Sharon Koevoets: How to bridge worlds for impact

Sharon Koevoets, Head of People and Culture at Small Giants, is helping to build a culture that redefines what agency-client relationships can be. She unpacks her journey and zones in on how the combination of people, data and intuition can lead to exceptional breakthroughs.  

When Sharon looks back on her career journey to date, she can spot markers on the map that would eventually lead her to the people management sphere. Initially, her affinity towards building tangible products led her to carve out a path in digital commerce following her studies in communication science. This included online marketing coordination, managing e-commerce projects and developing commercial channels, and eventually taking on the high-profile role of commercial lead for bol.com’s iconic Grote Speelgoedboek. “A sense of movement has always been a driving force in my career,” she notes. She recalls how she has always been keen to take the lead and to create connections and shared direction, which became apparent to her when she worked on omnichannel projects for Kruidvat. Even today, she is still a path setter and a way finder amidst ambiguity. When she was appointed Head of People and Culture at Small Giants, the shift from delivery management to a more people-centered role didn’t feel like a sudden change, but a natural evolution.

Rooting success in people

Sharon firmly believes that the root of successful projects lies not in the planning, tools or methodology, but in the people. It was a realisation that came as her role evolved, and it fundamentally shifted her focus. She became increasingly curious about how to create ownership, psychological safety, and growth within a team while still maintaining impeccable standards. “I think there can be incredible power and chemistry in the way teams collaborate; the trust between colleagues and how they bring their unique blend of personality, temperaments, and expertise to deliver fantastic creative and technical output,” she adds.

The architecture of momentum 

Small Giants values connection above all and leverages marketing, technology and data as supporting pillars to build value for their clients. Sharon and her colleagues truly see themselves as an extension of their client’s teams, and get a lot of energy from this dynamic. She believes that it’s a common myth about technical environments that they are completely data-driven and pragmatic. To her, data helps test assumptions, reveal patterns and guide decisions, but it always exists within a larger context. “Trust, interpretation, stakeholder dynamics, and communication play a huge role; data alone does not tell a full story. You still need people who can see patterns, translate insights into direction and communicate complex information in a way that others understand,” she shares. “This is often where people from creative backgrounds shine and add a lot of value, and I hope to bring awareness to the creative folk aspiring towards more analytical and tech-focused roles.” To Sharon, there is no replacement for human intuition, which can only be honed by experience and consequent pattern recognition. “Intuition is the key to understanding nuance, picking up signals and instinctively knowing when the time is right to act. Combining data to validate direction and intuition to interpret meaning in complex commercial and technology environments can lead to unstoppable momentum.”

“Embrace who you are. Trust in that, because it is precisely how you build bridges between worlds.”

Celebrating shared wins

It is this blend of creativity, technical capability and data interpretation that keeps her work at Small Giants stimulating. To her, the most energising part of growth marketing is the constant forward motion; the cycle of testing, learning and improving. “Marketing without technology doesn’t scale, and technology without marketing lacks direction,” she says. “True value is created when disciplines challenge each other, form hypotheses together and use real insights to refine their approach. It’s a dynamic process that not only drives better results, but also builds team confidence and ownership.” At Small Giants, the teams try to approach this in a very human way. “Since we position ourselves as an extension of the teams we work with, we don’t focus on delivering marketing or technology solutions in isolation. We really try to understand the people behind the organisation. “That means caring about the personal goals of the people we collaborate with, challenging ideas together and celebrating wins together.”

The Leadership mold

Sharon is passionate about diversity and has experienced firsthand how it can feel to have opportunities pass you by as a woman. She feels a personal responsibility to contribute to a new standard, for the generations after her and for her own daughter. In her leadership position within such a people-driven, yet technical environment, she feels uncomfortable with the notion of fitting into a certain mold. She believes that no woman should feel limited by the prevailing idea of what "good leadership" looks like. In her view, that is precisely where the difference between masculine and feminine qualities lies, and both bring their own value. What Sharon has experienced as a strength in more feminine leaders, for example, is that they often bring context into decision-making: they look at the dynamics and underlying interests that impact people and culture. She draws inspiration from leaders who combine clarity without harshness, empathy without lowering standards, ambition without apology, and consistency between words and actions. She herself used to believe that hard work was simply a given, but that conviction has shifted: working hard at something you are truly passionate about is where long-term impact is made. "Real strength emerges when you embrace who you are. Trust in that, because it is precisely how you build bridges between worlds.”

This article was originally published in the RightBrains DIGIDIVA Magazine. Check out this year's issue for more inspiration or to get involved!