fun, people are going to lean into it. If it's not fun, if it's boring and laborious, they're going to shy away from it, and they're only going to do it once a year. So certainly, if you can make it simple and fun, you you're going to get a different reaction. The key question still for me is, how do we end up in a situation where 95% of the people don't even don't even know the strategy behind?

Hans Lagerweij: 8:05

Yeah, it's a really good question, and honestly, I don't have the answer on that, and honestly I also don't think it's it's just an execution problem. Actually, you have a communication problem if you cannot explain this, or if you don't take the time to explain this. And maybe another mistake that I feel there is. A couple of months ago, I spoke to a CEO and said, Yeah, I think it's extremely important to get buy in from the full team into our strategy. And I thought like, it's not about buying don't aim for buy in. It's shared ownership. That's the magic word. Everyone should feel part of it. Everyone should know what their role is in achieving that plan, that strategy. So honestly, I also really don't like that word, buy in.

Mick Spiers: 8:56

Okay, so building shared ownership is interesting. How do we get people excited then if, if we're having this visceral reaction where people hear the word strategy and they start hiding and going on, here we go again. Here we go again. Example, how do we get people to lean into it and take a bit of shared ownership?

Hans Lagerweij: 9:17

Yeah, and so this is What's the book about. And let me tell you one truth. It's not about that 100 page or sometimes even hundreds 50 page PowerPoint. It's not about PowerPoint. So here I came up with the 6c model, and the first C is probably the most important one, and it's about clear communication. So and here the reverse elevator pitch has a role. But here it's all about, you know, communicating your strategy in an exciting in an inspirational and very important, simple way. Make it real, make it specific. And sometimes, you know, that's why I so much. Leaving that reverse elevator pitch. If you can't explain your strategy in 30 seconds, it's probably not clear enough, actually. So, and it's not just about communicating. So or communicating, communicating could be seen as shouting. So there's a reason why I called the book The why whisperer. Whisperer. Whisperer means that you're close. You're not shouting from the top. You're close. You're close to your team. And you're actually so close that you can whisper and you can listen. An important aspect is, you know, not just to drill down that strategy and repeat and repeat and repeat. It's also to have a dialog about it already in an early stage. Now, strategy is not a democratic process. That's not what I tried to say, but there certainly very much should be room for input. Let me give you just one practical example, because otherwise it seems that I just again talk theoretical cost savings. It's something that we will encounter in our career a couple of times a company that really needs to cut in cost. Now there's a couple of ways you can do it. You can have, you know, a brainstorm with your executive team, let your finance team analyze where the biggest cost buckets are, and decide in your boardroom, what the cost cuts will be the other way around. Would be to explain to your team reverse elevator pitch, where the company is just be honest, be open, why we need cost cuts. People should not be afraid of it, but contribute to it and invite everyone to bring in their ideas with an ID box or whatever you can do it digital, but invite everyone to contribute to your cost saving ideas. I've done it two times, three times now, and you are amazed about the quality and of the ideas that you get. You know, lots of ideas that you would not have thought of if you would have just limited to, you know, your standard executive team brainstorm.

Mick Spiers: 12:09

You're really good, Hans, so a few things I'm taking away there. First, we definitely want to get into this 6c model that sounds interesting and and with the first C being clear communication, but this idea that the why whisperer, it's not about standing behind a pulpit and giving a sermon at a town hall and going, okay, that's our strategy. Now get on with it. It's getting close to the team and having a dialog, and that recognizing that communication is a two way sport. It's not a one way sport. And then what I'm hearing because it's not that everyone can set the vision and the direction. I'm hearing that you're bringing people together and you're telling them what we're trying to achieve, what makes it important, and then inviting ideas and go. So if this is what we're trying to achieve, how do you think we should get there? And now we can get into few things, shared ownership, but also the generation of the best ideas. Because often the best ideas are at the coalface. They're close to the action. They're the ones that see rubber hitting the road. They'll have better ideas. So if it is cost cutting, you can say, okay, team, we need to achieve a 10% cost cutting, you're close to the action. How do you think it might be achieved? And now we can have a dialog. How does that sit with you? In terms of this, why whisper up? And also the shared ownership, the sharing, the what needs to happen and what makes it important, and then inviting the ideas from the shop floor.

