Navigating the transport sector: from traineeship to top management
Nanouke van ‘t Riet is the CEO and COO of DB Cargo. She started her career 25 years ago, at Ormit Talent. Since then, she has had various management roles in the transport sector in the Netherlands and abroad. Nanouke shares her insights and experiences and the challenges she has encountered on her journey to the top.
Niet altijd makkelijk, een traineeship met een steile leercurve
Nanouke’s time as a trainee at Ormit Talent has been invaluable to her: “I started the Ormit Talent programme straight after leaving university. I really enjoyed it, despite it being a very steep learning curve for me and the other members of my pool. If I compare my experience with the experiences of others who joined other organisations, it really stands out. You get a lot from Ormit Talent: training every two weeks with the other members of your pool, a supervisor from Ormit and another one at your place of work. So, you very quickly learn what you might be able to improve, where your strengths lie and also what you haven’t discovered about yourself yet.”
But it wasn’t all great, Nanouke says. Take the tough outdoor training session for example. It did help her move forward with her career though. “It was a very valuable but awful experience. We went to the Ardennes and it was incredibly challenging. We had to solve things in a team, which taught me the importance of being open to feedback. I didn’t accept feedback at all initially. I was very defensive and didn’t respond in a nice or constructive way either. The session wasn’t fun at all, but I wouldn’t be where I am today if I’d opted out. It was one of those things that just had to be done”, Nanouke laughs.
Fast forward 25 years to today: Nanouke now also has an international position to her name and works (and has worked) for various multinationals. Ormit Talent might not have separate training courses for this, but the traineeship has still helped her succeed in her international career. “You learn so much about yourself at Ormit Talent, about how important it is to look at others and also be genuinely interested in them. You can use this information to see how well you’ll be able to work with each other. It’s a good basis when you’re working with people from other cultures as well. I also find it easy to speak up when something happens that we would approach differently in our culture. So, the training session definitely helped me connect better with others”, Nanouke explains.
Female at the top: believe in your power
The transport sector is predominantly a man’s world, and DB Cargo is no exception. It employs just four female drivers and nearly 400 male ones. But Nanouke has never let working in a man’s world hold her back: “It’s not something I worry about. I just don’t see the issue of being a top female executive. I work with people regardless of whether they are male, female or any other gender. I like the fact that we’re all different. Each gender has its own strengths and it’s important to draw on them. It would be sad if it were any different. But I do also think it’s important for men and women to be treated as equals. I’ve never felt that I’ve been treated unfairly or as any less than anyone else”.
Being a leader of a large international organisation in the transport sector does have a number of other challenges. Processes that involve governments – which transport sectors come up against all the time – can be a little slow. Good stakeholder management is an absolute must; talks with ministries, politicians and trade unions, etc., are an important part of Nanouke’s job. She tackles these challenges pragmatically and in her own way: “I have a lot of talks with ministries and politicians myself, in close collaboration with my executive colleague who specialises in processes like these. You choose a path and then work on it together. I make a decision and then get on and do it. Sometimes, you’ll find that you haven’t chosen the right path. So, you’ll make some changes on paper and that’s when it’s time to actually implement them. Processes that involve governments might often be time-consuming, but there’s usually a good reason for it. It can be frustrating sometimes, but I choose see it as something that’s just part of my job. Different aspects of my work have different completion times; some take longer, while others are done and dusted in just one day. Various other parties we work with require a different approach. But that’s something I enjoy as well: deciding how we’re going to tackle something and how quickly we can make it happen. And if it’s not possible, I always know that we’ve done our best.”
“Of course, I don’t do everything myself; I do a lot in collaboration with my colleagues and delegate to people who will be able to play to their strengths. We spar about how we’re going to achieve our goals and via which approach. I’m quite happy for people with certain responsibilities in the organisation to talk to stakeholders themselves. Although we’ve mapped out which stakeholders we have, I think we all instinctively know the lay of the land as well. Without trust, a leadership job becomes very hard to do. I sincerely believe that people want to do well and be successful. I find it quite easy to delegate.”
Advice to the leaders of tomorrow
Nanouke has the following advice for leaders of the future: “Take a good look at who you are and at how you can apply yourself. This is the best way to identify your shortcomings. These aren’t an issue as long as you make sure you have someone by your side who can compensate your shortcomings or you find a way to get around them. So, a very important lesson for me was how to deal with feedback, take it seriously, act on it and then achieve real growth.”
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