This episode of the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast features Arnold Beekes, a pioneer in the realm of brain fitness, who elucidates the importance of optimizing cognitive capabilities as a means to enhance leadership and overall organizational effectiveness. Central to our discussion is the notion that fear within companies acts as a constraint, stifling creativity and innovation, thereby leading to mediocrity. Beekes advocates for a paradigm shift that encourages leaders to foster environments where individuals are empowered to unlock their potential, thereby promoting a culture of growth and collaboration. Through the lens of his enterprise, Brain Gym Fitness, he presents strategies designed to maintain cognitive agility and prevent cognitive decline, paralleling the principles of physical fitness. As we navigate this enlightening conversation, we explore how acknowledging and nurturing individual purpose can transform workplace dynamics, ultimately leading to a more engaged and fulfilled workforce.

The discourse presented in this podcast episode unfolds around the profound influence of leadership on organizational dynamics, as articulated by the esteemed host, Jaclyn Strominger, and her illustrious guest, Arnold Beekes. Their dialogue deftly navigates the intricate interplay between leadership and the cultivation of an environment conducive to employee satisfaction and productivity. Beekes, a recognized authority in the realms of innovation and brain fitness, elucidates his pioneering approach that integrates elements of service design, sports technology, and psychology to enhance cognitive capabilities within corporate frameworks. This innovative perspective is encapsulated in his initiative, Brain Gym Fitness, which endeavors to optimize brain functionality in a manner akin to physical fitness, thus emphasizing the necessity of cognitive engagement in both preventative and enhancement contexts. The conversation further delves into the detrimental effects of fear-based management practices, which stifle creativity and inhibit the full realization of individual potential within organizations. Beekes advocates for a paradigm shift towards a leadership model that emphasizes empowerment and recognizes the intrinsic value of each employee's unique contributions and aspirations. Through a compelling narrative, the episode articulates the essential tenets of effective leadership, ultimately positing that fostering a culture of growth and collaboration will not only benefit individual employees but will also drive organizational success. Beekes' insights underscore the urgency for leaders to transcend conventional methods and adopt a more holistic approach that prioritizes the well-being and development of their teams, thereby nurturing a more vibrant and innovative workplace.

Takeaways:

• Effective leadership hinges upon recognizing and nurturing the intrinsic potential of individuals within an organization.
• The concept of brain fitness is essential for maintaining cognitive health and optimizing individual capabilities over time.
• Transformative change in corporate culture necessitates moving away from fear-based management practices towards more empowering and supportive approaches.
• Successful leadership involves understanding and embracing the invisible forces that influence behavior and decision-making in the workplace.
• Encouraging open communication between management and employees fosters a more dynamic and innovative organizational environment.
• Leaders should prioritize uplifting their team members through positive reinforcement to cultivate a thriving workplace culture.

Links referenced in this episode:

• BrainGym.Fitness

Mentioned in this episode:

Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight - Welcome

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Well, hello everybody and welcome to another amazing episode of the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast. I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger.

And on this podcast we hear from amazing leaders and their game changing insights on how we can make better leaders. Leadership drives the companies, that drives the people. And if we can have happier people, we could end up with a happier world.

And so today I want to welcome my amazing guest, Arnold Beekes and let me just give you a little bit about background on him and we'll dive into his amazing work that he's doing. But he is a pioneer. He is pioneering work in innovation as a view as well. Sorry, let me repeat that.

His pioneering work in innovation is a fusion between service design, learning, sports technology and psychology. He has extensive global innovation experience as a corporate executive, as a consultant and as a startup founder.

And he has designed and implement, implemented new products and services and business models and technology and strategies. And he has an amazing new company called Brain Gym Fitness where we get to get to be a little bit smarter and be better leaders.

And one of the other key things that we talked about beforehand is getting rid of the fear in companies because fear is limiting. So Arnold, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you Jaclyn. Happy to be here.

Thank. Yeah, so, so, so we were talking beforehand. You right now are in Romania. We've talked a little bit about the world.

But tell us a little bit about how you got to Brain Gym fitness.

Yeah, I call it Brain Fitness. My website is called Brain Gym Dot Fitness.

Yeah, but it's like people know what body fitness is and to keep your body well, functioning well, or even if you're an elite sportsman, you want to improve your body, you want to make it at, perform at a higher level. But something related to brain fitness doesn't exist. So there is the preventive part because just like with your body, you need to keep it moving.

Otherwise when you are becoming older age, a lot of things stop functioning or well, at least in a very limited way. The same is absolutely true for your brain. If you do, nothing will decline. Yeah.

And that's why a lot of people are currently having problems with dementia, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Typ, type of problems. That is kind of a preventive point of view. So that is what, what I tackle.

But mainly the thing is like optimizing people's brain and upgrading people's brain. Because I'm, I'm 200 convinced that many, many people have much potential which they are not using.

