Marinus Elenbaas has been on several leadership courses during
his career in banking, but it's Common Purpose that has had the
greatest impact. Where other courses focussed only on individual
skills, Marinus found it invaluable to discover leadership lessons
from people and places he would not normally get the chance to
interact with or visit.
"This course helped me to meet others working in my city of
Rotterdam. As the director of a bank I have certain views and this
course has helped, because it enlarges your view. We were able to
get out and look at other projects going on around the city and we
met different people. Just sitting in a hotel talking about
leadership will not help you.
"I think this is the unique point of Common Purpose. It is
meeting people who are actually living and working in the city, in
my case the beautiful city of Rotterdam. You talk to people you
would never normally get the chance to meet, and that will help you
meet different goals."
Marinus says that the course had many other benefits:
"Common Purpose can help in a number of ways. It will help
you to explore yourself as a person, but also give you a chance to
really look at the city you work in. It made it clear to me that I
was doing certain things right, and helped me see the other things
where I needed to do more work. Overall, the course gave me more
energy as the director of the bank to achieve my goals."
