Creating high-performing customer success teams is not rocket science, but it does require more than simply promoting your best people and hoping they will thrive in leadership roles. Many organizations still miss this point. They hire excellent talent, reward their top performers, and then feel frustrated when those individuals struggle as managers. The truth is that success in an individual role does not automatically prepare someone to lead others.
Keyonna LaGrone Taylor, founder of Key Focus Group, has spent more than twenty years guiding global organizations through this exact challenge. She has built and managed teams that together have generated more than one hundred million dollars in revenue. Along the way, she has seen the same mistakes repeated but also discovered what actually works to develop strong leaders in customer success.
Don’t Just Promote, Prepare
The first lesson is clear. A top-performing customer success manager does not immediately translate into a strong leader. “We have all seen it,” Taylor says. “High-performing CSMs get promoted, and suddenly they flounder. Performance is not the same as readiness.” At Atlassian, she introduced a different path. Instead of waiting until promotion day to introduce leadership concepts, her team created real-time feedback loops and executive roundtables. These gave CSMs a safe environment to practice strategic thinking and decision making before stepping into formal leadership roles. She compares it to preparing for a marathon. “You do not wait until race day to build endurance. You build the muscle before the heavy lift.” This kind of preparation ensures that when someone does receive a leadership title, they are equipped with both confidence and capability. It is less about trial by fire and more about gradual, intentional growth.
Give People a Runway, Not Just a Role
Smart organizations also recognize that leadership development should begin long before a vacancy appears. Taylor learned this while overseeing global operations at Teleperformance, where she managed more than 7,000 employees across multiple regions. At that scale, there was no margin for error. “We did not wait for people to leave or for roles to open,” she explains. “We built a leadership runway with frameworks for mentorship, structured training, and opportunities to work across departments.” The results were tangible. The organization stayed under budget while promoting three new vice presidents in a single fiscal year. The system worked because it allowed individuals to grow steadily into leadership, instead of being thrown in unprepared. As Taylor puts it, “Leaders need liftoff, not last-minute assignments.”
Make Leadership a Customer Success Metric
Perhaps Taylor’s most important insight came while working at SolarWinds, where she reframed leadership development entirely. Instead of treating it as an HR initiative, she positioned leadership strength as a measurable customer success metric. “Leadership is a customer success performance indicator,” she explains. “When we tied leadership development to adoption, churn, and renewal data, the impact was undeniable. Better leaders created stronger teams, and those teams delivered better customer outcomes.” The logic is simple. Customers feel the difference when they are supported by empowered, well-led teams. Strong leadership translates directly into smoother adoption, stronger relationships, and higher renewal rates.
Building Leadership on Purpose
Taylor’s approach can be summarized in three principles. First, do not assume your best performers are ready to lead without preparation. Second, build development programs before you urgently need them. Third, connect leadership growth directly to customer success metrics so the investment is both measurable and impactful. “Leadership pipelines are not a luxury,” she emphasizes. “They are a strategy.”Organizations that embrace this philosophy do not scramble to fill gaps when someone leaves. Instead, they maintain a steady flow of capable leaders who are ready to step in and strengthen customer outcomes from day one.
Taylor’s message is clear and inspiring. “Prep your people. Build the runway. Tie it all back to the customer. Because when leadership grows, everything grows.” By taking this intentional approach, companies not only fill leadership roles more effectively but also create a culture that customers can feel. The result is stronger teams, better experiences, and long-term growth that benefits everyone involved.
Connect with Keyonna LaGrone Taylor on LinkedIn to explore more insights on leadership development.
