GS2019 Virtual Team Ambassador Blog #1 by Jan van Donink
Jan van Donink – Virtual Team Ambassador for Team 6 – Paris
Who are you and what is your role within Arcadis?
By being virtual ambassador for the team Paris, I also feel like a “shaper” – I joined Arcadis in 2005 and did several HR roles. Currently I am Learning & Development Manager at Arcadis in Belgium. Growing and developing people’s talents has always been my passion. In that perspective I am very happy that one of my main challenges today is also to supporting in shaping our Grow Perform Succeed culture.
What is your role as virtual team ambassador? Why do you like to do this?
What I intent with the role as a virtual ambassador is offering a “helicopter” perspective and view on the team outcomes and processes, and bring some observations to the team. This could be some feedback , or asking for feedback , and reflecting about some of the results. On the other hand I will have attention to the energy levels of the team members and see how I can give tips or advice on that.
What I really like is that the set up of the teams is global – what a diversity in backgrounds of the global shapers , and impressed how easy everybody starts connecting – even with the differences in timezones.
How has the experience been so far?
I only had a few occasions to interact, but when joining the last call and getting through the work that is already delivered , I could feel the ambition , drive and global orientation of the Paris team- I could experience that the team was on “track”, and really am impressed by the team and personal goals they developed — The spirit of “Dare to shape future” is definitely very alive in the Paris team !
What do you think about the theme Future Mobility?
Future mobility is a very broad topic, but it touches each of us , in our daily activities, in work and personal activities. There are a lot of expectations of what future mobility could look like, sometimes we can see that already in science fiction or computer games and simulations – and there is so much information on different topics related to it – Just google the topic and you’ll find more than 250 million results.
Putting this on the agenda for Global Shapers is really bringing this topic more alive to a broader group than only our experts in this topic, it is certainly an opportunity to sharpen everyone’s understanding and building more vision about the topic.
“Deepen your experiences, focus on some topics. That will take time and effort, but the development of your personal leadership will be the result, in whatever expertise or domain you have the ambition for.”
What is your advice to Global Shapers and other early career professionals within Arcadis?
Be present in what you do! Global shapers have now a unique opportunity – it will take some extra mile to do for most of the participants – but imagine the result ….do this extra mile and you will see that this experience really broadens your horizon.
And that’s in general important for young professionals – deepen your experiences, focus on some topics. That will take time and effort, but the development of your personal leadership will be the result, in whatever expertise or domain you have the ambition for.
As a young professional one other advice: reflect once in a while on yourself and ask purposeful feedback , about things you want to know more about yourself – It will supporting your self knowledge – and that is one of the most important keys for growth and development.