Over the past 4 years, Cosmic Centaurs had the opportunity to work with remarkable leaders from around the world. To us, these leaders are truly superheroes. They share a calling to build great organizations, to create prosperity, happiness, and certainty around them, and to do good in the world.
We’re humbled to have received the call to support these superheroes who trusted us to join them on their missions. Their briefs challenged our thinking, broadened our skills, and enabled us to grow as individuals and as a company. It is through the doors they open that we Centaurs are able to hone our own superpowers and create meaningful organizational change.
This article outlines the challenges these leaders faced and how Team Centaur helped them build organizations that thrive.
1. We identify and address the strengths and challenges of their organizations.
All missions at Cosmic Centaurs begin with a comprehensive discovery phase. We dive deep into researching an organization to identify the root challenge preventing them from delivering on their strategy and hindering the organizational experience. The approach is based on our Omnichannel Organization® framework and the primary and secondary research methods used enable us to collect both internal and external data through in-depth interviews, surveys, benchmarks, and an audit archival. For more on these methods check out our HBR Article. The result is a deep analysis of both an organization's challenges and areas for improvement, as well as its strengths. We present our findings to leaders and begin to prioritize which to solve in our implementation phase.
Last year we worked with the leadership team of a regional creative agency looking to (re)focus their strategy on the food industry. Our initial brief was to help them rethink their organizational structure to facilitate the next phase of growth. Our findings revealed that our mission also needed to solve a few other challenges including their ways of working, enhancing productivity, streamlining processes, reconfiguring their tech stack, and structuring internal comms, all while managing the impact of change on the company culture.
The process was definitely long and arduous, but with a great leadership team on the other side, and willing team members, we delivered the change the organization needed. Here is what one of the members of the executive team had to say about it:
"Our journey with Cosmic Centaurs was as rewarding as the outcomes. As a communications agency, we needed a partner that valued structure and clarity to drive our growth, but also one that knows how to exercise their imagination. Cosmic Centaurs made our mission fun and collaborative. They have a knack for making complex problems simple and solvable."
2. We upskill management teams with strategic skills
Organizations with high-performing leadership teams are 2x more likely to have above-average financial performance. To equip these teams with the skills they need to drive success, we design tailored learning experiences that are as fun as they are impactful. We believe that just like Rome, skills aren't built in a day. That's why our interactive training experiences are structured as programs and not just one-off workshops. We cater to a diverse set of learning styles and focus on in-demand skills leaders will require.
Last year, a Marketing Director at a global tech company hired us to design a leadership training program for their Marketing Directors & Managers. The objective of the program was to improve the participants’ strategic thinking skills and help them deliver their 2024 strategy. We designed and delivered a 10-week program covering Strategic Thinking, Decision-making, Stakeholder Mapping & Engagement, Effective Communication, Data Visualization & Presentation Building. The topics were delivered as workshops, skills sessions, and assignments ultimately culminating in a presentation of each region’s strategic initiatives.
To learn more about our leadership training program, download our brochure.
3. We guide leaders to find their voice internally and externally
Effective leaders need a strong voice and a clear narrative to inspire and engage both their internal and external stakeholders. We provide guidance and tailored mentorship to help leaders craft a story that reflects their expertise and opinions. Be it through one-on-one mentorship, or our Cosmic Conference platform, we assist leaders in articulating their vision and communicating it compellingly. Our approach is rooted in personalized feedback and strategic advice, enabling leaders to refine their messaging and enhance their influence.
We also help leadership teams develop their stakeholder engagement capabilities, by helping them understand and map out their stakeholders to design effective engagement strategies to proactively manage these relationships, ensuring organizational alignment and support. These sessions provide practical tools and frameworks that leaders can immediately apply to improve stakeholder interactions and drive success.
4. We create a workplace culture that enables the organization to deliver on its strategy
Organizations with strong cultures aligned to their business strategies are 14x more likely to outperform their competitors. Culture bridges organizational values and beliefs with achieving objectives and in our work, we help leaders at different stages of organizational growth to build, nurture, and sustain a culture that aligns with their strategic goals.
With one Saudi scale-up, we are working with the leadership team to design an organizational culture to catalyze growth and align a multicultural workforce. This mission begins with a strategic alignment phase, ensuring everyone knows what they are working towards, before co-creating and activating the company's desired culture (the culture that well help them deliver their promise to their customers). Once the strategy is clearly communicated to the entire organization, we run executive workshops, to define and document the organization's values and virtues before designing internal and executive communication to cascade the culture. We host workshops with the entire workforce to animate exercises and facilitate meaningful discussions about values, and how teams can live them out in their day-to-day work. Ultimately, our goal is to design a culture that is lived throughout the entire employee experience, which is why then work to integrate culture into every touch point of that experience from recruitment to performance management.
If this sounds like something your organization can benefit from, book a one-on-one with us to learn more.
5. We help leaders measure, define, and communicate their value-add
Measuring impact is a complex challenge, particularly for teams that are perceived as cost centers or non-profit or mission-driven organizations where the emphasis lies on long-term outcomes rather than immediate outputs. We advocate for an intentional, strategic approach that integrates precise metrics with overarching goals, ensuring consistent and meaningful progress tracking.
For the community engagement and advocacy team at a global tech giant, we worked with the team leads to review and validate their theory of change. This formed the basis of our approach to the team’s impact measurement model for which we developed a detailed list of impact KPIs and measurement mechanisms based on the theory of change. This process enables leaders to communicate their value-add explicitly and in measurable terms, ultimately painting a picture of their progress and success, and helping them garner more resources and support for their team or function's work.
To learn more about our approach to measurement and developing a theory of change, check out this article, and get in touch.
At Cosmic Centaurs, we are committed to helping leaders build great organizations that thrive. From identifying challenges and upskilling management teams to guiding leaders in finding their voice and creating a supportive culture, our mission is to drive meaningful organizational change.
Ready to take the next step in your leadership journey? Book a one-on-one consultation with us today.
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