Executive Leadership Integration - Improving the experience of executive experienced hires
Experienced executive hires were entering the organization with high attrition rates, slower time-to-performance, and a disjointed onboarding experience—resulting in significant cost and lost value. I partnered with the program team and executive sponsors to reframe the redesign effort, starting with foundational insight rather than jumping straight to solutions.
I recommended stepping back to assess existing research, identify gaps, and gather new input directly from MD-level hires. I then designed and facilitated remote design thinking sessions, synthesizing findings into a current-state experience map, key opportunity areas, and guiding design principles.
With these insights, I led a steering committee workshop to align leadership on scope and priorities. The result: a strategic roadmap and future-state service design grounded in real needs and organizational buy-in—delivering the client’s objective with greater clarity, quality, and long-term impact.
Challenge
The integration experience for experienced executive hires (Managing Directors and above) was underperforming—marked by high attrition, low early chargeability, and long ramp-up times compared to internally promoted leaders. Over a three-year period, each CL4 MD experienced hire cost the organization an estimated $380K more than a promoted MD. Attrition among experienced hires was more than double that of promotes, and for many, it took over two years to match the performance of internal peers. The organization needed a more intentional, insight-driven approach to rethinking executive integration.
Approach
Rather than jumping into process redesign, I guided stakeholders to first revisit and synthesize the research conducted to date. I then designed and facilitated a series of virtual design thinking workshops with experienced MD hires to uncover key pain points and unmet needs.
From these sessions, I created a current-state experience map, synthesized opportunity areas, and distilled design principles and co-created solution concepts. These insights became the foundation for a strategic steering committee session, which I also facilitated—aligning executive sponsors and the program team on scope, priorities, and the roadmap forward.
Impact
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Delivered a future-state service design and strategic roadmap, informed by direct executive insight and validated by stakeholders
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Reframed the client’s original request—leading with foundational understanding and gaining trust across the program and leadership team
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Set the stage for implementation with greater alignment, quality, and clarity—enabling a more successful and sustainable transformation of the executive integration experience
