My name is Staff Sergeant Bas Verdonschot from the Netherlands (NLD), and my current position is Staff Assistant (Admin) at JFC Brunssum.

From 26 Sep - 07 Oct 22, participants have been taught on leadership matters, with the following goals.

Development of appropriate leadership skills

We have learned about the DISC model, that due assessing the behavioural styles and preferences by your subordinate/colleague, it helps your group better to coordinate the received task. By aligning your leadership per situation, you optimally influence the behaviour of different team members in order to achieve the best result as a whole.

Development of a subordinate

During the counselling lessons, you see the difference between the cultures: how to develop your subordinate. The focus for me during counselling will be to ask the right (open) questions to know the reason behind the behaviour of your subordinate (be interested), paraphrasing to avoid misunderstanding and to develop your subordinate.You need to set SMART goals. Noticed that Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream” was not SMART.

Increasing of the ethical awareness

All the lessons on ethical awareness, with topics as ROE and Law, Diversity, Behaviour, Sexual Harassment, Combat Trafficking in Human Beings and Equal opportunities has increased the ethical awareness of us. Random statements that caused a lot of discussion because of the differences between cultures, norms and values of each person or country. In order to work in a multinational Environment you have to respect those differences and in one way or another, you often have to deal with them.

Further development of personal communication

The most common ways of communicating are verbal and nonverbal that requires a sender and receiver. To avoid miscommunication, both persons have to make sure that the anatomy of the message is clear. We all agreed that communication is an essential competence of a good leader.

Skills in practical work

As a leader you are responsible for the group development process. Through the five phases of Tuckman (1977), we experienced first-hand how we as a group went through these phases. And we became a team. We have learned how this group formation process has contact with the way of leadership. That said, leadership is complex. There is not always a good or a bad one, but it can indicate how you stand as a leader in the situation. My insight into leadership is that you have to stay close to yourself and to use your common sense.

The course is not only related to learning, but perhaps even more important to talk to all the different cultures, to network, to learn from each other, to make friends and possibly work together in the future. That together with all (organized) activities makes this course better than any other course.

A big thank you to everyone who made this course possible in this way. No bye, but see you soon.

Staff Sergeant Verdonschot Bas