Coaching and leadership development. 

Coach, entrepreneur, father, friend and surfer.

My name is Tristan van der Hoeven. I founded Growth Center out of my passion and curiosity for growth and development.

I work with highly educated professionals in the region of The Hague, the Randstad and online. People from all over the Randstad know where to find me. I also coach employees of scale-ups with branches in cities such as Berlin, Lisbon, Dublin, and Barcelona.

How it started

After I completed my master’s degree in organizational and social psychology, I started working as a management potential in a large company. After about five years, I got my first management position. The best moments and biggest successes in my work revolved around building strong teams and collaborating with the people around me. However, as a leader in a very large organization, I had limited influence on my team’s course. Often, I found myself communicating about strategies I did not fully support myself.

The best moments and biggest successes in my work revolved around building strong teams and collaborating with the people around me. However, as a manager in a very large organization, I had limited influence on my team’s direction. In those days, I regularly found myself explaining strategic choices I would never have made myself to my team.

What do I really want?

Over time, it became clearer and clearer that my working environment no longer suited me. After a few sessions with a coach, it was obvious I was not in the right place. In fact, it’s fair to say I had lost myself in my work.

I knew now was the time to discover what I really wanted to do.

Soul searching in Australia

I bought a ticket to Australia and said goodbye to my job, friends, and family. For months, I drove along Australia’s beautiful South and East coast in a converted camper van, enjoying an uncomplicated outdoor life. Surfing, kite surfing, and meditation determined the rhythm of my days. And slowly but surely I reconnected with myself.

“I help people and organizations grow and develop.”

My trip to Australia helped me realize that it is not working on better profit margins or product specifications that make me happy. What I love doing is building strong teams and helping people bring out the best in themselves. During my journey, two sentences came to me repeatedly: “I help people grow” and “I help organizations grow.”

And then, after 7 months, it was time to go back home.

Back in the Netherlands, I started working as a self employed consultant. I worked with scale-ups on creating strong teams and leadership. Soon after, I started my training as a coach. The simplicity and effectiveness of coaching took me by surprise. And coaching felt like an immediate and valuable addition to my work as a consultant. I knew I wanted to delve deeper into the art and skill of coaching!

Coaching

And so I did. Since I completed my first training in 2015, I have been coaching people and specializing in career coaching, leadership development and systemic work. The latter allows me to quickly and deeply penetrate to the core of my clients’ questions.

I believe growth is not a result of tinkering on the outside, but comes from within. It is a delicate, inside-out process.

Conscious living

My sabbatical was able to show me what is most important to me and the things that energize me. Knowing this helps me every single day. Today, I live together with my girlfriend and our son. Together we like to travel and go on road trips. I surf whenever I can. And meditation has become part of my life.