Finding a Key to Success in an Unexpected Place

We had never been hugged by a client before. Not like this, anyway. “I’m so happy!” she exclaimed in the elevator lobby, temporarily forgetting professional protocol after the C-suite door had closed following her tour de force meeting with the CEO. We didn’t mind.

Our first meeting with her had been much more standoffish. Her company had recently been acquired, and she was feeling the heat of finding a way to fit her company into a new, larger culture facing very different expectations. It was just so much at once – new strategy, new reporting relationships, new pressures – and she was keeping her feelings close to the vest.

She knew full well the strategic challenges her company was facing and, intimidating as they were, she was willing to take them on. It was the cultural dynamics that were catching her off guard, something she didn’t even realize until she cracked open When Growth Stalls. It was the illumination of the internal dynamics she was facing that got her attention. And giving them their proper due unlocked the key to her success.