About Leadership responsibility, external supportโand the moment for action
โTransformationโ is everywhereโyet often, no one truly owns it. Is it a leadership task? A job for external consultants? Or something that justโฆ happens?
Letโs take a closer look.
๐ Who notices the need for transformation?
In theory, senior management should be the first to detect strategic or operational misalignment. Signals often come in the form of declining margins, missed targets, slipping deadlines, or growing organizational fatigue. But the early signs are not always clearโor easy to admit.
Sometimes, frontline teams raise the red flags. But without executive attention, these warnings rarely lead to real change. And in other cases, the organization gets so busy coping with problems that no one steps back to ask: โIs this still the right way of working?โ
Bottom line:
The responsibility to notice and act lies with top leadership. Noticing isnโt the hard partโdeciding to do something about it is.
๐งญ How does management develop the idea that transformation is needed?
Thereโs a momentโoften subtleโwhen an organization shifts from believing its challenges are temporary to realizing that something more fundamental must change.
This realization usually emerges from one or more of the following:
- Repeated failures despite seemingly good initiatives
- Fragmented efforts without clear direction or governance
- Strategic misalignment between business goals and capabilities
- Pressure from stakeholders, investors, or customers
Senior leaders begin to understand: โWe canโt fix this with the same tools that got us here.โ
This is the moment where transformation beginsโnot just as an initiative, but as a mindset shift.
๐ค When does it make sense to involve external support?
An organization doesnโt need external help to notice the issuesโbut it often needs help to face them systematically.
Involving a transformation advisor or manager makes sense when:
- Internal initiatives stall, repeat, or contradict each other
- Thereโs no clear roadmapโor too many priorities
- Decision-making is slow, fragmented, or politically charged
- Leadership lacks the capacity (not necessarily the skill) to drive parallel streams
An external transformation leader brings:
- Clarity through structured diagnostics
- Objectivity in analyzing root causes
- Capacity to set up governance, drive momentum, and measure impact
- Courage to raise uncomfortable truthsโconstructively
But external support can never own the transformation. That ownership must remain with managementโespecially the C-suite.
๐ฏ Final thought: Ownership canโt be outsourced
Transformation is a leadership obligation. It involves strategy, people, behavior, and trust. External advisors can support, guide, and challengeโbut not replace management ownership.
If transformation is everybodyโs job, it risks becoming nobodyโs responsibility.
Senior leaders must hold the torch, even when it burns.
If any of this resonatesโand youโre unsure how to take the next stepโletโs connect. I work with executive teams to bring clarity, focus, and results to their transformation journey.