Client Stories
Stepping into a bigger role
A high-performing leader learns to lead at a different level
An ambitious, high-performing commercial leader in a healthcare business in the Middle East was promoted into her first senior leadership role — a bigger step up than she had anticipated. Former peers now reported to her, she was the first woman to hold the position, and she was tasked with leading an organisational change for which there was no established playbook.
Our work focused on the shift from individual achievement to leadership — establishing credibility, bringing her team with her, communicating difficult change, and developing the patience and perspective that senior leadership requires. Over 18 months, including a period of significant economic disruption, she developed greater perspective and confidence in her leadership and earned the respect of her team. At the end of the engagement, her management assessed her progress and concluded that she would be ready for her next promotion in the near future.
Creating greater ownership
A leadership team learns to rely less on the person at the top
The leadership team of a multinational business in Europe had become accustomed to referring decisions upwards, while individual functions often operated in silos. The Country Director wanted the team to take greater ownership — while recognising that he also needed to step back and create the space for them to do so.
Over two years, I worked with the team through a series of workshops, alongside individual coaching with some members. We focused on building trust, encouraging more honest conversations and addressing tensions between functions whose priorities sometimes appeared to pull in different directions. The real test came when the Country Director moved to another role and his successor was not appointed for almost a year. During that period, the leadership team successfully ran the business collectively — demonstrating how far they had moved from relying on one person for direction.
When the founder’s role has to change
A founder / CEO begins to accept the need to transition
A founder / CEO brought in private equity investment to support the next stage of growth in a business he had built. What he underestimated was how profoundly the new ownership would change his own role. The loss of freedom and control — and a very different management style — proved difficult for both him and his team.
Over several years, our conversations initially focused on helping him manage that relationship more deliberately, before turning increasingly to succession and the much harder question of his own future. Attempts to find a successor, both internally and externally, have not yet produced the right answer, but he has accepted that his time as CEO must come to an end and an agreed timeframe for his transition is now in place. Our work continues as he considers what comes next.
Deciding what comes next
A leader reconsiders what she wants from her career
A senior leader returned to work after treatment for a serious illness with a very different perspective on her career. Her experience had changed her ambitions, priorities and what she considered worthwhile, prompting her to question whether the path she had previously been following still worked for her.
Our conversations have focused on how she can continue doing the parts of her work that energise her, without allowing difficult relationships with colleagues to dominate her experience, while creating the space to think more broadly about what she wants from the next stage of her career. Rather than feeling pressure to have an immediate answer, she is exploring the possibilities and considering what she wants to carry forward — and what she may want to leave behind. The transition is still underway. Our work is about helping her make sense of what has changed and be more deliberate about what comes next.