Interview with Shell leadership development program business coach Waler Reekers

Author: Sandra Liepa, Biznesa un personīgās izaugsmes koučs, ICF Latvia valdes locekle

Mr. Reekers, for many years you've been a high-level executive at Shell working in all over the world, meeting different cultures, and still being one company everywhere. How do different cultural environments affect the company's culture in each specific region (country)? Are there any parallels here?

Let me first shortly introduce myself. My name is Walter Reekers, and I’ve been working for Shell for more than 30 years. In the last 15 years, I’ve been fulfilling management positions in different business domains such as IT, Refinery Technology Development, Consultancy and Supply Chain Optimisation. During the last four years, I’ve been a business coach for the Shell Leadership Development program. A business coach leads this program together with external coaches and applies his or her specific Shell coaching experience and supports the external coach in understanding the specific business culture. The external coach brings in the professionalism and the external view. This combination turns out to be most effective. 

When discussing different cultures, I experienced that every local company has its own unique culture. To illustrate this, I will share some experiences. The first experience dates back to when I first met my team in Bangalore in India. When I arrived, I noticed that they made a special light blue team shirt for me. It turned out that all members of the team also wore this type of shirt in order to showcase their pride in forming a team in their office. Another example was when I visited my team in Nigeria. Here, I had to learn the safety rules that were translated into songs. Every morning, I would sing those songs together with the team. Besides singing, the team was also dancing to the song, while I stood still as I lacked the rhythm. In the Netherlands, we are used to give each other feedback and we accept even rather blunt criticism, which was not the case when I was in Germany. To summarize, companies have their own unique cultures. However, I also noticed a parallel. This parallel is that all individuals and teams want to outperform the competition. To achieve this goal, they all want to learn to be agile in this rapidly changing global world. The leaders in the company are there to lead and support this goal. 


What is the most important leadership skill by your opinion in the development of your employees? Are there any differences in different cultural environments?

A leader needs to be highly motivated to coach and develop his or her employees. It is about understanding the motivational drivers of his or her employees. In other words, a leader should always have this question in mind: “Why do my employees come to work?”. Next to that, a leader should understand the development needs of his or her employees. A leader should pay specific attention to the development of the employees with respect to the key leadership attributes that include authenticity, performance, growth, and collaboration.

Key leadership skills in this process are effective communication, which includes active listening and honest feedback, showing commitment, and being trustworthy. My experience is that communication is culturally sensitive, but employees will forgive your first ‘faux pas’ when you are trustworthy. 

In your work experience, you have encountered various managerial coaching skills. What benefits do you see for employees, the manager and the company if the manager knows the method of managing these employees?

If a leader knows how to develop his staff by effective coaching, the benefits will be multifold for the employees, the manager, and the company. Employees will be more motivated and feel more connected to the company. They will love to put their learnings into practice, giving the company a boost. They will also form a group of potential new leaders. Also, the teams will flourish. For a manager, it is thrilling to see that employees are developing. The manager can now start delegating more to his employees, freeing up time to spend on more valuable tasks such as the formulation of new tactics. The company will get a happier workforce, which will also be more agile, ready for change and to overcome new challenges.


What are the risks if a manager’s coaching management skills are poorly managed? Is there any risk at all? 

I would turn the question around: what is not at risk?  
One of the biggest risks is that the development of employees is coming to a standstill, leading to a decreasing performance and moral. High performers will leave the team and ultimately the company. Managers will focus more and more on checking and controlling instead of being a servant leader. The company will see decreased performance, will lack talent development, and will miss out on a new generation of leaders.

What is your best and worst experience with internal and external couches in the organisation?

The worst experiences I have had with external coaches are those who sell the ‘one size fits all’ approach without understanding the specific company culture. The best experiences I have had with external coaches are those who are certified, dare to bring in an external view based upon a wide range of experiences, who are willing to learn and anticipate upon the specific company culture, and who are eager to work together with experienced leaders in the company. For internal coaches, the challenge is to keep an independent position in the company and to stay connected to the outside world. I also appreciate when a coach says no to the coaching job for good reasons. 

Finally, I think that coaching is the best incentive for employees, worth much more than any pay raise.