CEO transitions

CEO Transitions in 2023: Challenges and Opportunities

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CEO transitions have always presented challenges for companies, but post-pandemic, we’re seeing more turnover than we have in at least five years. Endemic burnout combined with challenging global and macroeconomic circumstances are causing CEO turnover in companies and organizations at every level.

At Audacia Strategies, we help our clients build companies, infrastructure, and culture that can weather even the harshest of circumstances. With this in mind, we’re going to get into the why of this current tide of CEO turnover and share the smartest moves companies can make during an executive transition, particularly at this moment.

Why Now?

We’ve all seen the numbers about employee turnover, and CEO turnover is catching up too, with Fortune reporting that it has reached its highest rate in five years. According to Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, Inc., CEO turnover is up 18% from a year ago (the numbers are from March 2023). But why are we seeing this uptick in CEO turnover happening right now?

First, leaders are dealing with burned-out employees. Mental Health America reports that in a study of 1,500 individuals, three-quarters of workers say they have experienced burnout. We’re all dealing with the same global and economic challenges. We watched the Great Resignation happen over the last few years. Between managing employee experience, customer experience, and their own burnout levels—CEOs have been at the forefront of change.

Second, We’re in a volatile time between market movement, elections, and global conflict. When a stock crashes, a bank closes, or a product fails, leaders have to take responsibility. This might—either by their own choice or not—lead to an executive transition.

Finally, the IPO market is also to blame. We’ve seen fewer IPOs which means that there are private, venture, and equity-backed companies who were planning on an exit in 2022 or 2023 that just won’t happen. The question to the CEO becomes, do we stay the course or bring in a specialist leader to pivot the firm to be more competitive in the 2024 or 2025 IPO market? 

The answer to this question has serious implications for the fate of the CEO and might amount to deciding between keeping a current CEO with public company experience or refocusing investments in their business and hiring a new “specialist CEO” with a depth of expertise in software or distribution, for instance.

The Challenges

So what are the challenges for leaders and board members dealing with CEO transitions in this particular macroeconomic environment?

Everything Changes

CEO and executive transitions are always fraught. Even if it isn’t explicit, a new CEO comes with the potential for significant change. Corporate leaders often feel the desire to say, “Nothing is going to change. Everything is going to be the same. Everyone stay calm.” Why? They understandably want to reassure their employees that things will be okay. But there are truer and better ways to reassure your employees—everything changes, even if you don’t intend it to, and when it does you risk getting blamed for lying to people.

Dealing with Multiple Constituencies

There are always multiple constituencies too. In our work, we focus a lot on employee-executive relationships and helping employees understand how and why change is happening. But beyond employees, companies also need to address business partners, customers, and financial stakeholders. 

Each of these groups has ideas about your company’s executive transition, and it’s essential that they understand the perspective, goals, and background of the incoming executive. Why is she the right person? Why did she take the job? What is the opportunity she sees in the market?

The Opportunities

While executive transitions present ample challenges, they also present excellent opportunities for building trust, strengthening culture, and driving future success. 

The First 100 Days 

As much as possible, let the first 100 days be a time for listening. Listen to (and visit, if possible) your constituencies and ask questions to get a sense of the goals, pain points, and existing strategies for the company. Incoming executives should ask questions like: Where is the friction for this organization? Where are we amazing? What can we do better?

After the first 100 days, come back to your team and reflect on what you heard. Let your employees know where you can be reached and where your priorities will be. While this contradicts the traditional advice to “hit the ground running,” most pain points are multivariate problems. 

Without understanding all of the variables, the CEO risks creating problems rather than solving them. At worst, executives can get dragged into the nitty-gritty early on. Avoiding this requires focusing on the big picture, and especially on the “why” of the organization. What is the purpose, and why do we exist? Spending the first 100 days listening and establishing relationships and expectations is essential for a successful tenure.

Listening Sessions

Create opportunities to listen to your employees through the channels they’re already using. If you’re coming into a remote organization, host listening sessions on Zoom or Slack. If you’re in person, consider hosting a coffee hour or an “Ask Me Anything” session. It can also be helpful to allow anonymous questions to be sensitive to employees’ concerns. 

Particularly during times of transition, employees need to hear your answers to the hard questions: What will this mean for me? How will my manager be affected? Does this CEO really invite questions or not? When conducted with curiosity, empathy, and a bias for transparency, listening sessions can catalyze important discussions.  

Draw the Story Arc

Why are you here? This is the first and most fundamental question of employees, customers, and business partners. An incoming executive should be crisp about why she chose this company and what working at this company means to her. If there can be a formal handoff between the exiting and incoming CEO, even better. Particularly for employees, knowing that the former (hopefully beloved) CEO hand-picked the incoming CEO can make for an especially smooth and amicable transition.

But of course, this is not always available. When it isn’t, having a trusted third party such as a board chair endorse the background, values, and vision of the incoming CEO can make a world of difference.

Manager Dynamics

Managers are the first place most employees will turn for information and to “check the temperature” of a change. Keeping the pulse of your people leaders and employee influencers  is a huge opportunity. Engage and listen to their challenges and frustrations and equip them with the tools and information to support their team. There is nothing worse as a manager than to feel helpless when your team is asking for help. 

Don’t hesitate to give them a channel to funnel questions. Be honest about the fact that we are all learning and moving through this transition together. We may not have all the answers but we’re working on it and we’re working together.   

Customer Communication

Just as your employees will wonder what the transition will bring, so will your customers. Am I still going to be a priority? Will you keep investing in what I buy from you? As with your employees and managers, be clear in your communication about what the new CEO will bring to the company or organization from the customer point of view.

Keeping Everyone Invested

One of our clients had five CEOs in four years. At a certain point, employees and customers reach a level of change fatigue. Customers don’t care and just want to make sure they have the same account representative. Employees go into survival mode, annoyed at what they see as change for the sake of change. 

Particularly with this one client, by the end there was almost no faith that someone would stick around: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” The upshot of this attitude is that employees might be unwilling to invest in new initiatives. An incoming CEO can show they are aware of these dynamics by being patient—it will take longer to establish trust and credibility.

In a case like this, it will be especially important to listen and let people vent. Let them air their true pain points and try to do small things in the early days to make their lives better. One of our clients, facing employee burnout, was able to offer every third Friday of the month off. It wasn’t every other Friday off like employees wanted, but it showed employees that the new CEO was listening.

Concluding Thoughts

It’s not easy to be the new CEO, especially if it’s due to less-than-ideal circumstances. Being a CEO puts you in an interesting position—people often tell you what you want to hear, and never tell you that you have a bad idea. But when you start somewhere new, you often have two reactions:

  1. People who aren’t afraid to speak their minds. 
  2. People who are terrified that by speaking up they’ll be fired. 

Being ready for the tough questions—and asking them yourself when no one else will—can help you succeed. As will a healthy dose of curiosity and empathy. Feedback is a gift. By taking time to listen, communicate carefully, and respond, you can ensure that both you and your company are headed in the right direction.

