On leadership,
honestly.
I'm Sonja Wekema: executive coach, team coach and sparring partner, speaker, author and PhD researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I work with executives, boards and teams on complex questions and difficult conversations, from international businesses to municipalities and public-sector organisations.
- The Other Perspective is my professional practice for work with leaders, teams and organisations.
- The Board Whisperers is a collaboration with Daphne Laan, focused on boards and executive teams.
Leadership is not a performance:
it is a way of paying attention.
The world I keep meeting, in boardrooms, ministries and international teams, does not hold still. The leaders doing the most interesting work there are not the most polished. They pay attention to what is really going on, think aloud, ask better questions than the ones they were given, and are willing to be changed by what they hear.
That leads to the questions I work with. How do you bring different perspectives together when reality is plural and intercultural? And where does responsibility sit when the system itself is part of the problem? These are the questions behind the writing, the research, the podcast, and almost every conversation I find worth having.
"My work, in one sentence, is to rehumanise leadership: to make it possible, again, for serious people to do serious work without pretending to be something they are not."
A working life shaped by one long question.
These questions live inside three books, doctoral research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on leader vulnerability, the bilingual TOP Talks podcast with Lenneke Abelman, and my professional practice, The Other Perspective.
The work takes place with executives, boards and international teams, usually at the moments where the next move is not yet obvious.
Beyond work, I live in The Hague with my family. I ski, run, read and take photographs. See my photography ↗
"Sonja was able to create the conditions for difficult, edgy conversations to happen without it feeling personal or threatening. These are valuable qualities which set Sonja apart from many other team coaches in my experience."
"Open, sincere and critical is how I experienced Sonja. By sharing her own experiences, asking critical questions and looking at a question from another perspective, I have been forced to shift my thinking several times."
"Sonja has an honest and authentic style, is curious about the reasons for things, courageous to tackle issues. Always looking to increase the impact she can make!"
"Sonja is a high quality HR Manager who develops trust with people she interacts with. She balances new talent development vs deepening expertise, empathy vs delivery, vision vs reflection very well."
Let's
talk
For coaching and facilitation, speaking, research and media enquiries, you can contact me directly.
I provide coaching and facilitation through The Other Perspective.