With all your experience, expertise and qualities, you are true multimens. You can do a lot, you do, you achieve a lot. All at the same time, because you deliver and achieve the results successfully. 

You solve problems that should actually be dealt with structurally. You fill gaps that shouldn't be your responsibility. You compensate where the system fails. 

This is what I call strategic underutilization. You are operationally overstretched while your potential remains untapped. And even more so, unseen and underappreciated by someone else. Either at home or at work.

And the striking thing is, you perpetuate it yourself.

What happens if you keep compensating

When you are good at solving, the system demands more and more of you. You become indispensable in the wrong place. Not leading strategically, but managing operationally. You react to what needs to be done instead of giving direction. And because of your quick thinking and working, you often solve rather than design and hand off.

With the result that you start working harder, but you don't get anywhere. You're constantly working, but you're not building lasting value. And you get further and further away from the work you're actually needed for. But also away from what you are good at and energized by. It demands more of you than it gives you.

This will cost you three things:

• Time: you are stuck in daily decisions that do not belong at your level
• Impact: your ideas and vision do not come to life because you are too busy executing
• Freedom: your business or role does not become less dependent on you, but more

Why working harder is not the solution

You've already tried to be more efficient, delegate better, plan smarter. But it's not working, because the problem is not in how hard you work. The problem is in where you are, who you work with and how there your work is organized.

As long as the system leans on your availability, you continue to compensate. As long as your intelligence is used to fill gaps, you don't build structural value. And as long as you are operationally indispensable, you cannot lead strategically.

What you need is not new planning. What you need is redesign. 

The three shifts that do make a difference

1. From available for everything to choosing strategically

Stop saying yes to everything that comes your way. Start consciously choosing where your highest value lies. Teach the system not to lean on you for things it can carry itself.

Concrete result: more room for strategic thinking, less reactive hassle

2. From your knowledge in your head to transferable structures

Capture what you know. Develop systems that work without you. Train others in your methodology. That way your value keeps working even when you're not around.

Concrete result: your company or department scales without you working harder

3. From operationally engaged to strategically positioned

Define yourself not by what you do, but by the value you create. Claim the space to lead at the level for which you have capacity.

Concrete result: your work matches your level, not your past

What to think about in redesign (The success of my top client).

(read her full review at the bottom of these Empowered Letters)

One of my clients was exactly here. She is strong, capable and successful. After years of experience in business, she started her own company 8 years ago. Until last year she was doing well and growing every year. But stalled year she got stuck in growth and cash flow. Because of the changes in the market and the DBA law she noticed that many of her assignments were not renewed but also new clients did not come in. She hesitated and tension increased. She thought about quitting herself. Back in salaried employment? Take on temporary other assignments? Or choose completely for her business.

She decided to really go full steam ahead and that she herself had to change in order to play along again as a strong leader in the new market and circumstances. She started Scale to Freedom because she wanted to scale up, but not for the sake of scaling up, but to be able to grow again on her terms from a position of calmness and focus. No longer having to work harder, but rather eliminating the noise and having clarity again about what matters. So we did not optimize. We started by peeling off, recalibrating and redesigning.

Essence. Mission. Vision. Leadership. Positioning. Earnings model. Structure.

From the inside out. Not slick marketing, but strategic restructuring.

The result. A solid foundation. A multi-year strategy. A brand identity that rings true.

Tranquility. Overview. Growth strength.

No harder work. More lucid leading, though.

Imagine in six months:

• Works at the level where you add the most strategic value
• Have a system that functions without everything going through you
• Have structural space for vision and decision-making
• Value builds that work through
• Have a role that matches your ambition

This is what happens when you stop optimizing within a wrong system and start strategically simplifying and redesigning.

For whom this is

For women leaders and entrepreneurs who are successful but feel their potential is greater than their current position. For women who want to scale in impact, revenue and freedom, without losing themselves in operational management.

Not for those who think working harder is the solution.

Not for those who just want to become more efficient within the same design.

Not for those who dare not question the system.

Why change and leadership at this level requires something different

Redesign is not a quickfix. It's not a matter of a few conversations and then things work differently. It takes time to break patterns built up over years. It takes courage to make choices that create short-term tension but bring long-term freedom. And it takes insight and your understanding of where you are strategically leaving value and how to change that structurally and at the system level.

In Scale to Freedom, I work with you for six months because true transformation doesn't happen in one session. We start by seeing where the system is leaning on you and why that is not sustainable. Then we redesign responsibilities and decision-making. We build structures that continue to work when you stop compensating.

This is not a program where I tell you what to do. It is a strategic partnership in which we look together, design together and build together. Because you are the expert on your context. I am the expert in making visible where systems fail and how to structurally rearrange them. You are the expert in your context. I am the expert in strategic positioning, leadership and system redesign. 

Together, we build a foundation that enables profitable growth in impact, revenue and freedom. 

What this produces is not one big change, but a collection of shifts that together make your work feel different. That you have more impact with less effort. That you have systems that carry instead of lean. That you experience freedom that comes not from less responsibility, but from better organized responsibility.

Not whether to change, but how

The question is not whether you should change. You already feel things need to change. The question is how you shape that change without everything collapsing. How you create space for strategic leadership while still delivering. How you let the system learn to carry what you are now absorbing.