If you want to talk more about an upcoming or ongoing executive transition, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team of professionals is ready to give you a strategic edge.

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investor day

How to Bring Your Next Investor Day From Good to Great

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Investor days can determine whether your company sinks or swims. These events are crucial for communicating big changes, laying out medium-term goals, and answering hard questions from shareholders and analysts. A good or fine investor day does no harm. A great investor day can take you to new heights: it can be a trampoline you can bounce on and a platform to jump off. 

The difference between a boring, good, and great investor day is about how you prepare your story and how you capitalize on what investor days are really about. Read on to hear about how we’ve helped our clients nail investor days over the years.

Investor Days: Opportunities and Challenges

Investor days are invaluable, especially for publicly traded companies. They bring together larger shareholders as well as the sell-side analysts who help make sense of your company’s financial trajectory. While research analysts provide reports on future opportunities and challenges, investor days give company leaders the chance to engage a wider audience in more detail. 

Many companies do investor days once a year, where senior management meets with key investors and analysts to discuss the company’s objectives and strategic priorities for the following years. But investor days can also offer opportunities in the context of a larger event: a merger or acquisition, new corporate leadership, an IPO, or a massive new product announcement (think: new iPhone). These events are especially valuable at moments when there is potential to change the trajectory of the company.

If it isn’t already clear, investor days can be high-stakes. While smaller updates are reported during quarterly calls, investor days are an opportunity to dive deep into your longer-term strategy, show off new technology, and give medium-term financial projections. It’s an opportunity for attendees to ask their hard questions, get answers, and check out the body language of the executives that answer those tough questions.

Executed well, investor days can raise a palpable air of excitement for the future of your company and shift shareholders into the role of allies. Everything hinges on how you tell your story. 

We all know what dull investor days are like: 

  • Presenters read their presentation slides to the audience—or worse, read a script from a podium making little to no eye contact and zero engagement with the audience.
  • The material is absurdly technical for a general and financial-focused audience.
  • C-suite executives give half-answers to hard questions. 
  • Audience members sit there scrolling on their phones. 

In the worst-case scenario, investors can walk away with a bad impression. As we shared in the Harvard Business Review, how leaders speak to investors can make or break a deal. If the executive is dismissive, harsh, rude, or awkward, investors might feel under-appreciated by the company. Charisma alone won’t cut it, and might even give investors the impression that the CEO is overconfident or inauthentic. 

It matters that leaders genuinely connect with their investors, and even more importantly, that there is a coherent narrative. If the narrative doesn’t work, investors might leave with the impression that the CEO doesn’t understand the market. Thankfully, with a bit of forethought, planning and preparation, you can avoid these outcomes and seize the opportunity investor days offer. 

The Real Reason We Have Investor Days

While it might seem like stakeholders go to hear about earnings, projections, and new announcements, the real reason anyone goes to investor days is for the Q&A. It’s a rare chance to be in the same room as the extended executive team. On quarterly calls, it’s typically only sell-side analysts who ask questions, and generally, only a few top executives respond. 

Investors and analysts want to see and hear from those charged with executing your corporate strategy. Beyond hearing your answer, they want to see your body language. You can’t get away with simply reading canned remarks. Your shareholders instead get to see how you think on your feet. This is a huge opportunity to showcase your company with poise, competence, and coherence. 

When we work with clients, we prepare our executives and ensure their presence, their words, and their story serves the purpose of their investor day. Here are a few of our tried-and-true tips:

1. Know Your “Why”

Think about what you want to accomplish at the outset. Why are you holding this event? Whether it’s achieving an outcome, establishing relationships, or communicating numbers, know how you want your audience to feel, think, and act after your event. Let this be your north star as you plan the strategy, the narrative, and the timing.

2. Construct a Consistent Narrative 

These events can get really complicated depending on the industry. Here’s how some of these events go. The CEO gets up, then the strategy person, then five business unit leaders speak about how wonderful their widget is, the CFO closes the day with the financial projections, and then everyone takes questions. By the end of the event, investors are drooling and they’ve lost the thread that leadership really wanted to hit home. 

We want to keep your investors drooling—in a good way! So start with the end in mind. Why should investors invest in your company? You should have an investment thesis based on your strategic narrative, restate it, and ensure every speaker’s points support your thesis.  

3. Prepare for the Q&A

Q&A is the main event for attendees and it deserves your full attention and preparation. Prepare your executives to really listen to the questions and consider what is behind the question. As an example, a question about your R&D number for next year may not just be about the number. It’s also a question of your corporate priorities. Are you reinvesting profits or returning capital to shareholders? There are choices about where you put your cash and why you make those decisions. By preparing for the questions that might come your way, you can understand and respond to what your audience member is really asking.

4. Delivery

It’s not enough to have a great story. Your delivery should also be compelling. Don’t wing it. Build in plenty of time for practicing both as individuals and as a team. At a minimum, we advise our clients to have a table read 6-8 weeks before, dry run 2-3 weeks before, and a dress rehearsal the week of the event. This cadence helps to suss out the flow between presenters and is a great forcing function for individual preparation. 

While this seems obvious, many executives avoid practicing their presentations because it can be vulnerable to practice in front of their colleagues. Not every presenter is a dynamo but with practice, everyone can own their story in their own way to keep an audience engaged and curious. Use the core tenants of storytelling. 

5. Executive Presence

How your leaders show up matters. How they make eye contact, how they talk to investors, and even how they’re seen talking to their team makes a difference in how the world sees your company. You want to make sure the CEO is confident, but not overconfident. And, of course, the words matter too. Narrative development for a financial audience should be different from narrative development for a general audience of investors; perfect this narrative so that it aligns with the overall value proposition for your company.

6. Murder Boards & External Input

It can be helpful to have a third party to walk you through the process of preparing. Whether you have a murder board strategy session or hire an external communications team, it’s crucial to make sure leaders get honest feedback and can answer the hard questions ahead of time. 

The Q&A can be ruthless. Why are you on your fourth CEO in five years? If you’ve missed the last five quarters, why should I believe that you’ll hit your revenue goal this next quarter? Trust us—these questions sting less when you hear them the second time. Plus, being prepared means that you’ll be able to answer these questions with attention to what the question is really about.

Investor Days Matter For Your Firm’s Future

The most important takeaway about investor days is that they are often about much more than meets the eye—ultimately, how you prepare your story and how you engage your audience will determine the outcome of the event. We’ve seen companies on the rocks have incredible investor days that leave shareholders starry-eyed for the future, and we’ve seen companies on a steady incline blow it. The right orientation, attitude, and preparation can make all the difference. 

