Type: Case study

Confidential advisory for leadership succession planning

The Brief

Our client, the CEO of a significant global real assets investor, engaged Goldcrest Partners to provide confidential advisory support during a period of strategic transition. With a long-term view toward leadership succession and organisational clarity, the CEO wanted a trusted external partner to help them navigate complex governance questions and refine executive role definitions to prepare the business for future leadership shifts. The brief required a blend of strategic counsel, sounding board support and practical input on people and structure – all delivered with discretion and deep contextual understanding.

Our Delivery

Through a series of one-to-one advisory sessions, we supported the CEO in shaping the evolution of certain Executive Committee roles, helping to clarify boundaries and responsibilities in anticipation of a future leadership handover. By acting as a confidential thought partner, where the CEO tested ideas and scenarios, we provided feedback on draft role specifications and advised on governance implications. 

The Impact

Our work helped the CEO bring greater clarity and confidence to a sensitive and strategically important transition. The roles were successfully redefined and socialised with key stakeholders, laying the groundwork for a smooth succession process. The CEO valued the ability to think aloud and pressure-test ideas in a trusted, external setting. The relationship has since evolved into an ongoing advisory partnership, with Goldcrest Partners continuing to support the client’s leadership agenda across a range of people and organisational topics.

Driving alignment through a strategic growth offsite

The Brief

Our client approached us to design and facilitate a full-day offsite aimed at aligning their asset management business around a refreshed five-year growth ambition. With a mandate to double AUM, while preserving margin and culture, the brief called for a session that would challenge assumptions, foster cross-functional dialogue and galvanise the team around a shared narrative. The event needed to balance strategic clarity and practical next steps.

Our Delivery

We curated a highly interactive agenda that blended strategic framing with team-led content and live polling. Working closely with the CEO and ExCo members, we helped shape and refine individual sessions to ensure consistency and coherence across the day. The use of Slido polls and QR-enabled feedback mechanisms encouraged real-time engagement and gave valuable insights. We also supported session leads in sharpening their messages and facilitated transitions to maintain momentum. The day culminated in a collective synthesis of key themes and commitments, with a clear pathway for follow-up.

The Impact

The offsite was widely praised for its clarity and cohesion. Participants noted a stronger sense of shared purpose and a clearer understanding of how their functions contribute to the firm’s strategic goals. The use of live polling and interactive formats helped surface honest feedback and fostered a more open culture of dialogue. The final deck cascaded across the business, reinforcing alignment and accountability. Our client has since expressed interest in extending this approach to other leadership forums, signalling a shift towards more participatory and purpose-driven engagement.

High-impact executive offsite for a UK PE Fund

The Brief 

Our client, a UK Mid Cap PE fund, sought to create a high-impact offsite experience for its Executive Committee, designed to foster strategic alignment, deepen team cohesion and provide space for reflective thinking away from the day-to-day. The brief called for a setting that balanced professional focus with informal connection, enabling senior leaders to engage in open dialogue around future priorities, leadership dynamics, and organisational culture. 

Our Delivery 

Goldcrest Partners curated and facilitated a two-day offsite in London, blending structured strategic sessions with informal moments that encouraged candour and creativity. We worked closely with the whole leadership team to shape an agenda that combined forward-looking business planning with leadership development themes. Our team managed all aspects of delivery – from venue sourcing and logistics to session design and facilitation – ensuring a seamless experience. The offsite included a mix of plenary discussions and breakout workshops, in addition to reflective exercises, all tailored to our client’s unique culture and strategic context.

The Impact

The offsite delivered tangible outcomes: renewed clarity on strategic priorities and stronger alignment across the leadership team. Importantly, the offsite resulted in a shared commitment to key initiatives for the year ahead. Feedback from the leadership team highlighted the value of the space created for honest conversation and deeper connection. The setting and structure enabled the team to step back to think differently and return with renewed energy and focus. The success of the London offsite has since informed the design of future leadership gatherings across the organisation.

Resolving leadership conflict for organisational alignment

The Brief

At a global asset management organisation, two peers were assigned joint leadership of a critical business unit. Persistent conflict between these leaders disrupted team cohesion and adversely affected both operational performance and client service. Diminished collaboration and protracted decision-making created uncertainty within the team, undermining productivity and jeopardising the unit’s reputation and its alignment with organisational objectives. This situation necessitated immediate and focused leadership intervention.

