
How One First-Time CEO Turned a Legacy Team Around

A private equity group placed a first-time CEO to lead a 20-year-old company.
On paper, everything looked solid. Inside the business? Not so much.
The new CEO had inherited a legacy team trained under a command-and-control leader. They waited for orders. He expected initiative.
Everyone was in the boat—but no one was rowing.
+ No clear structure.
+ No shared goals.
+ No rhythm of accountability.
The CEO had a five-year value-creation plan but no idea how to bring it to life. The leadership team felt directionless.
The PE clock was ticking, and momentum was slipping fast.
During our first on-site session, we helped the team see the real issue: This wasn’t a strategy problem—it was a leadership alignment problem.
Using Workbench’s framework, we shifted the focus from “What’s wrong?” to “What’s next?”
Together, we broke the five-year plan into 12-month and 90-day goals—turning abstract ambition into concrete action.
Over the next six months, we paired executive coaching for the CEO with quarterly off-sites for the leadership team.
Together, we:
+ Built a company dashboard with clear operational + financial metrics
+ Set focused goals for every leader
+ Created a cadence of accountability that actually stuck
For the first time, the CEO had a framework for leading—and the team had clarity about where they were headed.
Six months in, the CEO said something simple but profound: “I finally feel like I have bandwidth.”
That shift meant everything.
+ The leadership team was aligned.
+ Ownership was showing up.
+ Every employee had goals connected to the company’s bigger vision.
+ Clarity replaced confusion.
+ Momentum replaced drift.
Growth isn’t about better plans—it’s about better leadership.
This CEO had the humility to ask for help, the courage to reframe, and the discipline to build a team that could actually row together.
That’s what Workbench does—helps leaders move from stuck to scaling.
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