Investor days can shift the perception of what your shareholders, and your team, believe is possible for the future. If you’re ready to put on your best investor day yet, our bench of seasoned professionals would love to schedule a consultation to discuss how we can help.

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Nick Ciantra

Meet the Team: Nick Ciantra, Senior Strategic Communications Consultant

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At Audacia, strategic communications are at the heart of what we do. When we work with clients, we need a 360-degree view of who they are. This doesn’t happen overnight—-it requires talent, experience, and our time-tested processes. Only with all of these ingredients can we capture the heart of a company in its value proposition and brand positioning. 

In previous blog articles, we’ve introduced Sarah Deming, our Manager of Business Operations, and Sarah Gershman, our Executive Presence Partner. This time, we’re introducing Nick Ciantra, our Senior Strategic Communications Consultant.

Interview with Nick Ciantra: Senior Strategic Communications Consultant

Being able to speak accurately and authentically about where you are and where you’re going as a company is no small task. Here at Audacia, we’ve spent years perfecting the art of working with companies, their employees, and their customers. Only by collecting data from all of these stakeholders are we able to deliver the strategy and aligned communications package that companies need for their next big goal. 

Nick is our Senior Strategic Communications Consultant. His background working with agencies in creative leadership roles at Fortune 100 insurance companies and Fortune 500 retail companies allows him to bring an experienced eye to his work with our clients. He is a meticulous researcher who can see the big picture while being “in the weeds” with clients. Nick knows how to seamlessly bring together our clients’ dreams and reality. In his free time, Nick enjoys playing guitar, skiing, and golfing.

Below are highlights from Nick about the value he brings to Audacia Strategies. 

Q | Can you describe your role at Audacia Strategies and how you fit into the team?

I’ve been at Audacia for about a year, and I’m typically brought in to work on projects that focus on communications and branding. I work closely with our client groups at a senior level. Our work is largely behind the scenes while we work to approach the problems and opportunities our clients face. When we’re consulting with our clients, it’s a mix of market research, interviews, and fact-finding, and of course, looking for the opportunities they need and giving them those deliverables. It can be fun—in the early stages, no ideas are off the table.

As we get deeper into the work, I help clients articulate their vision, mission, value proposition, and brand positioning. In short, I shape how companies ultimately talk about themselves internally and externally. Our work with clients is about getting them to the heart of who they are. Much of this comes from the client. On our end, we help them share and synthesize the data. Eventually, we crystallize their brand positioning and how they think about themselves. It’s equal parts art and science. 

Q | What is your favorite part about working with Audacia?

The team. They’re really people you want to work with. They’re not only knowledgeable and smart, but they’re also quality people. It’s a strong team, which is important when we go through intense periods working closely together for many, many hours. 

We work with our clients on communications and business processes, and those strengths are definitely reflected within the team. We bounce ideas off each other and we’re able to be transparent about how we’re thinking about problems and opportunities. This is where the magic happens—not worrying about an idea being too “out there” allows new ideas to germinate. There’s a real open-mindedness that allows the best ideas to blossom. Brainstorming is a skill that not every organization has, but Audacia definitely has it. 

Q | Can you describe a win or highlight from your time working with Audacia?

When we finished our work with Xator, the leadership team reviewed the work and they said, “This is exactly who we are.” Leadership told us that how we described them is exactly how they wanted to say it, but they weren’t able to get there themselves. Doing your research and working to understand the culture of an organization is key to delivering something like that—that’s the power of what we do. It takes listening, refining, and research to get to a final product that makes the client say, “That’s absolutely us. You nailed it. Can we use it at a trade show next week?” Ultimately, there were very few changes, it was so rewarding. 

Q | Are there best practices associated with your role that you would like to share?

There is a process to walk through. People want to jump to the end, which is admittedly the exciting part. Even though communications strategy can be creative work, we need to be particular about how the process works. This means doing research, having conversations, and reviewing the data—we don’t get to a final result like Xator’s without this process. It is work and it makes the final result possible. Although it might seem tedious at times, it’s the secret sauce.

Q | What are the most important lessons you’ve learned working with Audacia?

Our clients hire us because they’re in a transition—they’re going through something that’s huge for the organization and typically, their priorities are shifting. On our end, we need to create value quickly. This means working fast, multitasking, and being nimble while producing high-quality work. It’s not a pick-one kind of situation. 

Q | If there were one thing you wish you had known before you started working with Audacia what would it be?

The only thing, other than wishing I worked for Audacia sooner, is that Katy is a wonderful leader and motivator of people. You see how much her clients respect her opinion and her point of view. Katy’s way of seeing and doing things permeates the organization. Just like other companies, how the boss handles herself gets reflected within the organization. Katy’s stamp is on the organization in a really positive way; she’s smart, thoughtful, and a great person to work with. 

What I would say to folks who haven’t worked with the team is that Audacia Strategies brings insight in an effective and cost-efficient way. If you’re going through a transition, or looking for an outside view, this is a really good team to work with. 

Nick makes the secret sauce we bring to our clients possible, and we are so grateful for him and the experience he brings to this team. His perceptive and creative eye make our clients’ visions a reality; he is the creative lynchpin of our team.

To find out more about how our experienced team of experts can support your strategic vision and transformation, contact us today.

future of work

What Companies Are Doing That We Love

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We’re living through a unique time right now. What work means to us is changing, and the leaders paying attention to this are making changes accordingly. The future of work is here, and it’s already happening before our eyes. 

We work with a lot of companies in transition, and we wanted to share with you some of the best moves to make sure your investors, employees, and customers stick around for the long run. Here’s a few tactics and techniques that we love.

1. Giving Employees a Voice

I’ll cut to the chase—savvy companies are listening to employees. This means engaging their employees, listening to their input, and integrating it into action. As an example, many of us are still in a return-to-the-office transition. After working on a remote or hybrid model for a year or more, companies are still making tweaks. What are the best means of communication? How do we come together intentionally? Do we have a cafeteria, and if so, what do we serve?

We’ve seen companies engage employees well in employee resource groups. In these groups, employers provide a forum for employees that is open-ended. One of our clients has a weekly coffee talk—it started as a small, organic event that became so successful that it’s now branded and managed by the communications department. 

The concept is simple enough: By offering an open forum where leadership asked employees what was on their minds while also offering a space for folks around the office to share what they were working on, our client created an outlet for honest communication and collaboration. Since these weekly coffee talks began, people have been helping each other across business units and brainstorming ideas about how to work together better.

One of companies’ biggest worries about offering an open forum is that there might be griping. Let’s be real—whether this griping happens at the water cooler in hushed tones or at an open forum, it will happen. If you care about employee retention and the future of your business, you should want to know what’s on your employees’ minds. When you give your employees an outlet, you provide an opportunity to express and address it constructively. And when you allow your team to share concerns about the small things safely, they’re way more likely to raise the alarm about company-threatening issues. 

