Cascading a leadership framework

Client need

An aviation services provider with over 200 fixed base operations (FBOs) across five continents recognized the need for a standardized approach to hiring, training, and assessing its general managers (GMs). Facing complex market dynamics like industry consolidation and rising customer expectations, the company found that GMs were now expected to act as mini-CEOs. They needed a diverse skill set to drive revenue, manage talent, ensure safety, and maintain customer satisfaction. However, without a clear development path, it was difficult to consistently prepare GMs for this demanding role.

Solution

The organization partnered with BTS to develop a comprehensive leadership framework that defined expectations and built the necessary capabilities for GMs to thrive.  This solution included:

• The playbook: A foundational guide outlining:

• GM profile: Key capabilities and behaviors for GM success.

• GM pivotal moments: 11 critical scenarios requiring strong leadership.

• GM experience map: Experiences that aspiring, new, and seasoned GMs should seek to ensure they excel in the role.

• The assessment: A multifaceted tool designed to:
  • Evaluate current GMs by identifying development areas aligned with the GM profile.
  • Assess aspiring GMs to define what development is needed to prepare them for the role.
  • Screen external candidates to determine their readiness for GM responsibilities.

The assessment comprises several components, including:

• Moments-based assessment: A simulated environment where candidates demonstrate decision-making in job-related scenarios.

• Mindset explorer assessment: Evaluates alignment with key leadership beliefs.

• 360-survey: Provides feedback on participants’ strengths and development areas.

• Work preferences assessment and panorama assessment: Explore work style preferences, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Results

The playbook and assessment have enabled the organization to identify and elevate high-potential leaders across its global locations. Since launching the program, numerous GMs have been promoted to leadership roles such as area director. The structured evaluation has empowered participants to uncover performance gaps and develop targeted growth plans. One GM, recently promoted to area director after following a personalized development plan, shared, “You are given the tools to succeed, and your future is in your hands. The assessments and the courses offered are outstanding and can be life-changing.”

Client need

A multinational SaaS organization focused on search, observability, and security needed to scale following its initial public offering, but faced several obstacles.

The organization’s leaders needed to:

• Scale their go-to-market strategy to determine how to reach key client decision makers, build strong relationships, articulate the impact of their solutions, and prepare for the next phase of SaaS growth.
• Extend their product leadership by improving cloud platform accessibility, maintaining technology differentiation, and both protecting and evolving the company’s unique culture with every new hire.
• Adapt to a rapidly changing market by prioritizing activities which would enable the organization to stay ahead of its competitors, building stronger relationships internally, a distribution model externally, and expanding to new-use cases and larger deployments.

To meet these needs, the organization partnered with BTS to design an immersive learning journey that would challenge its next generation of executive leaders to define the organization’s next-chapter growth.

Solution

BTS deployed the resulting leadership development program for the organization’s leaders both virtually and in a hybrid setting over the course of four months.

The journey was designed to address the following five core themes:

• Being employee and customer centric: Recognize the changing needs of both employee and customer personas to drive value, while shifting to an outside-in, customer-centric mindset.
• The organization’s “North Star”: Ensure that all leaders understand and communicate the organization’s purpose and strategy well enough to inspire and empower their teams.
• Design for the future: Prioritize organizational growth over ten years’ time, not just two.
• Enterprise mindset: Eliminate siloed thinking to effectively collaborate across functions.
• Protect and evolve organizational culture: Nurture the best aspects of the existing culture while adapting to a changing context.

The development program consisted of three workshops:

• Driving the strategy (leading the organization): A customized business simulation in which leaders practice decision-making in realistic scenarios, addressing specific organizational challenges and objectives.
• Leading with purpose (leading self): Interactive peer coaching sessions to help leaders better appreciate their individual strengths, then leverage them while leading their teams.
• Change-ready leader (leading others): Further interactive peer coaching sessions designed to help leaders manage the uncertainty and resistance that comes with change.

Additionally, teams selected cross-functional business challenges to explore in greater detail, conducting interviews and analysis before presenting their findings to the CEO and executive team during a capstone session.

Results

So far, two cohorts have completed the leadership development program. At the capstone session, both the CEO and CHRO appreciated the breadth and depth of team insight and initiated several immediate, large-scale changes, including an update to the company’s leadership expectations and values.

The first cohort reported the following percentage improvement in scores that measure individual agreement with the following statements:

• +13: “I create alignment and clarity on direction among my team by connecting to our vision and strategy.”
• +19: “I make decisions that future-proof the organization by thinking and acting with scale in mind.”
• +20: “I drive functional interdependence between my team and those around me to collectively execute on our organizational objectives.”
• +16: “I have open and honest dialogue both downwards and upwards in service of nurturing our Source Code and growing each other, the business, and customers.”
• +11: “I foster a psychologically safe environment that enables experimentation, risk taking, and learning.”
• +19: “I step into the shoes of our customers to understand and empathize with their differing needs.”
• +13: “I lead customer centric conversations around enablers and barriers to customer success and satisfaction.”

