By Paul GoudreaultLEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE LEADEREvery executive wants a high-performing culture. Few are willing to do the hard work required to build one.
When organizations struggle, leaders often point to the economy, the labor market, competition, technology, or changing client expectations. Those challenges are real, but they are rarely the root cause of organizational decline.
The real problem is usually much closer to home.
Too often we think of leadership as an individual sport. It is really a team sport.
Of course, the “head of the house” will strongly determine the leadership culture of the organization, but it is the leadership team that maintains or changes the course of the culture.
Let me share three leadership cultures that have failed, or will ultimately fail, at creating a growing and sustainable organization. Do you resemble any of these?
One of my clients was content with strictly developing leadership internally, but there were no programs or plans to build that leadership. The board of directors had no outside members, and all board members were elected by the employees.
The organization had a strong legacy of client service and technical delivery. Their vision for the future and their ability to implement strategic actions was absent.
The leadership culture was consensus driven, and leadership positions were based on technical aptitude and peer popularity.
The culture felt like a fraternity or sorority. There was a strong sense of the past, individuals had to “pledge” themselves to the organization, and short-term gains were more important than leaving a lasting legacy.
While they had a strong strategic agenda, they were not willing to develop the level of leadership, either internally or from external resources, necessary to drive the organization forward.
The business had three years of “flat revenue” and an increasing dependency on their premier client. With seemingly no way out, they ended up taking an unsolicited offer to sell the business.
This client failed to develop a culture that valued strategic leadership.
Another leadership trap is waiting for the founder to decide what to do. Another client of mine just celebrated their 35th anniversary.
The organization has been successful following an entrepreneurial founder, being responsive to the client, running a strong business, and focusing on a single industry with two key clients.
The founder is looking to retire and has a strong desire to transition leadership to the existing team and selected family members. The leadership team are all very competent, but they have learned to wait on Janice's direction, not out of fear, but out of respect.
I have been working with the team for three years to create a strategic direction, to help diversify markets and clients, and to build a unifying value proposition that will allow them to grow sustainably. Two challenges have emerged.
One is protecting the time to build and deploy strategy. The other is the pull to keep waiting for the founder to decide the direction of the firm.
The founder says “the leadership team is not stepping up,” and the leadership team says “Janice has this, I work too hard already.”
The risks for this organization are clear: an inability to diversify, a dependency on a couple of clients, and the founder's inability to build a predictable succession plan. The clock is ticking, and succession will depend on the development of the leadership team.
If leadership is not capable of stepping up, the firm will likely need to sell and lose its family ownership legacy.
Being smart is important in our business. Being too smart is a curse, and it will kill your business.
One of my clients built a small consulting firm around a unique and innovative technology. He is the founder, and he has led the industry in alternative approaches to solving client challenges.
While he has created a solid business and a great personal legacy, he has not created market equity in the firm. He has never grown the business beyond 10 people, over 30 years.
The founder asked me to find a buyer. After 20 calls with potential buyers and investors, we found that we needed a bigger business to realize the desired equity in any transaction.
We developed a 1+1=3 strategy to combine the firm with an equal-sized but strategically aligned business. On paper, the merger fit by geography, services, and clients.
The leader egos did not.
Building equity is a fair ask of any business owner. We do it every day, in our financial portfolio, our house, or our career.
Unfortunately, this business will likely be sold to cover its liabilities, or closed when the founder passes. This leader is unable to trust another leader, or another leadership team, to help build the business.
Organizations need to develop leadership capacity to grow and sustain the business. Let's face it: it is not hard to start an environmental consulting and engineering firm, but it is hard to build sustained value, succeed the founding partners, and leverage the value of the hard work from staff, leadership, and founders.
As a founder or CEO, if you have not created a leadership team or a leadership culture that survives and prospers without you, you have not done your job.
At TRANSEARCH USA, we believe leadership should be treated as a strategic asset, not an HR initiative. Leadership is your organization's greatest strategic asset.
Yet many organizations invest in strategy, technology, and growth initiatives without first ensuring their leaders have the capabilities to execute them.
Our RENEW Leadership Development Program helps organizations assess, develop, and sustain the leadership capacity required to drive performance, strengthen culture, and accelerate growth. Using executive interviews, industry benchmarking, and our proprietary Orxestra Leadership Diagnostic, we identify your leadership strengths, capability gaps, and development priorities, then design a customized leadership journey aligned with your business strategy.
Our five-step program is simple, straightforward, and customized to your unique leadership requirements.
We begin with a complimentary executive discussion to understand your business objectives, leadership challenges, and organizational culture. You will also gain valuable insights from leadership benchmarking across the industry.
Through executive interviews and facilitated leadership sessions, we assess your team's leadership capabilities across 60 critical leadership characteristics. The result is a clear understanding of your organization's strengths, capability gaps, and the 8 to 16 leadership priorities that will have the greatest impact on future success.
Every organization is different. We design a tailored leadership development strategy built around the four dimensions of leadership: Head (Direction), Hands (Execution), Heart (People), and Spirit (Culture), ensuring every learning experience directly supports your business goals.
We encourage our clients to form an internal, cross-functional team to support the roadmap design and development. This team can assess current leadership development programs and align the RENEW program with any ongoing development priorities.
We deliver practical, high-impact learning experiences for executive teams, senior leaders, and high-potential talent through workshops, leadership academies, coaching, assessments, and action learning. Participants leave with personalized development plans, Hogan assessment insights, coaching strategies, and practical tools they can immediately apply.
Generally, training is delivered through modules that address the leadership gaps you and your team may have. Sessions are collaborative and workshop-style, and they include individual Hogan assessments, keynote speakers, suggested readings, and personal leadership development plans.
Leadership development does not end with the workshop sessions. We provide ongoing executive recruiting, coaching, mentoring, succession support, and leadership advisory services to reinforce new behaviors, accelerate leadership growth, and build a sustainable leadership culture.
Organizations that invest in leadership capacity build stronger executive teams, healthier cultures, better succession pipelines, and a sustainable competitive advantage. The future of your organization depends on the leaders you develop today.
Schedule a complimentary executive consultation and discover how the RENEW Leadership Development Program can help your organization build the leadership capacity to grow, innovate, and lead with confidence.
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