Adaptive Leadership at Every Level:
Driving Cultural Transformation at Equitable with
Intent-Based Leadership
Adaptive Leadership
at Every Level:
Driving Cultural
Transformation at Equitable
with Intent-Based Leadership
Equitable Holdings, Inc. is a leading provider of retirement, wealth management, and asset management services, managing more than $1T in assets by 2024. Following its IPO, Equitable set out to modernize how its 8,000+ employees worked together. The company needed to accelerate decision-making, innovate faster, and break down long-standing organizational silos.
To achieve this level of transformation, Equitable launched New Ways of Working (NWOW) - a multi-pillar shift built on OKRs, Adaptive Leadership, Design Thinking, Enterprise Agile, and Dynamic Enablers. Success depended on changing leadership behavior at scale. Leaders needed the skills to empower teams, manage risk appropriately, and lead through ambiguity - without losing the discipline required in a highly regulated industry.
Equitable partnered with Intent-Based Leadership International (IBLI) to embed Adaptive Leadership as the cultural foundation of NWOW.
Before:
Before implementing Adaptive Leadership with IBLI, Equitable faced challenges common to large, risk-sensitive organizations:
Decision-making was slowed by hierarchical structures and a strong deference to authority.
- Leaders lacked confidence in empowering teams while still maintaining rigorous risk management.
NWOW rituals were inconsistently applied across functions, especially between sales and operations.
Employees struggled to navigate ambiguity during major disruptions, including COVID-19 and social justice events.
Psychological safety and work-life balance lagged behind organizational aspirations.
After:
With Adaptive Leadership implemented across the enterprise, Equitable experienced significant cultural and performance transformation:
Psychological safety increased 25%, creating an environment where employees felt safe to think, speak, and act with intent.
Work-life balance improved 16%, supported by clearer expectations and healthier team norms.
Diversity in the leadership pipeline increased, due to more equitable decision-making and empowerment structures.
Operations eNPS rose from 0.7 to 29.5, signaling dramatically improved employee engagement.
Group Retirement achieved $70M in additional sales and a 400% increase in click-to-chat engagement.
Leaders reframed performance goals as moonshots, shifting from incremental change to exponential thinking.
By 2025, 80% of the organization had embraced NWOW, with Adaptive Leadership acting as the “glue” enabling sustainable transformation.
“Adaptive leadership helped us strike the right balance between empowerment and risk management
- critical in an insurance business. Without that balance, it can really blow the place up.”
— Mark Pearson, CEO, Equitable
“Adaptive leadership helped us strike
the right balance between empowerment
and risk management - critical in an
insurance business. Without that balance,
it can really blow the place up.”
— Mark Pearson, CEO, Equitable
IBLI worked closely with Equitable over a multi-year period to embed Adaptive Leadership as the backbone of NWOW:
Process:
- Built Internal Coaching Capability: Trained and supported 30+ internal coaches to champion Adaptive Leadership across the business.
- Balanced Empowerment & Risk: Helped leaders empower teams while upholding the controls essential in a regulated environment.
- Tailored NWOW Rituals: Adapted stand-ups, sprint reviews, retros, and moonshots to fit the needs of both operational and sales teams.
- Enabled Leadership During Disruption: Provided coaching through COVID-19 and social justice movements, helping leaders maintain clarity, consistency, and empathy.
- Embedded Psychological Safety: Reinforced behaviors that encouraged dissent, open dialogue, and shared ownership.
- Provided Ongoing Coaching: Continued support beyond initial training to ensure adoption stuck and scaled across the enterprise.
Equitable's journey shows how Adaptive Leadership can reshape an entire organization - helping leaders move faster, collaborate more effectively, and empower teams while maintaining the rigor required in a regulated environment. By building coaching capability internally and embedding NWOW into daily rhythms, Equitable achieved measurable gains in psychological safety, engagement, diversity, and business outcomes.
Through its work with IBLI, Equitable proved that when leaders embrace clarity, empowerment, and intent, cultural transformation becomes not only possible - but sustainable.
"Our goal wasn't just to teach new practices -
it was to help leaders make NWOW their own so the transformation would last."
— IBLI Coach
"Our goal wasn't just to teach new practices
- it was to help leaders make NWOW
their own so the transformation would last."
— IBLI Coach
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