At Creative Metier, our mission is to provide support to socially driven leaders and their teams during critical moments of change. In this post, we explore the importance of supporting organisations during these pivotal periods and shed light on what we view as a critical moment of change. We believe that by partnering with Creative Metier, leaders and their teams can navigate challenges with clarity, confidence, and cohesion, mitigating risks and ensuring the continuity of services and social impact.
Understanding Critical Moments of Change
Critical moments of change refer to both internal and external shocks that disrupt an organisation, posing significant threats to its sustainability and ability to achieve its desired impact. These moments can jeopardise the investments made by funders, founders, and other supporters who have been integral to the organisation’s journey so far. The services provided to beneficiaries and the overall social impact are also put at risk.
Creative Metier’s Approach
Creative Metier addresses these critical moments by empowering leaders and their teams to make informed decisions and take necessary actions with confidence. We equip them with the agility and resilience needed to navigate present challenges and future uncertainties successfully.
Our Superpowers
Building trust: We carefully and intentionally earn your trust, and that of your team and stakeholders foster trust enabling open and honest communication.
Honouring your reality: We acknowledge and understand the unique circumstances and challenges that each leader faces, tailoring our support accordingly.
Cutting through complexity: We excel at simplifying complex situations, helping leaders and organisations identify clear paths forward amidst uncertainty and ambiguity.
Creating alignment: We facilitate alignment within leadership teams and across the organisation, ensuring everyone is working towards shared goals.
Enabling action: We empower leaders and their teams to translate insights and strategies into tangible actions that drive positive change.
Types of Critical Moments of Change and How We Support Them
CEO Transition
CEO transition represents an opportunity for fresh perspectives and strategic renewal. However, it also introduces risks concerning external perceptions, internal capacity, and organisational uncertainties. We offer structured coaching and workshops to support outgoing and incoming CEOs, facilitating a smooth handover and ensuring the new CEO enters the role with a clear vision and understanding of critical success factors. We advocate for making transition support a standard budget line during CEO transitions. Read an interview about CEO transition here.
Miracle CEO
Assuming a CEO role often comes with unexpected challenges. Whether dealing with incomplete senior teams, funding crises, toxic cultures, strategic impasses, or other complexities, our experienced coaches and consultants provide guidance to CEOs, helping them navigate and resolve these issues. We assist in defining a vision for success, managing stakeholder relationships, building effective teams, and fostering a culture of equity, inclusion, and empowerment.
Founder Transition
When a Founder CEO decides to step back, it can cause significant upheaval within the organisation. However, when handled effectively, it presents an opportunity for rejuvenation. Creative Metier emphasises the importance of groundwork during this transition, including defining the Founder’s role, transitioning responsibilities and knowledge to the board and senior team, and ensuring smooth handovers of funder relationships. We collaborate with the Founder, board, and senior team to create visibility around the CEO role, facilitating external recruitment and empowering internal team members to step up if interested. Listen to an interview about our work supporting a Founder transition here.
Leadership Team Transitions
As organisations grow, CEOs need to delegate core functions to a capable leadership team. Creative Metier assists CEOs in clarifying the necessary roles and structure at this level, identifying potential team members, and supporting their transition into new responsibilities. This transition requires a mindset shift for all involved, and our Career Development Diagnostic and team coaching help evaluate team members’ capabilities and provide structured support for their growth. Listen to an interview to hear how our work supported leadership team development.
Leadership team transition may also take place within the context of a strategic imperative to diversify or localise roles. Creative Metier has deep experience of working alongside organisations to build medium term plans to radically shift the profile of their teams. We have worked systematically with our partners to identify and nurture high potential team members and support them into senior roles over time. Read an excellent Q&A about how we worked with an international NGO to localise their leadership.
Board Evolution
Boards that served organisations well in their early stages may need to evolve to govern effectively in the future. We emphasise the need to complement founding board members with individuals who understand the rapidly changing external context. We assess the board’s capabilities, provide coaching and consultancy to align stakeholders, and ensure effective strategic oversight and support for the CEO.
External Crisis
During moments of crisis, leaders and their teams face significant personal and professional challenges. Creative Metier’s solutions focussed coaching approach enables leaders to shift from a state of crisis to problem solving and action oriented thinking. We support leaders in understanding the implications of the crisis, clarifying immediate next steps, and taking actions that are contextually appropriate and sustainable. Listen to interviews with the Argidius portfolio to hear how our Coaching Through A Crisis programme supported enterprises during the Covid pandemic.
Radical Growth or Strategic Shift
When organisations undergo radical shifts in focus, scale, or geography, Creative Metier partners with ambitious leaders and their teams to shape the organisation’s future. We facilitate role and capability definition, assist in building a strong leadership team, and help refresh the board to ensure it possesses the necessary skills to support the CEO effectively. Our expertise lies in guiding organisations through complexity and uncertainty, ensuring they navigate these changes with certainty. Listen to a podcast interview here.
Creative Metier is dedicated to empowering socially driven leaders and their teams during critical moments of change. By providing clarity, confidence, and cohesion, we help organisations mitigate risks, sustain their impact, and achieve long term success. Our team’s expertise, combined with our superpowers of building trust, honoring reality, cutting through complexity, creating alignment, and enabling action, positions us as the ideal partner for organisations navigating transformative journeys.