Building a High-Trust Exec Team — Offsite for a Scaling Brand

The Context 

The leadership team of a growth-stage company had gone through major change — half the team was new. With funding secured and scale ahead, the founder-CEO knew this was a make-or-break moment to align the team, build trust, and reset how they worked together. But there wasn’t time to waste. This needed to be fast, real, and practical.

The Work 

I designed and facilitated a full-day offsite that prioritized human connection, cross-functional clarity, and operational rituals. We:

• Kicked off with a powerful vision reset from the CEO — naming what success looked like in the next 6–12 months

• Shared personal leadership stories to quickly build trust among a newly formed team

• Used DiSC to explore work styles, communication patterns, and friction points

• Aligned on core operating norms — especially around decision-making, conflict, and speed

• Clarified swim lanes and where collaboration was essential

• Embedded team rituals to translate the day’s energy into everyday practice

The Result 

The team left with clarity, shared language, and momentum. They started using a decision-rights matrix and built rituals around their team norms. But most importantly, they stopped over-relying on the CEO — and started acting like a leadership team.