OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
I was invited to work with the senior leadership team of a global organisation to strengthen alignment, listening behaviours, messaging and inclusive leadership. The brief was to help the SLT move from parallel voices to a genuinely unified, human and inclusive narrative that could be heard and trusted across diverse regions and functions. Through a blend of facilitated sessions, leadership coaching and practical messageshaping, we focused on how leaders listen, how they speak and how they show up together, building both behavioural alignment and a clearer, more inclusive strategic story.
The challenge
The organisation operated across multiple time zones, cultures and business lines, with a senior leadership team that was technically aligned on strategy but not always experienced that way by the rest of the business. Employees reported mixed messages, inconsistent tone and a sense that some voices in the SLT were more heard and visible than others. Listening often happened in formal settings rather than as an everyday habit, which meant important perspectives were missed or surfaced too late. At the same time, the company was committed to inclusive leadership but leaders were unsure how to embody this consistently in how they communicated, made decisions and responded to challenge. The result was an SLT that was respected but not always fully trusted or relatable.
The intervention
After consulting with a range of people in the business, I designed a programme of work focused on alignment, listening and inclusive leadership in practice.
- Alignment and shared narrative: We began with a series of alignment sessions to surface individual perspectives on the strategy, pressure points and hopes for the culture. From there, we crafted a shared narrative, a simple, human story the whole SLT could stand behind and clarified where each leader would carry specific parts of that story.
- Listening behaviours and habits: We examined current listening patterns, who they listened to, when and how; where they tended to get defensive and where certain voices or regions were unintentionally sidelined. Using live scenarios, leaders practised deep listening, asking better questions and explicitly looping back what they had heard into visible decisions and communications.
- Inclusive leadership lens: We explored how power, identity and lived experience shape how messages land and how safe people feel to speak up. Leaders worked with practical tools for making meetings and communications more inclusive, from who speaks and who is invited, to how disagreement is handled in public forums, to how they acknowledge different experiences across geographies and backgrounds.
- Messageshaping and delivery: Together with the internal comms team, we translated the aligned narrative into key messages, Q&A lines and townhall formats. We focused on tone and presence, helping each leader speak in their own voice while still sounding like part of one team.
What I am doing
My role combined facilitation, coaching and message consultancy. In group sessions, I created space for honest discussion about where alignment was fragile, where listening broke down and where behaviours did not yet match stated values. In onetoone work, I supported individual leaders to reflect on their personal impact, including their listening style, inclusion blind spots and communication habits, and to experiment with new ways of leading in highstakes settings. Alongside this, I partnered with the comms team to review key speeches, townhall formats and leader messages, offering practical edits and suggestions to strengthen clarity, coherence and inclusivity.
Emerging impact
Over time, the SLT began to show up as a more cohesive, listening and inclusive leadership group. Colleagues reported greater consistency in messaging, a clearer sense of shared direction and more willingness from leaders to acknowledge uncertainty and invite input. Listening became more visible, with leaders actively referencing what they had heard from teams and regions and how it shaped decisions. There was also a noticeable shift in meeting dynamics with more balanced voices, more constructive challenge and a stronger norm of curiosity over defensiveness.