Hans Lagerweij: 13:39

As I said, especially, you know, the bigger the company goes, you cannot make it 100% democratic process, but it is important to invite, you know, your team. In case, with cost savings, you can invite your full team if, for example, you want to explore new markets. You can invite your marketing or and or sales team to contribute to that part of the strategy. Just involve all the brains there are. And, you know, one of the other mistakes that I often see is that, you know, in order to contribute to a strategy or plan, you have to be experienced. Of course, experience is important, but I have especially, you know, in the last years now I'm getting old. I have learned so much from Yeah, call them youngsters. I mean, I still feel young, but I know, especially if it's give you an example, digital marketing, social media. I'm still from the Facebook generation. You know, if it comes to digital marketing, digital media in today, I need to listen to these 2425 26 year olds, because my knowledge about that space is not any more that up to date.

Mick Spiers: 14:54

You're really good, Hans, there's two things there the diversity of ideas that you're going. To generate, for sure, and inviting in the new ideas and new experiences and new knowledge. No one is an expert on on every field, and if we're listening to the people new to the company, they're going to bring in new ideas. The other thing I'm picking up there is also there's a tendency that someone new in the company, whether they're a youngster or just came from a different area, when they first arrive, they are going to have questions. They kind of scratch their head and go, Why do we do it like that? And if your team's answer is, well, we've always done it like that, well then you're a bit closed to new ways of doing things. So so I Yeah, we need these dialogs and we need these challenging questions to make sure that we don't just rinse and repeat and do everything on autopilot. How does that sit with you?

Hans Lagerweij: 15:49

Yeah, I think that's a very good summary.

Mick Spiers: 15:51

Mick, yeah, very good. All right, so let's get back to the 6c model. So you spoke about clear communication. Talk Talk us through your six C's.

Hans Lagerweij: 15:59

Yeah, so the second one is a consistent reinforcement. Sounds maybe a bit technical, but for me, the core of that see is, you know, that strategy is not just a one time presentation or once a year presentation. It is a daily habit. So it is important to, you know, link, I would say every maybe that's a bit exaggerated, most decisions and projects the daily work back to the core objectives. And you know, just refuse to let the why or the purpose the strategy fade in the background noise of a daily business, because I know daily business can distract you with urgent issues and urgent things that that you can't predict, but very important. And as a leader here, you have to set the example to link key and core decisions and work projects back to Yeah, your strategy, the path that you have agreed. So it's more than just repeating. There's also here an element of using more than, you know, one channel. There's so many communication channels that you can use. Yes, it's the one to ones, it's the town halls, it is the team meetings, yes. But also, you know, digital media events, company events, link them again to that strategy message.

Mick Spiers: 17:27

Okay, so the second C then consistent reinforcement. I think this is, this is great. So first of all, coming back to you, 95% that you said before, I'm sure that if we did a polling of all the executive teams in those companies, they'd all be, I'm going to say, frustrated, and they're going to say, what are they talking about? We communicate the strategy every year at the town hall, and they think that's, I think it's done, and that's not what I'm hearing here, the consistent reinforcement, where it's where it is, a frequent message, but then the more important one was the connection. And what I'm what I'm hearing here, and I hear this one a lot in a lot of companies as well, even in the let's say, the 5% that do know the strategy, they struggle to connect the thing that I'm doing today to the strategy. And it could be all the way down to why am I doing this report? What is this report that I'm working on today? Got anything to do with the strategy, the connection? And let me share something with you from my own work here Hans, and I'd love to hear your expert advice on this. I have this concept called micro, why and macro, why and the macro, why is the vision, the strategy of this is what we're trying to achieve and what makes it important, and then the micro, why is at the task level or the decision level? So on a day to day basis, if I can go, well, the purpose behind this task I'm doing is understood and how it connects to the macro, why, or it might even be, I'm doing this report because it enables one of my team members to do what they need to do, and then the other micro, why is the decisions when the when a decision is made by one of the leaders in the business. If they can connect the why or the rationale behind that decision to the strategy, we start seeing the points of connection, so consistent reinforcement that it's not once a year, and then helping people to connect what they do, what they're doing today, this week, this month, connecting that back to the strategy and how it makes things possible connected to the strategy. How does that sit with you?