And if you do brain fitness, you can unlock your potential. That's where I help people with.

So we are obviously not talking about games on our phone.

No.

So when you so talk to us a little bit about and share, like, what are some of the things that you, that, that help people with prevented, like on the preventative side to have, you know, to keep their brains moving.

Well, the main thing is, is that you work on something which has purpose, which has complexity, and which is challenging for you.

And so when you were thinking about this, like, because it's, it's because we were talking a little bit too, you know, about having purpose and complexity, how do you relate that back to, you know, companies and leadership? Because, you know, as you shared, you know, before, before the show started, we were talking about treating people like people.

And you've done that in a corporation. So how does that relate?

Well, what I found out is that a lot of companies have their own mission, vision, purpose. They have a statement. Sometimes they put it in a nice frame on the wall, and in a lot of cases, that's about it. There's not much happening with it.

But it's like, yeah, if you ask, yeah, we have it. What was it already? Oh, yeah, is this so it's, it's not a living thing.

But what I, what I found out when I, I, I got myself out of the corporate world and into entrepreneurship is like, hey, it's interesting. Companies have a purpose statement, whatever.

But I don't, because in, in a corporation that's not asked of you, it's just us is like, you obey and you do exactly what we tell you to do. But who you are, what you want in life, what you love, where you're good at, we don't care. We hired you to do this job and that's it.

It's so important to find out. So when you know what the individual's purpose is. So how did you incorporate that into, when you, when you incorporate that into what you were doing?

And how did you take that into the entrepreneurial space?

Well, it, where I came up, I, because people have many definitions or purpose and mission strategy. To make it extra confusing, I create. I used a word which is not used so much, and I call it my quest.

Oh, that is a word that's not used very often.

Yeah. I, and if it's not that, I create words because then people pay attention and, and my quest is how the invisible drives the visible. Ooh.

And what I found out while, well, throughout my life, but especially in business, is that it's not the things which are visible is like the words, your actions, what you do. We qualify by people like what they say, what they do, and then we think it's there.

But in a lot of cases what they do and say is not who they are and it's not what they mean. It just to play the game. So it's like an iceberg. You're the top of the iceberg or the part of the iceberg which is above the water.

That's what you see. But 9, 10 of the iceberg is below the water and the wind and the current that drives the direction.

And you think what you say and do derives the direction. Well, forget about it. It's the invisible part which drive everything. And that is true with people. Let me give you an example.

When I worked for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, I, I came out directly out of. Well, I worked at the IT department of km, but I came out of a, a IT company, Digital Equipment Corporation for the US people, you understand.

And I, and, and there was at some point in time an organizational change. Well, while I was in the American company, with every quarter an organizational change, that for me that, that was nothing new.

But for these guys, what are we going to change is like, it's like, like five years ago we had to change. Like I said, are you, are you kidding me? Yeah, so it's like, no, we're not kidding. It's five years ago. And I'm like, huh.

So anyway, we went ahead with it with a change. And then I asked some people, I, I managed then 800 people. And I, I asked some people, hey, are you ready for the change? Did you prepare?

Do you know what to do? Whatever?

And then one guy, he was middle manager and he was very honest and he said, yes, of course, everything is ready, I know what to do, whatever. I change the name of my department. And I said, and he said, I keep on doing what I've been doing for 25 years and that's it.

So I'm not making this up. And, and he was not, not trying to be funny or whatever.

It was just like I change the name of my department and I say yes, yes, I just keep on doing whatever that is. What I call the iceberg is like your words are saying something else than what's going on inside of you.

Right, right. That's so true. And so I'm curious, so what transpired with that? I mean, like, did he keep doing what he was doing and how did the change go?

Like, well, what he didn't know is that he lost his job.

Yeah, well, I obviously challenged him to adapt and to change and to do this thing, which was not happening because it, well, it was then, but I believe it still is a extremely hierarchical environment. Meaning that he wouldn't. Like I said, I managed 800 people.

So I got a management team and below that there was a management team and there were team leaders and, and then came those guys.

And normally they would never talk directly to a person of my level, so they were not used that I would, I always reverse things and I would talk people on the, on the workflow. And that's because that's where it's happening. And when you talk there, you know what's going on and what's happening. But nobody did it.

So he didn't really understood what my position was. But it's like, well, we never talk to those guys, we never see them.

But it's so important, right? It's so important that the upper management sees the people that are doing the work.

I mean, we talk, I mean, you hear all those amazing stories of CEOs who walk the corridors of the people that are doing the work. So they get out of their golden dome, so to speak, and, and get to know the people. And it does.

When they get to know the people in your fold, it elevates everybody up because they're like, oh, I, I, I met Arnold and an Arnold is this right? And it totally elevates people up.

