In 2017, Joof Verhees, senior client advisor and former board member at Van Lanschot Kempen, was asked if he wanted to become team manager of the Dutch national field hockey team. Up to and including the Tokyo Olympics, Verhees was responsible for the ins and outs of the national field hockey team as the right-hand man of national coach Max Caldas.
“Towards the end of my professional career, this opportunity came my way. I have played field hockey all my life, but never reached the absolute top. I did become Commissioner of Top Hockey at HC Bloemendaal, where my daughter played. That gave me exposure to national and international top field hockey.
I have worked from early morning to late at night, so to speak, my whole life I wanted to do something different. Becoming the manager of the Dutch field hockey team was always high on my bucket-list. Also because the field hockey world has always appealed to me and I felt very comfortable in it. That is why an important part of my network comes from the world of field hockey.
Investing is Top-Level Sport
Besides ensuring that the internal organisation runs smoothly, one of my most important tasks as team manager is to listen carefully to the players and staff. This allows me to ask the right questions about the team process. The right emotions have to come out.
I have always worked in the dealing room at banks, where there are all “top athletes”. There is constant pressure to serve very professional clients in the right way. This means that risks have to be taken and that money can be earned, but also lost. You don’t always have that in your own hands. This always creates a healthy tension that can be compared to winning and losing in sports.
At the end of the day, the bank knows the profits and losses. That is black and white, the naked truth. A sportsman sees the score at the end of the match and cannot ignore it. You have to be able to deal with that, there is no room for excuses.
Performing as a top athlete or as an investor is only possible in a safe environment. There has to be respect, trust and understanding for each other. You have to be prepared to help each other and often put the team’s interests before your own.
TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More
In a dealing room and on a field hockey rink you have to deal with setbacks, and things that unexpectedly go differently. I have noticed that people in business deal with this better than sportsmen.
If you are a talented field hockey player, you will be told about it from an early age by your parents, friends, coaches and so on. If a team loses, the people around you will often protect you and the loss will be attributed to other causes.
Players are hyped and put on a pedestal, this does not happen or hardly happens in business, especially at a young age. But ultimately you have to perform as a team and a team is only really a team if you can make each other better, if you are able to be subordinate to another.
Athletes want to shine individually, that’s how they are selected. But once you are in a team, you have to win the medal together. A switch has to be made. I try to play a role in this development, in the team dynamics and the atmosphere in the group.
The new generation of financials
Another reason why I have been appointed team manager is that I think it is fantastic to work with young people. An interesting new development, both in sport and at the bank, is that millennials have different wishes and goals than previous generations.
Someone might want to work hard at a company for three years and then go on sabbatical for six months, others want to work four days a week. That was totally different when I started working in 1982. Not better or worse, but different.
The different culture in which millennials move is a reason for me to say to the managers at Van Lanschot Kempen that we must try to understand how this new generation functions and what drives them. We have to get the most out of them within their framework, otherwise they will probably leave the bank.
I think that in the long term it will not be a problem for large financial parties to find good staff, but we need leaders who have a genuine interest in this new generation. We have to want to understand each other.
I think that, in general, there is room for improvement in this respect. At the top of Van Lanschot Kempen there are professionals who are really involved with the people and the teams. In the broader market, however, I still see too many managers and too few leaders who are concerned with improving their teams.”