CEO Repositioning: Leadership Evolved, Market Visibility Didn't

You're in New York to close a market expansion deal. But at 4:30am, you’re on a client escalation call with London. Your COO should be handling this - that's precisely why you promoted them. But the client expects you, so here you are, when you should be preparing for the breakfast meeting that could launch you into a new market.

This isn't a delegation problem. It's a positioning problem that's costing you more than sleep.

Working with CEOs in high-stakes situations - acquisitions, international expansion, turnarounds - I see this pattern repeatedly: your leadership has evolved significantly. Your strategic thinking is sharper. Your deal-making capability has doubled. Your ability to build and deploy teams has transformed.

But three critical groups still operate as if you're the CEO from two years ago: your team, your board, and your external stakeholders.

That gap between who you've become and how you're recognised is costing you deals, partnerships, and opportunities you'll never know existed.

"What Got You Here Will Keep You Stuck Here" Is Nonsense.

Here's why this gap exists in the first place.

You aren't stuck. You've moved forward. Your strategic thinking is sharper than it was two years ago. Your ability to close deals has improved. Your leadership team is more capable.

The problem isn't that you're stuck. It's that the communication and perception of your evolved leadership doesn't match what you've achieved.

If nobody outside your direct circle knows you've evolved, you won't get the calibre of opportunity you deserve. Your board will still bring you the same problems. The strategic partnership goes to a competitor whose market presence is clearer. The acquisition conversation never starts because nobody knows you're the person who should be in that room.

Your expertise evolved. How you're recognised didn't. And gaps between capability and recognition have business costs.

Why Won't My Team Step Up?

This is the question I hear most from CEOs. They've built capable leadership teams. They've promoted experienced operators into C-suite roles. Yet they're still on client calls at 4:30am when they should be focusing on strategic deals.

After 25+ years working with global brands like L'Oréal, Colgate, Volkswagen, and Ryanair, then transitioning to work with CEOs navigating high-stakes transitions, here's what I see: there's a dual-track problem most CEOs miss.

First track: You haven't repositioned yourself. You're still showing up to the same meetings, taking the same calls, making the same decisions you made when the business was smaller and your team was less experienced. You evolved your thinking but not your role definition.

Second track: You haven't communicated to your team - or to external stakeholders - that your team members need to step up both in their role and in the perception of that role.

Both how you're positioned and how visible your authority is are at play.

When you promoted your operations director to COO, you delegated operational responsibility. But did you explicitly reposition them - internally and externally - as the operational authority who owns client relationships? Did you communicate to clients that your COO is now their strategic partner, not an assistant who escalates to you?

If you didn't, your team operates in a positioning vacuum. They have responsibility without authority. They handle tasks without stakeholder recognition. And everyone - including them - still defers to you.

Let's look at how this plays out with the three groups who need to see your evolution.

Your Board Still Sees the Old Role

Whether you were hired as a turnaround CEO, brought in for growth, or promoted internally, your board formed a view of your value based on what the business needed then.

You delivered. Maybe the business is now profitable and growing. Maybe it's the same size but more profitable. The crisis - whatever it was - is over.

But you didn’t reposition your role. Even if you have a newly negotiated contract I bet that your board still measures you against outdated metrics. They haven't adjusted their view of your value from "fix the problem" to "build the future."

You're being evaluated against outdated criteria. The skills that mattered during turnaround - operational firefighting, crisis management, hands-on client recovery - aren't the skills that matter now. Building strategic partnerships matters. Market expansion matters. Developing a leadership team that operates without you matters.

And you haven't decided what's next. Do you want another role externally? Or do you want to reposition internally as a builder CEO who focuses on strategic growth while your team handles operations?

Until you reposition yourself with your board, you're trapped in a role you've outgrown.

Your Clients Still Expect You

Here's what most CEOs miss about external stakeholders: it's not just about attracting new opportunities. It's about your existing clients understanding that your COO and Head of Sales are as strategically capable as you are - and being comfortable working with them.

If your clients still insist on you personally, you haven't made your team's authority visible to the people who matter.

This isn't about your team's capability. It's about stakeholder perception. And stakeholder perception is something you control through strategic repositioning and communication.

When you empower your management team to handle client escalations, it goes beyond the task. They need to reposition themselves as strategic client partners. They need to communicate that change to clients. They need to show up differently - both internally and externally.

If you don't orchestrate that repositioning, clients will keep escalating to you. Because from their perspective, nothing changed.

When Your Team Repositions, Everything Shifts

Most CEOs think repositioning is personal. It's not. It's organisational.

