Do you want to engage in public leadership activities? Are you a communication talent with a feel for social media and experience in WordPress and do you want to develop partnerships to anchor public leadership?
The Public Leadership Foundation (PLF) is looking for a
Public Leader with great communication skills
to strengthen our board and movement!
The purpose of the PLF is to develop public leadership together. We are setting out to be MAD (Making A Difference) through EPIC leadership (Energy, Purpose, Identity and Courage).
The PLF is a young and ambitious foundation. We want to anchor public leadership in society by connecting public, private and third sectors based on shared purpose. Over the years we organised multiple events internationally and gave workshops at several congresses. Further our EPIC Apprentices are developing their public leadership with us. Next year we want to continue growing, both in The Netherlands and Europe. Therefore, we need YOU!
Bring our communication and exposure to the next level!
Contribute to strengthening our MAD movement.
Do you:
Want to contribute to the PLF purpose and vision?
Show leadership with a purpose?
Have humor (we take this seriously)?
And are you:
A communication-talent, with all the required social and technical skills?
Willing to learn and helping others to grow?
Looking for an ambitious platform and an energetic team to work in?
Than we really would like to meet you!
Interested?
Send us your motivation in any way (we care less about formal documents, but writing your motivation is one of the many options), however, no later than the 2nd of July to info@publicleadership.foundation.
For further information about the function and the procedure contact Corinne Sol (0652390763 or Corinne.m.sol@gmail.com) and of course be our guest during one of the next PLF events.
Do you want to engage in public leadership activities? Are you a great networker, just that little business minded and do you want to develop partnerships to anchor public leadership?
The Public Leadership Foundation (PLF) is looking for a
Public Leader with a great network and partnership capabilities
to strengthen our board!
The purpose of the PLF is to develop public leadership together. We are setting out to be MAD (Making A Difference) through EPIC leadership (Energy, Purpose, Identity and Courage). The PLF is a young and ambitious foundation. We want to anchor public leadership in society by connecting public, private and third sectors based on our shared purpose. Over the years we organised multiple events (inter)nationally and gave workshops at several congresses. Further our EPIC Apprentices are developing their public leadership with us. Next year we want to continue growing, both in The Netherlands and Europe. Therefore, we need YOU!
We are looking for someone who:
Strengthens and further builds our partner network of amPLFiers
Develops partnerships based on our purpose
Attracts sponsors for PLF events and activities by MAD people
Do you:
Want to contribute to the PLF purpose and vision?
Show leadership with a purpose?
Have humor (we take this seriously)?
And are you:
A networker in the public and private sphere and not hesitating to take a business like approach?
Willing to learn and helping others to grow?
Looking for an ambitious platform and an energetic team to work in?
Than we really would like to meet you!
Interested?
Send us your motivation in any way (we care less about formal documents, but writing your motivation is one of the many options), however, no later than the 2nd of July to info@publicleadership.foundation.
For further information about the function and the procedure contact Corinne Sol (0652390763 or Corinne.m.sol@gmail.com) and of course be our guest during one of the next PLF events.
Vacancy: Public Leader with great communication skills
We are also looking for someone who can:
Develop our website, publicleadership.foundation
Bring our communication and exposure to the next level!
Contribute to strengthening our MAD movement.
Eva Kleingeld is one of this years EPIC apprentices. During her apprenticeship Eva will regularly blog and vlog about her MAD experiences. Check out Eva’s first vlog ‘making impact’ here:
Lisa van der Heijden (on the left) was one of our very first EPIC apprentices. During her apprenticeship the Public Leadership Foundation (PLF) linked her to One Young World (OYW). OYW is a UK-based charity that brings together the brightest young leaders from around the world during a annual summit, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change. This year the summit will take place in The Hague. Lisa regularly blogs & vlogs about her MAD experiences.
“Before I started my journey of One Young World it did not happen a lot: me losing words for expressing myself. But since One Young World it happens on a regular basis. It is something I am not used to, because I always had a reaction or an argument. But seeing so many problems around me makes me feel privileged and speechless. What do I mean? Because of One Young World I go to more events, I speak to more people and I am learning more about people who have a different position or background than me.
For example I was invited to a reading of King Abdullah II of Jordan by the major of The Hague, even our own King and Queen were there. I did not know what to expect, but what happened I could not foresee. This King was one of the most charismatic persons I know, the story he told gave me goosebumps and made me feel sad. Not because it was a sad story, but because he was right that things need to change.He talked about the importance of global solutions; we can no longer think in terms of national problems. The problems we are facing demand an international approach. Finally, someone who agrees with my opinion: Not boundaries should matter but the problem and the topic we are facing.
