Dutch Leadership Culture
- Punctuality is generally appreciated in the Netherlands. Last minute cancellation or rescheduling of meetings are not appreciated.
- The Dutch have an extensive degree of organisation and planning, from scheduling meetings to book holidays far in advance.
- Managers are vigorous and decisive, but consensus is mandatory, as there are many key players in the decision-making process. The style has often been described as ‘Polder Model’: The structure of the Dutch landscape stimulated a type of politics that wanted to accommodate minorities, looking for compromises and consensus decision-making. The Dutch will share, comment, express their opinions and present ideas, based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
- Employees and managers are self-initiate and demonstrate flexibility on how to achieve goals, while working independently.
- The Dutch Leadership culture is about Consensual and Egalitarian. Consensual decision making sounds like a great idea in principle, but people from fundamentally non consensual cultures can find the reality frustratingly time-consuming. Expect the decision making to take longer. Don’t expect the manager to jump in and decide for the group. The manager is a facilitator, not the decision maker.
- The Dutch are direct (confront issues straightforwardly) get straight to business and spend practically no time in niceties, this will be done after the meeting.