When you reposition yourself from operational CEO to strategic CEO, your entire leadership team repositions too.

Your Head of Sales isn't just "handling more client calls." They're being repositioned as the client relationship authority. Have you communicated that internally? Have you made it visible to clients and partners?

Your COO isn't just "taking over operations." They're being repositioned as the operational strategist who owns delivery. Does your board recognise this shift? Do your clients?

Your Chief Product Officer isn't just "getting more autonomy." They're being repositioned as the product authority whose decisions drive strategy. Does the market see them that way?

When this doesn't happen systematically, you're attending 4:30am meetings when you should be preparing for the breakfast meeting that's going to launch you into a new market.

When it does happen, your team steps into genuine authority. Clients trust them. Your board recognises their strategic value. And you focus on the work only you can do - the strategic relationships, the market expansion, the deals that transform the business.

The organisation operates at a higher level not because everyone works harder, but because everyone's market presence matches their actual capability.

What Strategic Repositioning Actually Requires

This isn't behaviour change or time management. It's strategic repositioning at three levels - and you must be explicit about who's repositioning and how.

First: Redefine your role internally. This means direct conversations with your board and leadership team. Not subtle hints. Clear communication: "I no longer handle X. [Name] owns that now. I focus on Y."

This changes decision-making structures. It changes who shows up to which meetings. It changes how your board evaluates your performance. Make sure that when the structures evolve, the messaging and language evolves in tandem.

Second: Reposition your leadership team's authority. Your team needs explicit permission and market presence to operate at the level you're asking them to reach. Internally, this means clear authority to make decisions, own relationships, and represent the company. Externally, this means visible recognition with clients, partners, and the market as strategic leaders, not support staff. In all communication, language must reflect their repositioned authority - they're not "helping with client relationships," they're "owning strategic client partnerships."

If your team doesn't understand they've been repositioned, they'll keep deferring to you. If your stakeholders don't see the repositioning, they'll keep expecting you.

Third: Make your evolved expertise visible externally. When someone in your market asks, "Who should we talk to about expanding into Europe?", or "Who's the expert on this?" Does your name come up?

This isn't about posting on LinkedIn daily. It's about strategic visibility that shows decision-makers - board recruiters, potential partners, acquisition teams - who you are now, not who you were three years ago.

Your current market presence shows an outdated version of your capability. The market judges you on what they can see, not what you know you can do.

What This Is Costing You Right Now

While you're on that 4:30am call, you're not building relationships with potential acquirers. You're not positioning for board opportunities. You're not developing the strategic partnerships that could transform your business.

You're brilliant at client recovery - so brilliant nobody else learned how to do it. Your capability became your liability.

The specific deals I see CEOs lose: The private equity firm looking for operators to back in your sector - but they never heard your name because your market presence doesn't reflect your deal-making capability. The strategic partnership that could have opened a new territory - but it went to a competitor whose CEO is better positioned as a market expert. The board opportunity that never reached you because the search firm's research showed an outdated version of your expertise.

These aren't hypothetical. These are actual conversations happening in rooms you're not in. The opportunities that should be finding you are going to CEOs who are simply better positioned, even if they're less capable.

This isn't about working harder or delegating more. It's about repositioning strategically - yourself and your team - so the right opportunities find you, stakeholders recognise your team's authority, and your business operates at the level your talent deserves.

How I Work with CEOs and Their C-Suite Teams

I work with CEOs and their C-suite teams to close the gap between their evolved capability and how they're recognised - internally by boards and teams, externally by markets and stakeholders.

After 25+ years in media strategy with L'Oréal, Colgate, Volkswagen, and Ryanair, I now work with CEOs whose expertise has evolved beyond how they're currently positioned. Through my Executive Visibility Framework, I help senior leaders reposition for what's next - so when opportunities arise, their name comes up for the right reasons.

This isn't coaching. It's strategic repositioning that ensures you're leveraging your potential and growing at the level that, given your talent, you should be.

Not working harder. Not delegating more. Repositioning systematically so your team operates with genuine authority, your board recognises your strategic value, and the market sees what you've actually become.

When opportunities arise, your name comes up for the right reasons. Because how you're recognised finally matches your capability.

If you're a CEO whose leadership has evolved beyond your current market presence - both personally and organisationally - book a consultation to discuss closing that gap. We'll map where the positioning gaps exist, what they're costing you, and how systematic repositioning gets you recognized at the level you operate. Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit elainewalshmcgrath.com.