Shifting Executive Leadership Behaviour for Long-Term Growth
Problem
An international engineering company operating across the energy and industrial sectors was entering a critical period of change. A new CEO had recently been appointed. Several senior leaders were also transitioning out of long-held roles. The business needed strong, constructive leadership to deliver on its ambitious strategy, including growth aligned to emerging technologies.
Despite a strong technical foundation, the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) was held back by some entrenched behavioural patterns. Several leaders still operated from reactive, non-constructive mindsets, limiting their effectiveness in team settings and their ability to communicate and make decisions confidently. Although a previous leadership development initiative had provided a baseline of awareness, not all behavioural changes had stuck. The Head of People and Culture sought new external support with Stoke Consulting to re-engage the leadership team and move to genuine leadership behavioural change.
Solution
Stoke Consulting designed and delivered a second-phase leadership development program centred on the Human Synergistics Life Styles Inventory™ (LSI) framework. The approach focused on improving individual self-awareness, embedding constructive thinking patterns, and lifting collective leadership capability.
The 12-month program involved:
- One-on-one debriefs using LSI1 and LSI2 tools to build both self and others awareness.
- Regular individual coaching sessions focused on SMART development plans and addressing specific leadership challenges.
- Optional observation and feedback in senior leadership meetings to improve team effectiveness and behavioural consistency.
- A mid-program team workshop to reflect on learnings, align behaviours, and strengthen the leadership culture.
- Functional support across sales, marketing, finance, human resources, general management and team meeting effectiveness.
- A follow-up LSI retest to measure change and support ongoing leadership growth.
All coaching was led by Stoke Consulting’s experienced consultants, who brought both senior executive and sector-specific experience, ensuring credibility and practical relevance from day one.
Outcomes
The program facilitated a noticeable significant shift in both individual behaviour, leadership effectiveness and team dynamics. This was demonstrated through the LSI retest results which showed growth in constructive behaviours and retraction in non-constructive behaviours, with the results indicating significant improvements for most leaders. Leaders:
- Became more self-aware and deliberate in how they led and collaborated.
- Reduced reactive or defensive tendencies and leaned into more constructive, high-impact behaviours.
- Controlled what they could control and let go of distractions.
- Developed clearer personal development plans, which translated into stronger performance.
- Awareness of how to apply important leadership concepts and models.
- Claimed their leadership roles more purposefully and with clarity of their purpose.
- Contributed to a leadership group that became more cohesive, aligned and forward focused.
- Applied their leadership insights to other relationships and aspects of their lives.
The program also supported the organisation’s broader transformation by building internal momentum for behavioural change and increasing cultural consistency across the business.
The program was approved for roll-out for a second year to the next layer of succession candidates based on the success of the first program.
Return on Impact
This coaching engagement supported a step-change in leadership effectiveness and cohesion. By focusing on sustained behavioural change, the organisation built a leadership team better equipped to deliver on its strategy of growing revenue by 100% in 3 years through innovation.
Stoke Consulting
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