People care more about something if they have a stake in how it grows and develops. By opening new avenues for feedback, you help your employees to be part of something larger than themselves.

2. Inviting Feedback from Customers

In-person client meetings are back, and it’s changing the dynamic. Especially when you’re dealing with sales, new relationships, and problem-solving, being in person changes the game.

Leaders are soliciting and tuning into the voice of the customer to add richness to their customer relationship strategy. The non-attribution interviews during voice of the customer surveys are invaluable whether you want to check the health of your customer relationship, inquire about your positioning among your peers, or simply understand what makes your client tick. Engaging in a voice of the customer analysis requires considering the information and insight your customers hold. This information can advance your market strategy and add nuance and understanding to face-to-face conversations—even when those conversations bring up uncomfortable feedback. 

3. Having Hard Conversations

We love the companies doing this but wish we saw more of it. The benefits of having hard conversations can mean something as sweeping as revamping your value proposition or talking to investors about major business changes.

The consequences of not having hard conversations can be huge. One of our clients couldn’t give bonuses this year; employees found out in a piecemeal, roundabout, through-the-grapevine way, and it all blew up during an all-employee call. It was rough and highlighted how the hard conversations between leaders and among teams weren’t happening during the year. 

Having hard conversations also means letting employees know when important changes in the company (like layoffs) are coming. The LinkedIn posts coming from former Google employees express a sense of deep betrayal. Layoffs, executive transitions, and other major changes are sometimes inevitable, but forums and clear communication help leaders communicate these issues with humanity and care.

A leader-employee relationship has an undeniable power dynamic, so it’s on the leader to initiate these conversations. Unfortunately, leaders and managers don’t always feel like they have the skills for these conversations. It’s hard to look someone in the eye who has worked overtime and canceled vacations and tell them that you can’t give them a bonus. These conversations are heartbreaking on all sides, but when deciding between a lie that draws a smile and a truth that draws a tear, the truth is always the better option. As Brene Brown says, clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.

4. Celebrating

We would love to see more celebrations at work. One of our clients was recently acquired, and we love how they continue to find ways to maintain their spirit and culture via service anniversaries, birthdays, and client wins. It’s not all sunshine and roses through an acquisition;  celebrating helps employees see the positive things happening around the organization. Making time to celebrate sends the message that we celebrate together because we’re a team. 

Here at Audacia, we got together in person last year to celebrate a fantastic year. When we can’t meet in person, we celebrate at the “water cooler” (AKA on Slack). Because we try to practice what we preach, we hope to get even better at celebrating the small and big wins this year.

The Future of Work: Choosing Courage Over Comfort

The future of work is upon us. The demands on employees are higher than ever, and in turn, employees have higher expectations of their employers. This isn’t bad; in the best-case scenario, it makes us all better. Being willing to listen to the voices of customers and employees, having hard conversations, and celebrating is a willingness to be aware of the many seasons that happen at a company. We love companies that do these because it shows their leaders know how to weather all seasons of the company lifecycle.

I love the Brene Brown quote, “Integrity is choosing courage over comfort.” Having integrity is not just about balancing your finances and answering your emails—it’s showing up for the highs and lows of running a business with presence and strategy.

If you’re looking for more guidance on driving meaningful conversations, integrating feedback into your business strategy, and building a consistent voice of the customer/employee program, Audacia Strategies has your back. Reach out to us, and someone on our experienced team will be in touch.

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what we learned

Drinking Our Own Champagne: What We Learned in 2022

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Having a crisp, clean, and differentiated value proposition for your company is no small task. Being able to speak accurately and authentically about where you are and where you’re going is useful beyond your next networking event. We do this work every day with our clients, and over the last few months, Audacia Strategies went through this process too. I want to give you an inside look into what we learned from putting our money where our mouth is.

Having a value proposition describing who you are today and where you’re going in the future matters. Think about it like sailing: If you’re one degree off, that doesn’t sound like a big deal in the short term, but over a whole voyage, you can end up hundreds of miles from where you were intending to go. Creating a value proposition is about making sure you’re on the course that’s right for you and your business.

How do you begin the task of writing a statement (yes, it needs to be one single statement or talking point) of who you are today, what you believe in, and who you will be in the future? And what it is really like on the inside logistically, professionally, and emotionally? 

The Value Proposition

It’s hard to explain your business and what you offer in 15 seconds over your second glass of wine at a cocktail party. But when you do, it can transform how you talk to customers about both their visions and their pain points. And the way you communicate your value will attract the clients who need what you offer.

Creating the right value proposition is a reflective and often research-intensive task. When we worked with our client, Xator, we spoke to 35 employees from across the company and around the world. We reviewed their customers’ feedback, looked critically at all of their marketing material, and evaluated their top competitors’ message positioning and language. With this research in hand, our team shared our findings and highlighted opportunities for Xator to better define who they are, what they do, and why it matters. You can read more about our work with Xator in this case study. 

The result was a succinct, evocative, and authentic statement of what Xator does—no jargon needed. When you hit the nail on the head, you see the shift: eyes light up, and people get excited to hear an accurate, authentic reflection of who they are and where they’re going. When this process is complete, it feels like magic, and companies know they finally found their secret sauce. It’s empowering to discover the right words to describe what you’re offering to the world. And once you have those words, you want to share them with everyone all the time!

After witnessing several of our clients’ transformations, we knew we needed to experience it for ourselves.

The Opportunities and Sacrifices of Drinking Our Own Champagne

As we enter our eighth year (!), we knew it was time to reconsider how we talk about Audacia Strategies. Our firm has evolved since our launch in 2015. You can’t throw a stone without hitting 12 communication firms of various shades. And while people have an idea of what a communications firm does, Audacia isn’t a communications firm or a PR firm, or a marketing agency. Let’s face it, we don’t fit the standard mold. We choose to see this as an opportunity, rather than a disadvantage, though.

​​Audacia Strategies is an advisory firm helping business leaders build the businesses of the future and uncover opportunities they never thought possible. We do this through a relentless focus on communications. 

Our mission? We help businesses change, lead, and succeed. 

Yep, those sentences sound simple, but an incredible amount of work went into gaining that clarity. 

As I’ve said before, it’s hard to see yourself from the outside. Reflecting on where we’ve been and where we’re going has been a rich experience made possible only by investing and redistributing time, resources, and energy towards this project. Time that would otherwise have been spent on day-to-day tasks was instead filled with reflection, research, dreaming, hard conversations, and lots of listening. We listened to feedback from our clients, our employees, and our leadership about where we make the biggest impact for our clients and the type of work we absolutely love to do.

