Constantijn van Oranje leads StartupDelta, the accelerator for the startup ecosystem in the Netherlands and advises companies and the European Commission on their digital innovation strategies.
Until 2014 Constantijn was Chief of Staff of European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes. He has a background in management consulting and policy research & advice at Booz Allen & Hamilton in London and the RAND Corporation in Brussels. In 2015 he founded StartupFest Europe, the country’s biggest ever startup festival.
Constantijn holds an MBA from the INSEAD at Fontainebleau and masters degree in law from Leiden University.
What was your first management role?
My first management role was that of a strategic consultant. Later, I ran the office of RAND cooperation in Brussels and led a research team on information policy and economics. Afterward, I went to the European Commission, where I ran a small office, with 18 people.
What is your leadership style?
My leadership style is to give as much of freedom and autonomy to people as they require. I work to get the best people, and give them a general view of where we are going, I give them all the support they need, when they need it, while allowing them the freedom to develop their own actions and initiatives.
What makes a great leader?
I believe great leaders are great listeners; they are aware of the fact that they don’t know everything. They know that need to be focused as they have to empower other people. They focus on the long-term and know how their focus and vision translates into everyday kind of actions. And to make that linking and communicating with all kind of situations that are important to your business or country.
Based on your experience in various leadership roles, what are the key elements of leading people?
I think it’s a lot about communication. Not just the communication about the big picture but also about the small picture. Feelings of people should be taken into consideration. It should be enquired if people are actually doing well in a team if they are rewarded, and I think that is actually difficult. I tend to focus only on achieving the overarching goal and understanding where the company will be as a result. But to understand when people need additional support and ask for feedback, I always expect that team members will approach me, but you have to actively engage people to get feedback. I think that we have an open culture, but that culture does not develop by itself. You have to establish and cultivate it.
How do you make complex decisions?
You have to break them down into a little bit. Time is always an important factor; everything looks very complex, but if you take one decision at a time, it will surely lead you to the next. If you try to take all the decisions at the same time, it would become complex. In fact, by initiating an action and taking one decision, the situation actually changes, and over time, a new element comes in, which offers you more variables to choose from. So, it’s a question of breaking it down and claiming it with time, to make complex decisions.
Even the best leaders are sometimes only as good as their teams. How do you pick the best people?
I think the best leaders are always as good as their teams. You don’t think people can just lead. I think it is always team effort. How do you pick the best people? I think it is very important that you create your work environment as a place where people want to work. The workplace should have values and should be a place that inspires the workers to imbibe the values. Our organization works with start-up with a mission to support the entrepreneurs in the Netherlands and across the world. That’s the mission with which we have been able to convince people, to join us.
What advice would you give a first-time manager?
Get a good coach or talk to people who have done it before. Do not be ashamed about seeking advice. However, do not get frantic or suggest that you do not know what you are doing. You want to convince people that you are self-confident, but at the same time, do not act overconfident. You can admit that you do not understand certain aspects of the work, and you should organize conversations around inviting the opinions of other people, even others on your team. I think is really about being transparent but also knowing that you don’t know everything. You don’t have to prove that you know everything. I think that attempting to do so is the biggest mistake young leaders make.
This interview with Constantijn van Oranje, a special envoy at StartupDelta , was conducted and condensed by Lan Anh Vu.