In this episode of The Consultant’s Way, Chris Holmgren joins Dean and Anthony to share real-world lessons from leading professional services teams through growth, change, and disruption. Drawing on his experiences managing large digital event teams before, during, and after the pandemic, Chris discusses how adaptability, communication, and proactive leadership were critical to success.

Chris highlights the importance of recognizing team strengths early, scaling thoughtfully—not just adding headcount—and preserving institutional knowledge through periods of rapid change. He emphasizes the need for strong internal and client-facing communication, proactive transparency with leadership, and creating scalable systems that balance personal leadership with structured data insights.

Through stories of scaling teams up and down under extreme pressure, Chris offers practical takeaways about building trust, empowering team members, and maintaining motivation even when workloads are high. He also shares a humorous moment where a last-minute national ad campaign required an "all hands on deck" scramble—reinforcing that even with strong plans, agility always wins.

Key themes include: putting the right people in the right roles, the power of communication at every level, fostering adaptability, and designing systems that help leaders stay close to the business without micromanaging. Whether navigating hypergrowth or a strategic contraction, Chris’s insights offer valuable lessons for PS leaders managing in an unpredictable world.