Empowering Leadership at Every Level:
How Palmer Holland Boosted Agility and Retention with
Intent-Based Leadership
Empowering Leadership
at Every Level:
How Palmer Holland
Boosted Agility and Retention
with Intent-Based Leadership
Before:
Before working with IBLI, Palmer Holland faced challenges common to successful, fast-growing organizations:
- Decision-making bottlenecks: Managers were deferring to senior leaders for approvals, creating slow response times to customers.
- Strong hierarchy: Even experienced team members sought permission rather than taking ownership.
- Missed agility advantage: Despite being smaller and nimbler than competitors, the culture limited Palmer Holland’s ability to move fast.
- Leadership burden: Senior leaders carried too much decision-making responsibility, limiting focus on strategic priorities.
After:
Since embedding Intent-Based Leadership principles, Palmer Holland has seen a profound cultural and business transformation:
- Faster decision-making: 80–85% of commercial decisions are now made at the account manager level, with over 90% at regional leadership level.
- Agility regained: The company now consistently outpaces publicly owned competitors—even in challenging market conditions.
- High employee retention: Achieved a 95% rolling 18-month retention rate, supported by stronger ownership and engagement.
- Psychological safety: Teams freely share ideas and dissent, leading to richer discussions and better decisions.
- Sustainable leadership pipeline: Leaders developed through IBL principles have advanced into senior roles, strengthening organizational continuity.
“IBL has been incredibly impactful for Palmer Holland, both financially and culturally.
We're a better company for it, and I'm a better leader because of it.”
— Ron Zmich, Senior Vice President, Palmer Holland
“IBL has been incredibly impactful for Palmer Holland,
both financially and culturally.
We're a better company for it, and I'm
a better leader because of it.”
— Ron Zmich, Senior Vice President, Palmer Holland
Process:
- Kickoff Workshop (2018): CEO and senior leaders were introduced to David Marquet's “Turn the Ship Around" principles at a half-day summit.
- Leadership Implementation (2020): IBLI guided Ron and his management team through adopting tools like the Ladder of Leadership, the Three Cs (Clarity, Competence, Control), and Leaders Speak Last.
- Cultural Integration (2021–2023): IBL practices expanded company-wide through intentional routines, such as "One–Some–All," "Fist of Five," and curating dissent in meetings.
- Sustained Practice: Leaders continued reinforcing psychological safety and clarity as foundational habits for decision-making and trust-building.
Working with IBLI, Palmer Holland embedded Intent-Based Leadership through a structured, multi-year journey.
Conclusion:
Palmer Holland's five-year partnership with Intent-Based Leadership International transformed the company from a traditionally structured organization into a model of empowered leadership. Decisions now happen closer to the customer, communication is clearer, and the culture thrives on trust and ownership.
The result? Higher retention, faster responsiveness, and a leadership culture that will last for generations.
Palmer Holland's five-year partnership with Intent-Based Leadership International transformed the company from a traditionally structured organization into a model of empowered leadership. Decisions now happen closer to the customer, communication is clearer, and the culture thrives on trust and ownership.
The result? Higher retention, faster responsiveness, and a leadership culture that will last for generations.
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