“Not boundaries should matter but the problem and the topic we are facing”
For King Abdullah II told us that in the world today we should care about global values like compassion. No matter your background or your religion, everyone has learned that you should treat the other as you want to be treated yourself. Muslim, Jew or Christian does not matter, it is the values that matter. Take care of others, listen to them and really listen! Try to understand the other, try to understand their reasons, only then you will solve global problems.
Through One Young World I found out that even in The Hague there are so many cultures, so many people who are struggling every day to keep their heads up. For me this was something that happened outside of the Netherlands, but I was wrong once again. On Sunday the 11th of March I was on the International Women’s Day in The Hague. It was impressive for there were so many women who did a lot of volunteering for others who needed it. I saw women from different cultures struggling, because they still didn’t have the same position as men in their culture. I thought that gender equality in the Netherlands was taken care of, but I saw this is not true. So, I went to one of the volunteers and told her that I wanted to volunteer as well, so that I can help women in the Schilderswijk who feel left alone. I am excited, because I do not know what is coming, but I do know that I need to broad my horizon for there are so many problems just around the corner. And I was blind for helping them. So when it comes to being MAD I want to add something: being MAD is to listen to others until you understand the other. Only then you can speak, but always speak with respect and understanding.
I am looking forward to the rest of my lessons that I will learn with One Young World and my volunteer work!”
Perhaps you know them from your own experience. From a job you once had, an organization where you are working a bit too hard, a football club where you are training. Or who knows even from the news you are reading: The big leaders who always manage to get into the spot light. Talking big money and getting things done, making great careers, letting other successful people be part of their own success (why give space to failure?). You may wonder sometimes, hearing their stories, what it really is all about? Perhaps even what their contribution is to making the world a better place, apart from all the material stuff for a happy few. We might call them “big leaders with a small P”. Those are the people who often are the leaders, because they want to be, for their own position.
Then, talk to others and ask them whom they see as the ones that truly make a difference in this world. The ones they consider to be an example of great leadership, focusing on a bigger purpose. If you would make a list, it’s probably a safe bet that people like Mandela, Ghandi, Obama and mother Theresa are on it. One by one inspiring people, who have achieved great things, often sacrificing themselves but being able to collect a lot of followers by acting as an example. Leadership for the public good. Those people we might call “big leaders with a big P”. And let’s be honest here; they inspire us, we need them, but they are also a bit out of our league.
That’s why we shouldn’t forget about all those others who on a daily basis work hard on making a difference, too. Those are the other ones we meet, wherever we go. Certainly, they often don’t make it to the news, but they do contribute to our neighbourhood, the classroom, the team at work, or just by providing a hand at the bus stop. By small and sometimes big initiatives that matter to all of us – and undoubtedly to themselves. But never for their own sake or the sake of success itself. Let’s call those people the “small leaders with a big P”. A big P for Purpose. And small, not because they matter less (on the contrary), but because they are the ordinary people – as we all are – who care for the things that simply matter to all of us.
Despite the distinction just made here, this is not about dividing between good and bad leaders. Rather, this is much more a plea for leadership, regardless the formal leader-roles. Leadership we all can show and often do – regardless if we are big or small leaders. That leadership is public leadership. It’s part of our lives – something we meet every day. Just sometimes we have to be more aware and dare a little more. Let’s use and elaborate this leadership, to make a difference, for the public good.
So, definitely, let’s not forget about ourselves and the role we play in leadership. Each in our own way we can be MAD; making a difference. Let’s contribute to the MAD movement. We don’t need to wait for the leaders. We can show public leadership with a big P.
Public leadership is about adding value in your (work) environment, achieving something in society, for a better world. Small things can make a big difference in any environment. Would you like to experience how you can make that difference? Are you a (master) student or Young Professional and would you like to develop yourself on the four essential aspects of public leadership: Energy, Purpose, Identity and Courage? Join our EPIC apprenticeship from February until June.
General programme
March: Insights on EPIC leadership, your own leadership style and your interaction with others
April: Creation of a personal development plan and intervision on your goals
May: Assignment on inclusive leadership within a governmental organization (input for thesis if needed)
June: Defining your own EPIC leadership and presenting your lessons learned
During the apprenticeship a coach will help you reflect on your EPIC leadership.
Availability for 3 to 4 days is needed in April and May.
Experiences EPIC apprenticeship 2017
Lisa van der Heijden: By being EPIC you not only focus on your own actions and competencies but also on these of others around you. By helping and understanding them you can change things and exercise public leadership!
