Konnitchiwa from Ishigaki, Japan. Being so far away from home I am even more excited to have you here with me today ☺

For this week’s English episode #37, I got the chance to speak with Joost Sanders just yesterday. He is a diversely experienced international business leader who holds an MBA & MSc and spent decades in the fields of finance, commercial, operational, products and export just to name a few.

After leaving the CEO position at Stanley Black & Decker in Germany, he started his own business in Düsseldorf in 2019, with the name Silencio – you will hear more about that later.

Joost very openly shares how he was offered one big challenge after another by the EU president of his former employer and how he turned around the crisis the company was facing at that time. You’ll hear how leaving the finance path was the hardest decision for him but how suddenly understanding the ground reality of employees and customers inspired him so much.

We talk about the impact of strengths based management and – by that - highly increased engagement rates and productivity. And Joost takes us back to his key aha moment, realizing that he couldn’t stand the “cover your a** mentality” on the long term and decided to leave the corporate world. A decision, not everyone could understand.

We talk about counting the first 100 days in the new role, his implemented “promotional carousel”, gaining Start-Up DNA and much more. Ready? Tune in now!

• Joost's Silencio Website

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and gained some inspirational insights from it. If you did I would be more than happy if you’d leave me a review or star rating on apple podcast. Thanks in advance and have a happy day ahead! :-)