In memoriam Margriet Schut
'Living and working from your strengths sets you free.'
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In memoriam Margriet Schut
'Living and working from your strengths sets you free.'
To our sadness, our sparkling colleague Margriet Schut has passed away.
Margriet has been part of our company for almost 25 years. She focused on coaching and became a creative and always inquisitive expert in her field. In her own unique and decisive way, she supported others to discover and develop their talents. We regularly meet people who remember Margriet as their coach and cherish her insights.
One of her favourite interventions was the Development Center, in which she had just 45 minutes during a reflection studio to unravel a learning question with a coachee. Getting straight to the heart of the matter suited her well. However, she also liked to invest in more long-term individual or team coaching processes and leadership programmes. She worked with administrators, healthcare professionals, civil servants, judges, young African entrepreneurs and so many others.
She thoroughly enjoyed to see people grow. When they pushed aside limiting thoughts and felt free to be their authentic selves in their work. We witnessed the same evolution within her. She increasingly chose to work in her own way, playing to her personal strengths.
Margriet drew inspiration from various sources and perspectives. She took numerous courses and was always trying out new ideas - from psychological theories to spiritual practices. In doing so, she sometimes explored and challenged the boundaries of our profession. Partly because she looked at learning holistically: head, heart, body and soul all participated as far as she was concerned. This meant she was not an 'everyman's coach' but developed a specific profile. Systemic thinking became her cornerstone. In 2010, she developed the course 'systemic coaching with talent', together with fellow facilitator Brenda Vos, in which they trained countless professionals to become talent coaches.
In our own learning company, she generously shared her knowledge and insights. She founded our coaching community of practice. Work-related conversations and personal coachings with Margriet often led to self-insights and new ideas. She blended an appreciative way of looking at things with a strong focus, a high standard regarding our profession and a sharp wit. Over the years, she was an important source of support for many colleagues.
We remember her as a warm-hearted woman who had an eye out for many different people on her life path. She also had a very practical streak and was active in several volunteer initiatives. Africa had especially stolen her heart. For years, she devoted herself to projects and initiatives there. In recent years, she did so from her foundation Taldeya, which coaches young people in Zimbabwe in becoming entrepreneurs.
By the end of 2022, Margriet started working less. Saying goodbye to work was hard for her. She enjoyed it and it was part of who she was. At the same time, a period of more time with her beloved Cees beckoned. She longed for a slower pace and for being outside in nature even more. We organised a special event with her to mark a new phase, reflecting together on her impact on coaching, on our company and on each of us. After that, she reduced her work to a great degree and enjoyed a period with more free space. Formally, she had left our company, in practice she was still close by. Last summer, however, she fell ill. And now we do need to say goodbye.
Margriet surrounded herself with people until the very end. Full of love for them and for life.
We are going to miss her! We wish her husband Cees and loved ones lots of strength.
All colleagues of Kessels & Smit, The Learning Company in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and South Africa
Margriet studied andragology in Amsterdam in the 1980s.
She worked as a training consultant at Philips and as a policy officer at AWOZ - a no longer existing development fund for labour market and training in healthcare.
In 1999, she joined Kessels & Smit, The Learning Company, when we had only been working in that form for about three years.
Since 2010, she and Brenda Vos taught the course 'systemic coaching with talent' at the FCE, which they have designed themselves.