How it all began
More than 20 years after our start, True Colours is a collaborative platform for consultants going for change. With True Colours as our common vision. The willingness to learn and experiment from the academic and scientific sectors attracts us, and we also work for business, government and social profit.
The reason? The valuable cross-pollination between those diverse sectors.
Soon there is too much work for the two founders and they set up a network of consultants. In the meantime, the True Colours team includes several specialists with a strong True Colours identity and a clear focus of their own. We can do more together!
Our team
Herwig Deconinck
As a Masters in Educational Sciences, I started working at a bank, and then, via the socio-cultural sector, entered the HR world. In 2003, I became an independent consultant, and in 2006, I founded True Colours. Our driving force? Get people, teams and organizations moving by doing things surprisingly differently and constantly searching for what is possible.
From a wide variety of training programmes, books, articles and new experiences, I know how to find a unique answer for every client. My approach: breaking patterns, understanding and changing dynamics, developing (personal) leadership, improving team collaboration, and improving processes based on my experience in lean and process optimization and my fascination with IT.
Lisa Boelaert
After a Master’s in Organizational Psychology, I started as an HR professional at Coopers & Lybrand. Several years later, I became an external advisor at Bekaert Stanwick, where the collaboration between engineers and people-workers put me under the spell of change. After 4 years, as a young mother, I started in HR at KU Leuven – the beginning of my passion for the academic world.
And then it was time for something completely new: entrepreneurship with True Colours – reinforced by my experience, lots of training programmes and numberless books. Leadership programmes, organizational and cultural change, coaching, conflict mediation, and more, in wide-ranging sectors: it’s always something different.
Marianne Bollen
My passion is guiding people, groups, teams and organisations in their specific projects, quests, challenges, collaborations and conflicts.
A rich and varied life and professional track shaped me into the human being, facilitator, trainer and coach I am today. This included a master's degree in art history in archaeology with aggregation for higher education; 15 years living and working abroad (Burundi, Peru, Italy, Hungary); a year on a sailing boat with children and partner; more than 10 years of self-employed trainer- coach; and a whole series of trainings, experiences, encounters ...
Since 2012, I have been working as a trainer and facilitator in various sectors and for a diverse audience; both profit and non-profit; in the civil service, social, academic, medical or care sector...; for managers, white-collar workers, researchers, park rangers, volunteers, ... I do this in Dutch, French and English or multilingual.
The themes are also diverse: communication, change, diversity, leadership, well-being, learning to learn, dealing with stress, trauma, conflict and aggression. In recent years, I have also increasingly focused on group processes and working with the intelligence of the group, including with intervision, co-creation, Sociocracy 3.0, Deep Democracy, etc.
I am also a stress and burnout coach, career counselor, facilitator and trainer in Voice Dialogue and Deep Democracy.
Every project, course or coaching is a unique and fascinating journey of joint discovery to which I am fully committed.
Katelijne Callebaut
After tasting 2 years of education and 14 years in the corporate world at KBC, I started in 2000 as an independent (team) coach, trainer, and social mediator.
I work with people from various profit and social profit organizations and on diverse themes such as leadership, collaboration, communication, and change.
I find it incredibly fascinating to see what a theme does to a person, and in a specific context at that. How do human, context, and the subject influence each other? What is needed to empower someone? So that he or she feels their best and thereby can also give their best?
Discovering, remembering, and developing. I look for ways to do this with individuals and groups. And that makes every workday and every group surprisingly interesting and engaging.
Steffi Cornwell
I have 14 years of experience in education, in the broadest sense of the word. As an instructor in post-university education, practical assistant, ombudsperson, internship coordinator, study trajectory counselor, and confidant. In addition, I represent the ATP in the Board of Directors of the University of Antwerp and the faculty council of the Faculty of Applied Engineering Sciences.
I am closely involved in various learning and change trajectories, including well-being and professional behavior.
I assume that every person and organization has its own story, strengths and pitfalls, ambitions, and talents. I believe in the importance and impact of listening as in "The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said" (Peter F. Drucker), as well as in the importance of a safe environment with a positive mindset.
Together with the involved party(ies), I search for the right tools, tailored to the specific situation and need. With my strong scientific education and training, I prefer to work evidence-based. I regularly educate myself on change management, coaching, leadership, and well-being and will soon start training as a career coach and mediator in social matters.
I provide both individual guidance (students and staff) and group sessions on various themes (communication, conflict management, stress, study skills, etc.). I train and coach fluently in Dutch, English, and German.
Because I too have a wide range of interests, I also offer workshops about my own m2 flower picking garden and advise private individuals with a garden but (not yet) green fingers. To inspire, amaze, and surprise.
Femke Dewulf
As a coach, trainer, and lecturer, I guide organizations, students, and professionals to bring out the best in themselves. After a master's in Social Work, I began my career as a Project Developer for Equitable Labor Participation and Diversity, where I supported and advised profit and non-profit organizations in setting up and implementing diversity actions and innovating HR processes. My great interest in HRM, training, and coaching continued to grow.
At Ghent University College, I have been active for many years, first as a policy staff member for the Social Work training center, and now as a coordinator of the postgraduate HRM program, lecturer, and scientific researcher at the Sustainable Organizations research center. Through international projects and collaborations, I find it important to innovate and inspire beyond borders. My passion for guiding people and organizations to a higher level grew.
Besides coaching students and leaders in higher education, I started in 2021 as an independent career and business coach in a secondary profession for my own company, Rebuild-Reconnect. I continue to educate myself and just got my ICF coaching certification. With great enthusiasm, I share my experience and help leaders to coach with impact, thus discovering and developing the human potential in your organization.
Lies Pieters
As a civil engineer in the pharma and medical devices sector, I have navigated many waters over the past 20 years. What started as a technical career evolved into a people-oriented approach as an engineering manager.
I like to use these diverse experiences and personal insights to support highly educated employees - often in a managerial role - so that they feel truly involved and can grow fully at the same time.
The engineer in me works pragmatically, analyzes and makes connections. My intuition provides the necessary counterbalance, with people – health and well-being – coming first.
Besides I built a private practice, Wanaka Shine, where I help people on a personal level with shiatsu and essential oils. Not a hobby that got out of hand, but a passion that is (now) fully in line with my work within companies and organizations.
The many personal stories that cross my path enrich and broaden my view time and time again.
Wendy Van den Bulck
As a Germanist, I applied my passion for communication and human relationships for 14 years as a teacher in Dutch, English and German. In 2006, that passion took on a new form: after a training programme, I started coaching supported by the aid of horses, based on body language. That brought me the enormous added value of learning-in-action: doing sinks in more deeply than understanding!
A number of training courses later, solution-oriented working became a second pillar and the common thread in specializations such as experiential learning, leadership and communication. I developed a concept around ‘Unencumbered Communication’, a solution-oriented leadership language.