The Power of Professional Closeness
Govert van Sandwijk
When you’re the decision-maker for your organization, the pressure can be enormous. You want to do right by the business and your team members, but it’s easy to feel lost given the unceasing noise coming at you. Your team could provide the guidance and motivation you need to move forward, but that would require being vulnerable with them. Honestly, the thought of opening up like that makes you more uncomfortable than you’re willing to admit.
Govert van Sandwijk sees leaders across the globe struggling with this issue, and in The Power of Professional Closeness, he shows how to unite your organization around a sense of openness that starts with you. You’ll learn how the different parts of our brain drive rational and emotional decision-making, then dive into the basic laws of influence that can be used to raise the collective intelligence of your team. Finally, Govert offers strategies you can use to create the type of close-knit workplace environment that empowers you, your team, and the organization to defragment, grow, and prosper.
Press & Praise
"A compelling read for organizational leaders, team leaders, and anyone interested in the relationship between our inner dynamics and external behaviors in these contexts. Govert's writing is substantive and invites plenty of self-reflection; he takes the reader on a journey through his own professional observations, zooming in and out in his own writing as he encourages you yourself to do.
What does that mean? The Power of Professional Closeness essentially asks leaders to take a good look inside themselves and outside at the organization - how the two are intertwined through linkages such as instinct-behavior, behavior-impact, past-future (or not!), and more.
I recommend this not only for leaders but for anyone interested in understanding how to improve their self-awareness and sharpen their professional approach."
"To me, this book makes all the pieces of the puzzle fall together. The author, Mr. Sandwijk, approaches business challenges from a clear different perspective: Professional Closeness. Using a mix between natural, social skills and mindset Professional Closeness can help you to approach both business and personal issues from another point of view.
In this high-speed, fast-developing world, leaders operate under pressure. They have to make decisions in order to follow and execute their companies' strategy. Off course it's always important to keep your colleagues and coworkers involved, but you and I know what happens in some cases... Finding solutions to re-establish connections, leaders often end up 'barking up the wrong tree' while the solution lies in themselves. Professional Closeness keeps you down to earth, close to yourself and close to the people around you.
This book is very pleasant to read: down to earth, clear and recognizable."
"This book describes in a very practical and engaging way how professional closeness is linked to great business outcomes and even survival. The author has a pleasant writing style that engaged me throughout the book.
There is a great form of story telling throughout the book to ensure that stories "stick" - why for instance could a group of sea gypsies see the devastating Tsunami coming hours before it struck and without the use of any modern technology. It's a gift we all have and can use in different ways in our day to day work - professional closeness."
