Leadership Journeys: Meet Kim Bleumer from the Leaders4Tomorrow Program

What does it take to step into a Teamlead role and grow both personally and professionally —while keeping things human, structured, and fun?

Kim Bleumer, Teamlead for Finance and IT at Independent Recruiters, Talentor’s partner in the Netherlands, shares how she’s found her rhythm in leadership.

Over the past 10 months, Kim has been part of the Leaders4Tomorrow global development program, a Talentor initiative designed for rising talents across Europe. Together with seven other future leaders, she tackled real challenges aimed at improving leadership, operations, and commercial impact across the Talentor network. The experience helped her reflect on her own leadership, while sharpening tools that now benefit her team every day.

From rethinking onboarding to creating stronger collaboration between team members, Kim is shaping a culture where recruiters thrive - and clients benefit from that strength.

We asked Kim four questions about her journey, her insights, and what’s next.

You and your team have made real changes to how new recruiters are welcomed into Independent Recruiters. From creating better training for experienced hires to adding a welcome moment and buddy system, what’s worked best? And what prompted the shift?

The most important factor in achieving a successful onboarding is setting the tone right from the beginning. Most importantly, this involves the people within our team giving a warm welcome on the first day. The main factor that was missing within out process was an illustrated structure.  Now we prepare upfront what the planning is, what to expect and which topics will be discussed in the first week. We made sure that the responsibility of the onboarding is not fully on one person, but that it is a team effort.

You shared that you “forgot it should be fun” at the beginning of your leadership journey. What helped you rediscover that joy? How has that mindset shift changed how you lead—and how your team responds to you?

In the beginning of my leadership journey, I was too focused with proving myself to be an effective and respected leader. I was concerned of my image as a leader and wanted to prove to the team that they made the right choice in selecting me to lead the team.

Thanks to the various conversations I had with Independent Recruiters as well as with the speakers and participants of the Leaders 4 Tomorrow program, I was able to realize that leadership is more than just performing tasks.

If you are able to show to your team that you also enjoy the work you are doing, it will have a strong positive effect on the team. Furthermore, by gaining experience and most importantly improving my skillset, I became comfortable in the role and was able to enjoy it again.

You’ve seen your team evolve from individual performers to a collaborative, professional unit. How did you foster that change? And since Finance and IT are core strengths at Independent Recruiters, what gives your searches a competitive edge for clients in those industries?

Communication was/is the number one thing that helped with this change. In order to increase internal collaboration, I believed it was crucial for us to have a weekly moment together as a team to discuss vacancies, give advice on roadblocks, and develop a better understand of each other’s portfolios. Having this meeting consistently helped to strengthen our bond as a team even more and allowed for us work better together.

Knowing and understanding what vacancies we have in the team make it easier to share candidates and help each other out.

For example, when we have a new freelance role within finance, it is important for us to act quickly as there are very short deadlines. By sharing the vacancy within our team, we typically have a few candidates that we can immediately reach out to.

You’re known for bringing structure and clarity - but also energy, resilience, and confidence. How does your kickboxing mindset influence your leadership style, especially as you now take on the IT team too?

When I think about kickboxing, it is all about focus, technique, tools, confidence, and having fun. As the team leader, I try to instill these 5 aspects as core values for our team. We find success by focusing on the task at hand, utilizing the tools and processes that we are given, and by having the confidence in the work we are doing within Independent Recruiters. Most importantly, in everything you do - whether it is work or a sport you enjoy – you should always find joy in it and see the fun you are having. I believe that showing the team that you should have fun in your work will contribute to your overall performance. Especially after being in Thailand last year on a muay thai camp for 3 weeks, I learned that it is not only power in your glove or with you kicks, but also mindset and strategic thinking. That is the same with leadership, it is a combination of multiple factors that can make it successful.

Thank you, Kim, and the entire Independent Recruiters team, for being such dedicated and forward-thinking Talentor partners - and for all the time, energy, and heart you've invested in your growth and impact!