At the time of engagement, the organisation was emerging from a prolonged downturn and a high-risk overseas venture, while simultaneously undergoing a transfer of ownership and control to a new generation of senior leaders. The business required renewed strategic focus, stronger leadership capability, and greater organisational coherence to support recovery and future growth.
Business need
- Lack of strategic clarity and alignment at Board level and within the Senior Management Team (SMT).
- Requirement to stabilise and rebuild the business following a downturn and exposure to international risk.
- Leadership transition to a new generation of senior leaders, requiring support, coaching, and role clarity.
- Gaps in middle management leadership capability, particularly in leading multi-functional, client-facing project teams.
- Inconsistent capability in areas such as motivation, performance management, communication, and issue resolution.
- An underdeveloped sales pipeline and business development approach, limiting future growth potential.
What was delivered
A multi-level leadership development and coaching engagement, designed to support business turnaround, leadership transition, and sustainable performance improvement.Key elements included:
- Two modular leadership programmes delivered over an initial 12-month period:
- One programme focused on Board and Senior Management Team members
- One programme designed for middle management and emerging talent
- While aligned in core themes for consistency, each programme was tailored to the leadership context and responsibilities of the participant group.
- A series of three 1- and 2-day modules covering key leadership capabilities, including:
- Leading Self and Self-Awareness
- Understanding Others and Managing Conflict
- High-Performing Teams and Motivation
- Collaboration and Performance Culture
- Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Effective Communication
- Each module included clear follow-up actions, reinforcing application of learning in the workplace.
- In parallel, a four-year coaching relationship with four key Board members, focused on:
- Strategic alignment and decision-making
- Senior leadership role-modelling
- Supporting the transition and development of new SMT and Board members
- Planning of a future experiential off-site with the new SMT to further embed capability, increase performance, and create a self-sustaining leadership team.
Outcomes
- The leadership programmes played a critical role in supporting the turnaround of the business, particularly by re-establishing strategic focus and strengthening the financial platform.
- Improved clarity, alignment, and effectiveness at Board and SMT level, enabling more decisive leadership and execution.
- A new Senior Management Team is now in place, empowered and capable of taking the business forward.
- Leadership behaviours aligned more consistently with organisational values, strengthening trust, accountability, and collaboration across the business.
- Client feedback reflected the impact of the engagement, with the Finance Director stating:
“Working with xxx gave our newly formed Board and Senior Management Team not only the clarity and alignment on what we needed to focus on to secure the ongoing turnaround of the business and nurse the company back to strategic health, but also, crucially, gave us the ability to execute on that clarity by accelerating our development as senior teams. Living our values, honesty, understanding ourselves as individual leaders, and working interdependently were some of the keys Mission helped us develop and embed in our culture. The Mission team are very personable, easy to work with, and stick with it until the business impact is there.”
