Bloom: Nadine Hermans
Managing Partner Nadine Hermans is a real talent hiker, so the name of her company (Talent Hike) is not hard to find. After she undertook an insightful journey herself, both personally and professionally, to substantiate her gut feeling, helping IT people to find 'the missing link' and to see it grow has become her mission. Read her story below! 👇🏼
From language study to a passion for IT
"Developers need more than ever 'human skills', trust and a manager who grows with them; someone who dares to be vulnerable."
Being able to explain and gain experience in IT' is how it all started for Nadine Hermans, Managing Partner of Talent Hike. She took her years of experience in IT consultancy and went looking for the 'person' behind the software developer. Nadine's outstanding qualities are her thorough and holistic approach in all honesty and trust. With her visionary talent, she had long realised that technical expertise was not enough to guide both the client and the consultant optimally.Developers need more than ever 'human skills', trust and a manager who grows together with them; someone who dares to be vulnerable.
"If I am convinced of something, I will do everything I can to get it across."
Nadine, you studied languages but how did you end up in the tech world?
I don't have a fancy answer to that (laughs). But I was aware of two things at the time: one, I could explain it well, and two, IT has a future. We are talking 2000, the period of the (internet) bubble, for Nadine it was clear that she had to gain experience in IT. We ask her what she means by 'I was good at explaining', to which she replies enthusiastically: 'If I'm convinced of something, I'll do everything I can to get it across. This is how she paved her way from her first experience as a Marketing & Sales Consultant at a software house to the talent development entrepreneur she is today.
Have you always been interested in the people behind IT?
The first ten years of my career, I was not aware of it. I had several roles in IT, apart from the purely technical ones. I followed my gut feeling very strongly but could not always substantiate where my greatest drive lay. I found that I still liked working with people anyway. The next question I asked myself was: how do you do that, make the switch to a more "human" role?
It was in this role that I discovered: I want to see people grow.
From Sales & Marketing Consultant to Competence Centre Manager
I realised pretty quickly that a commercial role in a software house feels completely different from the consultancy sector. You didn't get a reply, unless there was a bug in the software (laughs). You always had only one party to convince and that was the customer to use the software. When you get into IT secondment, you have two parties to consider, which again makes it exciting. Not only do you have the client to convince, but you also have to be able to motivate the candidate or consultant that a certain project is relevant for them to realise career growth. It was only in this role that I discovered: I want to do my bit to see IT people grow.
What makes them listen to me anyway? That question triggered me incredibly. The answer was that I could apparently complement a technical profile.
Complementary with technical people
Readiness to change in IT
Remarkable and also the first big lesson of her work is the extent to which people are prepared to evolve. My first job was to convince 200 customers to switch from a DOS to a Windows application. I learned an incredible amount from that, especially the fact that people are not immediately prepared to change.' In the role of Competence Centre Manager of software developers, she could count on a stable team with little turnover. Retention of talent was also something that characterised her from the outset. As a manager, she operated mainly from a commercial background with colleagues who were technically strong. The interest in the person behind the IT worker continued to grow.
Underdog with substantial impact
At one point, I was the only department head without a technical background. A stable team with little consultant turnover raised the question: Why do these colleagues value my input? I could not answer it at the time. I effectively felt like the underdog, my direct colleagues were either a seasoned business analyst or ditto project manager, a system engineer, a BI expert. I felt like an outsider, also as the only woman of the five department heads. We are talking about six years ago now. I had nothing to teach these developers here, I couldn't write a single letter of code. What is it that makes them care about my opinion? This question kept me incredibly busy. After a few reflective talks, it became clear to me that I could complement a technical profile, because the ratio was less prominent and I used more gut feeling and perhaps also emotion. In this way, they themselves could also grow in order to make their role as a software developer even more complete.The technical baggage could always be provided through specific training and we had enough knowledge in the team to do knowledge sharing. Her role was to empower them in all the other facets that are becoming increasingly important today, so that they are not only technically strong, but also able to think and act in a customer-oriented way, showing resilience and empathy.