And then it's like, like I said, everybody has potential, everybody has ideas how to improve things. Everybody has ideas what, what's not working. And if you ask them, but how would you do it? They give you 4, 5, 6, 7 ideas how to improve it.

And if you implement those ideas, you have no problem at all with any change, initiative, whatever. Because people say, yeah, of course, we should have done this 10 years ago.

Right, right. So, so Arnold, talk a little bit about, because you know, you, you, you share this and it's about what you're talking about right now too.

But how does brain, you know, how does the, the Brain Fitness or Brain Gym relate back to helping companies look at people as people and getting their potential, pulling their potential out?

Well, what, what people are doing in management practices, in leadership practices, it's what they're taught and most of the stuff is being copied. So everything what they're doing is the same as five years ago, 10 years ago, 30 years ago. It's exactly the same.

I've been for 25 years out of the corporate world, I can start tomorrow. And nothing has changed. So it's always the same approach, but the approach is fear based the approach is, is like, how can we control you? Yeah.

So it, like, as long as you do exactly what I tell you. And, and, and I warn you, if you don't, you will get laid off. Or, or, or, or you won't get promoted, whatever. It's all based on fear and control.

And that means that people won't come up with exciting ideas, they won't come up with new insights, they won't do something extra like this. And I'm assured that I, I don't make any failure. So everything becomes very average, everything becomes very mediocre.

What I do is so people are put in what I call invisible straight jackets. We, we are all wearing invisible straight jackets. You know what the straight jacket is? Yes. You didn't say it.

We can't move. Right?

Yeah, but it's like, yeah, it's like these white coats where your arms or whatever and you can do nothing by itself. When I ask people, there's like, have you seen the Olympics last year in Paris? Yeah. Yes, I've seen it. I've seen it.

I said, how many of the sportsmen or women who won a gold medal did wear a straight jacket? Stupid question. Nobody, of course. Nobody. Yeah. So why are you wearing a straight jacket while you go to work? While are you wearing a straight jacket?

When you're in relationship, in your marriage, with your friends, in towards your parents, and we all have these invisible straight jackets and we think it's normal. It's like if we always look at the faults you make, your failures, your mistakes, that's where we focus on.

But we don't focus on, what did Jaclyn do? Right? Where's she good at? What is Jaclyn left to do?

Or shall we use that instead of saying, jacqueline, you should be doing this and if it's not good, you, you can forget about your promotion. Oh.

You know, it's, it's, it's interesting, you know, it's so true because, you.

Know.

When people are in those straight jackets, it's like, it's like, I'm going to keep on pressing the red button, right. Or whatever. I'm going to keep pressing the button. And they don't think about, oh, might be there, there might be another way to do that. Right.

We can't be. When we're living in that fear zone, I want to stay in that, my lane, because I don't want to be the disruptor, because I don't.

Or be the change agent because I don't want to lose my job.

I want to be there and we stop Looking at it from the standpoint of what's the upward mobility and how can I help when leaders stop looking at my goal as a leader is to really figure out if Arnold's in my team, how can I help him rise up, how can I help him reach whatever potential? We forget that. We forget that that's, you know, as a leader, it's kind of what we're supposed to be doing, right?

Yes. Because it's quite simple. If your people grow, you grow and if you grow, your company grows. So in essence, it's very simple.

But we in most things in our life, in our work, in our society, we don't question things.

We think we've been doing this for maybe hundreds or decades of years and we think it's normal and we don't question it like, oh, should we do something else? Yeah, I, I was, well, I'm an old guy. Yes. If we're talking about the 80s.

I was put in a first line management program for one year in order to become from a specialist, a first line manager. There they learned me how you should do performance reviews and give feedback. Better feedback is like, yeah, it's a sandwich matter. Yeah.

You got to tell two things, criticizing, then one thing good and then two things criticizing. That is the right approach. Oh, okay. Well, I was really good at criticizing because my father non stop criticized everything in my life.

So he never ever gave me a compliment. I'm not kidding. He never did. So I was like, oh, that's easy. No, but I got to give one thing which is good. Yeah. That is still done to this very day.

You say, right. And, but, but nobody gets excited about the criticism. Let me give you a small example.

I was in the American company the first year I was a marketing specialist. Then I became a marketing manager and I had my first performance review.

Before that I came from a small company and there were, there was no reviews whatever. There was nothing said here. It was like. So I was nervous because I had this performance review meeting with the marketing manager.

It was one hour meeting. I still vividly remember where it was, where I said where he said, and whatever.

For 50 minutes he was talking about very tiny and small things which were not good. Like this should be done there. This, you could have done this in that way. And if you did it like this, it would be this and it would, for 50 minutes.

So I was like, I'm getting fired. Seriously. That is what I thought. It's like, this is really bad.

And you have to know I, I have a master in law So I was like, oh, this is going to be tricky. Is like, not good. Then after 50 minutes, he said, yeah, I get your rating and your salary. Your rating is uer.