Hans Lagerweij: 19:41

Yeah, I think that sounds good. And by the way, on this aspect of strategy implementation, I think there's a wonderful book written, and it's called the balanced scorecard. I guess we all know it. And give a quick summary of the balanced scorecard also my book, because actually they gave an instrument. How to translate the top line strategy into objectives, into goals, into KPIs. So So translated, yeah, waterfall by waterfall basically into the daily work of the organization and into the also daily or weekly measurement of the organization. And although you have to be careful, because I've seen also implementations of the balanced scorecard, just because we had to implement a balanced scorecard. So in general, I think it's a very useful instrument to get that consistent reinforcement.

Mick Spiers: 20:33

Yeah, very good. Okay, good example. All right, so what's our third C, Hans?

Hans Lagerweij: 20:38

So the third C is about culture, so I call it cultural alignment. And you know that starts off with especially if you're a relatively new executive coming in to understand the values and you know, the behaviors of the organization, because I can tell you, you will have a very hard job if what you propose goes against them, not saying that you should not do it. Sometimes. You know also culture needs to change, but we all know from our experience probably how hard it is. Culture alignment under this I definitely also fit the HR aspect. So think about incentives, rewards. Yeah, performance systems, they should be aligned with the strategy where you would like to go, because on one end, it should be clear to our team members what needs to be done, what they need to achieve, what's expected from them, and then having feedback loops, and also, of course, the rewards on those expectations.

Mick Spiers: 21:45

Yeah, good, Hans, so I'm certainly hearing something here about the values. Was really ringing out to me, clear is this strategy that we're communicating and trying to connect people to consistent with the values of the group. And then the second element I'm hearing is behaviors, and I'm taking away a few extrapolations here Hans one. One extrapolation is, are our decisions and behaviors aligned with those values in the first place? And then secondly, are our incentive mechanisms through HR aligned with the behaviors that we want to see? Are they incentivizing the right behaviors, or are they incentivizing behaviors that are against our values, and maybe people taking shortcuts or gaming the system or something like that. So there's a element there of knowing the values of the group, which a key point here is it's not the values that are written on the office wall plaque. It's what are the true values of the group? What do they stand for? What will they stand for and what will they not stand for? Is our strategy aligned with those values? And then are we incentivizing behaviors that are aligned with those values? It has that, right? Yeah, very good.

Hans Lagerweij: 22:53

Yeah, beautiful. So I've worked in the marine, in the cruise industry, and as I really like to shout out, you know, the strategy is the compass, and then culture is, is the wind in the sails. So if you can get, you know, your culture to work with your strategy, you know, you have an accelerator.

Mick Spiers: 23:13

Yeah, very good. Okay, all right. So we got three so far. We've got clear communication, consistent reinforcement and cultural alignment. What's our fourth C, Hans?

Hans Lagerweij: 23:22

So the fourth C calls for continuous improvement. And what I mean with that is that too often, what happens is that let's develop a strategy, and let's do it well, we're going to analyze, we're going to build that strategy, and a company takes several months to work it out in every detail, and in the end, when they're ready to implement actually, you know, the market the world has already changed because it took such a long time to come to that piece of work. And here I also warn for maybe don't go for that brilliant, brilliant strategy, but learn along the way. So continuous improvement is what I mean, is something that we really what's really needed in today's world that requires agility. And the way I see it is, you know, don't try to define that strategy in every little detail, you have to set the direction, but then go and use your feedback loops see what happens and adapt and change or accelerate if needed. But yeah, part of this continuous improvement approach is especially the learning aspect. Make strategy, you know, a living document, not a rigid mandate.

