Irving Leistra - Business Coach, Trainer, and Facilitator

Helping businesses achieve measurable results through practical, people-focused change.

With over two decades of experience across Europe and New Zealand, Irving Leistra has worked with leading organisations - including Rabobank, Suzuki, and Volvo - to solve performance issues, embed continuous improvement, and deliver measurable impact.

Originally from the Netherlands, Irving and his family relocated to Christchurch in search of better balance. Since then, his pragmatic, results-driven approach has gained traction with Kiwi companies looking to improve performance, reduce cost, and prepare for growth.

“My international experience from larger organisations is often considered valuable here in New Zealand, as many of those lessons are very practical and scale well to medium and smaller businesses.”

Creating change in a business: where do you start?

Irving Leistra’s first employer was Bosch, the German manufacturer famous for their strict processes and procedures, combining German engineering precision with a high-performance business model.

“One of the principles that I learnt at Bosch remains with me - if we can’t measure it, it’s not true,” Irving says. “And even though, my view on that has become a little more nuanced over the years, the focus on measuring impact remains”.

Irving begins every improvement journey with a clear focus:

What does value look like? How is it measured? How is it created, both for customers and stakeholders?

Bringing a team together to map it out reveals misalignments, bottlenecks, and opportunities for smarter collaboration.

“Sometimes it starts with understanding your customers better; other times, it’s about simplifying workflows or reconnecting people with goals and purpose.”

At the heart of his approach is a simple principle:

"Create value by doing the right things and then doing them right." That means getting organised, aligning people, processes, and systems so teams deliver consistent quality outcomes without rework or delay.

Working together to enable future growth:

Irving often works as a fractional part of the business, driving and supporting change and a coach for internal capability building. As he works alongside the leadership and teams, he builds both the competence and the confidence to create measurable impact. His interventions are designed to deliver quick wins while setting up long-term, sustainable improvements.

This type of structural change is created by building the required capabilities across the leadership and the teams, whilst also creating the supporting structure of processes, systems and tools to visualise and enable success. In some cases, the change and the shift in the bottom line comes in days. Getting these measurable results fast will build momentum within a team. This way they’ll be excited, engaged and see the results in their day-to-day work.

“I often save clients four to five figures in a matter of weeks, sometimes days. Mostly by creating focus, making things simpler and helping teams work better together.”

What are some of the biggest pain points for your clients?

When I ask New Zealand business owners about their biggest challenges, high cost is often the first thing they mention. Often the root causes of these costs are unclear, so together we start with understanding that first, before addressing these underlying drivers.

Another challenge is having growing pains due to organic (but unstructured) growth. This might mean slow delivery, not on-par quality, and limited collaboration across teams. More often than not this comes from poorly aligned processes, systems, or roles and responsibilities across teams. Once we create clarity and alignment on your curranty way of working, we start improving our collaboration one step at a time.

Clients often come to me when they’re experiencing a lack of ownership, focus on business performance, or engagement across teams. That’s why I work to engage and align people with the role they play in the wider organisation, collaborating with them to understand the root of the problems and co-create practical solutions that improve their day-to-day work.

. Embedding these solutions within weeks, creates both engagement and visible results within these teams.

“By addressing these challenges, I help clients streamline operations, improve quality, reduce unnecessary workload, and build a stronger foundation for growth.”

What does your life look like outside the office?

Sumner is a great spot. We live on a hill with a view of the sea. It’s very different to living in the middle of a city in a country the size of Canterbury, together with 18 million people! The focus is more on creating a more sustainable work-life balance. Working hard, but also able to enjoy life a little more as a family. We often go surfing, hiking, biking, and I can be found on a hockey turf as a player or coaching my son’s hockey team.

“The move to New Zealand gave us more than lifestyle, it gave us balance. And that perspective carries through in how I help businesses today.”