Our Delivery

We implemented a structured intervention comprising both individual and joint sessions over a six-month period. The process incorporated Lumina Spark diagnostics to deepen each leader’s self-awareness and foster appreciation of the interpersonal dynamics at play. We also deployed the High-Performing Partnership Framework, informed by the Goldcrest SharePoint model, to clarify role expectations and define partnership success criteria. All programme elements were strategically aligned with broader organisational priorities, as set by the head of the business function. Regular progress reports were provided to senior leadership, with session content emphasising trust-building, enhanced communication and the alignment of shared objectives.

The Impact

By the conclusion of the programme, the co-leaders had developed a far more effective and collaborative working relationship, which was clearly recognised by their colleagues. This resolution relieved the management burden on their superior and contributed positively to overall team morale. The case highlights the effectiveness of targeted interventions in resolving leadership challenges and establishing alignment with organisational goals.

Aligning senior leaders for the next phase of growth

The Brief

Our client, a leading UK-based investment partnership, approached us to design and facilitate a senior leadership offsite aimed at aligning the Executive Committee around a bold new growth ambition. The brief was to create a space for strategic reflection, cultural evolution and operational challenge – while strengthening team cohesion and surfacing the unspoken dynamics that could hinder progress. The offsite needed to provoke honest debate, generate actionable outcomes and, ultimately, set the tone for the next phase of the firm’s development.

Our Delivery

We designed a two-day offsite experience that combined immersive exercises, structured strategy sessions and informal connection. Day one focused on team dynamics and cultural reflection, using a discussion-based exercise to explore collaboration and challenge. Strategy sessions tackled the firm’s client proposition, operational model and cultural identity, with space for individual reflection and group debate. Vitally, we introduced mechanisms to surface difficult topics constructively. Day two shifted to acceleration – how to scale efficiently, embrace technology and clarify decision-making structures. Throughout, we facilitated with a light but firm touch, ensuring psychological safety while encouraging radical thinking.

The Impact

The offsite delivered a step-change in alignment and ambition. The team committed to sharpening their focus on growth – anchored by operational efficiency and reinforced by cultural consistency. Among the outputs were refreshed cultural commitments and a prioritised list of strategic actions, but perhaps most importantly, a renewed sense of collective ownership. Participants spoke of the value they found in open dialogue and constructive challenge, as well as the reassurance of clear next steps. Since then, the offsite has served as a reference point for how the leadership team intends to work together: strategically focused, culturally grounded and confident in tackling the hard questions.

Senior Investor coaching to support investment teamwork

The Brief

The individual was an experienced investor who had been promoted to head of strategy and was looking for support to manage complex interpersonal relationships amongst team members, in the context of wider organisational change. These challenges, alongside volatile market conditions and demands on personal time and energy had depleted resilience.

The Engagement

A Goldcrest coach with experience working as a portfolio manager engaged with the client for a 12-month term. The assignment began with an alignment meeting with the organisational sponsor to understand the wider context, individual development areas and desired outcomes. A psychometric was used to generate self-awareness, particularly at times of stress, and continued with a focus on recovering and building personal resilience to better cope with the issues at hand. This foundation, combined with a variety of new leadership and teamwork approaches, was applied to investment meetings, the compensation round and a team off-site.

The Outcome

With confidence and wellbeing restored, the challenges at hand became much more manageable. The newly acquired leadership skills, built from senior investor coaching, enabled improved effectiveness and fostered the environment necessary for a high performing team.

Senior Investor coaching to help better navigate the organisation

The Brief

The individual was an experienced and highly valued individual contributor who was having a negative impact on members of adjacent teams due to their interpersonal style and way of working. The client’s intentions were good and motivated by a desire for the firm to succeed but hindered by a critical attitude and direct interpersonal style.

The Engagement

A Goldcrest coach with experience working as a portfolio manager engaged with the client for a 12-month term. The assignment began with an alignment meeting with the organisational sponsor to understand the wider context, individual development areas and desired outcomes. A psychometric was used to generate self-awareness, particularly at times of stress, alongside an extensive round of 360 interviews with colleagues to identify ‘real-life’ examples of the consequences of demonstrated behaviours.