Mick Spiers: 24:47

Okay. Hans, I'm taking some really important lessons from this as well. So on the continuous improvement, the first thing I heard that there was a little bit of flexibility that in the strategy we are setting the direction of why? We're trying to achieve, and what makes it important, but don't be so prescriptive, on the on the My nature, on the on the how and the what, and the elements at the working level give a little bit of a space there, because if we're trying to get to a certain destination, there's going to be 100 and 170 different ways to get there, and we might need that agility to get there, and in a ever changing world like so the world is now changing faster than it ever has before, but the scary problem it's changing slower than it ever will again. So we need to be flexible and adaptable. It doesn't mean that we change the destination, because we we know what we're trying to achieve, but we're being a little bit more flexible and agile in terms of how we're going to get there.

Hans Lagerweij: 25:46

Exactly. And I write about this also in my book. This is not about, you know, going one strategy for three months and then change completely full house and go the opposite direction, because then probably you will drive your team completely nuts, but it is about setting an overall direction. And yeah, learn on the go, fill in certain aspects in your journey.

Mick Spiers: 26:12

Yeah, we certainly don't want to be changing the Ultimate Direction every every month that would drive people badly, but you're giving them a bit of license and going, Okay, this is where we're trying to get there. But you're going to hit some choppy waters. You're going to hit some barriers. Give them some flexibility so they can navigate around. Very good. Okay, all right, so, continuous improvement. What's our what's our next C's, Hans?

Hans Lagerweij: 26:36

Yeah, the fifth one is a very obvious one. I think I call it collaboration, collaborative engagement. So this is all about, you know, looking at your organization, and if you observe silos, break down those silos, especially, I celebrate you the power of cross functional teams. Having cross functional teams working together on shared goals. It is really about, yeah, we talked about it in the beginning, building this collaborative ownership of the result of the plan, and not just individual accountability.

Mick Spiers: 27:14

I'm going to put something to you here, Hans, on this element around silos. I'm going to say that if you and I went and did an interview of 1000 CEOs of any company of scale, I'm going to guarantee you, within the first 10 minutes, when we ask them, What are they trying to achieve, they're going to say, break down silos. At some point, it's every company is experiencing this. How does that happen? Do you think? How do we end up in this situation where, let's say that people do understand what the collective good is and what's best for company, but they end up in almost many tribal situations where it's more important for them to look after the interests of their team and their department and almost not collaborate with other departments. How does this? How do they sell those develop It's, it's a curious one for me?

Hans Lagerweij: 28:06

That's a very good question. And I think the primary answer is that, you know, departments, groups get different objectives. So then you you set, you know, teams against each other. If the objective of the sales team is to go for international expansion and growth and bring in that revenue. But if there's an you know, legal team in house that says, Oh no, we don't want to deal with foreign law, and this is too much risk, we cannot handle this, then you get these frictions. So in this case, I would say, why not make also an objective of that legal team that they support bringing in that revenue? Then that attitude will change. So it starts here with having common common strategy, but common objectives, common interests. So if your interest is very similar as mine. I support you wherever I go, because if you reach your objectives, I will reach my objectives. But if I can reach my objectives by stopping yours, and I get incentivized for that, you know? Then you get these confrontations, then you get these silos. And the other thing is, I mentioned it already in the example. I am a strong, strong believer in these cross functional teams. So let's not approach everything from either sales or marketing, or from operations or from finance, especially, you know, bigger projects make these cross functional teams. And you know, the feedback that I get from companies that do this more or start doing this, team members actually love it. It's great to suddenly, you know. As a marketer, and not only sit with your your marketing colleagues, but hey, finally, I'm I'm talking with my peers in in the other departments, and we have a common objective. How exciting is that?

Mick Spiers: 30:12

Yeah, that's really good, Hans, I like the example that you used as well. So what are the objectives, whether they're stated or unstated, and are they actually in conflict? And the example that you gave, one group is responsible for growing the business, and the other group might feel that their role is to protect the company from risk, and now, all of a sudden, we've got this dynamic going, but if they had a common set of objectives, they then might find a way to still protect the company from risky ventures while still growing like if, if everyone was navigating towards the same set of objectives and the same set of measures that they're going to be incentivized against, coming back to your consistent reinforcement, what are they getting incentivized to do? Yeah, really good. All right, so what's our final C's, Hans?