Dahpne Hubert: By being more aware of another person and your ideas about that person, you become more sensitive to your environment and you will be able to build a lasting relationship.
Eline Elsgeest: you don’t need a strictly defined plan for your life and execute it to be EPIC. By knowing yourself and your qualities, your leadership can bloom anywhere.
Yosha van Droffelaar: being EPIC means letting go of all the restricting perceptions you may have about yourself and constantly challenge yourself to grow. By doing this you will find the energy to keep inspiring yourself and others around you.
Want to join our programme?
Please sent your motivation and cv to giuliettamarani@hotmail.com before 23th of February. Want to know more about the progamme before signing up? Click here or contact Giulietta Marani: 06 29496612. Selection will take place end of January.
The Public Leadership Foundation and BECIS join forces to organise a Public Leadership Challenge (PLC) in 2018! At this event, themed around the ever growing digital society, professionals, students and academics from various disciplines and backgrounds will show us which kind of leadership is needed to tackle the challenge at hand.
Theme: Autonomy of citizens in the digital society
At this PLC, the impact of technological development on our society will be at the centre of attention. On the one hand, the new digital revolution with breakthroughs in fields like nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D-printers, is providing us with amazing opportunities. On the other hand, there are questions to be asked! For example, the question of autonomy is getting more pressing since technology is framing more of our decisions. To what extent can citizens develop themselves unhampered when algorithms are nudging and registering our behaviour? People seem to get less critical about the information they consume and share, the web is (unintendedly) creating bubbles of like-minded people without too much diversity of thought, private and public organisation are actively influencing our behaviour through nudging… Is the freedom of choice and the autonomy of citizens under pressure? In any case, the ever uprising technological development is presenting our society with a challenge: how to ensure the autonomy of citizens in the digital society? This question will be the focus point of the Public Leadership Challenge the PLF and BECIS are organise next spring!
Stay posted!
Interested in the cooperation between BECIS and the PLF and the theme of the upcoming event? Want to join the conversation about leadership in the digital society? Sign up for our newsletter (by sending an e-mail to info@publicleadership.foundation) and keep an eye on our Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook to stay updated!
Thursday 23 November, just after 1 pm. Moderator Giulietta Marani opens the MAD event by asking the 60 people attending this annual conference on public leadership who considers him- or herself a public leader. The yes- and no-diagram on the screen behind her start growing and when all the votes are in, we see that just over half of all participants don’t see themselves as leaders.
On the 23rd of November, around 60 MAD people gathered at the Timmerhuis in Rotterdam, to join the Public Leadership Foundation’s annual conference on public leadership. And what an afternoon it was! Kick started by an opening vote on who considered him- or herself a public leader (50% of all participants!), 4 MAD leaders took the stage to pitch on how they Make A Difference through EPIC Leadership:
For Energy, Eduard Schmidt shared the story of Stichting Blikverruimers, who are diversifying advisory boards, by promoting the inclusion of young talent. The energy and persistence with which Blikverruimers is breaking open the world of advisory boards provided an exciting kick off of the event.
For Purpose, Dutch young civil servant of the year Teun Meulepas pitched his MAD story about the importance of purpose in leadership, illustrated by the stories of people he met on his journey cycling from the Netherlands to Capetown.
For Identity, Linde Nieman of the Young Climate Movement explained how her organisation represents the voice of young people in the climate debate, by taking action and presenting their own climate agenda.
For Courage, Deloitte’s Louise van Loon inspired the audience with her pitched about the importance of mistakes: to make a difference, you have to dare to fall down once in a while! Or as she put it at the beginning of her pitch: “Chase your sparkle, even if it’s scary and no-one believes in it”.
It was just the beginning of an exciting edition of the MAD event, that continued to inspire us with four different workshops. With topics varying from the use of EPIC leadership while dealing with complex issues like how to create inclusive organisations (Abigail Norville) and finding new innovative ways to tackle societal problems (Louise van Loon) to leading by inspiring (Diantha Spekman), participants applied new ways of leadership thinking to concrete challenges within our organisations and society. Furthermore, a group put their leadership to the test in Eduard Schmidt’s serious game about managing cutbacks in the Dutch prison system.
In the third round, it was time to join the conversation in small scale meeting sessions. Besides the MAD stories of Blikverruimers and the Young Climate Movement, topics like personal leadership development, the importance of purpose in leadership and gender equality were discussed in groups of five to seven people, to share ideas and come up with new insights.