The Outcome

After regular senior investor coaching, the client had a deeper understanding of self, recognition of the power their voice carried, and development of more collaborative techniques to achieve success a significant shift in behaviour that enabled continued investment success alongside better internal relationships and reputation.

Supporting an executive committee go from good to great

The Brief

The client was a UK-based insurance business. The executive committee were established, effective and enjoyed good relationships. Industry dynamics were demanding a new strategy that was challenging the internal status quo and there were some blockers standing in the way of success. The brief was to create the environment for difficult conversations to occur, change to be embraced and alignment around the new strategy established.

The Engagement

The engagement began with consultation with the organisational sponsors (CEO and HRD) to understand the organisational objectives, the dynamics present and plan a path to the desired end-state. There was recognition that this would be a process. Time was needed to develop awareness, integrate change and embed new ways of working.

We used the Goldcrest 7 Conditions for High-Performing Teams diagnostic to establish the team’s current state, strengths, and weaknesses. Then, based on those findings, we developed a 12-month development programme to effect change.

The programme kicked off with a two-day offsite, start the conversations that needed to take place, and begin shaping the strategy. The teamwork discussions and the strategy planning activity were interwoven, each mutually improving the other.

Following the offsite, we engaged with the executive committee bi-monthly at their scheduled meetings, supporting them to generate fresh thinking and put what they had agreed into practice.

Additionally, we coached several of the members alongside the team development to support specific areas of their development.

The Outcome

Progress has been significant. The quality of the conversations and relationships has improved significantly. Healthy challenge is much more welcome, and there is alignment behind the new strategy. The change has been notable to the teams of each executive committee member, leading to better motivation and a faster pace of delivery.

Integrating culture post-acquisition

The Brief

The client was a FTSE 250 asset manager, UK-based but highly acquisitive globally. Recent acquisitions were an operational and financial success but the cultural integration was proving a challenge. There was urgency to address this issue as client surveys reported it was impacting their experience. The task was to unify the organisation and build a network of connections between these different tribes. There were multiple areas of focus and a need to be efficient considering the time pressure.

The Engagement

We began by creating 12 cross-functional cohorts of peers from right across the business (legacy and new business areas). We gathered these groups for two-day offsites over 18 months to build a cohesive network of teams. The work addressed:

• The business case for better integration and collaboration

• How high-performing teams and organisations work and how we benchmark

• Self-assessment psychometrics to understand our individual approach to collaboration

• Relaxation time and activities to build stronger relationships, deepen mutual understanding, share knowledge, and build social glue.

The Outcome

There was initial reluctance from some, which we acknowledged and worked with, and pockets of enthusiasm, which we leveraged as the early adopters of change. As time went on, the group largely unified as initial fears were proven unfounded and the benefits of the process were recognised.

After 18 months, the results were terrific. Most participants were aligned and committed. This led to new networks of relationships, better communication and collaboration, and improved client experience.

Many years later now, several cohorts still meet for an annual reunion, such was the strength of the bonds forged.

Connecting siloed teams

The Brief

The client was a US bank. It had traditionally worked in regional teams where everyone knew one another and serviced local clients. However, the strategy was to move to a service line model. Local clients would still be served by local teams; however, the solutions would be provided by central groups of solution specialists. The new model avoided duplication of effort across the regions but required a significant shift in mindset and approach to networked working.

The Engagement

The engagement was to develop a programme of work to connect the new teams, shift mindsets and develop new ways of collaborating. This included:

  • Design and deliver a series of service team workshops to:
  1. Build new relationships
  2. Surface and openly discuss the challenges and the opportunities
  3. Develop strategies to address challenges and capitalise on opportunities
  • Develop and agree on collective ‘rules of engagement’ that defined the new way of working and roll these out across the business
  • Advise on performance management processes and enable line managers to be effective in a matrix reporting environment
  • Advise on remuneration considerations, particularly around incentivising the right behaviours.

The Outcome

This was a complex project, and, as expected, there was both enthusiasm and resistance amongst those involved. Over time, some blockers began to see the benefit and converted to enablers while others were unable or unwilling to adapt moved on. This allowed others who were more aligned, with fresh ideas and energy, to play a more prominent role and drive the change.

The implementation continues, however, with new systems and processes, supported by ongoing work around building relationships and the culture, good progress is being made and the change has critical momentum.