Geert Standaert is the CTO of Belgian telecom company Proximus and the next ECOTY finalist in our Leadership Deep Dive series.
In this energetic episode, he talks to Hendrik Deckers about the transformation projects he has led at Proximus, but perhaps even more interestingly – about his very open philosophy on learning, teaching, motivating and creativity.
Geert, before his IT career took off, has learned acting and played in a rock band. He has also taken up carpentry and we think it’s a very thought-provoking way how Geert relates that to leadership, management and happiness. We can definitely recommend this conversation for a Friday evening or Saturday merit-packed entertainment 😉
Table of contents:
01:40 Transformation project #1: Proximus TV
14:31 Transformation project #2: Mass market transformation / unifying the customer journey
17:09 How IT is organised at Proximus
19:21 Agile transformation at a large organisation
22:23 The ROI of agile transformation
23:32 How to attract the best people in IT
24:55 Geert’s management style
Book: Employees first, customers second
27:44 Diversity in IT at Proximus
30:05 CTO’s role and priorities at Proximus
32:52 Geert’s leadership style
34:02 Geert’s MBTI profile
36:46 His personal mantra
38:44 How do you manage stress?
40:02 The Zen of Carpentry
41:26 What acting lessons can teach you about leadership
45:07 Advice to future digital leaders
47:09 Care-frontation: how to give and get feedback
50:16 Geert’s most important values in life
Don’t stop at the first hiccup
52:21 Geert’s mentors
57:30 Trust-based knowledge communities
