From Frustration to High Performance

A CEO's Journey

A CEO's Journey: From Frustration to High Performance

Today we’re introducing The Impactful Executive’s top team high performance program. We will be reviewing elements of this over the coming weeks’ newsletters.

Let’s look at an all too common scenario that plays out in teams of all sizes.

The CEO of a rapidly growing mid-sized tech company found themselves increasingly frustrated. Despite a promising product and talented team, something wasn't clicking. As they reflected on the situation, three distinct pain points emerged:

1. Opacity: The company's direction seemed unclear, with too many competing priorities and a growing silo mentality around prioritizing goals. "How did we not see this coming?" became an all too common refrain in executive meetings.

2. Being stuck: Despite long hours and constant meetings, progress felt painfully slow. The team seemed paralyzed by analysis, with endless discussions but little concrete action. The CEO feared they were falling behind more agile competitors.

3. Drama: Tensions were rising. Rumors and gossip proliferated, and team unity was fraying. The CEO felt like they were constantly "herding cats" rather than leading a cohesive team towards a common goal.

These daily frustrations were evolving into deeper fears.

The CEO worried about becoming the next "Blockbuster" – a once-promising company blindsided by market changes.

They feared the company might become another "Detroit" – unable to adapt quickly enough in a rapidly evolving industry.

Worse, the CEO began to doubt their own leadership, feeling like an imposter while struggling to unite a fractious team.

This can be avoided.

Research by McKinsey & Co. shows that companies in the top quartile of organizational health achieve up to 3x higher total shareholder returns compared to those in the bottom quartile.

At The Impactful Executive (TIE), we focus on three key levers to address organizational health based on the pain points above:

1. Clear Direction

2. Focused Action

3. Thriving Team

TIE begins with a comprehensive diagnostic, often revealing that the CEO's or top team’s experiences are symptoms of deeper organizational health issues.

We then embark on a structured improvement journey, using a unique "Field and Forum" approach that combined workshops with daily habit formation.

So, let’s take the scenario above forward.

Over the next few months, the CEO and their team worked on:

1. Clarifying the company's direction and priorities, ensuring everyone understood their role in achieving these goals.

2. Implementing systems to move from discussion to action more quickly, breaking down silos and improving cross-functional collaboration.

3. Building trust and improving communication within the team, fostering a culture of constructive feedback and shared accountability.

The results were transformative.

Within six months, decision-making became more efficient, cross-functional projects started delivering results, and team morale significantly improved. The CEO no longer felt blindsided by issues; instead, they and their team were proactively addressing potential challenges.

Financially, the impact was clear.

By the end of the year, the company's performance had improved dramatically, with productivity up by 20% and employee satisfaction scores reaching all-time highs.

Reflecting on the journey, the CEO realized that by addressing the underlying health of the organization, many of the surface-level issues had resolved themselves.

As one retired CEO had said, "The running thread of leadership is that everything is punctuated by human dynamics."

This story should not be unique, but it’s easy to get stuck in the status quo and not act.

In today's complex business environment, many CEOs find themselves grappling with similar challenges. As we move forward in 2024 and beyond, perhaps it's time for more executives to consider: could improving organizational health, now, be the key to unlocking more of your company's potential?

To find out more, see our full TIE introductory presentation here, which focuses unlocking the performance of (current or potential) high performing teams.

If you are interested in learning more about what we do and how you can work with us, you can visit our website: www.impactfulexec.com.

We will be unpacking many of these concepts over the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Dr. Ali Monadjem

For: The Impactful Executive Team

PS - Please feel free to share these with CEO’s that would find it most useful.