The Challenge

A high-performing, founder-led firm with aggressive growth goals, was entering a significant leadership transition. The founder (also majority shareholder) was beginning to explore future options and had set a five-year timeline to step back.

The internal successor was obvious: sharp, extremely capable, experienced, and fully embedded in the business — but not yet the automatic choice as a CEO.

They also needed more than just successor preparation. They needed to develop stronger 3-dimensional leadership (up, down, across) capable of managing a genuine transformation.

Does that sound counterintuitive amidst success? Not really - they had focussed on technical skill, business performance, deal-making, and customer attention. Leadership was a somewhat latent resource - yet to be fully exploited. Until we started.

What We Did Together

Phase 1: Building CEO successor Readiness

We started with the CEO successor – the Exec Lead of Investments. Using The Leadership Circle (TLC) 360 assessment and executive coaching, we worked closely to expand his leadership range, shift his lens beyond functional expertise, and equip him to lead a transitioning business.

Phase 2: Elevating the Investment Leadership Team

To free the Exec Lead up for broader CEO responsibilities, we needed to lift the capability of his direct team. Same diagnostic. Same coaching framework. Immediate results.

But we also saw shared patterns. So, we introduced a series of four half-day workshops — building shared language, tools, and deeper trust across the team.

The time recovered in meetings alone is many times the total investment.

Phase 3: Scaling Leadership Across the Firm

With the Exec Lead and his top team stepping up, the focus widened to the next tier — the foundational leadership cohort across the firm. Technically excellent. Committed. Experienced. But largely undeveloped in leadership - especially in developing and achieving results through others and working across the necessary organisational structures.

Again, we ran the 360s, replicated the workshop series (tailored to their level but ensuring shared language with the Investment Leadership Team), and added pod coaching — small groups of two to three people working between sessions to apply concepts directly to real-time business challenges.

Where We Got To

Across all layers, the shift has been tangible and well-recognised:

  • The Exec Lead of Investments moved from succession candidate to confirmed internal CEO successor

  • Investment Leadership Team is operating with stronger cohesion, clarity, and efficiency – this is obvious to them and is visible to others

  • Team members stepping into bigger, more strategic roles — and thriving

  • Clear uplift in cross-geography leadership consistency and performance

  • Foundational leaders now operate as a cohesive unit with shared systems, language, and accountability

  • Business performance is improving far beyond the increase in headcount

Why It Matters

For a founder-led firm undergoing transition, leadership is the linchpin. The work done with the firm wasn’t just development for development’s sake — it was an investment in succession, scale, and sustainability.

  • Succession confidence — The Board has backed up the Exec leader

  • Scalability — Leaders below the Exec now think like one system

  • Sustained results — Coaching is ongoing, impact still unfolding

This work laid the foundation for a new era — one built not just on smart strategy but on deeply capable leadership.