Is Everyone in your team rowing in the same direction?
When a team pulls against itself,
progress stops.
We help leaders turn friction into flow. Building high-trust, high-performance teams that move as ONE.
Olympic gold–proven method. Trusted by global brands. Proven to align teams fast.
Three Types of Teams
Every team passes through four natural stages: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.But not every team makes it to the top. In fact, most teams settle - or slip.➡ A-TEAMS: SYNERGY IN ACTION
These teams outperform expectations. With 1+1=3 energy, their chemistry, they generate results no individual could achieve alone.➡ B-TEAMS: FUNCTIONAL, BUT FLAT
They meet the brief, but not much more. They do the job. No breakthroughs, no real synergy. 1+1=2.➡ C-TEAMS: STALLED OR SLIDING BACKWARD:
Friction, fatigue, or quiet dysfunction hold them back. These teams operate below their potential. Sometimes, 1+1 < 1.Where is your team now — and where do you want it to be?
MEET JOHN VAN DER STEUR
I’ve coached Olympic athletes, trained Fortune 500 teams, and led retreats for high-stakes leaders across sectors.
But no matter how technical the project — it’s always the people who make the difference.
For more than 20 years, I’ve helped leaders transform new or underperforming teams into A-teams — fast. My tenure as a mental coach to a Dutch Olympic team, which climaxed in a gold medal victory, underscored my belief in the power of well-led teams. This experience fueled the insights shared in my book, "The Power of Polarities," where I explore how effectively leveraging individual talents within teams can lead to exceptional achievements.
These organizations have trusted us with their teams:
HOW WE HELP TEAMS PERFORM
High-performing teams don’t happen by accident. Our approach brings structure to the invisible: purpose, roles, personalities, and feedback.Using a proven process to develop a Team Charter, we co-create a living agreement that aligns your team around what matters most — vision, mission, values, and goals.Underneath it all is a framework: the Power of Polarities.
It’s a practical, psychology-informed method for helping teams harness their differences instead of being divided by them.This method has not only proven effective across various sectors but also catapulted the Dutch women’s field hockey team to the pinnacle of success, illustrating our belief that 'Teamwork Makes the Dream Work'.If you’re serious about performance, don’t just manage your team. Design it.
The Power of Polarities
Our methodology is based on the foundational principles of The Power of Polarities. It is the result of 20 years of experience with leaders and teams and provides a guide to the polarities in the personalities of yourself and others. It offers examples, programs, stories and online assessments for getting the results you need. The secret is that paradoxically polarities are intended to harmonize, not polarize.
A Strategic Approach to Team Building and Leadership
The Core Challenge
Eight out of ten problems in business are people problems. From the boardroom to the front line, human dynamics are the variable most likely to make or break your P&L.Strategic Insight
Jim Collins said it best: "the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats." The Power of Polarities helps you do just that — not with theory, but with a structured, psychology-informed process.A Tailored Solution
We don’t just hand you a report. We work with your team to map strengths, align roles, and define shared goals — so everyone rows in the same direction.Delivering Results
This isn’t coaching for its own sake. This is team alignment that drives measurable business outcomes:
✔ Increased sales
✔ Higher productivity
✔ Stronger leadership cohesion
✔ Service quality that stands outEmbrace the strategy that turns human potential into performance. Start transforming your team dynamics today.
SERVICES THAT BUILD A-TEAMS
Whether in-person or remote, each of these workshops is built to align your team, accelerate trust, and deliver results — fast.
The Team Charter Workshop
ALIGN YOUR TEAM AROUND A SHARED VISION — FASTWhen teams lack clarity, they drift. This workshop gets everyone pulling in the same direction — with a co-created Team Charter that defines what your team stands for and how you'll succeed:
✔ Vision
✔ Mission
✔ Core Values
✔ GoalsYou leave with alignment, commitment, and a living document your team can actually use.
The Team Sprint
RESET. REFOCUS. REIGNITE TEAM MOMENTUM.This fun and interactive one-day workshop boosts team chemistry and collaboration through personality-informed exercises and strategic goal setting.
We start with a team baseline — then guide your team through a custom sprint toward higher flow and better results.
You’ll walk away with a clear playbook your team helped create.
The Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)
MAKE DECISIONS FASTER — WITHOUT OPEN-ENDED CHAOSSay goodbye to unstructured brainstorming. LDJ is a 90-minute method that replaces opinion battles with a step-by-step system for turning problems into clear, actionable next steps.
Ideal for solving sticky issues fast — and leaving the meeting with decisions everyone supports.
What Clients Say
“He helped us understand ourselves — and each other.”
We've never been more productive at home and abroad.So much of the new, bigger, better, badder ACG is thanks to our Team Coach, John van der Steur, who helped us understand ourselves and each other in a whole new way.
Thank you, John. Austin is lucky to have you.Matt Hinsley, CEO
“John helped us go from no direction to full alignment in 2 days.”
Before the workshop, there was no team, no vision, no direction, no common agenda. With John’s method and program, we could quickly develop a common vision, direction, and agenda for the years to come. He helped me with good and clear feedback on my own behavior, which helped me to further develop myself.
Polarity and John are capable, driven by results, and pleasant to work with.Cor Honkoop, General Manager
“Now we present our vision with confidence — company-wide.”
We were a new MT at NXP and we needed a better understanding of our differences in order to work more effectively as a team. We also needed clarity on our common purpose: our vision, mission, values and goals.
Before the meeting all participants are requested to complete a survey and at the beginning of the meeting John will hand out individual reports which will serve as the basis for a full 2-day session with different exercises. These exercises eventually led to the team being able to clearly formulate our vision, mission, vision, operating principles and goals. Something we hadn’t been able to do before.
We now use the outcomes of these meetings in presentations to our leaders and employees so that they all know where we’re heading.
John has a very deep knowledge of personality theory and applies his knowledge and his many years of experience as senior facilitator to make teams more effective.Ben Immink, HR Director
“Championships came only after we became a true team.”
We always had very talented players. But the championships did not come until we started investing in our development as a team.Teun de Nooijer, Captain, Olympic Champion and 3x World Player of the Year
“You could see and feel the shift in the team.”
John's interventions had a big impact. Players learned giving and receiving feedback. Making steps individually and as a team. The players started asking for more sessions to improve and work together better. And we did, both the staff and the players.
And we became Olympic Champions.Max Caldas, Olympic Coach Field Hockey
The longer the storming, the higher the cost.LEAD A TEAM YOU'RE PROUD OF
Most teams try to figure it out on their own. They drift, clash, and lose valuable time — sometimes for months, even years.There is a faster way.With professional facilitation, your team can move from confusion to cohesion in days — not quarters.Don’t let tension, turnover, or silence define your culture. Let’s build the trust, alignment, and performance you know is possible.Whether you’re stepping into a new role, leading through change, or trying to unlock potential that feels stuck.
Now is the time to act.Let’s design a team that actually works.
One that trusts each other.
One that performs.