From the Founder’s Seat

As a leader and founder, one of the hardest parts of this process is letting go of what I thought the company might be at its outset. The dream of Audacia Strategies started on a bus between San Juan del Sur and Managua, Nicaragua in a notebook I just happened to have with me. Revisiting our value proposition presented an opportunity to view the company not for what I expected it to be, but for what it is and what we hope it will accomplish. This is an essential mindset shift for doing this work (more on this in a minute).

In the beginning, I thought we’d bounce from transaction to transaction and focus on M&A. Our original focus on transactions taught me some lessons about how transactions could be done even better:

Leaders must look honestly at their company and whether their vision matches reality. We chose to invest our resources in asking: 

  • Who is Audacia today? 
  • How do we view ourselves aspirationally? 
  • What language can we use to better connect with our clients?

The Emotional Side of Value Propositions

As a founder, I must be willing to take on the challenge of viewing the company not for what I expected us to be, but for what we are. This process sometimes involves mourning what might have been, even if what’s coming is probably (certainly) better. Because I’ve been on the other side of the table sitting across from leaders who needed assistance in moving through this grief, or moving beyond fear or ego, I was (somewhat) prepared for this process.

Getting the reflections needed for accurate self-perception and self-definition requires humility. When I’m in a meeting with customers or employees, I have to remind myself to be present and listen without interjecting and without trying to course-correct. I might think that because I have the vision I have the right answers, but that isn’t necessarily true.

Just like our clients, I have to trust that we will discover the right charter through this process. That taking in every perspective means that we can think bigger about ourselves, and help our clients think bigger about what opportunities we can offer them.

Looking Forward: Finding Your “Why”

In all of this, Audacia had to do what every company we serve must do: find our “why.” Without your “why,” a value proposition is empty.

Companies aren’t people, but company culture is very much built by people. Finding the individual and collective “why” gives companies their secret sauce, and it’s hard-won. This process brings up core questions about identity, value, and security. It’s especially hard to do this process when you’re as emotionally invested as most leaders are.

For me, having our “why” made it easier for me to let go of my early vision for Audacia. I began to look forward with even more clarity. We help business leaders build the businesses of the future and uncover opportunities they never thought possible. Holding to this value proposition—one that speaks to our employees, partners, and clients as much as it speaks to me—allows all of us to look ahead and see the next evolution of Audacia Strategies.

Final Thoughts 

I’ll leave you with a final thought about why we do this. Business is at a turning point right now. While our parents put their heads down and worked, companies demand more of individuals today. In turn, individuals are demanding more from companies. To stay competitive and functional, companies need to be more reflective and insightful.

Serving your clients and employees the way they serve you requires learning how to be authentic in the business world. Society and expectations about work are shifting rapidly. Beyond knowing why you do what you do—a core component of what makes or breaks a sense of purpose—an authentic value proposition helps your clients and employees share your excitement about what you do. Just like coaching or therapy, it’s hard, but it’s some of the most valuable work you can do. Trust us, we’ve been through it.

Ready to take the leap and find the value proposition that speaks to your secret sauce? Reach out to the team today.

Photo credit: Group Of People Raising A Toast by Scopio from NounProject.com

reading

Reading, Listening, Watching – Your Prescription for Recharging

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As the year comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on all the hard work the Audacia team has put in over the last year. I love what I do, I love the work my team and I do together, and I also love getting the chance to step into other universes of information and story through books, podcasts, and TV. The ROI from learning, relaxing, and enjoying is always worth it. Here’s what I’m reading, watching, and listening to this winter.

Reading

Corporate Rehab

Corporate Rehab is about building a business that isn’t toxic. Jennie Blumenthal talks about how leaders can become addicted to the hustle culture, the steps we can take to recover, and how to lead at the next level without losing yourself in the process.

 The author, Jennie, was my coach for a period of time and I learned so much from her. I was anxiously waiting to read her book and it does not disappoint! I have been devouring this book. Jennie interviewed 300 female executives, and her book presents their stories, lessons learned, as well as the REHAB framework we can all learn from. 

I cut my teeth in large corporations and while I’m grateful for the opportunities, my mentors, and the friendships over the years, the hustle culture discussed is real. Jennie’s work has inspired me to look inside myself, understand my story, and articulate my values. As a leader, I’m thinking deeply about building culture and how I show up for the Audacia team and our clients. I’m being helped along in this process by my awesome coach, Clay Parcells. Thanks Clay!

Instagram

By reading here, I mean not reading! For the past several months, I have put myself on an Instagram diet where I allow myself only 1 min of Instagram Monday through Thursday. It’s been AMAZING for my productivity and my mental health and leaves more time for… well, life!

Listening

Do Hard Things 

This book by Steve Magnus popped up on my Instagram feed so I added it to my Libby account and I’ve been listening to the audiobook (personally, I find it easier to listen to business books than to read them). This book presents stellar research and storytelling about the science of performance, toughness, and resilience. It has helped me rethink how I work, tap into my instincts, and build greater resilience.

Private Equity Deals with Capital Allocators Podcast

I was really struck by the conversation and depth of this episode of Private Equity Deals with Capital Allocators. This one is perhaps a little niche-y – Bain Capital has been a wonderful Audacia partner and Zelis is one of our awesome clients. Still, it’s a great conversation about strategy and financing. It talks about how Zelis is addressing some of the most abrasive aspects of the healthcare system including pricing, explaining, and paying for healthcare claims.

It was incredible to hear the backstory on Zelis from the folks that were (and are) “in the room.”

I learned a ton from the episode and now I’m looking forward to listening to more. I have the first episode in my queue for the holiday break. I’m fascinated by the impact that employee ownership can have on a business and Pete Stavros, Co-Head of Americas Private Equity at KKR, is doing impressive work on this front.

Watching

The Bear

OMG this show. It’s incredibly intense and for those who have ever worked in the food service business at any level, it’s probably bringing back memories (or nightmares) of being “in the weeds.” It’s about a young chef from the world of fine dining who comes home to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop after the suicide of his older brother who left behind debts, a rundown kitchen, and a diverse and chaotic staff.

Behind the food and frenetic chopping scenes, this is a story about character building and relationships. It’s stressful but compelling and an awesome escape at the end of the day, which is really all I want from a television show.  

Elf

I can’t help it, it’s my favorite! I love the pure joy of the movie and the many quotable moments. “SANTA! I know him!” My preschoolers aren’t ready for the movie but there are many moments where their pure joy for the Christmas holiday reminds me of Buddy the Elf, and it never fails to make me smile. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for this holiday break! I’d love to know in the comments what you’ll be reading, watching, and listening to during your downtime. From all of us at Audacia to all of you, we wish you a restful and healthy holiday break. See you in 2023!

Photo credit: Scopio from NounProject.com

growth

Growth, Reflection, and Change in 2022

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How quickly a year goes by! It feels like we were just in the thick of it with new transitions and M&A deals. Suddenly, it’s all in the rearview mirror. 

