More than eighty articles on energy, teams and leadership. Curious how your own organisation is doing? Find out with a research-based scan.
Personal advice from Paul, Ronald and BerdWhat does work engagement actually deliver? Scroll down to see the difference ↓
Work engagement37 articles
Engaged teams29 articles
Leadership20 articles
Tips & practice20 articles
Workload & energy17 articlesScroll along with two colleagues: Anna is satisfied, Sami is engaged. On paper they are the same. In your results they are not.
Mountain metaphor from "Word een HELD" (Become a HERO) by Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden, in Dutch. Figures: Gallup.
The problemThe director of a company with 450 people could not understand it. Every year his people came out as above-average satisfied. Yet results were flat: growth stalled and new plans struggled to get off the ground. Around the business he saw tension, rising absenteeism and customers who noticed that nobody really went the extra mile for them.
Anna is satisfied"If you are already sitting on top of your mountain, it feels as if the only way is down."Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden, Word een HELD (translated)
Anna works on autopilot and clings to the way things are. When change comes, she nods along and then carries on as before. For a long time nobody notices, because the work gets done. But nothing moves forward.
Sami is engaged"He believes it can be better, higher, faster, more beautiful, and he enjoys the climb."Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden, Word een HELD (translated)
Sami comes up with ideas, takes the initiative and gets colleagues on board. He is exactly who you need when something has to change.
"If satisfaction says anything at all, it says something about the past: I have been quite satisfied…"Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden, Leidinggeven is omgekeerd opvoeden (translated)
It's down to youProf. Dr. Bas Kodden sees the director as Chief Energy Officer: the person who makes sure people get energy from their work. That calls for a different style:
"The highest level of leadership is letting others take the lead!"Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden, Leidinggeven is omgekeerd opvoeden (translated)
And it starts with people in the team feeling safe to speak up, even when something goes wrong. Where they don't, people check out: according to Gallup, one in nine employees has mentally checked out. In his book Teamveiligheid (Team safety, in Dutch), Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden calls them "bevers" (beavers).
Gallup compared tens of thousands of teams. The most engaged teams (the top quartile) outperformed the least engaged teams (the bottom quartile):
23% higher profitability. 78% less absenteeism.
Also 18% higher sales per employee and 32% fewer quality defects. This is a correlation, not a guarantee.
And in your organisation?Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden opens his masterclass with a call to abolish all satisfaction surveys. The Employee Engagement Survey (MBO) is the successor to the employee satisfaction survey. It shows, team by team, how motivated people are, where that motivation is slipping, and what their manager is doing about it.
What does that insight get you?
The goal: engaged teams who want to move forward, and a leadership team that knows exactly where to steer.
Backed by research from Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden and run by Leiders.nl. Paul, Ronald and Berd help you translate the results into what to tackle first.
A satisfaction survey tells you whether people are satisfied. These scans show whether they are engaged, what leadership they experience and whether they speak about your organisation with pride. No bulky report, but the management information your board and leadership team need: see where you stand, decide what to tackle, and measure later whether it's working. The scans are available in English.
MBOBest place to start
Three scans in one. See how much energy and engagement there is, how people experience their leadership and whether they speak about your organisation with pride.
What you get to see
The successor to the employee satisfaction survey. More about the scans
VLS1 · VLS2
See the gap between the leadership you intend and the leadership employees experience, per team (VLS1) or across the whole organisation (VLS2).
What you get to see
Developed in 2025 by Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden. More about the scans
IEAS
More than an eNPS. Not just whether employees would recommend you as an employer, but whether they actually do it, at work and beyond.
What you get to see
Gives a richer picture than the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). More about the scans
Not sure? Start with the MBO. It already includes the other two scans.
MeasureThe scan shows what is going on, per team or department.
DiscussTogether with us: what do the results mean for you, and what do you tackle first?
Get to workWork on what can be better, for example with the ELP or YLP.
Fine-tuneMeasure again, see what has changed and fine-tune your approach.
€ 1,950 per participant, excl. VAT, including an overnight stay · team of up to 4: € 7,500
€ 1,199 per participant, excl. VAT · team of up to 3: € 2,999
You talk to Paul van Heeringen, Ronald Warmerdam or Berd Warmelts. They are the partners of IMPACT on the Job, which has guided more than 150 companies since 2014. The scans and programmes come from Prof. Dr. Bas Kodden, professor at Nyenrode Business University, and are run by Leiders.nl.
