Marco Buschman

Marco Buschman is an accredited master team and executive coach, internationally recognized leadership expert, facilitator, inspirational speaker, and best-selling author.

Marco has facilitated and supported thousands of leaders, managers, teams, and companies on strategic issues and the development of individuals, teams, and organizations. He is particularly interested in leadership, the power of connection, and creating best-performance cultures where the focus on results and productivity are combined with an atmosphere of trust, respect, and an appreciation of differences.

Marco’s style can best be described as optimistic, decisive, empathetic, passionate, and inspirational. His core values of unconditional compassion, brutal honesty, fierce courage, pure playfulness, and deep respect influence the way he feels, thinks and acts in both his professional and personal life.

He works with his clients as a trusted partner, leading them to more fulfillment, business impact, and growth in their personal lives. His interventions are experience-based and have a clear focus, resulting in personal and team transformations.

Marco has extensive intercultural experience, having coached and trained leaders and leadership teams from over 60 different nationalities. His clients come from a wide range of industries, including technology, energy, chemicals, engineering, utilities, software, and manufacturing.

Marco has authored a number of publications, including his best-selling book, The Connection Quotient (Verbindend Vermogen), as well as an article featured in HR Future Magazine. He is a guest lecturer at various Dutch educational institutions, including Fontys Hogeschool, Maastricht University School of Business & Economics, Hogeschool Leiden, Hogeschool Rotterdam Business School and NHL Stenden Hogenschool.

Context

In this world, interconnectivity is in crisis. Functionality and financial rewards seemingly guide our working relations and affect our ability to relate to others and ourselves. The human perspective seems to be lost, leading to divided and less productive teams and organizations.

The Connection Quotient enables an honest, courageous, and humane interconnection to form while still focusing on financial outcomes and results – developing these relations to improve the business networks they serve. The CQ enables us to illuminate our human qualities and use these to connect with others, discuss differences, expand insight and encourage the development of new ideas. The CQ will introduce a new workplace culture where organizations and teams can approach the personal and professional through a more transparent and inclusive style. Ultimately, the CQ makes it possible to play hard on the ball and soft on the individual.

In this 1-hour interactive workshop, we learned about the framework of the Connection Quotient, what it is and how you can develop it for yourself and others. We reflected on our own behaviour and how to connect with ourselves, others, our team/organization and the world. You’ll explore, amongst others, if you’re a Human Doing or a Human Being. And how you make use of your IQ and EQ. And on the paradox that both these elements are equally important, and why that’s not true. You will walk away with insights and knowledge that you can apply immediately, both in a business and personal context.

Keynotes

Trust
Four key elements to creating trust:

Competencies
Result
Intention
Integrity

What is/creates Connection?

Our birthright and necessity.
Give and receive trust.
Create a psychological safe workplace.
Being and feeling supported.
Experience empathy.
It creates a foundation for results.

Do we need to define Connection?

Connection is like breathing. We know/experience when the Connection is (not) in place.
Look at different angles of Connection.
It starts by connecting the Connection of yourself.
Then you connect with the others, team and organization, and the rest of the world.

Functions, teams and organizations – 2 lenses

You can always look through at two lenses:
1. Functional – why the reason underneath is organizations themes and functions they exist to produce results. This is where you can start thinking and designing our strategy, vision, business model, performance systems, year plans, tasks, decisions, etc. The leader or employee, a coach or mentor, is a role you’re holding – which is the human doing part. It’s what you do to produce results.
2. Relational – Organizations, teams, and functions are assets. When you bring in people, there are also interpersonal and emotional elements involved.

It’s not only IQ. It’s also EQ that matters.
It’s not only doing. It’s also the being.
This is about trust, respect, psychological safety, diversity, inclusiveness, etc.
The leader or employee, coach, mentor, or whoever you are, you’re a person.
You can see yourself from a functional and relational angle.

If you want to develop the Connection Quotient, you should look at all the elements from different angles.

Connection with Yourself

Are you looking at yourself as someone who’s producing results? Are you also checking in with your heart and guts?
When you make decisions, is it only a rational decision or also gut feelings?
How do you deal with both? How do you balance both?
Are you also considering how I am fulfilled?
When you’re working with your coachees, you’re not only working on how to be successful. You’re also talking about what the coachees are looking for in their life. What’s the essence for them?

Balance DOING (function) and BEING (person)

Who are you?
Relating your identity to the actions
Are you looking underneath the waterline (not visible)?

The Engine of Your Behavior

What do you do?
What do you have?
What do you want to be?
Is it your human doing? Or a human being?
What is your balance?

In Connection with the Other

When you look at the Connection with the other, you can start thinking about these elements:
When we connect with others, we can talk about our goals, what we need to achieve, what we need to do.
We should also talk about our relation, how we want to work together, what works and what doesn’t work for us.

What is your ambition? What are your dreams?

Ambition is a functional being answer – something you want to achieve. There’s something you want to achieve, and hence, doing something to achieve that goal.
People tend to react to this question from a human doing perspective. Making it more related to IQ.
What is your dream – you give yourself the permission to dream without constraints.
At this moment, people start thinking from a functional, human and personal perspective.
Ultimately, we’re emotionally driven animals.
We pay more attention to rationality, making IQ more important than EQ. In reality, it’s how we work. It’s the emotion that drives us.

Compliment is much more about what you do.

I see you for what you do.
Acknowledgement is more a human being. In acknowledgement, I see you for who you are, not only for what do.
Acknowledgement is YOU ARE. And then you frame the qualities in another person.
What is the difference for you between compliment and acknowledgement?
A compliment is a functional side, and acknowledgement is more of a personal side (human being).
You need to be aware of what your tendency is.

What is your impact on other

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou.

In connection with your team and organization, you should not only talk about profit, structure, or ‘just to do it,’ but also about happiness, culture, ethics.
Are you looking at the world as “this is where my clients are living”? Or also how you’re related to society?

Paradox

Functional and relational are equal.
You have to focus on both functional and relational, irrespective of who you are.
We always have to connect with others from both sides.
Functional and relational are also unequal.
Think about the best team you’ve been part of, whatever team you take into consideration, either current or past.
If you think about the best team you’ve been part of, what attributes stood out that made it the best?
Are your answers more on functional or relational elements?

You and I are capable of creating a better place for each and everyone where we don’t need to focus on wars and conflicts. We can be supportive of each other if we are willing to choose that perspective.

💎 Nuggets from Marco Buschman

To produce results, you have to bring rationality IQ to create business impact.
We need to be aware of how we can play with the connection in the Connection Quotient with the human doing and human being.
You and I are capable of creating a better place for each and everyone where we don’t need to focus on wars and conflicts. We can be supportive of each other if we are willing to choose that perspective.

🧭 Questions from Marco Buschman to Ponder…

Who are you?
What do you do?
What do you have?
What do you want to be?
What is your ritual to remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be?
What is your ambition? What are your dreams?
Are you primarily talking from the functional side or the relational side?
If you think about the best team you’ve been part of, what attributes stood out that made it the best?

🎥 If you missed or want to rewatch our webinar with Marco Buschman on “Connection Quotient”, catch up now: https://youtu.be/UD6t2ATUY8M

📣 A big shoutout to Marco Buschman for sharing that how to grow our Connection Quotient! ❤️

Don’t miss out on this one. Stay tuned for the next episode!

Guest Speaker