When – at the final wrap up – moderator Giulietta Marani asked the audience the same question as at the beginning of the event, the amount of public leaders in the room had doubled! A clear sign that the stories of MAD leaders taking initiative, the workshops given by our amazing partners and the conversations about being MAD through EPIC leadership managed to inspire all of us to move forward and keep Making A Difference. It made that we as a Public Leadership Foundation look back with excitement: thank you all for making #MAD2017 truly MAD!
Check out more information about the #MAD-event here. The 25th of January the Public Leadership Foundation organises a #MAD Follow-up to further explore MAD Leadership. Contact us by info@publicleadership.foundation if you want to join this movement!
On the 3rd of November the PLF board organized an EPIC beer & pizza meeting at De Ceuvel, to brainstorm with MAD people on public leadership and the way the PLF can enable MAD leadership. The venue was well chosen: an award-winning, sustainable planned workplace for creative and social enterprises on a former shipyard in Amsterdam North. On the former shipyard old houseboats have been placed on heavily polluted soil, the workspaces have been outfitted with clean technologies and it has all been connected by a winding jetty. Around the houseboats phyto-remediating plants work to clean the soil. The former industrial plot is a thriving community of entrepreneurs and artists, where all involved have lent a hand to build Amsterdam’s first circular office park.
As said: A perfect place to get together with 10 MAD people and to share & brainstorm about upcoming PLF activities and approaches. Over some beers and delicious pizzas, several topics were considered. A couple of ideas the MAD people shared: during our events they would love to learn from failure: a person that has overcome obstacles is more inspiring than a 100% success story. For the next PLC on digital diversity they would love to focus on education, singularity or loss of jobs in the future. As a board, we were inspired by the energy and the ideas the MAD people brought to the table. We are looking forward to further develop them. For starters, with the organisation of the Public Leadership Challenge on the inclusive digital society!
Do you want to contribute to the MAD-movement? Come to #MAD2017 or send an email to info@publicleadership.foundation!
Being the energetic and proactive person that she is, Lisa van der Heijden was one of our very first EPIC apprentices. During her apprenticeship the Public Leadership Foundation (PLF) linked her to One Young World (OYW). OYW is a UK-based charity that brings together the brightest young leaders from around the world during a annual summit, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change. Next year the summit will take place in The Hague and we are hoping to play an active role. In October OYW 2017 was taking place in Bogotá, Colombia, and guess who went to it? Lisa bloged, vloged and looked back an intense and amazing summit.
“Colombia was amazing and at the same time it startled me. After I got back I got a lot of questions about One Young World Bogota and my answer was the same every time: I don’t know yet. And ever since I have kept this feeling.
One Young World Bogota was amazing, because I got the opportunity to meet all kinds of new people around the globe. I got to see keynote speakers such as Kofi Annan and Muhammed Yunus. They already have showed that they are MAD and they are known for their actions to build a better world
One Young World Bogota was also eye-opening. People from Afghanistan, Jerusalem, Colombia and Kenia who witnessed the horrors of war first hand. Who actually have seen the terror of hate and its consequences. People who survived genocide or being kidnapped by the guerilla.
One Young World Bogota was also really intense. I have never been known as a woman who cries a lot. But everytime I heard a personal story of a young person who, for example, has seen how his father is murdered in front of his eyes, and still was able to forgive this people, made me cry. A young woman who was going to be killed because of her nationality. Read this sentence one more time: because of her nationality! People are buried alive because of their nationality in Kurdistan. It is something we see as something from the past, but this is not true. The world we are currently living in, is not different from the world we lived in hundred years ago.
One Young World made me realize that we are far away from One World. We are treating people less than ourselves, we are discriminating towards other minds and we don’t respect those with a different religion or background. We do not listen to each other. We only listen to ourselves. And this made me sad, it made me realize that we are no better men than those before us. It made me realize that for achieving One World we have to stop thinking in terms of religion, in terms of language and in terms of boundaries.
Of course, One Young World was not only a sad experience. It also showed that a lot of people are already building a better world. A lot of people are MAD! It is up to us to build a better world, not only for our generation, but also for the ones to come. It is up to us to stop talking and to start listening. It is up to us to solve worldwide problems by thinking in terms of one race: being a human.
I do not know what the future holds, but I do know that I want to contribute. I want to contribute in building a better world by creating a better governance structure in which society, private and public sector are coming together to solve boundary-crossing issues by thinking in terms of unity and letting go the boundaries that have been dividing us all these years.”
– Lisa van der Heijden
Check out more of Lisa’s experiences during One Young World – Bogotá:
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Lisa van der Heijden (on the left) was one of our very first 
