Adaptive Leadership in Action
When change moves faster than strategy, and the playbook no longer works
I help leaders, teams, and organisations act with confidence when clarity is limited, pressure is constant, and results are still expected.
This is not theory or motivation.
It is practical leadership in action.
A short conversation to see if this is the capability gap behind your slow decisions, escalations, and stalled execution. No pitch, no pressure.
Winner - Startup Coach of the Year 2025
The Problem I Solve
Most organisations are not failing because people lack skill, effort, or intelligence.
They struggle because:
- Change outpaces strategy
- Information is incomplete
- Waiting for clarity slows everything down
- Teams stop acting and start escalating
The tools and playbooks people were trained on no longer fit their reality.
What I Do
I deliver keynotes, workshops, and focused team sessions that help people:
- Decide without full information
- Act without waiting for permission
- Keep work moving when plans break
- Perform under pressure without burning out
My work fits inside existing roles, teams, and processes, with minimal disruption. People use it immediately.
Keynote Topics
I currently deliver three core keynotes, tailored to each audience:
- Adaptive Leadership in Action
- Adaptive Leadership in Action – Outlearn and Outearn Your Competitors
- Performing Under Pressure Without Burning Out
Each keynote is practical, immediately applicable, and designed to fit into existing roles and business processes.
Reach out to me to discuss specific needs or a custom keynote delivery.
Award Winning Speaker
- Winner Startup Coach of the Year 2025
- Winner Startup Mentor of the Year 2023 (finalist 2022)
- Top Global Thought Leader in Lean Startup (2022, 23 and 25)
- Top Global Thought Leader in Careers (2025)
- Certified FIrewalking Instructor
The Entrepreneurial Thinking Compass
Entrepreneurial thinking is the practical way leaders and teams decide and act when strategy and playbooks fall behind reality. The same thinking and actions an entrepreneur uses to adapt to market and customer changes, you can use in all areas of life and work.
It is not a theory, a mindset exercise, or a startup concept. It is how people operate when conditions keep changing, and results are still expected.
To make this practical, I use the Entrepreneurial Thinking Compass.
The Compass is a simple orientation tool that helps people regain direction when clarity is missing. It focuses attention on five core leadership capabilities required to function well under uncertainty:
- Agency
- Flow Forward
- Adjustability
- Bouncebackability
- Resourceability
The Compass does not replace strategy or judgement.
It supports leadership when strategy can no longer keep up.
"This empowering entrepreneurial thinking framework provides essential skills for stress management, resilience building, and solution-focused thinking and action taking that benefits students, workplace teams, and anyone navigating uncertainty and change”
- Ronel Mentz, Clinical Psychologist
What People Say
“The Innovation Session was a turning point in how I approach challenges. In sales, we encounter high-pressure situations that demand swift solutions… The Entrepreneurial Thinking Compass equips me to handle high-pressure sales situations with greater confidence and agility.”
Karabo Moremi, Internal Sales
"Willem’s human-centred, action-driven approach aligns with our vision to equip students with the mindset and tools to thrive in today’s economy. The impact on our students has been tangible, unlocking confidence, creativity, and sustainable business thinking."
Shaaista Hassan Ally
Employability Manager - MANCOSA
"We thoroughly enjoyed having Willem host his Side Hustle workshop with our students. He provided them with practical, applicable, appropriate and implementable steps to starting their businesses. He emphasised the need for access to action instead of worrying about access to markets, and that the most important person in the business is the entrepreneur himself. His methodology is engaging, his enthusiasm is refreshing, and his knowledge on the subject matter is invigorating! "
Hasan Evans
Hub Manager at Regent Enterprise Development Hub - Regent Business School
"I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from Saturday’s masterclass. The part that stuck with me most was your point about stepping out of your comfort zone or, as you put it, coming back from your fantasy world to reality, because that’s something I personally struggle with.
Your lessons about how success starts with action, that fear, rejection and failure aren’t obstacles but opportunities to grow, and that the only person standing between you and success is yourself, also really stayed with me."
Wendall Casey Davids
Aspiring CA(SA)
"Willem brings professionalism, charisma, and strategic insight to every engagement. He has a proven ability to connect with diverse audiences and an intuitive sense for what resonates. His adaptability and dedication to excellence make him an ideal partner for any organisation."
Aneesa Sardinus, Human Resources, Hiconnex
"Willem’s ability to connect with diverse audiences, inspire confidence, and deliver tangible, results-driven strategies makes him an exceptional choice for any entrepreneurship or business development event. I highly recommend him for his expertise, passion, and impact."
Dr Jabulani Nkosi
Office of the Dean: Economic and Management Sciences - The University of the Free State
"Willem brought energy and thought-provoking insights to our conference. This was the third time we invited him, and it won’t be the last!"
