Growth at Every Altitude Leadership as Organizations Scale

Preface. Why I Wrote This Book. Acknowledgements. How The Book is Structured. Who Should Read This Book. Prologue. Chapter 1: The Ceiling Navigation Model. Chapter 2: RUNWAY (Start-Up Phase). Chapter 3: TAKEOFF (Early Growth Phase). Chapter 4: FLYING (Cruising Altitude Phase). Chapter 5: SOARING (High-Altitude Leadership Phase). Chapter 6: PLANNED LANDING (Legacy and Transition). Chapter 7: Lessons from Our Journey. Epilogue: EMERGENCY LANDING

Biography

Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas is the co-founder and CEO of EnCompass LLC, a global professional services firm she built over 25 years from a two-person start up into an organization of 400-plus staff and approximately $100 million in annual revenue. She is a former President of the American Evaluation Association, a Harvard Kennedy School alumna, and a published author including contributions to forthcoming Routledge volumes on AI-readiness in evaluation and a strategic approach to public service.

With brilliant analytical insight, Growth tackles the challenges of leadership, strategy, design, and culture facing every inspired start-up and organization. It’s an essential companion for strategic leaders exploring the pathways to scale. 

Ron Heifetz, MD, Founder, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University

Now more than ever, organizations need a way to build trust and intention, honor people’s lived experience and strengths and read the signals for needed change as Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates. Based on years of experience, Tessie’s navigation system for leading through change, organizational growth, and the work of sustaining a thriving workplace culture offers leaders a practical guide for piloting the plane successfully in the age of AI.

Eileen McNeely, PhD, MS, RN, Executive Director, SHINE, Human Flourishing Program, institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, Harvard University

Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas addresses a critical challenge faced by the leader of any growing organization—adapting to increased scale.  Her Ceiling Navigation Model provides a pragmatic and valuable frame for detecting growth-driven stress early and identifying the reinvention needed to maintain purpose and continued growth.  

Paul Decker, President & CEO, Mathematica, Employee Owner

Drawing on a remarkable 25-year organizational journey, Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas provides a powerful and practical roadmap for leaders seeking to scale organizations while preserving the strengths that make them successful. Consistent with the best research in positive organizational psychology, Growth at Every Altitude demonstrates that sustainable growth depends not only on strategy and structure, but also on cultivating the conditions that enable people, teams, and organizations to flourish. The Ceiling Navigation Model offers leaders an innovative framework for recognizing developmental challenges, leveraging strengths, and redesigning organizations in ways that enhance performance, well-being, resilience, and purpose. This book deserves a wide readership among executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, scholars, students, and anyone committed to creating organizations where people thrive and performance grows.

Stewart I. Donaldson, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor & President of the Claremont Flourishing Center, Claremont Graduate University 

As always with Tessie Catsambas’ work, this book links reflection on her own practice with theoretical advancement on organizational growth.  Matching reliance on perceived and/or underused strengths with the ability to creatively glimpse possibilities helps redesign when the situation requires it, and secure positive change for people and organizations.

Nicoletta Stame, Emerita Professor, Sapienza University of Rome, Vice-President, A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute

Tessie has distilled a lifetime of entrepreneurial experience into a practical guide filled with hard-earned lessons and timeless insights. Our own company’s journey to rapid, sustainable growth benefited greatly from the lessons of leaders like Tessie. This book makes that knowledge accessible to entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey.

Mihir Desai, Chief Executive Officer, Dexis