Enablemi’s mission is to make the world more sustainable through innovation. With offices in Eindhoven and Groningen, the company helps organizations set up and develop innovation projects, including in the energy sector. They also secure funding for these projects. Major companies such as TenneT, Enexis, Alliander, and TNO work closely with Enablemi.
Erik Matien founded the company in 2011 with his business partner at the time. A few years later, in 2016, Erik bought out his business partner. That’s when his wife, Saskia Frost, joined the company. Today, the couple runs the organization together. Saskia serves as CEO, while Erik focuses on sales and business development.
Completely crazy
After spending five years building Enablemi together, they took stock of their results. They weren’t satisfied with what they saw. “We kept going around in circles,” says Erik. “We set goals, but then couldn’t get our employees on board. As a result, we didn’t meet the targets. Saskia’s and my reflex was then: let’s do it differently. And so one course correction followed another, while we repeatedly failed to reach our goals. It drove us absolutely crazy.”
By 2023, Erik and Saskia had had enough. “That year, we said to each other, ‘We really need to start making different decisions now,’” Saskia recalls. “Because working any harder than we already were was impossible.”
"We had taken leadership training courses before, but this was really something else."
Putting Knowledge into Practice
Erik regularly drove back and forth between Eindhoven and Groningen. One day, while on the road, he listened to the Straight-Line Leadership podcast. “The topics resonated with me and felt relatable,” says Erik.
When he told Saskia about the podcast, she started laughing. As it happened, she had been working with a coach connected to the company for some time. As a result, she was already familiar with the company’s philosophy, and they were able to have some good conversations about it.
When Saskia’s coach then invited her to a Straight-Line Leadership session, she brought Erik along as a guest. After the session, the couple decided to become members. Not long after that, they also began working with a dedicated Straight-Line Coach.
“We’d taken leadership training courses before, but this was really something else,” says Erik. “For example, we did a week-long training session on Bonaire or at a French castle. Those were always great at the time, but in hindsight, they were very theoretical. Once we got home, we fell back into our old habits.”
At Straight-Line Leadership, it was all about putting knowledge into practice. Their membership was designed entirely with that in mind, he explains: “The weekly online sessions and the interaction with the other members kept us in the zone. That helped tremendously.”
Rain Falls from Above
The couple quickly realized that they themselves were responsible for the vicious cycle the company was caught in. It wasn’t their employees’ fault, but rather their own collaboration and leadership style. “We often looked outside ourselves for the reasons things weren’t going well,” Erik explains. “But we had to change ourselves first, because rain always falls from above.”
They began by improving their collaboration. Their strengths complemented each other well, but their differences also led them to criticize each other’s work styles.
“We have very different strengths,” says Saskia. “While Erik is very driven and focused on measurable results, I’m more concerned with the people in our company. I want to mentor them and make sure they’re performing at their best. You need both sides, but in the past, we were mainly focused on proving ourselves right. We were more concerned with ourselves than with each other or with the company.”
"We help each other grow and become stronger, rather than judging each other's work."
Leaning on Each Other
The partners learned to appreciate each other’s strengths and to trust each other more. According to Erik and Saskia, this has made their relationship stronger than it was a year ago: “We help each other grow and become more powerful, rather than judging each other’s work.”
This gave them both the space to grow. Erik gives an example: “Saskia has always been empathetic and very attentive to our employees, but now she also has a clear understanding of who or what we need to reach our goal.” During interviews, she sets high standards and has little tolerance for shortcomings, which means we rarely hire people who aren’t a good fit here.”
Saskia also developed a keener sense of what was going on within the team. When an employee wasn’t performing well, she noticed it quickly and took immediate action. “Maybe I noticed that happening before, too,” says Saskia. “But I didn’t always do anything about it. Now I talk to employees right away, which means issues are resolved immediately and addressed properly.”
Because Saskia encouraged openness and direct communication, employees began to adopt this approach. Erik: “Before, team members found it hard to admit when they couldn’t do something or were struggling with something. They put on a brave face. Now they share more with each other, and there’s a real team spirit. That’s important, because when you’re on a mission together, you need to be able to rely on one another.”
From a high-flying freelancer to a team player
Erik, for his part, learned to slow down. Because of his focus on results, he forgot to involve people in the process of achieving them. He discovered that this was a major reason why his team wasn’t meeting its targets.
“I was moving too fast and doing everything on my own,” says Erik. “Basically, I was a self-employed freelancer on steroids. I’d land assignments without much regard for others. Whether a job was enjoyable or not didn’t matter to me. As a result, Saskia had her hands full putting out fires.”
These days, Erik carries out projects in collaboration with his staff. “I can’t ask others to be team players if I’m not one myself,” he says. “My biggest problem was that I was always running ahead of the group, leaving the rest to trudge along behind, which ended up frustrating me. Now I’m more patient and calm, and I work together with my colleagues. I take the time to put myself in their shoes, have conversations, and go over schedules. I also coordinate more closely with support staff, such as our secretaries. That’s the biggest benefit for me.”
Erik and Saskia’s transformation had a major impact on their business. Whereas they had previously been stuck at the same revenue level for years, their revenue doubled in 2024 compared to the previous year—and they did so with fewer employees.
“On the one hand, that’s because we’re now setting clear priorities and know what we do and don’t want,” says Erik. “And on the other hand, it’s because we have a driven team that can actually achieve our goals. We could never have built that team without first undergoing a transformation ourselves. We are now leaders who make each other stronger every day and enter the playing field with calm and focus.”
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