Over the years I've worked with some really great CEO's, many of them were responsible for steering major international corporations, and a few of them had grown from start-up to a mature company, yet they all faced similar challenges around how to 'grow' the organisation.

The CEO's who managed to navigate the juggling act that is all about keeping the current lights on whilst delivering on those change/transformation projects are hailed as saviours or as wreckers of a company.

As a result I've seen some disasters (haven't we all) and I've also been inspired by what can only be described as true transformation by great people management, and continued commitment to 'employee engagement'.

Apart from the considerable business experience these CEO's brought to the table, the ones who delivered successful outcomes with tangible and measurable change were the ones who focused on establishing the right people practices that is essential for any business transformation effort,  ultimately the goal of any organisational transformation is to help people achieve more - build their capabilities, increase engagement, and develop more meaningful connections between purpose and business.  

The most effective CEOs find ways to nurture engagement by rallying employees around a common purpose, making that purpose feel attainable, motivating the extra effort that requires and modeling the behavior they seek.

To do this, the most successful ones recognised that having HR as part of all early stage 'transformation' conversations reaped huge 'change' rewards.