The second cohort reported the following:

• 100% reported that “The program’s learning objectives related to my job.”
• 93% agreed that “My learning was enhanced by the work of the facilitator.”
• 100% reported that “My learning was enhanced by the work of the facilitator.”
• 88% agreed, “I will be able to immediately apply what I learned in my job.”

Participants rated the program 88 out of 100 when asked if they would recommend it.

Testimonials

“Explicit recognition of our strengths, values, and what drives us is a powerful tool I will carry forward."

“I love this concept of using the friction in change to spark debate [that enables us to] lead through the change.”

Client need

A leading global social networking organization was implementing a new process for product development. To bring this structural change to fruition, the organization’s leaders needed to help their teams work together more cohesively. Thus, the organization partnered with BTS to help their people better understand their own roles, their teammates’ roles, and their collective goals, all to spur along the new product development process.

Solution

To achieve this goal, the company and BTS created a virtually delivered learning program that reached 260 people divided into 17 cohorts. Each cohort was comprised of both individual contributors and experienced managers across different functions.  The program, completed over the course of three months, consisted of:  

• Two half-day workshops
• Go-Dos, which are actionable steps to take back on the job
• Playbooks, a tool that demonstrates how each role can live the company’s values during their day-to-day work
• Experience maps, or self-development tools that 1) identify realistic, role-specific situations and 2) list actionable steps for building key capabilities

• Momenta: BTS’s proprietary digital platform that allows people to explore someone else’s role by accessing their playbooks and experiencing their daily dilemmas, ultimately building cross-functional empathy

The learning program was designed to meet people where they were and was fully customized to the organization’s unique values and culture.

Results

Participating managers have improved their abilities to ideate and follow through, align teams through difficult conversations, create attainable road maps, apply organizational frameworks, and measure success. As of now, 76% of the 259 participants have completed the initial phases of the learning journey, and have mentioned learning the following:

• “Don't be afraid to speak up, ask for help on understanding wants, needs and blockers, attend more meetings with [cross-functional teams], be bold, make assertions, [or] ask the hard-hitting questions."
• “I need to do a better job of avoiding heroic efforts personally to fix the problem. I need to also avoid micromanaging the team as they work through a course correction.”- Technical Manager
• “I would like to work on delegation through making better connections, [including] painting a clear picture of how my work will appeal to all stakeholders by gaining a better understanding of what is important to them.”

Client need

A global fintech organization was navigating rapid growth amid increasing business and talent market volatility. As the company scaled, senior leadership recognized the need to strengthen leadership effectiveness and cultural alignment at the top of the organization.

The goals were to:

• Accelerate the effectiveness of critical C‑1/C‑2 leaders.
• Rebuild confidence and alignment around the company’s values.
• Gain deeper, actionable insights into the culture and leadership realities.
• Inform future senior‑talent decisions (selection, fit, succession).

The organization partnered with BTS to design a scalable approach that would both develop senior leaders in role while simultaneously generating insight to shape the future of the enterprise culture.

Solution

The result was a multi-year, integrated leadership partnership combining executive advisory and cohort-based simulations.

Together, BTS and the organization built a multi-year leadership partnership designed to accelerate senior leader performance while generating enterprise-wide insight.

The solution combined two core components:

• Executive advisory - targeted 1:1 engagements to shift behavior in real time
• Leadership simulations - cohort-based experiences to align leaders around operating principles and surface patterns at scale

By strengthening leaders in role while creating visibility into cross-organizational themes, the partnership supported both immediate performance and longer-term talent strategy.

Executive advisory

The work began with a six-month engagement for the top 7–8 senior leaders and expanded globally toC1/C2 roles critical to future success.

Each engagement:

• Followed a structured BTS advisory protocol
• Anchored development in the company’s values
• Focused on live enterprise challenges, stakeholder alignment, and decision-making

Because the work was grounded in real business priorities, impact was immediate. Themes across engagements provided leadership and HR with clear insight into strengths and friction points across the senior population.

Leadership simulations

Annual simulations reinforced enterprise priorities at scale.

These immersive experiences:

• Translated leadership expectations into applied decision-making
• Built a shared language across regions and functions
• Generated cultural and behavioral insight

Findings from both workstreams informed decisions related to selection, succession, and senior talent planning.

