Most culture and customer experience work fixes the behaviour.

I work with what is driving it.

I'm Clive Vanderwagen, a team coach, trainer and author of Thriving Culture. I work with leadership teams and service teams to change the mental models and unmet needs underneath how people lead, collaborate and serve. That's why the change lasts, and why it shows up in the numbers.

Contact me See how I work

ICF PCC and ACTC accredited team coach. TEDx speaker. Cape Town and Johannesburg.

+35point improvement in Net Effort Score

Results, not inspiration.

A customer experience programme for more than 320 frontline staff at a major South African financial services group. No new scripts. We worked on mental models, ego states and ownership, and customers felt the difference.

Fewer complaints, more compliments
Rated 4.9 out of 5 by delegates
100% said it was worth their time

Read the case study

I've worked with leaders and teams at Old Mutual, Momentum, TymeBank, MultiChoice, Henkel, AngloGold Ashanti, GEMS and The Capital Hotel Group, and with companies across South Africa, Europe and Asia. ReadyPeople is a double winner at the 2026 African Excellence Awards, for customer experience training and for leadership and team development.

Three areas. One argument.

Whether it's a leadership team, a team that won't gel or a service floor that can't hit its numbers, the visible problem is rarely the real one.

Leadership development

What you seeCapable managers who still micromanage, avoid hard conversations or lose people.

What's driving itHow they relate to their people under pressure, and which psychological needs they're meeting or starving. We build that capacity using Transactional Analysis and Functional Fluency.

Team coaching

What you seeMeetings that go in circles, quiet conflict, a team that's polite but not effective.

What's driving itUnspoken patterns, competing motivations and the things nobody says. I coach the team as a system and use the Enneagram to make motivation visible.

Customer experience

What you seeStaff who know the standards and still don't deliver them when it matters.

What's driving itWhat people believe about customers and about their own role. We work on mental models and ownership, so the behaviour holds on the hard calls.

Clive Vanderwagen, team coach and customer experience trainer

How I work

Nothing off the shelf. Every programme starts with your strategy and ends with something you can measure.

I work in the moment, with real teams, on what's actually happening in the room. The psychology underneath is serious, but I translate it into tools people use on a Monday morning.

Transactional AnalysisHow people relate, and what pulls them out of their best thinking.
Functional FluencyA practical model for emotionally intelligent leadership behaviour.
The Enneagram (iEQ9)Motivation, not labels. Individual debriefs, then team work.
The Drama Triangle and the Empowerment DynamicGetting teams out of blame and rescue, and into ownership.

Thriving Culture

Most culture problems get treated like poster problems: fix the values, run the survey, tidy the comms. The real issue is whether people's basic psychological needs are being met, every day, by the people leading them.

Drawing on Transactional Analysis, the Enneagram and work inside some of South Africa's largest financial services and hospitality brands, it makes the case for what actually changes a culture, and what just looks good on a slide.

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More about the book

Speaking

Keynotes and talks for leadership forums, sales conferences and team events. Before coaching, I was an actor, journalist and creative director. I know how to hold a room, and I don't do motivational fluff.