Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mark Vandeneijnde, Founder of Being at Full Potential, located in Schaffhausen, SH, Switzerland.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
BEING at Full Potential is dedicated to a world where the Human Potential of every individual and organization is fully realized. We deliver this vision in partnership with a global network of Human Potential Coaches who have been certified to use and deploy our unique tools with individuals, teams, and organizations.
Tell us about yourself
My keen sense of insight and market understanding was the source of many breakthrough initiatives during my 10-year corporate career with a large FMCG company. During this time, I became acutely aware of the challenges organizations were facing in harnessing the full Human Potential of their workforce. With employee engagement at an all-time low, it was clear that a significant shift needed to take place in terms of how one looks at an organization's most valuable asset – its PEOPLE. The command-and-control paradigm – which had been so effective in driving productivity in the past – needed to evolve into a more inspiring and allowing way of being with each other in organizations.
This insight gave birth to BEING at Full Potential, a global assessment, training, and coaching organization committed to unlocking Human Potential by bringing attention back to the essence of who we are and why we are here. From this state of BEING, our clients easily see through the complexities and chaos of their worlds, enabling them to access breakthrough ideas and move forward in more meaningful ways. Much of this work requires translating the new, emerging organizational paradigms into concrete, relevant and easy-to-understand solutions for the realities of today's executives.
Having fully embraced the organizational reality that 'what gets measured gets done' is what led to the creation of the Human Potential Assessment, a robust tool to measure the deeper human drivers of organizational performance. Working with this data helps our clients open up transformational conversations that spark new ideas and foster deeper levels of trust and collaboration within their teams. Since our foundation in 2013, we have trained and certified 150 coaches who offer this work to their clients on four continents.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Finding a way to measure Human Potential so that this vast and highly subjective area can be made more tangible and actionable. Seeing it grow from a crazy idea back in 2013 to become a trusted and highly reliable tool for unlocking engagement and innovation within organizations has been a great source of fulfillment. More than 8000 people and 50 organizations have benefited from this approach to date.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Probably it has to do with the inner work needed to unleash my own potential. One area in particular that I needed to evolve significantly was the way I thought about success. Our conditioning to define it based on status, wealth, or other things outside of our control can be a significant barrier to realizing our entrepreneurial dream. Reframing it as an attitude or generally something within my control continues to be the key to sustainable progress over the long term.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Source the idea for your business from within (i.e., based on your unique talents and life experiences) vs. only looking for an unmet market need.
- Think of yourself as a "bridge builder" between your vision and the people you want to serve. You need to meet them where they are at vs. expecting them to understand what you have to offer.
- Never stop growing yourself.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://beingatfullpotential.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/atFullPotential
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markvandeneijnde/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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