Luc Janin

I’m an engineer by training. I used to be more at home with fluid dynamics than psychodynamics. But I went into strategy consulting after my studies and from there to a specialist consultancy that focuses on assessing and developing senior executives in multinationals around the globe. I started to learn more systematically about the softer skills I’d been using without knowing it. I realised that a psychoanalytical approach would be complementary to my behaviourist approach, which was why I started thinking about EMC. I’d also read Prof. Manfred Kets de Vries' books and was curious to see the great man in action!

Manfred and the programme certainly lived up to expectations. Extracting myself from work for three days at a time and reflecting upon all that food for thought between sessions was extremely enriching. It enabled me to see myself and my work from a different angle. I became more reflective and finally understood that if you want to change a system, you have to start with yourself. I even managed to see connections with the chaos theory that I’d been working on in science.

There’s a definite “before and after” effect of the EMC on my career. I now read people better than I used to, connect the dots more. The strangest thing is that when I’m doing my coaching, I ask exactly the same questions that I used to, but my coachees spontaneously open up to me more about their childhood and other deeply personal experiences, without me asking. Maybe they sense that I’m better equipped to receive it.

Now I’m the Managing Director of the firm, managing its change over time. I’m a qualified coach and a consultant, helping our clients manage their changes both at individual and firm levels over time. The programme helped me become a better coach, a better consultant, a better boss… if not a better man.