How We Work Case Study Diagnostic Media About Contact Book a Call
Case Study

How a scaling cybersecurity company set its leadership standard, pre-IPO

87%

engagement, up from 60%

The Challenge

This cybersecurity company had built something remarkable. The product was winning, the headcount was climbing, and an IPO was on the horizon. What it did not have was a shared definition of what great leadership looked like.

Every manager led the way they personally knew how. Engineering, product, and sales each ran their own review process. Engagement sat at 60% and kept slipping. The board wanted proof that leadership could hold the company together at scale, and the team needed a standard everyone actually ran by.

The Approach

We defined what great leadership looked like here, then built the system that made it the standard.

The Transformation

No shared leadership standard
Every manager led the way they personally knew how, with no agreed bar for great
One clear leadership standard
A defined bar for great leadership, named and understood across every level and function
Engagement 60% and falling
Annual surveys felt like busy work, with no real follow-up from the people in charge
Engagement up to 87%
Leaders owning the follow-through, with real action plans and measurable change
A different system per team
Engineering, product, and sales each ran their own review process, held to no common bar
One shared review and calibration
A single cycle that held the whole company to the same leadership standard
No shared bar for who you hire
Every team defined a strong leader differently, with no common standard for new hires
Success profiles built into hiring
Clear profiles for critical roles, so the leadership standard started on day one

The Impact

27
point engagement lift, 60% to 87%
1
shared leadership standard, company-wide
IPO
ready, with a system the team now runs

They walked into their IPO with a leadership standard their own team now owns. We built it and left them the keys. The standard, the review and calibration cycle, the success profiles, and the action planning all live inside the company, run by the people who lead it.

Set your leadership standard.

Let's define what great leadership looks like at your company, then build the system that makes it the standard.