Most mornings this year started the same way: an early workout before the house woke up, the chaos of getting kids out the door, a quiet walk before I officially started my day.
Coffee in hand, I’d run through the decisions waiting for me: Questions about where to take the business, how fast to move, and how much change people could absorb at once.
Those walks became a moment to prepare myself to lead with both conviction and care before stepping into another day of leading a major transformation.
After 20 years in this industry and more than a decade in executive leadership, I thought I understood change. I’d helped global brands navigate disruption, led through integrations and restructures. But stepping into the CEO seat at AnswerLab was different. This wasn’t about advising transformation; it was about owning it.
Here are 7 core lessons I learned from leading through transformation as a first-time CEO.
- Transformation is emotional
I knew we needed to pivot. What I didn’t fully anticipate was how deeply that shift would affect the people who had built the business we were evolving.
AnswerLab had deep roots and a strong sense of identity. My job was to guide it into a new era without losing what made it special. That meant learning where the heartbeat of the company was strongest, what needed to evolve, and what absolutely needed to be protected. It also meant making decisions that prioritized the long-term health of the business, even if they created short-term discomfort.
I understood the transformation intellectually. What I didn’t anticipate was how exposed it would make me as a leader — how often I’d have to say, “I don’t know yet,” while still asking people to trust where we were headed. That tension defined my first year.
- Transformation is non-linear
Transformation is messy, but leading through it isn’t about slowing down; it’s about maintaining pace while becoming more intentional.
To keep us moving forward without burning people out, we treated it more like an enterprise digital transformation than a traditional organizational change. We shifted to operating in sprints, revisiting priorities every two weeks and stepping back quarterly to assess what was working, what wasn’t, and where we needed to adapt.
That rhythm allowed us to keep momentum while creating space to listen, learn, and course-correct. It taught me that transformation isn’t linear. It requires resilience, clarity, and a steady hand when things feel unsettled.
- Bringing people along is harder than being right
