Case 03

When good leaders cannot solve a structural leadership problem

Leadership as a lever for retention and organisational effectiveness.

International professional services firmaround 15,000 employees

The situation

Increasing turnover among experienced senior consultants and managers.
Bottlenecks in project staffing and a growing workload for teams.
Surveys and exit interviews pointed to a lack of development prospects, insufficient recognition and inconsistent leadership behaviour.
Wide spans of control alongside rising demands on leadership.

The challenge did not lie primarily in the skills of individual leaders.
Structural conditions and contradictory expectations prevented effective leadership.
Leaders were expected to deliver operational management, professional excellence and staff development – within an organisational architecture that barely allowed for this.

The focus was not on the individual leader – but on the organisation's leadership system.

Multi-year leadership architecture, developed together with the executive board, HR and Learning & Development.
Analysis of the organisational leadership logic.
Review of roles, spans of control and responsibilities.
Separation of functional and line management.
Development of a shared understanding of leadership.
Design of an integrated leadership journey.
Enabling more than 5,400 leaders over a multi-year process.

Different contexts, similar leadership questions.

01
Shaping growth
Leadership as a response to increasing complexity
Regional association of a major welfare organisation
View case
02
Finding a shared direction
Developing and implementing a new mission statement
Nationwide welfare organisation
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04
Shaping transformation
Restructuring as an organisational learning and development process
Nationwide service organisation
View case