The days of the developer sitting in a windowless room writing code are over'.
The birth of Talent Hike
At one point, in your role as Competence Centre Manager, you gave a lot of attention to career guidance because it gave you energy to see people grow, was that an aha moment?
Not right away, it gradually dawned on me what my added value was. In the beginning, we often recruited IT graduates and I could guide them with my ready knowledge. Then I realised that the expectation of lifelong learning was not only for the consultants, but also for me. As a manager you have to set an example'. Nadine really wants to share her drive for personal and professional growth to inspire others.
Was that the reason to support your gut feeling with an education?
Indeed. It is my ambition to spread servant leadership. At the time, I was able to explain it well, but active listening was perhaps still a point of attention (laughs). That is one of the important elements in coaching. Listening to what your employees have to say is crucial, including listening to what they don't say. Today, so many years later, I notice that this quality is enormously valuable for being respected as a manager.
On your website you say that with this coaching course you have given yourself perhaps the greatest gift, is that the personal growth you meant to develop a new perspective?
I didn't map myself out enough in the first ten years of my career. I am also an only child, which means that getting feedback and occasionally ending up in a conflict situation were unknown territory. The first ten years, there was little reason for self-reflection. The coaching was a great gift, because it forced me to self-reflect. I thought about the different growth steps and I also had to face my blind spots.
At one point you ended up with Thierry (Callaerts) at Crosspoint Solutions. How did your paths cross?
For two years I came to Crosspoint as Talent Development Manager to guide school leavers at the beginning of their careers. Every company in the cluster offers technical training, but the combination of soft skills and business skills, human skills in fact, was missing. Managing partners have different backgrounds and have not always learned how to coach teams. That is where Nadine comes in. Managing partners also benefit from coaching, self-reflection, after all they are role models and have to act accordingly to inspire their teams. We work around 12 competences that complement the technical expertise they need to deploy.
You started Talent Hike three years ago, how far are you now? How does it feel now?
It gives a very satisfied feeling. At the time, I started two groups, a group of consultants and a group of managing partners. They have just started their last module. You have seen those people grow and evolve, especially in the one-to-one conversations, I experience that very strongly. I have also completed some of the projects. I also ask them to reflect on the process and I often get incredibly enthusiastic when they give me that feedback. Not the high potentials, but those who are open to self-reflection in order to grow are the ideal candidates.
Vulnerability
The extent to which you dare to be vulnerable also plays a very important role in realising this growth. You have to be open to this and if you can do that as a Managing Partner, you will earn all the more respect, because you are setting a good example. Just because you have the role of MP and have built a great business, doesn't mean you don't have points of interest anymore. Nadine always starts from people's good intentions. Miscommunication, she says, is often nothing more than a poor execution of good intentions. 'And that's where Talent Hike plays a crucial role in ensuring that everyone speaks the same language again, from the realisation that we are all different too.'
What is your biggest challenge?
I am of course very convinced of our Talent Hike mission and of what we do. For me, that has become obvious, but sometimes I find that what we do is not for everyone or that not everyone sees the importance of it. Accepting this is a challenge for me. For example, when in a Talent Hike project the manager does not follow, it is dangerous. School-leavers look up to their team leader and if he or she does not set an example, things can go wrong. I then see this happen and can only look on passively. It's quite difficult for me.
How do you deal with it?
I am an active athlete, I run, swim and play tennis, which helps me to put things into perspective. And of course focus on the people I can inspire with my vision of personal growth and leadership.
What dream do you still want to realise?
To make even more people realise that personal growth in an (IT) company is a very important factor for success as a team or an organisation. In my private life with three sons and a daughter, I would certainly not be sad if one of them would go into the IT sector. My view of IT remains the same after 20 years. It is a valuable sector which, in my opinion, is only going to increase in importance. That's something I want to pass on to my children.