At the end of the year, many of us who take time to reflect have the tendency to skip to the resolutions for next year. As humans, we have a bias toward the negative. We zoom in on what didn’t work as well as we hoped, and with the best of intentions, we immediately focus on resolutions for next year. This bias means we don’t always take time to feel pride and satisfaction about what we accomplished.

So, I’m going to give it to you straight: 2022 has been a phenomenal year for Audacia. 

Our seventh year of business was transformative for us. Our business grew in more ways than one, we got clear about who we are, and we thought hard about what our priorities mean to us. While this sounds simple laid out in a list, an enormous amount of work went into all of this. Let me share some of our 2022 highlights with you.

Business Growth

We’ve had an incredible and growth-filled year for our business. We grew our team to 14 strong and growing (check out these interviews with Sarah Deming and Sarah Gershman). Together, we worked to create the same culture of trust and transparency we work to instill in our clients. Because I trust my team, I’m able to focus my energy on big-picture strategy. 

On the numbers side, we doubled our top-line after multiple years of phenomenal growth. In addition to growing our team and top-line, we’ve been lucky to benefit from a growing community of supporters, partners, and subcontractors. We entered into many new rewarding subcontractor relationships and have received the benefit of expertise in everything from value propositions to executive presence. 

We also had the opportunity to work with wonderful clients like Xator. In just a few months, we helped them craft a succinct, evocative, and authentic statement of what Xator does—no jargon needed. We got to watch the internal and external transformation that happens when employees can speak authentically and accurately about what they do. 

And make no mistake, we worked hard to get to this point. We interviewed employees, read reviews, analyzed their competitive market positioning, and critically examined the marketing materials of both Xator and their competitors. If you want to hear more about this process, stay tuned for a case study in January!

Audacia’s Value Proposition

In addition to working with clients like Xator on their value proposition, we invested time, resources, and energy into working on our own value proposition. Our firm has evolved and changed since our launch in 2015. While people have an idea of what a communications firm does, Audacia isn’t a communications firm, or a PR firm, or a marketing agency. Let’s face it, we don’t fit the standard mold. In the midst of our evolution and growth, we needed to revisit how we talk about what we do. We chose to see this challenge as an opportunity to walk the walk.

In other words, we went through the same process we used for Xator and other clients: the ultimate act of putting our money where our mouth is. The process was rich: we learned so much about ourselves, about our clients, and we gained insight into how we’ve changed. And what did we learn?

Audacia Strategies is an advisory firm helping business leaders build the businesses of the future and uncover opportunities they never thought possible. We do this through a relentless focus on communications. 

It might sound simple, but it took us months of work to get here. We’ll tell you more about how this process looked on the inside early next year.

Learning to Prioritize

I know my clients get overwhelmed by their day-to-day and that can keep them from achieving their strategy. Over the last year, it often felt like we were more often ruled by the urgent than the important, and we spent a lot of time thinking about this. Here’s what we learned.

First, our urgent is usually our clients’ important and urgent. What we do means we’re on call for a corporation when there’s a new CEO or when there’s a significant transaction. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to prioritize the urgent, and it’s part of doing business when you work with companies in transition.

Second, although it often felt like our days were ruled by the urgent, an imperfect devotion to the important still allowed us to prioritize our value proposition. It’s hard for companies to prioritize such reflective and research-intensive work, hence the need for external comms teams. But despite the days that felt ruled by the urgent, we managed to step back and do this important and clarifying work.

As we look to 2023, we’re thinking about how to attend to the urgent without letting it pull us off track. What are the changes we need to make in terms of our operations, staffing, and management to ensure we can balance the urgent and the important? How can we set realistic expectations for both ourselves and our customers? As much as we want it all done tomorrow, it doesn’t work like that. At Audacia, we want to continue to focus on dreaming big about the outcomes we want and work backward from there. The smartest way to invest your time is to start from where you are rather than where you wish you were.

Closing the Year With Gratitude

In reflecting on all the growth Audacia experienced this year, I want to offer gratitude for our clients, our team members, our business partners, and all of those who have referred business to us and supported us along the way. It feels like just yesterday that we started, yet here we are entering our eighth year of business. We are incredibly grateful for all of our supporters, and we are so lucky to do what we do. 

On behalf of the Audacia Strategies team, we wish you a joyful holiday season and a healthy, happy new year. Let’s make 2023 Audacious!

Photo credit: Jacob Lund Photography from NounProject.com

external communications team

Outside-In: Why Your Organization Needs An External Comms Team

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It’s hard to see ourselves from the outside. As much as we try to think about how other people see us, interpret us, and receive us, it’s nearly impossible to get a more “objective” view of ourselves. The same is true for our organizations, and it is especially true for our communications.

When it comes to achieving business goals, anyone familiar with Audacia’s work knows our stance: communication is everything. To make the case for an external communications team is to make the case for better communications.

  Many organizations say that they are committed to radical honesty about their strengths and weaknesses. While they might mean it, organizations don’t always have the bandwidth to systematically assess what’s working and what’s not. An external firm can take on Voice of the Customer or Voice of the Employee, speak truth to power about market positioning, and work across organizational silos. For these reasons and more, your firm should consider how an external team could elevate communications across the organization.

The Case Against Hiring an External Communications Team

People get sideways when they think about investing in communications. I hear leaders say, “I communicate all day long — why do I need to have a specialist for this? I can spew thousands of words before my second cup of coffee. What could an external team do for me that I can’t do on my own?” But there’s a huge difference between speaking and communicating.

When leaders argue against hiring an external communications team, there are usually three things they are not seeing. First, effective change – whether it’s a growth mandate, an acquisition, or a massive strategic pivot – requires time, money, and emotional energy. Without an on-point strategy to engage your stakeholders, you’re leaving potential value on the table, at best. At worst, you’re potentially losing trust with your most important stakeholders. So the real question is can you afford not to communicate well?

Second, while your internal team is undoubtedly great at what they do, they may not have the experience needed to seal a crucial deal. When taking on big initiatives, bringing in a team that’s “been there, done that,” knows best practices like the back of their hands, and can steer you around the common pitfalls is invaluable. 

Third, we can’t see what we can’t see. Just as people hire coaches to see some of the problems (and solutions) they may not be able to see in their own life, organizations that are committed to their company’s culture, progress, and perception hire external communications advisors.

The Case for Hiring an External Communications Team

So, we can’t see ourselves from the outside, and at the same time, we have big goals for our companies. We want to reach new audiences and benchmarks, retain our best team members, and prove we’re worth investing in. How can external communications help us do this?

1. Communication has legs

Communicating isn’t just about having a strategy. It’s about being intentional about what you are saying, to whom, when, and how it is received by other parties.

