From Strong Leaders to an Aligned Leadership System:
Energage’s Transformation
As Energage scaled in size and complexity, leadership shifted from strong individual performers operating in parallel to an aligned leadership system capable of faster, clearer execution across the organization.
BUSINESS CONTEXT
Energage is a research and technology company focused on helping organizations build stronger workplace cultures and leadership environments.
Its platform and insights power the nationally recognized Top Workplaces program, using employee feedback and culture analytics to help leaders understand and improve the employee experience.
For over two decades, Energage has collected insights from millions of employees across tens of thousands of organizations, building a data-driven understanding of the leadership and cultural factors that drive engagement and performance.
Beginning in 2021, Energage entered a period of sustained growth that expanded both the scale of its operations and the complexity of its leadership environment.
As the organization evolved, leaders were responsible for navigating broader cross functional responsibilities while maintaining momentum across strategic initiatives.
Growth introduced new opportunities alongside new coordination demands. Leaders were increasingly required to collaborate across departments, align priorities quickly, and make decisions that affected multiple areas of the business.
As organizational complexity increased, leadership effectiveness became less dependent on individual capability and more dependent on how leaders operated together.
THE INFLECTION POINT
Energage’s leadership team recognized that continued growth required stronger cohesion across executives and rising leaders. The organization had capable leaders throughout the business, yet alignment across functions often required additional effort to establish shared expectations and direction.
Leaders needed a common approach to navigating complex conversations, clearer context for decision making, and greater consistency in how leadership showed up across the organization.
Rather than addressing leadership development in isolation, Energage chose to focus on alignment as an organizational capability.
SCOPE AND BREADTH OF ENGAGEMENT
Beginning in 2021, Marisa partnered with Energage across multiple layers of leadership. The work engaged the executive team while also including rising leaders representing a wide range of functions across the organization.
This multi level participation allowed leadership conversations to evolve simultaneously rather than sequentially. Executives and emerging leaders developed shared context together, creating continuity across departments and leadership levels.
Over time, the engagement extended across nearly every function, supporting a consistent leadership experience throughout the organization.
Engagement Reach
Executive Leadership Team
Rising Leaders Across Functions
Multi-year partnership (since 2021)
Organization-wide participation
WORKING ACROSS THE AISLE
Leaders across departments began noticing tangible changes in how collaboration occurred.
Cross functional initiatives required less clarification, and conversations increasingly focused on decisions rather than alignment.
“When working together on initiatives, we now are aligned on what needs to come to the table and how to approach different groups across the organization.”
Rising leaders described expanding their perspective beyond departmental responsibilities and contributing more confidently in executive discussions.
“I learned to look at decisions in the context of the organization, not just my role, and that changed how I show up with executives and peers.”
Alignment became visible not through policy changes, but through how leaders showed up together in daily work.
EXECUTION MOMENTUM
As leadership alignment strengthened, execution gained momentum across the organization. Leaders reported clearer priorities, stronger ownership, and greater confidence moving initiatives forward.
Cross functional collaboration enabled teams to define success more clearly and act more decisively.
Energy previously spent coordinating shifted toward advancing strategic work.
THE APPROACH
As the work progressed, leaders developed a shared language for approaching leadership conversations and organizational challenges. Meetings increasingly began with common expectations, reducing the need to repeatedly establish context.
Alignment formed through peer relationships rather than hierarchical direction. Leaders engaged one another directly, allowing decisions to move laterally across teams instead of relying on escalation.
As shared context accumulated, conversations became more efficient. Leaders entered discussions already aligned on how to evaluate challenges and move toward decisions.
Over time, leadership alignment functioned less as an initiative and more as part of how the organization operated.
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO WORK WITH MARISA?
Leaders consistently described the experience as both supportive and challenging, grounded in practical application rather than theory. Conversations focused on real business situations, encouraging clarity, accountability, and forward movement.
The work emphasized actionable progress, allowing leaders to immediately apply insights within their roles and teams.
Organizational Impact Since 2021
100+
[Revenue growth metric]
10k+
[Leadership Expansion metric]
130k+
[Key Initiative Outcomes]
CLOSING REFLECTION
Today, leadership alignment at Energage is reflected in how leaders collaborate, make decisions, and execute strategy together.
"Working with Marisa we have nearly doubled our business. We closed largest acquisition in the history of the company, and we've created a group of next level leaders who are primed to help take our company to even greater heights.
And we couldn't have done any of that without the partnership of Marisa."
— Dan Kessler, President
What began as an investment in leadership development evolved into a foundational capability supporting the company’s continued growth.