Werner Smit

Background

About Werner Smit

I’ve been around and done some amazing things, met some amazing people and all in a relatively short amount of time. I am a protagonist, I thrive on converting visions into realities and building strong teams of people and efficient systems to sustain new endeavours. I started life as a teacher, teaching, I then spent 9 years as a developer living and working in Belgium and South Africa building systems in a variety of eco-systems. In 2013, I made a conscious decision to step away from the engineering aspects of software development and pursue a journey into the world of Agile and people dynamics with a focus on the commercial and human elements of business. After 9 years developing systems I found the move towards the commercial and people side of business a surprisingly easy transition – I am back in a “Teaching and Coaching” role, one in which I have always found the most rewarding. In a short amount of time, I have expanded my knowledge in agile philosophies, implementation, risk analysis, business management, legal compliance, and strategic planning to, what I believe, is an impressive degree. My true talents lie in Empathy. Being able to empathise with multiple sides of a business to better facilitate and communicate between parties, drawing on my extensive technical background, teaching skills and general knowledge to help groups from different backgrounds and convictions understand each other and find more progressive and performant methods of working together. My strengths lie in people: I find a great deal of personal reward in helping people be successful and I enjoy teaching and learning from people around me to contribute to a better work life, and general well-being.