An external communications team can help you be aware of your stakeholders. What are the conversations you want to have, and with whom? What is the outcome you’re driving toward? Great communications is about being proactive and in shaping the conversation, rather than letting others take the lead. When you have control over your message and can anticipate where the conversation might lead, you have a distinct advantage.

 2. It’s not just what you say — it’s where you say it

We recently worked with a client who had several executive transitions across the C-suite. They consulted us about how to have a smooth transition and how to maintain the trust of their employees and investors in the process. 

We advised them — in the middle of lockdown — to provide ample opportunities for new executives to talk about who they are and what they value. They offered small group Zoom calls, email, newsletter, and 30-minute coffee talks as opportunities for executives to share about themselves and hear the perspective of employees, investors, stakeholders, and community partners. 

Open channels for feedback — especially when facilitated by a third-party (for example using Voice of the Customer or Voice of the Employee studies)  — can facilitate the honesty necessary to craft communications tailored to your audiences. Further, effective communication can ensure your message is preserved when talk goes beyond your direct stakeholders.

3. Moving the organization forward

Strategic communication is about finding ways to move your organization forward. This is hard to do. Without a plan, you’re Elon Musk and no one knows what you stand for. When building and maintaining relationships, you don’t want your stakeholders to be confused about who you are. One of the most important things any organization can do is figure out who they are and how to communicate that to the world.

We recently wrapped up a project with a highly-acquisitive company trying to find — and communicate — their special sauce following numerous acquisitions. Audacia Strategies interviewed 35 employees across the company and read their customer reviews — the good, bad, and the indifferent. We analyzed their market, their aspirational peers, and identified opportunities to authentically differentiate and grab the attention of the market.

Audacia helped this company coalesce around a forward-looking and exciting message. When we presented our recommendations to the executive team and then to their business development team, the room was riveted. 

Employees were excited to give their elevator pitch. The pitch was authentic because it came from them and from what they were hearing from customers already. An external perspective helps your organization generate energy and excitement about who you are and what you do. That energy is contagious. 

Final Thoughts

The same way that a good coach can help you get an objective perspective on the different aspects of your life, an external communications team can help you more thoroughly anticipate the impact of what you say. While you might know your organization inside-and-out, you’re immersed in the culture. As the saying goes, fish don’t know they’re in water. An external communications team can help you see the bigger picture.

Contrary to what some may believe, strategic communications is not just for communicating during a crisis. It’s about starting at the outcome and reverse engineering how to get there. It’s about asking:

  • What do we want to happen?
  • What do we want our stakeholders to think?
  • How do we hope they feel?
  • What should they take action on?

Finding the answers is how Audacia Strategies can help you see your organization from the outside. Are you ready to take action? Let’s talk!

Photo credit: Team Of Television Reporters In Boardroom by Jacob Lund Photography from NounProject.com

executive transition

Smart Planning for Executive Transitions: When Time Is Not On Your Side (Part 2)

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This is the second part of our two-part series on executive transitions. If you missed the first one, you can read some tips for handling a planned executive transition here.

Transitions are high stakes for both companies and investors. It’s emotional, especially if an organization has seen a lot of executive turnover in a short time. In fact, 70% of CEOs and managers—i.e., people leaders—are considering quitting. Experts suggest that emotional burnout, the stress of the pandemic, and the shifting labor market and economy are all likely contributing to this trend. 

Executive turnover brings up a variety of reactions. While some employees get very anxious about having to manage or “break in” the new leader, others—like those who were “quiet quitting” before it was a thing–check out entirely. Neither extreme is healthy for individuals or companies.

In Part 2 of our Executive Transition Series, we’ll consider a situation that’s a bit different than the planned exit of a long-term CEO. 

Imagine it’s three years into the pandemic, and your current leader, who has been with the company for two years, has admirably faced the challenges the pandemic brought to all organizations. Although she has managed quite well, another opportunity comes up and she submits her two weeks’ notice.

Without a transition plan in place, the company could be thrown into chaos. Some employees may have come to the company only to work with her, and others might be suspicious of how leaders are going to handle the change, or whether the company has a future at all. Executive  transitions are emotional and complex, and the fact is that there isn’t always time to prepare.

In a case like this, context will drive a strategic communications plan. What’s the context around the exiting CEO? What is the plan for the interim leader? Are we looking internally or externally? Most importantly, how do we set up a new leader for success and demonstrate stability to our employees?

4 Tips for Unplanned Transitions

 1. Storytelling

 This tops our list again because storytelling is how humans best connect and communicate. That doesn’t mean telling fairytales—employees can tell when a communication is bullsh*t or hiding the truth. It is important, as much as is professionally appropriate, to be honest about why change is coming. 

Tell the truth and allow room for employees to both have and share their thoughts and feelings about what’s happening. You’d be surprised at how much it helps to have leadership acknowledge that a particular situation is really challenging. Otherwise, you risk making employees feel as if they’re being gaslighted. Transitions are inherently challenging, and employees need to know they’re not alone in feeling it.

2. Due diligence

You’ve made space for the feelings, and now it’s time to do your due diligence. This has two parts: finding your next leader, and continuing to achieve your goals.

Finding a new leader will be your utmost priority. Most likely, your Board of Directors will take the lead to determine an interim leader and initiate a search for the next leader. You’ll need to announce and introduce the interim leader while also giving employees, customers, and partners a sense for the plan to find your new executive.

Finally, you want to help your team keep their eyes on the prize, whether that’s increasing sales or another goal for this quarter. Transition can be a major distraction. While it’s okay to acknowledge feelings of uncertainty, it’s also important to support your team in moving forward. 

As the saying goes, companies are bigger than one person; success is shared vision and collective action. By providing the right support, you can empower your team to keep pursuing the strategy. This will not only help maintain a sense of stability and continuity, but it also ensures you avoid larger business problems if performance falls off.  

 3. Fact finding

This is related to storytelling, but it’s different because this is not just about providing employees with a narrative that they can understand. It’s also about addressing any unanswered questions that may surround the circumstances of the exiting CEO and the changes that are coming.

People should be able to ask questions and feel they’re being heard. They should be able to say, “you’re the third CEO in three years, why should we trust that you’ll stay?” The sooner you get it all out there, the sooner you can move on. 

If you don’t answer the questions your employees have, they will fill in the blanks. It is better to be transparent and to provide honest answers to the difficult questions. Sometimes the honest answer is, “we don’t know yet” or “we’re still looking into it.” That’s okay. Better to be honest and give a sense for what you expect to be a timeline to an answer. This will build trust and, if done well, help with employee retention. 

4. Introducing New Leadership

As with planned transitions, employees want to know who the new leader is. In an unplanned transition, and especially a fast one, there might be more skepticism and suspicion. Being as transparent as possible about the new leader’s background and vision are crucial. What’s her background? Does she prefer to hire from specific universities? What’s her vision for the next five or ten years? 

