Interview with Kobe Verdonck on Trust, Feedback and Building Winning Teams

The Boardroom Conversations is a podcast that takes you inside the boardroom for honest, in-depth conversations about talent, leadership, culture and the art of building winning teams. Hosted by Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens, CHRO of SD Worx, the show invites C-level leaders — CEOs and CHROs from a wide range of organizations — to share what really happens behind the decisions that shape companies and the people in them.

The podcast grows out of Join The Club!, the book Bruce wrote together with SD Worx CEO Kobe Verdonck. Where the book lays out the ingredients for building high-performing, high-trust teams, the podcast puts those ideas to the test in conversation with leaders who have lived them in very different contexts — from fast-scaling startups and acquisitions to large-scale cultural transformations and the rise of AI in the workplace.

Each episode digs into the human side of leadership: how trust is really built, why culture so often comes before strategy, how to bring people along through disruptive change, and what it takes to keep teams renewing and growing over time. The result is a candid, practical look at modern people leadership — grounded in real experience, told by the people who shaped it.

The Boardroom Conversations. Hosted by Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens.

• How do you build a team that keeps growing as your business grows?
• What does it take to create a culture where people challenge each other and still trust one another?
• And why should every leader learn to let go?

In this episode of Boardroom Conversations, Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens, Chief People Officer at SD Worx and co-author of Join the Club, sits down with Kobe Verdonck, CEO of SD Worx, to explore what it takes to build high-performing teams and future-ready organisations.

From fostering a culture of open feedback to empowering teams with ownership and accountability, Kobe offers practical lessons on leading through change while staying true to your values. He also reflects on scaling SD Worx across Europe, developing future leaders and creating clarity in complex organisations.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why trust is the foundation of sustainable performance

• How honest feedback helps teams grow stronger together

• Why empowering people leads to better and faster decisions

• How clear frameworks create space for ownership and innovation

• Why leadership is about developing people, not controlling them

This edition of Boardroom Conversations is a conversation about people, performance and purposeful leadership, offering valuable insights for business leaders and HR professionals looking to build resilient teams and organisations that thrive in a changing world.