Results

During a period of growth and market pressure, the partnership strengthened critical leaders and clarified the future of the leadership bench.

Leader impact

Senior executives demonstrated stronger enterprise decision-making, clearer stakeholder alignment, and greater confidence navigating complexity. Leaders described the experience as one of the most valuable investments of their careers.

100% of participating leaders:

• Would recommend working with BTS
• Left with a clear development plan
• Valued their advisor as a thought partner on  live business challenges

Cultural insight and talent strategy

As the work progressed, patterns emerged across leaders, revealing cultural strengths and previously unnamed friction points. HR and executive stakeholders gained across-organizational view of how leadership behaviors were shaping performance.

Expanding the work together

What began with a small senior cohort grew into

• Ongoing annual simulations
• Expanded advisory across global C1/C2 roles
• A pilot to scale coaching capacity and flexibility

Today, the work is embedded in how the organization strengthens and advances its senior leaders, a core component of its leadership strategy.

Testimonials

“My coach was instrumental in helping me to align with my manager on where and how to create more focus in my role. They held me accountable for results and follow-through. They helped me think through how to work the system with all of its’ big personalities and ever-changing dynamics.”

“My coach helped me to learn and claim my superpowers and stay focused on spending my time and energy in that space and to let others do that same thing.”

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Client need

A leading global life sciences company was operating at the forefront of scientific innovation, delivering therapies to millions of patients around the world.

The organization's strategy called for Medical to play an increasingly visible and influential role across the enterprise, not as a scientific function operating in parallel with the business, but as a core contributor to strategic decisions spanning pipeline priorities, governance forums, and commercial direction. The ability of medical leaders to operate at that level had become a strategic imperative.

These leaders were not generalists. Many had built careers in academic and research settings, developing deep expertise in science and medicine. In their roles, they operated at the intersection of R&D and commercial, translating scientific insights into strategy, influencing governance forums, and shaping both pipeline and brand decisions. These were among the most complex and high-stakes leadership roles in the organization.

As these leaders took on broader, enterprise-facing responsibilities, the nature of their work shifted. They were expected to work across functions, influence diverse stakeholders, and contribute to decisions that balanced patient, scientific, and commercial priorities in increasingly complex, cross-functional environments.

While highly capable, many had not yet had the opportunity to develop these enterprise leadership skills. With strong competition for talent, the organization recognized the need to accelerate development from within and ensure its leaders could operate as true enterprise contributors.

Solution

BTS partnered with the organization to design and deliver a four-month immersive leadership journey focused on building enterprise leadership capability in some of its most critical roles.

The program engaged 165 leaders across six cohorts, primarily senior leaders in medical affairs, market access, and health economics. Designing an experience that would genuinely resonate with this audience required more than adapting a traditional leadership curriculum. These leaders operated in highly specialized roles, navigating governance forums, balancing scientific and commercial trade-offs, and influencing cross-functional stakeholders without formal authority.

To reflect that complexity, BTS co-created the experience with senior stakeholders across the business, grounding the journey in the actual decisions, stakeholder dynamics, and enterprise challenges participants faced in their day-to-day work. That specificity was essential to making the experience credible, relevant, and immediately applicable.

The program focused on strengthening three capabilities critical to enterprise leadership:

• Enterprise mindset
• Influencing across the organization
• Communication and storytelling

To build these capabilities, the journey combined assessment, practice, and application through a set of integrated experiences:

Enterprise simulation and assessment (in-person)

The journey began with a simulation based on real governance forums and asset-level decisions. Leaders worked through role-based scenarios with assessor-coaches, navigating trade-offs and stakeholder dynamics in a realistic enterprise setting.

Each session included immediate feedback supported by:

• Simulation observations
• 360 executive presence assessment
• Personality insights assessment

This established clear, evidence-based development priorities tied directly to each leader's role and business context.

Experiential workshops (2 x 1.5 days)

Leaders then participated in two immersive workshops focused on decision-making and influence in cross-functional environments.

Using real business scenarios, participants practiced aligning stakeholders, navigating ambiguity, and communicating complex scientific insights with clarity and impact. The workshops emphasized active practice and real-time feedback.

Individual coaching (throughout the journey)

Each participant worked with a dedicated assessor-coach to translate insight into action.

Coaching centered on upcoming business decisions and stakeholder interactions, with manager involvement helping reinforce alignment with enterprise priorities and day-to-day application.

Peer learning and application (ongoing)

Leaders participated in small peer groups that met throughout the journey to reinforce learning and accountability.

These sessions created space to reflect, share experiences, and apply new approaches in real time, helping build consistency across the organization.

Across every element of the journey, the work remained grounded in real business challenges. Leaders built capability by practicing the same decisions, conversations, and trade-offs they faced every day.