Offer employees a variety of opportunities to talk with and about the incoming leader, and keep in mind that everyone has different levels of comfort with asking questions. Consider holding “Donut Wednesdays,” fireside chats, and other informal channels where leadership and teams can connect. You might also offer webinars where more introverted employees can submit questions virtually. As much as you can, provide ample time and spaces for teams to have conversations with transitioning executives as well.

The Need for Strategy

 Executive transitions—whether planned or unplanned—require strategy and careful planning. Storytelling, transparency, and diligence can help ease the growing pains of your company. However, it’s important to note that there are important and subtle differences in strategy for planned and unplanned transitions. 

For instance, employees are far more likely to feel insecure about their job and the future of the company amidst an unplanned transition. And without careful communication, rumors are more likely to distract from workplace goals. Honesty, diligence, and insight into company culture and employee needs are key for maintaining normalcy and retaining your valued employees.

 In all cases, I recommend you use a variety of channels and venues to soothe your most anxious employee and to engage your most checked out employee. Hold fireside chats, host Q&A sessions, send email updates from the hiring team, and create spaces for leadership to connect with their teams.

 Transitions can be chaotic, but they can also be opportunities to engage employees, customers and partners. A smart executive transition can open up a gold mine of insight into how these stakeholder sets are feeling about the company more generally. With the right support, you can use the transition as an opportunity to zero in on your systems and communications. If you’re willing to be present with the process, the results can be better than you ever imagined.

Want an experienced set of eyes to help guide your executive transition plan, or don’t know where to begin? Audacia can help. Reach out to us for a consultation here.

Photo credit: Young Businesswoman Receiving Praise From Her Colleagues During A Meeting In A Modern Office by Jacob Lund Photography from NounProject.com

executive transition

Smart Planning for Executive Transitions: When You See It Coming (Part 1)

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Transitions, including executive transitions, are high stakes for companies for obvious reasons. They bring about logistical, bureaucratic, professional, and emotional challenges for everyone involved. That’s why we’ve created a two-part Executive Transition Series to help you out during seasons of change in your company. 

Executives can be a powerful retention mechanism, or the reason people leave. Consider the old adage, people quit bosses, not jobs. Alternatively, sometimes employees come to a company to work with a particular leader. What happens when that leader leaves? And what about when veteran employees have worked with the same leader for multiple years, and a new leader radically changes the culture? These are tough questions, and not ones you can sweep under the rug.

The key for dealing with executive transitions is communication. It’s important to tailor your strategy to the kind of transition you’re facing. On the one hand, you might be facing a planned transition—one that’s been on the horizon for months or years. On the other hand, you might have a leader—maybe one who hasn’t even been around very long—give two weeks notice. These are two very different situations, and having a strategic communications plan can help you make it through either one.

In this two-part series, we’ll consider both situations. First, we’ll consider some tips for handling a planned transition.

4 Tips for Planned Transitions

Executive transition is a specialty of ours here at Audacia Strategies. Let me share one of my favorite engagements and biggest client wins when supporting a client through a planned transition. Recently, Audacia was brought on board to help with an executive transition in a software company. The outgoing senior executive was the founder of the company and also an avid, talented guitarist. A low key rockstar, if you will. The company culture was centered around music: leadership documents were full of music analogies, guitars were given as gifts, leaders put their favorite song in their website bio–you get the picture.

The leader planned his exit and helped to identify a new CEO. The new CEO was brilliant—he had run billion-dollar organizations and grew up playing chess blind-folded! While this new CEO was a great fit to guide the company to its next phase of growth, he was different from the founder-CEO. An executive transition is one thing, but the reality is that the company was also about to undergo a cultural transition.

How do you manage the exit in a case like this? Here’s the playbook we advised.

1. Storytelling

As long as people have been around, they have connected over stories. We made space for the outgoing CEO to share his story, and time to celebrate his work with the company. Just like a graduation or retirement party, this allows for closure and creates appropriate professional space for processing the (big) feelings that come with transitions.

 2. Getting to know the new leader

 In addition to telling the story of the outgoing CEO’s time, we worked with the incoming CEO to help him identify and share his story. This humanized an ultra-smart leader and gave employees a chance to get to know him and understand his priorities and what makes him tick. 

We also advised on creating plenty of opportunities and multiple channels to engage with the CEO and ask questions. Unanswered questions can leave employees feeling ungrounded and many may be too intimidated to ask the hard (or even simple!) questions. 

We always advise to be as open as possible and provide opportunities for interaction in multiple formats (in-person, online, large group, small group, 1-to-1). Transparency and accessibility are key for maintaining and building trust.

3. Working with the team

The logistics and bureaucracy involved in a transition are not to be underestimated; however, it’s also important to work closely with the team. Share the transition plan, let your executive team know what is coming and let them weigh in on what they and their teams need. And, practically speaking, set expectations about which responsibilities will be redistributed, who will be responsible for training whom, and so on. Executives have questions too–give them time to process the transition and bring their questions to the new executives or trusted confidants. 

4. Mind your communications

We trade a lot in written word, scripts, and talking points. Emails and other written messages are important artifacts that preserve institutional memory long after the transition. Because everyone can look back and see where leaders followed through and where they didn’t, it’s important to be consistent across multiple mediums (video intros of a new CEO, webcast town hall, in-person meet and greets, welcome letter, and so on). 

Perhaps even more importantly, organizations should make sure messaging is consistent across informal communications as well. During times of transition, employees will first bring their worries and questions to direct supervisors and peers. The executive team and their team needs to be on the same page so they’re ready to help their teams navigate organizational changes. During times change most employees and customers will turn to their line manager or customer success contact for reassurance, make sure these critical team members have the information, resources, and support they need to succeed.  

Concluding Thoughts

 Planned transitions are admittedly easier than unplanned transitions; however, planned transitions can still be destabilizing to company culture. At worst, transitions can result in employee turnover, loss of trust, lost business momentum, and a decline in workplace climate if you don’t go in with a strategy. It’s important to keep in mind both the emotional and logistical challenges of executive transitions.

We often think about corporations as faceless entities, but in moments of transition, we are reminded that corporations are made up of people who have hearts and minds. The more you share your story honestly, transparently, and thoughtfully, the more you can weather this season of transition while building long-term trust and continuing to achieve your company goals.

If you don’t have the luxury of a planned transition and are facing an imminent unplanned transition, read the next part of our two-part series where we’ll discuss tips for handling an unplanned executive transition.

If you’re facing a transition—planned or unplanned—and you’re trying to find the right strategy, Audacia has you covered. Reach out to us here to schedule a consultation.

Photo Credit: Black Male And White Female Business Associates Shaking Hands In Hallway by Flamingo Images from NounProject.com