Jul 16, 2026 · 30 min · 9 segments
How do you find work that aligns with who you are, not just what you can do? William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, explores how understanding your strengths, behaviors…
William VanderbloemenGuest
Rishad TobaccowalaHostUh, so, you know, let's go to what you have discovered, you know, over these sort of years.
So now that our audience knows where you've come from, your area of focus, which is all kinds of faith-based organizations, both religious, not-for-profit, et cetera.
Um, you've placed a, a, a lot of people, and you've seen a lot, and, you know, some of those things is the importance of fit versus function, as well as the habits of exceptional leaders.
So what would you like to begin to share your insights with? Would it be the habits of exceptional leaders first or fit-based function?
I think the, uh, the interesting thing in our work is, um, uh, you and I have talked about this before.
When we did have a break during the, during the lockdowns of the pandemic six years ago now, we had a chance to drop back and say, "Okay, who are the very best people we've ever studied, ever gotten to work with? Who are the most talented?" And we keep incredibly detailed notes, so we know, you know, who interviewed well, who's doing at their job well, who's been promoted.
And we did a longitudinal study of the people that we think are just the, the best performers out of the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people we've met over the years.
We were able to identify them, and we said, "Do they have anything in common?" And I kinda thought it would be they all had an IQ of this threshold, or they were tied to a well-connected family, or they'd gone to a prestigious university.
It was the, the top people we had had things in common, but they were not things of appearance or pedigree.
And, um, we noticed 12 distinct habits that anyone could choose to do.
It, it's not like, you know, in the NBA basketball, I would love to be the slam dunk champion.
I can't slam dunk a basketball, so I'm not gonna win the NBA slam dunk.
But, uh, uh, there are habits that anyone can do, whether you can slam dunk or not, or smart or not, or well born or not well born, whatever.
There, there are 12 habits that these top performers that we identified have in common, and we, we named a book about it.
We called it "Be the Unicorn," and it was basically, here are the 12 habits that the best performers have.
Uh, so, you know, let's go to what you have discovered, you know, over these sort of years.
So now that our audience knows where you've come from, your area of focus, which is all kinds of faith-based organizations, both religious, not-for-profit, et cetera.
Um, you've placed a, a, a lot of people, and you've seen a lot, and, you know, some of those things is the importance of fit versus function, as well as the habits of exceptional leaders.
So what would you like to begin to share your insights with? Would it be the habits of exceptional leaders first or fit-based function?
I think the, uh, the interesting thing in our work is, um, uh, you and I have talked about this before.
When we did have a break during the, during the lockdowns of the pandemic six years ago now, we had a chance to drop back and say, "Okay, who are the very best people we've ever studied, ever gotten to work with? Who are the most talented?" And we keep incredibly detailed notes, so we know, you know, who interviewed well, who's doing at their job well, who's been promoted.
And we did a longitudinal study of the people that we think are just the, the best performers out of the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people we've met over the years.
We were able to identify them, and we said, "Do they have anything in common?" And I kinda thought it would be they all had an IQ of this threshold, or they were tied to a well-connected family, or they'd gone to a prestigious university.
It was the, the top people we had had things in common, but they were not things of appearance or pedigree.
And, um, we noticed 12 distinct habits that anyone could choose to do.
It, it's not like, you know, in the NBA basketball, I would love to be the slam dunk champion.
I can't slam dunk a basketball, so I'm not gonna win the NBA slam dunk.
But, uh, uh, there are habits that anyone can do, whether you can slam dunk or not, or smart or not, or well born or not well born, whatever.
There, there are 12 habits that these top performers that we identified have in common, and we, we named a book about it.
We called it "Be the Unicorn," and it was basically, here are the 12 habits that the best performers have.
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