Growth Partner
Beyond expert executor
to market leader
EY does not have an authority problem. Partners are experienced, credible, and trusted. The challenge sits somewhere else: market growth increasingly depends on behaviours that many partners were never trained, encouraged, or rewarded to practise consistently.
Growth today requires people to initiate conversations without waiting for demand, reach out beyond familiar clients and comfortable markets, build relationships before there is a clear commercial outcome, tolerate uncertainty and rejection, and then follow through deliberately over time. Most partners understand this. They recognise its importance.
The gap is not awareness. It is identity.
It requires a shift from seeing oneself primarily as an expert executor to embracing market leadership — where proactive activation, strategic curiosity, and commercial ownership become part of who you are, not just what you occasionally do.
This shift often does require new skills. But those behaviours only emerge consistently when partners see growth as part of who they are, not just something they are expected to do.
Growth Partner is designed and facilitated by Dr. Justin Cohen, drawing on over two decades of work with partners and senior leaders globally, including within EY.
The Growth Partner Profile
If growth is primarily an identity challenge, the first step is to make current identity visible, without judgement
Ahead of the session, partners complete the Growth Partner Profile as a brief, private reflection. Individual results remain confidential, with only aggregated results shared in the session to provide a cohort-level view.
The profile focuses on two simple dimensions:
  • Relationship Orientation — the extent to which client interactions are trust-based, long-term, and human-centred
  • Market Activation — the extent to which individuals proactively initiate conversations, follow up, and create momentum in the market
Technical expertise is assumed throughout. The question is how that expertise is expressed, through delivery alone, or through trust and activation in the market.
The result is a clear quadrant that helps participants see their current orientation.
Identity creates behaviour. We can now surface the unconscious beliefs that sustain that identity and challenge the ones that prevent evolution into a Growth Partner.

“We won one of our most important deals of the year after applying Justin’s method.”- Ajen Sita, EY Africa Regional Managing Partner
- Why Growth Efforts Often Fail to Change Behaviour
The Hidden Barrier
When resistance remains unexamined, it quietly determines behaviour — regardless of intent or capability.
Many growth initiatives focus intensely on strategy, targets, tools, and messaging. They provide frameworks, playbooks, and market intelligence. What they rarely address is something far more decisive: resistance.
Market-facing behaviours often trigger identity dissonance that partners experience but rarely voice openly. These usually show up as specific beliefs.
"I'm not a salesperson"
A sense that proactive outreach conflicts with professional identity and undermines the credibility built through technical excellence.
"If people need us they will ask"
The belief that business is demand driven and brand reputation is sufficient to generate it .
"I don't want to feel pushy"
Discomfort with initiating conversations where value hasn't been explicitly requested or where outcomes remain uncertain.
"This isn't where my real value lies"
A belief that market development activities detract from the deep, substantive work that truly differentiates the firm.
"Reaching out feels inefficient"
Concern that relationship-building without immediate opportunity represents poor use of limited time and attention.
"I'll do this once things calm down"
Perpetual deferral driven by the competing demands of delivery work, which always feels more urgent and concrete.
These responses are not excuses. They are attempts to remain internally consistent to protect an identity that has been shaped and rewarded over time.
Growth stalls not because people don't know what to do, but because the reasons not to do it are never surfaced or worked with systematically. Real change happens when resistance is made visible and addressed directly, not bypassed with better tools or stronger mandates.
The Identity Shift That Enables Market Growth
This initiative is built around a deliberate identity shift that redefines how partners create and capture value in the market. It represents a fundamental evolution in professional self-concept.
Technical excellence remains absolutely essential. What changes is how that value is expressed, positioned, and delivered in the market. Partners begin to see themselves not only as problem-solvers who respond to demand, but as opportunity creators who shape demand through strategic relationships and timely engagement.
Reframing Market Engagement
Market engagement is reframed not as "selling" — which carries connotations of persuasion and transaction — but as leadership, contribution, and service in action.
This shift does not live in language or mindset alone. It shows up in what partners choose to do — or avoid — each day. It becomes visible in calendar commitments, conversation priorities, and the small but consequential decisions about where to invest time and attention.