Hans Lagerweij: 31:03

Final C is the C of fun. But so I had my 5c and I had fun. I wanted to stress that, you know, strategy should not be boring. You should bring in the excitement and the fun in the company. But of course, a fun doesn't start with a C. So I made it in the end, celebrate successes and celebrating sounds, of course, like, like, like, bringing in some fun. But I will explain in my book that actually, I mean, it's a little bit broader than than just celebrating successes. It is. But here, of course, it is acknowledging and rewarding behaviors, and not rewarding behaviors with money. That's probably part of cultural alignment or maybe even consistent reinforcement. But this is about recognition. This is about every company has got company events. They have got a Christmas party. Why can't you link even those events to an element of your strategy. And I give you one example. So at one company I worked for was a loss making company, the objective, of course, was to turn it around. And at some point didn't. Came from here, probably someone from from the finance team said, like, oh, so actually, if we really summarize what our strategy is, it is to be back in black. What do you mean back in black? And they said, Yeah, here in finance, we write if, if something is negative, it's it's in red. If it's something is positive, it's in black. And I thought, actually, that that's a brilliant theme. So back in black and yeah, one of the key elements in the end of rolling out that plan and rolling out that strategy was, if we achieve it, we give a big Back in Black Party at the end of the year. And here we are. We did it, and we had that party. Everyone was dressed up in black. I think there was a lot of ACDC like that. But you know, that's just one example. You do fun I hope you do fun things at work anyway, why not combine those things to the strategy, to the plan, rollout, and, yes, also, as I said, celebrating successes. I think sometimes companies or executives, they do celebrate successes, but they wait, you know, until the end of the year. Well, it's way more motivating to celebrate in steps. So after a month, if everything goes in the right direction, KPIs are being met. It looks like you're on the path. It doesn't have to be, you know, a big party. So bring in a cake, get the team together, get that team hurdle. You know, it doesn't have to be huge, but just a little bit of attention, a little bit of relaxation, a little bit of Yeah, fun element regularly linked to that, that plan.

Mick Spiers: 34:08

Yeah, there's some really interesting things there, Hans that I'm picking up. I feel like it's a thread that's actually pulling it all together in some way that when we celebrate success, that we make that a very intentional action that allows us to clearly communicate what the strategy was and why we're why we're celebrating today, is because it was connected to the strategy in some way. So it's a form of consistent reinforcement. It's a form of cultural alignment where you're rewarding people and saying, Yes, this is what we said we're going to do when Yes, you achieved it. There was an element there continuous improvement, that that you're not waiting until you've solved the big problem. You're actually celebrating little milestones along the way to say, hey, team, you were on track. You're on the right direction here. And that word team there. Collaborative engagement, that you're bringing everyone together to celebrate the success the team. Success team did this. Yeah.

Hans Lagerweij: 35:11

It's definitely also a way to break down those silence because, and you know, it could be a marketing success. It could be that you had a record website visits that month, okay, but let's celebrate that as a team, because those website visits, if we do a good job, will convert to a higher sales. So sales is happy. Higher sales should make the finance team happy.

Mick Spiers: 35:37

Yeah, very good. And then then there's the connection element there as well. So even if it is an individual it's being rewarded, sometimes as a team, other times it's an individual, putting an individual on the stage whatever your company has for your rewards and award system. Instead of going, Oh, Hans laga way, he did a wonderful job this month. Let's celebrate. It's then saying Hans achieved the following, and it was connected to the strategy in this way. So he did this, and it was important, because I'm hearing that ability to do the connection to the strategy as well as you celebrate the success, yeah.

Hans Lagerweij: 36:14

Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. And all, if, you know, if you all that add up, and you put it also a little bit of an historical perspective, you know, views on leadership. We had those times that leadership was about managing tasks, then we had this view about leadership, about managing people. This, for me, is about leading momentum, and there's also the little element of continuous improvement. So get on that path. Get on that path to success and fuel it, fuel it, make it grow, make it faster. And celebrating successes is a key element in that, in that acceleration.

