Hi Reader,

In the last six months, I've had versions of the same conversation with two different CEOs.

Each of them was sitting on a culture problem they knew about. Each of them had tried to address it - more communication, a leadership offsite, a restructure.

None of that worked and each CEO was left wondering if they were the problem.

And each of them believed, somewhere underneath it all, that it was entirely on them to fix it.

That belief is understandable. It's also one of the things keeping them stuck.

Here's what I've observed after 20 years working inside organisations: culture problems are almost never solved by the person at the top pushing harder.

Because you cannot see your own system clearly from inside it.

I was talking recently to an advisor helping turn around a struggling company. The leadership team was in trouble - toxic culture, fragile morale. But when the CEO spoke to investors, everything was fine.

The gap between those two realities was more blind spot than dishonesty.

The signals were visible from the outside:

— Attrition explained away as "not a culture fit"

— The CEO involved in decisions they shouldn't be near

— Hiring always slower than planned

— OKRs sliding quarter after quarter with plausible-sounding reasons

None of these showed up as "leadership problem" on any dashboard.

But that's what they were.

If any of this is familiar, the most useful thing isn't another initiative. It's an honest conversation with someone *outside* the system who can tell you what they're actually seeing.

That's what a diagnostic conversation with me looks like. Clarity on what's driving the pattern and whether it's fixable from where you're standing.

​[Book a diagnostic conversation →]​

Catherine

P.S. These conversations work best when a CEO already senses something is off but hasn't been able to name it yet. If that's where you are, it's exactly the right moment.