A CEO’s Journey Back to Restorative Leadership
A Case Study
Abstract
This case study explores how TGTHR, a Boulder, Colorado-based non-profit working to end youth homelessness, navigated a period of acute organizational crisis through restorative leadership and courageous self-awareness at the executive level. Rather than offering a traditional turnaround narrative, the story highlights the CEO’s willingness to lead vulnerably, acknowledge ruptures, and engage deeply in restorative work even as conditions worsened. Through its partnership with Intersectional Innovations, a leading EBI consulting firm, TGTHR stabilized not by bypassing conflict, but by embracing a relational, equity-rooted approach to repair and culture-building. As the organization enters its next chapter, the CEO is intentionally returning to restorative practices: underscoring their value not just in recovery, but in long-term cultural stewardship.
This case study offers rare and practical insight into what it looks like when active restorative leadership chooses transparency, humility, and restorative over performance and perfectionism. It explores TGTHR’s transformation through a restorative lens and centers Annie’s personal journey as CEO highlighting her emotional toll of the crisis, the self-reflection required to show up differently, and the courage it took to choose vulnerability when conditions continued to worsen. This article exposes the messiness of true cultural change and how restorative leadership rarely looks clean and tidy and how returning to the “why” after conflict can rebuild trust one conversation at a time.
Continue reading From Crisis to Comeback – By Sabrina Sanchez, Yeruwelle De Rouen
Jerry Colonna is a leading executive coach who uses the skills he learned as a venture capitalist to help entrepreneurs. He is a co-founder and CEO of Reboot, the executive coaching and leadership development company, host of the Reboot Podcast, and author of Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong and Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up .
Daphne Jones serves on the Boards of three public companies—AMN Healthcare, the Barnes Group, and Masonite International—where she offers critical business savvy, cyber security expertise, and digital insights. Previously, she enjoyed a 30+-year corporate career at some of the world’s most recognizable companies, such as GE, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and Hospira (now Pfizer).
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