Mick Spiers: 36:57

Yeah, really good, Hans. All right, so let me summarize a little bit of some of the things that we've covered today. So So for everyone listening, these are actions that you can take. Some of these things that Hans is talking about, you can, if you're listening to this on the way to work, start thinking about some micro moments where you can be consistent with what Hans is talking about here. And and to think about that strategy is about connecting what people do on a day to day basis to the big purpose, the why whisperer, the why of why we're doing all of this. So communicating the strategy, connecting what people are doing every day, the alignment, so that people understand how what they do impacts the strategy, the alignment of incentives. Are you incentivizing behavior? Are you incentivizing the actions that are consistent with the strategy? Is there an alignment to the values of the group so you don't fight against the inherent values of the group to bring everyone together to make sure that it's agile and it's not so rigid that people don't have the flexibility to deal with day to day challenges and barriers and pitfalls, etc, making sure that your strategy, strategy is not a rigid playbook, but it's more a direction that people can play within, and making sure that we celebrate success along the way. So the 6c for you to take away from hands, clear communication, consistent reinforcement, cultural alignment, continuous improvement, collaborative engagement and celebrating success. So have a think about that in your team, if you're if you're in a leadership team, how are you bringing that to the fore, if you're a team leader at the shop floor. How are you contributing to these six C's? And this can be your compass on, on how you start bringing strategy into action, rather than strategy being a once and once a year thing that's done in a boardroom and then never connected to to what everyone's doing on the shop floor.

Hans Lagerweij: 38:58

It's a wonderful summary. Very, very well summarized.

Mick Spiers: 39:02

All right, thank you, Hans, all right, so let's, let's go now to our Rapid Round. These are the same four questions we ask all of our guests. So what's the one thing that you know now, Hans Lagerweij, that you wish you knew when you were 20?

Hans Lagerweij: 39:15

So many things, actually, but, but one of the thing, one of the key things, is, now, if you finish your studies, if you finish your master's, and you get into the business world, you think it's you know, leadership is about confidence. So you know you I think it's almost a little bit pretending confidence. And you think that you're an expert and that you know a lot, and that you need to be basically the chief answer executive. And now I'm much older, and you know, I've really learned the power of listening being a chief listener officer, and make yourself vulnerable, as I said. Earlier, an example about, you know, today's digital marketing, you can't know everything, so just admit it, ask questions, ask other experts, ask people for their opinion. And yeah, that's definitely something that I've learned over time, which is extremely powerful, and that this arrogant, 22 year old graduate was probably not appreciating at that time.

Mick Spiers: 40:33

Yeah, nice one. This is a common, common thing, a confusion that people have is thinking that they have to be the answer to every question for sure, and confusing leadership with confidence and charisma when really leadership is built through connection and curiosity.

Hans Lagerweij: 40:50

Yeah. Like, I'm a Master of Business Administration. I know everything.

Mick Spiers: 40:55

And of course, you Yeah, right, yeah. Very good dance. As an author yourself, what is your favorite book

Hans Lagerweij: 41:01

Can I say two? Can I Can I mention two? So the first one, it's definitely covid, that the seven habits, and why? Because that is such a pragmatic book everyone, and I mean everyone can learn from that book. And actually one of my key takeaways is that actually everyone has an ability to show leadership skills if you master those seven habits. And although you know, it's not easy, it's certainly not, not also not, not overly complex. And by the way, I have to say that what I'm super, super proud of is that Kobe's son actually endorsed the Y whisper. So it's probably one of the things I'm most proud of regarding my book. So and the second book is not surprising, is Simon Sinek with, you know the why? So he, of course, set the importance of purpose and bringing in purpose in the organization, and that purpose is actually a key motivator. And yeah, this is, I hope people don't think badly that I stole the why from him, because it is true that the purpose is almost the fuel for your execution. So you have your strategy, you have your plan, and then the purpose should, yeah, energize your team behind it. And yeah, so all the credits for for Simon, for writing such an impactful and, yeah, super book.

Mick Spiers: 42:43

All right, very good. I think he answered, what's your favorite quote?