UER stands for usually exceeds requirements. Huh. That's good, isn't it? Yeah. Hardly anyone gets it. So in my first year, I get the uer.

I'm like, but you just criticize me to the bone for the first 50 minutes. Is it like, yeah. And by the way, I get a salary raise. I believe it was 11%. It, like, I was totally confused. I was totally confused. Yeah.

But, and, and this is my real experience. That's why. Because it, it had such a deep experience. I can still explain it.

And this was in the 80s, you see, it's like, I'm like, but this is what we do to the very day is like, we, we constantly criticize, and then we say one tiny thing with a good. And that's the way it is. What if we reverse it? Say, jacqueline, this is what you do. Good.

You seem to like this, and you have talent in this, and you handle that very good. And you're like, oh, I feel good. Yeah.

And then it's like, by the way, there's some small thing is like, if you change that, you will be even much better. Oh, cool.

And right.

And so when you pump somebody up and they feel like, and you share that, they, they get pumped up, and then they're going to want to do that small thing that's whatever to make that change, and they're going to be like, oh, my God, I, I, they're going to feel better. They're going to be that, that positive excitement of, like, coming into work. So it, it's so true.

And so leaders and listening to this, this is so important.

Like this, if, if you could do one thing, if you take away one thing from this, you know, podcast, think about ways that you can pump up your team members and share the good things, because it's going to actually create the positive interactions in our brain and give us, you know, it's almost like the endorphin rush. Right. And it's going to help your employees. And, and I hate the word employees. It's going to help your team members.

Yeah.

But it also creates a much nicer culture and atmosphere and, and, and it's going to be fun instead of, like, you know, what's a sign of a, a terrible culture where people ask you on Monday, what are you going to do the weekend? It like, dude, it's Monday. I love it. We're Going to start it. I have no clue about the weekend.

It's like, yeah, but it's like, well, I hate it so much. Oh, I'm looking forward to, to next Saturday.

But like the Monday morning, I invite.

People to say, go, go use public transport. The train, the bus, where you see how people look when they go to their work. Yeah. It's look like they go into an operation in hospital.

It's not like, hey, I see my friends, my colleagues, we have this really cool project. Like, oh, I love doing this and oh, I want to this. How many people are doing that?

Right. You know, it's so, it's so true. That's why, you know, I think it's so important that what you're doing and what you're sharing, because if we can.

And why, you know, what this podcast is all about is if we can create better leaders, then that person goes from the company, they go out, when they go buy their coffee or they're on the train, they're going to smile, and that means that they're going to have a better interaction with the other people that are around them. You know, it's.

It's like, you know, as you just said, the excitement of getting on that train on Monday morning and picking public, public transportation and you have a smile on your face and there's a guy that is driving the public transportation and you smile at him. Even a smile, it's going to make his day better. So it really, it's. It's the things that we want, the tentacles that we want to spread out.

So it makes a huge.

The families of those. Yeah, it like they got children, they get a wife, a husband. It like whenever. Well, my father was a military officer and at home he was even worse.

So it's like, so when there was something, it's like we all would sense, it's like, oh, did he have a good day today or not? Yeah. And if he had a bad day, we had to be very careful, we always said. But then it was like, oh, that's not good.

If I had, in his eyes, not a good grade at school, I didn't mention it. I didn't have the courage because he would be extremely, extremely angry. It's like I would say it another time when he was in a better mood, you see.

But it's like if he would come home, he's like, oh, I had such a nice day. And we. This and that. And that whole atmosphere at home is totally different, Right?

Yeah, it's a huge difference. So, Arnold, I could talk to you forever about this because this is such a huge topic and it, it, it means so much to me.

How can people connect with you and find you on on and learn more about you?

Well, it's very simple. I have a website called Brain Gym Fitness and there I have I basically very simple two products.

I have a master class which are videos of 90 minute videos around the specific topic like your uniqueness, relationships, aging, curiosity. So that's what you can find there. And the main thing is my 15 week training program called from fitting in to flying out.

You have 15 sessions of 90 minute each. Yeah. And then in the week in between you. Yeah. You can learn and grow and apply what what I taught you in thing. So that's my training program.

You can sign up there. If you still have any question. There's even a link to my agenda. You can book half an hour with me and we can have a discussion. Brain Gym Fitness.

So Brain Gym Fitness. Okay. So leaders, reach out and connect with Arnold. Go to Brain Gym Fitness and really truly connect.

I mean this is so important, you know, if you want to have a game changer in your company, reach out to Arnold. I want to thank you all for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast. If you have enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe.

If you have gotten a tidbit that you think is really amazing, which I'm sure you have, please share this also with your friends and colleagues. And thank you Arnold, for being an amazing guest and thank you listeners for being part of the unstoppable leadership community. Thank you.

Thank you.