A public company CEO needed to accelerate the growth trajectory of the business by expanding into key geographies and going big on innovation.

A major departure from the status quo was required.

Data findings and subsequent discussions led her to decide to focus much more on personally driving the growth and innovation priorities. We also worked together to evolve the governance structure from operating with a staff to working with a high performing executive team capable of driving the enterprise-wide changes. Lack of trust among a few key leaders at the top had to be addressed early on to make working effectively as a team possible.  This meant the CEO needed to expand her leadership capabilities to include building and leveraging teams, developing direct reports more actively and strengthening working relationships with key stakeholders.

To increase effectiveness and respond to the new growth mandate, the CEO crafted a leadership agenda that combined the steps for accelerating growth with decisive actions to build a strong team at the top. While she focused on innovation and M&A, the executive team managed more of the day-to-day business. We also worked together to help the CEO be more purposeful about investing in the development of the leaders on the team, cultivating stronger working relationships between key stakeholders and developing the team’s capabilities.

Together with the executive team, the CEO both launched the growth strategy and delivered 8 consecutive quarters of performance that exceeded investors’ expectations and successfully set up the business for future growth. The CEO broadened her leadership capabilities by doing the hard work of changing her approach to the CEO role and building an effective team to run the current business and drive growth. She also increased her comfort and confidence in building teams, developing leaders and establishing stronger working relationships.