Vesa Ristikangas

With over twenty years’ experience as a coach, broad and relevant education and the insight of twenty years of dedicated experience, Vesa brings his insight into people and organizations to effectively challenge individuals and groups to powerful and productive results.

A bold and determined coach, Vesa’s passion is the development of management teams. This encompasses both strengthening the members’ individual leadership competencies and helping the group grow into a top team.

Vesa is a spokesman of the systemic revolution, a coaching innovator, a passionate developer and an executive coach. He combines his strong psychological and business know-how with his experience from different organizational cultures. At the core of his work lies a strong systemic awareness and a deep understanding of human thinking and behavior. Vesa also has a unique expertise in group dynamics.

Vesa’s trainer experience and his interest in developing leadership and collaboration began in the early 1990s, when he was working as a special needs teacher in 10th grade. Since 1998, Vesa has worked as a coach and trainer. He has articulated his broad experience and insight in several books on leadership and productive collaboration.

Vesa has been actively involved in the development of the Finnish coaching industry, both as a member of the board of the Finnish Coaching Federation (2006-2007) and as its chair (2008-2015). He has also been a board member of ICF Finland (2011-2012) and served as its president in 2012. He has been the chair of the Coaching Finland event since 2008.

Vesa holds a Master’s degree in Theology and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. He is an ICF-certified coach (MCC), and an ICF-certified team coach (Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC)), a Systemic Team Coach (STC), an EMCC-accredited individual coach (Global Individual Accreditation (EIA), Senior Practitioner), and team coach (Individual Team Coaching Accreditation (ITCA), Senior Practitioner), Global Team Coaching Institute (GTCI) certified coach (Foundations Certified Coach), an ICF trained PCC-assessor, a psychodrama director (CP) and a certified CLP^® assessment tool facilitator. He has also completed the acknowledged international Systemic Team Coaching Master Practitioner Diploma. Vesa works in Finnish and English. Vesa was awarded with the Pro Coaching award in 2023.

Publications: 

• Leading a Team – Systemic thinking and a jointly organized team as Success Factors (Valmentava tiimin johtaminen – Systeeminen ajattelu ja yhdessäohjautuvuus onnistumistekijöinä, Alma Talent, 2023.)
• Developmental Mentoring – A Guide to Effective Interaction. (Valmentava mentorointi – Opas tehokkaaseen vuorovaikutukseen, Kauppakamari, 2020)
• Developmental Mentoring (Valmentava mentorointi, Kauppakamari, 2019)
• Stellar Management Teams (Routledge, London, 2018)
• Everyone Needs a Mentor (Jokainen tarvitsee mentorin, Helsingin Kauppakamari, 2014)
• Stellar Management Teams (Johtoryhmästä tähtijoukkue, Alma Talent, 2014)
• Stellar Management Teams, E-book (Johtoryhmästä tähtijoukkue, Alma Talent, 2014)
• Expert as a Leader, E-book (Asiantuntija esimiehenä, Alma Talent, 2014)
• Conflict resolution – Cooperation Between Owners, Board and Management (Sukset ristissä –Omistajien, hallituksen ja johdon yhteistyö, Helsingin Kauppakamari, 2011)
• Coaching-based Leadership, 7th Edition (Valmentava johtajuus, Alma Talent, 2019)
• Expert as a Leader, 4th Edition (Asiantuntijasta esimies, Alma Talent, 2015)
• Leadership in Pschodrama (Johtajuus psykodraamassa, Kopijyvä, 2006)