Marlies Tousain: A boardroom revolution

Today’s entrepreneurs are confronted with plenty of urgent challenges, such as climate and sustainability — to name a few. To ride these waves as a business leader, you need people around you who advise you, inspire you and even give you the occasional reality check. Marlies Tousain can be that voice. As an MT sidekick, she is you and your company’s trusted partner, as well as playing devil’s advocate.

As an MT Sidekick, Marlies Tousain makes sure both you and your business live up to your poten-tial while also being a fly on the wall in the boardroom. “As a board member, it is difficult to swim against the stream,” explains Tousain, who made a career in multinationals like Red Bull and Unile-ver. “Leaders, therefore, hear way too little critical voices. Being an outsider, I don’t fear speaking up and being blunt to enlarge the impact of your organisation.”

In 2014, Tousain founded her practice, after having worked in boardrooms for 20 years herself. “I was good at what I did, but more and more, I became my job. The enthusiasm and uniqueness that had led me to the top had disappeared. That’s when I resigned.” After completing multiple professional coach and leadership trainings, Tousain specialised in helping business leaders to overcome similar downwards spirals and give their businesses purpose again. “Keeping the spirit alive drives me.”

Tousain’s work is based on three pillars: the person, the brand and the organisation. “The process always starts with human inner friction – business leaders who want to forge a change, urge for more impact. In one-to-one sessions, we pinpoint the problems and come up with solutions. These talks get very personal so as to look for what it is that bothers you, but always in a down-to-earth manner and in relation to your professional life. After one session already, this reflects on you as a person and as a leader.”

By combining two decades of personal business experience with specific coach training aplenty, Tousain’s profile is unique. This allowed her to ignite revolutions within the walls of multinationals, small businesses and NGOs. “I am both a professional advisor and a personal coach. I train the leaders and make sure they have a clear vision, a strong story and the tools to put it all into motion. My goal is to unleash the power of people, brands and organisations and show and guide them that there is, indeed, another way. One with more purpose and impact, both socially and financially.”

Marlies Tousain.

Web: www.marliestousain.com