Berry Kruijning

Crowning Communications


Before we can lead others well, we need to be able to lead ourselves. This is what leadership coach Berry Kruijning calls “personal leadership.” 


“Personal leadership is how we manage ourselves during difficult situations, how we interact with others, being aligned with our values in our behaviors and in the things that we say.” 


“I help emerging leaders develop themselves into excellent leaders,” Berry says. “I  help them gain the skills to step forward into their personal power as a leader. When you find your personal power, you are much more effective at work.”


Berry is currently focusing on helping women lawyers who are working to become partners in their law firms.


”Women in law firms still face a big pay gap. And some of the barriers to getting ahead that I see are a lack of opportunity to develop leadership skills, communication skills, and being able to advocate for themselves. They learn some of that in law school, but most of it is learned through mentorship.”


Lawyer and Leader is a program Berry (who has a law degree and a background in HR as well as years of leadership coaching experience) has developed to provide that kind of mentorship and peer support to upcoming women lawyers. The first cohort begins in September.


Conflict resolution and management was Berry’s initial coaching focus when she began to develop her own business over a decade ago. Because she’s from the Netherlands and speaks Dutch, in 2012 Berry got tapped to teach a conflict resolution module in a global leadership development program based in Suriname, a former Dutch colony. When the company running the training program found out about  her HR background, though, they were eager to pull her in to facilitate additional leadership skills modules. And through those 3 years of work, Berry’s focus began to change to leadership development.


Her favorite thing is to see clients learn how to make small changes in their behavior that have a much better result. As an example, Berry tells me about a client she’s worked with for about a year. “She has gone through amazing growth in her communication skills, and she’s gotten much more effective in difficult conversations and more approachable for her co-workers. The way she communicates now is  clear, thoughtful, and empathetic -- and it’s working for her and her team..”


Those small practical changes make big differences in our personal work, but are also crucial in far-reaching issues like inclusion and diversity. A Portlander who is inspiring Berry right now in this area is Isaac Dixon, VP of HR at PSU. “He is seasoned HR professional and a fine human being. He writes about simple human issues that we deal with on a daily basis. He addresses how you do diversity and inclusion in daily life, what biases are you carrying with you, and creating awareness around all of that.” Follow Isaac on LinkedIn to listen in on this important conversation.


As she’s worked on her own personal leadership skills, The Four Agreements has been powerful for Berry. “That really is a book that always stayed with me. And the way it is written is just really simple: When you do this, you get that. It’s a daily reminder for me of how I want to show up.” 


How did Berry end up at Urban Office? “At some point, after 7 or 8 years of working for myself, with more and more coaching phone calls in my home office, I felt myself a bit disconnected, a bit lonely. I thought, I need to get out and be around people.” Berry likes working in coffee shops, but prefers a more professional environment. 


“I drove by Urban Office one day, saw all the signs, thought, That’s interesting, got a tour, and thought, This is it! I love it. It works well for me. Once I walk in here, I have a professional focus.  And still there’s this element of talking with people if I want; if not, I can just do my own thing. In a coffee shop, you don’t really have these conversations.” 


“I really like how you introduce members to each other. It’s just really powerful. It’s really enriched my life and my way of working.” 


When she needs to get out of the office, Berry heads down to Portland Kayak Company to grab her kayak and go for a paddle off Willamette Park. “I like that park for walking also. There’s always something to see, wildlife birds, always boats.” For folks looking to get some experience on the river, she recommends Portland Kayak Company’s classes.


Whether on the river, at a coworking table, or in a boardroom, what it comes down to for Berry is this: “An effective professional leader shows up fully in the way he or she is. And they can only do that after doing the internal work to live into self-knowledge, self-confidence, and integrity.”




For TL;DR folks ....


The Skinny

With a background in HR and years of leadership coaching experience (as well as a law degree), Berry Kruijning helps emerging leaders develop themselves into excellent leaders. “I want to help people gain the skills to step forward into their power as a leader,” she says. “When you find your personal power, you are much more effective at work.”


Berry is currently focusing on helping women lawyers who are working to become partners in their law firms through her Lawyer and Leader program, which begins in September. ”Women in law firms still face a big pay gap. And some of the barriers to getting ahead that I see are a lack of opportunity to develop leadership skills, communication skills, and being able to advocate for themselves. They learn some of that in law school, but most of it is learned through mentorship.” 


Influential Book: The Four Agreements. “That really is a book that always stayed with me. And the way it is written is just really simple: When you do this, you get that. It’s a daily reminder for me of how I want to show up.” 


Why UO: “Once I walk in here, I have a professional focus.  And still there’s this element of talking with people if I want; if not, I can just do my own thing. In a coffee shop, you don’t really have these conversations. I really like how you introduce members to each other. It’s just really powerful. It’s really enriched my life and my way of working.”


Neighborhood recommendation: Walking or paddling in Willamette Park. And if you need help with the paddling bit, the classes at Portland Kayak Company are just the ticket.


Inspiring Portlander: Isaac Dixon, VP of HR at PSU. “He is very seasoned HR professional, a very fine human being. He writes about very human, simple human issues that we deal with on a daily basis and how you do diversity and inclusion in daily life.”