Hans Lagerweij: 42:47

That's a difficult I actually use a quote from Einstein in the book that talks about and I'm sorry I don't have it here. I don't have the exact quote, but it says that, you know, if you cannot explain something in simple and easy way, you don't understand it yourself. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean with that the power of the reverse elevator pitch, that if you cannot explain something in simple language in 30 to 60 seconds, then go back to the drawing board.

Mick Spiers: 43:22

Yeah, very good. Hans, yeah, there's definitely something powerful in that. And finally, Hans, people are going to be really interested in your work, and they're going to have their curiosity sparked by their conversation, and they'd want to know more about you and your work. How do people find you?

Hans Lagerweij: 43:38

Well, first of all, my book is on all the major online book retailers. Then the second thing is, as you if you understand how to spell my name, I've got a website which is called wwwhanslagerweij.com, but yeah, what's the spelling of my last name? And the other thing is, please connect with me on LinkedIn. I believe there's only one Hans Lagerweij on LinkedIn that's that's the advantage with a difficult name like that. And I actually really use LinkedIn a lot to communicate, to share things, to share posts, to share updates. So yeah, LinkedIn, my website and find the book on your favorite online retailer.

Mick Spiers: 44:26

All right, brilliant hands. We'll put the links in the show notes as well to help people find that I do strongly encourage you to get a copy of the book The why whisperer, how to motivate and align teams to get your strategy done, and to reach out to Hans and connect with him. Thank you so much for sharing your gift today with us, Hans, the gift of your time and the gift of your wisdom and experience.

Hans Lagerweij: 44:49

Thank you now. Mick, thank you for inviting me. It has been truly an honor and a pleasure as well. It was fun.

Mick Spiers: 44:57

What a powerful conversation with Hans Lagerweij. As you reflect on this episode, I invite you to sit with a few questions. If we asked everyone in your organization to write down the strategy, how many would actually be able to do it? Are you aiming for buy in, or are you truly building shared ownership? And of Hans six Cs, clear communication, consistent reinforcement, cultural alignment, continuous improvement, collaborative engagement and celebrating success. Where are you strongest and where is your biggest opportunity to grow? Hans reminds us that most so called execution problems are actually communication and connection problems. Strategy isn't meant to live in a slide deck or a speech from the stage. It lives in the everyday decisions, trade offs and conversations that happen across the business some of the key actions from today's conversation are to turn your strategy from a once a year event into a daily habit. Use values and behaviors as the bridge between your strategy and culture. Break down silos or cross functional teams so they chase shared goals rather than competing agendas and create simple, practical mechanisms like idea boxes or listing forums that invite people at every level of the organization to shape the how, and finally, the importance of celebrating success along the way, so people feel seen, valued and proud of the contribution they're making. Most of all, Hans challenged us to get closer to our people, to stop preaching strategy at them, and start exploring strategy with them. If this episode resonated with you, I encourage you to take one concrete step this week, maybe it's having a team conversation, to reconnect your current projects to the strategy. Maybe it's inviting your people to challenge the way we've always done it around here. Or maybe it's finally celebrating a win that's gone unnoticed for far too long. If you'd like to go deeper into Han's work, check out his book, The why whisperer, how to motivate and align teams to get your strategy done. It's a fantastic companion to everything we've talked about today. In the next episode, we're going to be joined by Anne Marie Anderson, the three time Emmy award winning broadcaster and keynote speaker, who's going to talk to us about reframing failure and success by cultivating audacity. You've been listening to The Leadership Project. If today sparked an insight, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with one other person who would benefit from listening to the show. A huge thank you to Gerald Calibo for his tireless work editing every episode, and to my amazing wife, Sei, who does all the heavy lifting in the background to make this show possible. None of this happens without them around here. We believe leadership is a practice, not a position, that people should feel seen, heard, valued and that they matter, that the best leaders trade ego for empathy, certainty for curiosity and control for trust. If that resonates with you, please subscribe on YouTube and on your favorite podcast app, and if you want more, follow me on LinkedIn and explore our archives for conversations that move you from knowing to doing until next time, lead with curiosity, courage and care.