These are not questions you need to figure out on your own. Not because you couldn't, but because you are too close to the system to see it fully. Because you have loyalties that make it difficult to make radical choices. Because you often already know what needs to be done, but lack the legitimacy to actually make those choices.

We all have our own ‘DIJK OF EQUALITY. And precisely in order to see new vistas again and have sight of what does matter, you need a different perspective. 

That's what I'm here for. Not to tell you what to do, but to help you see what you don't yet see, give insight into your value and where you are leaving it, and reinforce and empower what you already know. To create the space in which you can redesign. To guide you through the choices that are uncomfortable in the short term, but bring freedom in the long term.

Woman, live!

One Life. Lead it. Live it.

Warm regards,

Gerdi Hulsink

Strategic Business Partner for Female Leadership and Scalable Growth

PS. Ready to stop compensating and start redesigning?

Schedule a 30-minute strategic insight call. Together we'll look at where you're leaving value and what your first step is.

→ www.gerdihulsink.nl/strategiesessie

Or discover Scale to Freedom: six months of transformation from operational to strategic.

→ www.gerdihulsink.nl/scale-to-freedom

You don't need a new to-do list.

You need strategic clarity.

Start there.

When you are ready to move from insight to transformation:

1. The ELLLE 1:1 Live Day: The strategic RESET

The ELLLE 1:1 Living Day. An exclusive, high-quality strategic RESET for leaders and entrepreneurs who feel it's time to reassess their value, systems and growth. A day of rest and space where we dive deep into your personal, leadership and business foundation, redesign your value strategy and you leave with focus, energy and a clear strategic growth plan for 2026.

An exclusive personal Strategy day from 10.00-16.00 in Zwolle

2. Scale to Freedom: Premium 1:1 Collaboration

Six months of intensive integral transformation. A strategic partnership in which we reset, redesign and rebuild. For women who want to scale in impact, revenue and freedom without losing their essence.

Discover Scale to Freedom: www.gerdihulsink.nl/scale-to-freedom

3. The ELLLE Board

The new movement for visionary women who want to build their legacy. Growing together. Strategically. Exclusive. The doors are open.

New in 2026: Weekly online meeting. 

A time to take a sharp look at your leadership, your position and the choices that make the difference now, not later.

From now on, I will be live in Zoom every week on Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m. and you are cordially invited. Changing weekly with women leaders and entrepreneurs. Each week a different topic, a deepening, a Strategic short session/Mastermind, interspersed with informal ELLLE Board meetings. 

Check the calendar on my website and sign up for one or more online meetings now: www.gerdihulsink.nl/agenda

PS: Are you looking for a Fractional Business Advisor, a strategic partner and want to exclusively enter into a long-term 1:1 partnership? Schedule your personal interview via www.gerdihulsink.nl/strategiesessie. 

The success of strategic repositioning and redesign of its offerings (full review)

Hired Gerdi to help me reposition, proposition and personal brand identity for my own business. Because I was stalled and not managing to grow further. Last year was challenging in the market, my sales and growth stalled, I felt the turmoil, experienced noise, lack of action and most of all suffered from the uncertainty in my cash flow.

I know I had myself to change and was faced with a choice. Do I go back into salaried employment, do I take a temporary assignment with it or do I really decide to go fully for my own business and keep my freedom. I felt this very strongly, I want to continue, because I know what I have more to offer. I don't want to and can't go on like this any longer, because working even harder and having to pull at it is at the expense of my own health and enjoyment of life. I had been following Gerdi for months and knew for some time, I want to work with her. I took the step and started her transformation process Scale to Freedom. From the start to now everything changed.

We start and Gerdi was beside me. She peels off, she analyzes and designs, but she does it in a very special way. She gets to the core, she can articulate and package it, but she leaves me in my process and she is there. Always. Just at the moments when the peeling off also made it so uncertain. Because, what really remains? What am I letting go of? And then...Until she gets to the core of your mission: what do you want in your life, in business and why is that important to you. What is the essence and what do you want to leave behind?

Only then will it restructure and build. To foundation, structure, strategy, goals. On a plan for the future to get there. On a brand identity that comes from the inside out, from me as the leader of life and business. And therefore real. Sparring sessions with her each time felt like a deepening and enrichment after which I could continue with new insights and energy.

She works from peace, making space for all that is. From her proven systems and models. And from new perspectives and the right questions, often so on the pain points as if she sees and feels more than I could or dared yet. The result is a foundation, personal and business, that is so solid. And you know that all the steps contribute to my multi-year plan.

I recommend Gerdi to those women who are serious about getting started and growing successfully from a position of strength, knowing again where you stand and what you have to do, including peace of mind and healthy prospects for the future. Looking for someone you want to work with on your leadership position, value and growth? Put Gerdi at the top of the list and the results will surprise you ... she is genuinely the strategic partner who is there for you, really helping you build your own business and your future. Not hard, not from empty promises, just from simplicity and on quality. Once again Gerdi, thank you.

Female Founder (UK), ex- corporate business leader (18 years), now 8 leading her own business (8 years)  

(Translated and anonymized at her request)