Craig Blignaut, Founder
Business of Business South Africa Group
"Willem’s advice is practical, and my team implemented it immediately. The feedback was spectacular—new advisers and veterans alike found value. If you need a speaker who delivers real impact, Willem is the guy to call."
Mano Appasamy
Business Manager, Sanlam South Africa
"Willem Gous is one of the easiest, most engaging conversations I’ve had on the Mindset Profits podcast. He thinks differently, questions everything, and isn’t afraid to push against the status quo. His perspective forces you to look beyond the obvious and rethink what growth really means."
Ntando Maseko
The Mindset Profits Podcast
"Today at the Africa Must Rise Global Conference, I witnessed something rare. When Willem Gous took the virtual stage, he did not speak to impress us with technology or trends. He spoke to awaken something deeply human. His message stretched far beyond innovation. It reminded us that the future of Africa will not be built by machines, but by people who dare to imagine beyond what they see.
Willem showed us that technology is a tool, but humans are the engine. He invited us to ask braver questions, to listen more intentionally, and to co-create solutions that honour the realities of our communities. As he spoke, I found myself reflecting: What could happen if Africans truly believed that the power to shape the future already lives within us?
In a calm but piercing way, he brought us back to the centre — our humanity. He reminded us that Africa will rise because its people rise. Because we choose creativity over limitation. Because we choose possibility over fear.
Listening to Willem today stirred something sacred in me. A responsibility. A renewed courage. A deeper commitment to build not only with strategy, but with soul.
If you ever get the opportunity to hear Willem Gous speak, especially in a room where Africa’s future is being written, don’t just attend. Allow yourself to be transformed. He brings clarity to the mind and oxygen to the human spirit.
Willem, thank you for gracing the Africa Must Rise Global Conference with a message that touched hearts and awakened leaders. Thank you for reminding us that innovation begins in the human heart long before it reaches the human hand.
Africa is rising — and after hearing you today, I understand why. Because its people are rising first."
Oliver Nshom
Founder of the Africa Must Rise Global Conference
Some of my Previous Speaking Clients
Why Willem?
Inspirational, empowering, relatable, insightful: motivating
Willem’s work is not built on theory.
It is proven in environments where certainty is absent, and failure carries real consequences.
He has worked in some of the most unpredictable conditions imaginable, helping people with little more than determination learn how to think, decide, and act their way forward. In those environments, entrepreneurial thinking is not a concept. It is a necessity.
If these tools work where there are no safety nets, limited resources, and constant uncertainty, they work even more powerfully inside organisations with talent, structure, and scale.
This is what makes Willem different.
His work is field-tested under pressure, not designed for classrooms or slide decks. The tools he teaches are practical, repeatable, and usable by anyone, from executives and leadership teams to students and professionals. When clarity is gone, responsibility remains.
He has more than 25 years of entrepreneurship and has experience across manufacturing, online, and creative industries. His work focuses on a single challenge faced by modern organisations: how people think and act when certainty is gone, and responsibility remains.
Willem holds a Master’s degree from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He was named Startup Mentor of the Year in 2023, is ranked as a Top 50 Global Thought Leader by Thinkers360 in Lean Startup and Careers, and is the winner of Startup Coach of the Year 2025.
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Available worldwide.
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My Community Work
The Human Entrepreneur is a non-profit organisation focused on one simple belief: people already have what they need to create an income and a future. They just need a new way of thinking and the courage to act, which we help them achieve.
Through practical, real-world programmes, we teach entrepreneurial thinking in schools, universities, and communities, helping people move from learning about life to dealing with life, even when resources are limited, and the future feels uncertain.
Our main programmes include the Side Hustle Success Masterclass and book, which show people how to start earning with what they already have.
The Rapid Entrepreneurship Development Programme helps individuals build or grow real, profitable micro-businesses in just five weeks without external funding.
Beyond income, this work restores dignity, agency, and belief. People stop seeing themselves as spectators of the economy and start seeing themselves as participants who can act, adapt, and move forward.
The Human Entrepreneur is a non-profit initiative by Willem Gous, a professional speaker, trainer, coach and consultant on entrepreneurial thinking.
The Human Entrepreneur partners with corporates, funders, and institutions who are serious about ESG outcomes, Sustainable Development Goals and real, meaningful impact, particularly around employment, education, equality, and economic inclusion. If you want to be part of a practical, human-centred initiative that delivers measurable impact in Africa and other developing economies, we invite you to work with us.
Accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals
5 Weeks to Create a Job
We reduced the time to create a job through entrepreneurship and self-employment to 5 weeks.
20 Times More Cost-Effective
We reduced the cost of creating a job by 20 times compared to the World Bank Estimate of what it costs to create a blue-collar job.
Job Creation at Scale
We can create hundreds of these micro-businesses in a city or region every month.
Talk to me
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