Results

The program's success led to continued investment, with new cohorts of more than 200 critical role leaders now underway. Overall, the program strengthened how leaders think, decide, and influence, improving both decision quality and cross-functional execution.

Impact was assessed through:

• Post-program surveys
• End-of-journey evaluations
• 49 structured interviews with participants and their managers

Every manager interviewed reported sustained positive behavior change. The most significant shift was in how leaders approached decision-making. Participants engaged stakeholders earlier, clarified trade-offs more effectively, and showed up with greater confidence in governance discussions. As a result, decisions moved faster and with less friction.

The impact extended beyond the Medical function itself. Colleagues across commercial, R&D, and other functions began noticing a tangible difference. Medical leaders showed up differently in joint forums, communicating complex scientific trade-offs more clearly and building alignment more effectively across competing priorities. Conversations that once required multiple rounds of clarification increasingly moved to alignment more quickly.

Leaders consistently improved in several key areas:

• Earlier alignment before formal decision forums
• Greater confidence navigating ambiguity and enterprise trade-offs
• Stronger influence across cross-functional groups
• Clearer, more concise communication of complex scientific insights

Collectively, these shifts improved cross-functional decision-making and execution across the organization. Leaders were better able to prioritize enterprise value, align diverse perspectives, and ensure medical insights were clearly understood and acted upon.

The impact extended beyond individual participants. Leaders applied these approaches within their own teams, reinforcing more consistent ways of working across the organization and helping position Medical as a strategic enterprise partner rather than solely a scientific function.

Client challenge

Wellstar Health System, one of Georgia’s largest healthcare systems, had already invested heavily in leadership development for senior leaders. But as the organization navigated rapid growth, a major acquisition, and the demands of a shifting healthcare landscape, it became clear that the greatest leadership challenges were happening at the front and midline.

“Some of the greatest leader challenges are really at the front and midline levels… we’ve invested heavily in leadership development, putting more emphasis on our front line and mid-level leadership in terms of outcomes, said Laura Dannels, Chief Talent Officer at the time.

We’re not an organization who believes in just investing in high performers… you’ve got to invest in your entire workforce.”

Wellstar partnered with Sounding Board to bring a more scalable, flexible coaching solution to leaders across the organization.

The solution

Partnering with Sounding Board, Wellstar designed a scalable, personalized coaching program to extend leadership development across the organization while maintaining the quality of one-on-one coaching.

A proprietary 360 assessment, aligned to Wellstar’s leadership behaviors, served as the foundation for each coaching engagement. This ensured development was directly tied to how leaders show up and lead in practice.

“We really wanted to ground the coaching to a framework that matters to our organization,” said Garry Gross, Executive Director of Leadership Development. ‍

“Helping our leaders create an environment where our mission, vision, and values come to life was paramount.”

Program goals:

• Develop leadership capabilities aligned to Wellstar’s mission, vision, and values
• Deliver personalized, relevant development for leaders at all levels
• Strengthen the leadership bench and support succession planning
• Foster a culture of innovation, learning, and engagement

Program overview:

• Personalized, one-on-one coaching for leaders at all levels
• Capability development aligned to Wellstar’s values
  • Serve with Compassion → Builds relationships
  • Pursue Excellence → Drives results, leads teams, and plans strategically
  • Honor Every Voice → Fosters inclusion and respect for differences
• Scalable delivery across frontline, mid-level, and clinical leaders
• Digital tools to track goals, capture insights, and measure progress

This approach made it possible to deliver consistent, high-quality coaching across roles and locations while keeping development relevant to each leader’s day-to-day work.

Results

As the program unfolded, Wellstar began to see a shift in how frontline and mid-level leaders showed up across the organization. Leaders in these critical roles had more consistent support navigating day-to-day challenges, and managers gained better visibility into how their teams were developing. Coaching became a more practical, embedded part of how Wellstar supports leaders in a complex healthcare environment.

Higher engagement and satisfaction

• 96% of participants said the coaching experience was worth the investment
• 99% said they could immediately apply what they learned to their day-to-day work

Measurable leadership growth

Participants reported double-digit growth across leadership capabilities including:

• Executive presence (+16%)
• Organizational collaboration (+14%)
• Strategic thinking (+13%)
• Time management and prioritization (+13%)
• Communication (+11%)

Stronger retention and mobility

• Coached leaders achieved a 90% one-year retention rate
• Retention for coached leaders was 31% higher than non-coached peers
• 3% of participants were promoted into new roles, exceeding organizational goals and industry benchmarks

Learn more about Wellstar’s leadership coaching journey with Sounding Board in this feature in Becker’s Hospital Review.