Alumni Profiles - Developing the Strategic Leader

Company president taps external resources for enduring success

Poised to launch a major corporate expansion, Molly McCoy had complete confidence in her company's potential for growth. Wanting to insure she and her team could maximize that full potential led her to the Center for Creative Leadership's (CCL^®;) Developing the Strategic Leader course.

"The vision was there," says McCoy, founder and president of HR Search Firm, a leading human resource focused executive search and professional services firm with offices in Denver and Chicago. "But I needed to get really clear with the execution of that growth plan. I wanted to be able to get more input from individuals within my organization and externally to help us prioritize. Now we've been able to map out a very clear five-year vision."

Using a combination of real-world simulations and frequent assessments, Developing the Strategic Leader provides leaders a solid framework for understanding the essence of strategic leadership. By the end of the five-day course, participants have an action plan for establishing and achieving long-term goals, but also a broader view of how to build a strategic culture that inspires innovation with a focus on enduring success.

"I walked into the experience thinking I could walk away with some more technical strategic pieces," McCoy says. "But at the end of the week I realized, 'Ah, ha! That's not what it's about. It's about leadership.' The course reinforced the fact that the most important part of strategy is good leadership. I realized that some of the technical pieces I need to master will come from external sources I need to partner with."

As president of a multi-million-dollar company that serves clients across the country and has been listed among the Denver-area's top 100 firms for the past five years, McCoy has reason to be confident in her leadership skills. The lessons she learned through her program experience, however, have enabled her to leverage even more effectively the talents and skills of the people around her, including team members and individuals outside the firm. Soon after attending the course, McCoy promoted a team member to an equity role where she assumed a broader leadership position regarding the firm's expansion into two new markets - Houston and Dallas.

"I've learned to take advantage of others' expertise, whether they are within or outside the organization," McCoy says. "That promotion was a definite change. It was a case of taking advantage of the skill sets of the people around me, especially these people who have such strong past performances."

McCoy has also restructured HR Search Firm's recruiting and compensation practices, adopting a strategy designed to attract and reward individuals with skills key to the firm's growth. In addition, this fresh insight enhances McCoy's value as a consultant in the human resources executive search and professional services industry.

"For the last eight years, I've been running a multi-million-dollar business; it's been growing, and we want to press forward even more," McCoy says. "That's pushed my boundaries as far as taking risks. This course, at the end of it all, was a good confidence builder and reinforced a lot of valuable business qualities."

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