How nature and sports empower teams and leaders. An interview with our provider of the month, Jeroen Tholen.
In this months provider spotlight we are talking to Jeroen Tholen, Team COACH, Facilitator and mountain guide who is going to talk about his belief in learning through experience, and getting out of comfort zone… All in combination with nature and physical activity. Jeroen shares how nature and sports can empower teams and leaders to be stronger and more successful.
Jeroen offers unique and exclusive activities, in extraordinary settings, where team-work and leadership win over physical skill.
You can find 7 different team-building activities delivered by him on WeWent.com.
Here is a preview of 3 selected ones:
A team at an Orientation Course
The background
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Please tell us a bit about yourself. What do you do? And most importantly why you do what you do?
My name is Jeroen Tholen, I am 35 years old, born in the Netherlands. I am passionate about outdoor-sports, traveling and sharing experiences, ideas and cultures. I have a company in France (few minutes away from the Swiss boarder) that provides team-building, coaching and incentives for professional teams and leaders looking to be empowered and inspired. When I started working as an outdoors professional, I quickly learned what a great impact the combination of sport and nature can have on people.
I strongly believe in learning through experience, and getting ‘out of the comfort zone’. They are effective, fun and unforgettable way of becoming a better performing team or a stronger leader.
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What 3 words would you use to sum up what you do?
Outdoor sports, Team-building, Management training
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How did you come to providing team-building and workshops?
I learned about team-building activities through outdoor-sports in my first job back in 2007. This is when I discovered my passion for it. I believe that nature and sport are amazing tools for people to evolve personally but also professionally.
Team Challenge Course
What’s unique
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What makes your group offering special and different?
I offer unique and exclusive activities, in extraordinary settings. Taking no more than 30 people per group, to make sure the experience is more effective. As a trilingual professional guide and coach I offer safety, professionalism and the opportunity to achieve the group’s goal. Combining outdoors and physical movement, taking teams out of their every-day office setting creates a one of a kind experience. They can discover the impact of leadership on oneself, team members and the group. They can develop self-awareness and step out of comfort zone or learn how to better communicate.
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Can you share with us your most unforgettable memory/moment that you experienced in a team building/group event?
During a 5 day intensive management training, we had massive snowfall and cold temperatures during which the group had many different outdoor activities. These extreme situations have only made the group stronger and the experience unforgettable.
Prepare your survival course
It’s not about physical skills
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What can the people/groups that book your event, expect to get?
I offer experiences for groups with different physical skills and can adapt to the groups needs and conditions. The key to success of a team is not a physical skill or level of fitness of the participants. Most of all, it’s about cohesion, trust and leadership. You will get a professional guide and trainer, that helps the group evolve and achieve certain objective through original and fun activities. The objective can either be personal or professional. And all of that in a safe environment and with the right level of challenge.
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How do you measure the effectiveness of your event?
Most of my activities have a specific build-up, in which there are moments for questions, feedback and change. Through these steps, there is an obvious change within the group that leads to achieving a particular objective.
What else you should know about Jeroen and his offer…
Lastly, we wanted to give you few more interesting facts about Jeroen and his offer.
Besides team-building, Jeroen offers incentives like rafting, via ferrata or hike. Next to that he offers a unique leadership journey, where through indoor and outdoor situations he helps you understand the meaning of leadership and enables you to find the leader within you. Depending on the activity, he can be mobile, from a park/ forest/ mountain nearby, to the parking lot of the company. There are some fixed programs in his offer that are conducted on the beautiful domain of the Chateau des Avenieres in France.