“We are experiencing early returns on our investment with a clear increase in sales numbers.” - Raymond O’Neil, MD, HSBC Middle East Finance Company
Growth Partner Habits
Growth does not scale through isolated behaviours. It scales through habits. The difference is repetition. Growth Partner habits are the small, consistent actions that signal market ownership, relationship depth, and proactive activation.
Initiating outreach
Making contact to build or maintain relationships even when there is no immediate commercial need.
Reconnecting
Re-engaging with clients and contacts where conversations have gone quiet.
Expanding networks
Reaching beyond familiar clients, local markets, and established service lines to explore opportunities.
Asking for uncertain conversations
Requesting meetings or introductions where the the path to value is not yet clear.
Staying engaged despite setbacks
Maintaining persistence and consistency even when facing rejection, silence, or lack of immediate return on effort.
Taking ownership for follow-through
Ensuring continuity and momentum without relying on formal systems, reminders, or administrative support structures.
More than introduce behaviours, this programme is designed to install habits. Through structured accountability, peer reinforcement, and repeatable practice, Growth Partner behaviours become embedded patterns, visible in day-to-day market activity.
Building Growth Partner Capability
There are four human capabilities that consistently determine whether market behaviours actually happen when the pressure is on.
Growth Mindset
Shifting from know-it-all to learn-it-all: seeing effort as development, rejection as information, and challenge as growth
Confidence
The ability to initiate uncomfortable conversations and stay present when prospects express doubt or resistance,
Relational Capability
Building trust and rapport, listening empathically, to surface real client needs and opportunities.
Accountability
The true measure of change is when behaviour becomes habit. Here, we install the system that converts intention into repeatable action.
These capabilities are positioned as practical supports for real market behaviour — tools that participants can immediately apply when facing the specific challenges their roles demand.
Throughout the day, partners practice using these capabilities in scenarios that mirror their actual work context, receiving feedback and refining their approach in real time.
“Justin is one of the most engaging and entertaining master teachers you’ll ever learn from.” - Marc Kahn, Head of Strategy, Investec Global
Growth Partner Augmented: AI-Supported Coaching
Using EY’s own AI platform, partners learn to use AI as a private rehearsal and reflection space, a place to think, test language, and sharpen their approach. This enables immediate, constructive feedback, driving preparation and confidence before real-world conversations.
Used strategically, AI doesn’t replace the essential human element of the Growth Partner relationship. Instead, it significantly reduces the emotional friction, enabling partners to consistently take actions they know are vital for growth.
"This wasn’t AI hype, you showed our leadership team how to use AI practically, to improve how we think and work." JP Blignaut, Group CEO, Bryte Insurance
The One-Day Growth Partner Experience
The One-Day Growth Partner Experience brings together reflection, capability-building, and behavioural commitment into a coherent five-step journey.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
In a competitive, relationship-driven market, where AI is doing more and more of the heavy lifting, growth no longer comes from expertise alone. but rather visible actions that build trust, relevance, and opportunity over time, often before outcomes are clear or measurable.
What Changes by the End of the Day
A tangible shift in mindset, behavior and culture.
Shared Language
A common vocabulary for discussing growth behaviour that enables clearer team communication
Pattern Recognition
Understanding of personal resistance patterns and the specific triggers that cause hesitation
Peer Examples
Visible evidence of growth already happening among colleagues facing similar challenges
Identity-Based Habits
Simple, trackable habits rather than one-off actions, grounded in a growth identity.
Growth stops being something people intend to do someday when conditions are perfect. It becomes something they know how to practice — even when it's uncomfortable, even when outcomes are uncertain, even when the easier path would be to avoid the conversation altogether.
Justin Cohen is one of the most informative, entertaining and inspiring speakers I’ve seen. He is the key reason that this year’s annual convention was rated our best." - Dave Goranson, President, American Society for Training and Development
Sustaining Growth
The one-day Growth Partner Experience is designed to shift behavior. What follows is designed to sustain it, ensuring that growth behavior does not quietly fade back into intention.
The 30-Day Growth Partner Pledge
At the end of the experience, participants make a time-bound, practical pledge. This is not a broad aspiration, but a specific behavioral commitment:
  • One or two concrete growth behaviors to practice.
  • Anticipate where resistance is most likely to show up.
  • Plan specific actions for when resistance occurs.
A short follow-up experience share, one month later activates social accountability.
Making Growth Visible Through Stories
Sustained behavioral change requires visible examples. Participants are encouraged to share Growth Partner Stories, highlighting where proactive outreach, relationship building or follow-through made a difference. These stories don't just recognize excellence, they create a learning and development opportunity.
Additionally, selected Growth Partner Stories may be featured to recognise growth behaviour and make it visible across the partnership.
“I never realized how powerful storytelling is. This will have a significant impact on our business.” — Mark Finlayson, MD, Direct Axis
Growth Partner Digital Program
To support sustained behaviour change beyond the day, Growth Partner can be extended through a lightweight, mobile-friendly digital experience.
This program reinforces the four core capabilities introduced in the live session — growth mindset, accountability, confidence, and relational capability.
The focus is on applying these capabilities in real market situations as they arise, particularly when resistance or hesitation returns.
Ongoing Learning Through Growth Partner Interviews
To reinforce learning, selected Growth Partner stories are developed into short podcast style interviews featuring partners within the Netherlands and across the wider EY network. These interviews surface:
  • How growth genuinely happens in diverse contexts.
  • Strategies for navigating hesitation and rejection.
  • Methods for activating and nurturing relationships over time.
These interviews will be available for partners to listen to on their mobile phones, at their convenience.
From Event to Practice
Together, these follow-up mechanisms transform the Growth Partner experience from a single event into a continuous practice. They create:
  • Continuity between initial insight and sustained action.
  • Social proof that growth behavior is valued and rewarded.
  • A learning loop grounded in real-world experience.
Growth shifts from something discussed in a room to something consistently noticed, recognized, and practiced over time.

“Deeply customized. Always going above and beyond. That’s why we keep having him back.” - Pamela Spence, EY Global Industry Leader
Meet Dr. Justin Cohen, Creator of Growth Partner
Growth Partner was created by Dr. Justin Cohen, a psychologist, global keynote speaker, and advisor to leadership teams. For over two decades, he has specialized in the intersection of psychology, behavior change, and performance.
His work focuses on bridging the critical gap between knowing what drives results and actually doing it. Justin’s approach combines behavioral science with practical, experience-led learning, fostering identity-level change for sustainable growth.

Dr. Justin Cohen is a Hall of Fame Speaker, bestselling author and former CNBC Africa prime time host.
Growth Partner: A Culture Lever
Growth Partner is more than just a program; it is a strategic culture lever designed to help partners not only develop growth-oriented behaviours, but embed them as sustained habits that drive market success.