If you’re a senior leader having a hard quarter right now, this is for you.I’m not talking about the kind of “hard quarter” that ends up in your annual review as a growth moment. The actual kind.The one where the numbers are off, the team is tense, the executive above you is concerned, and you…

Twenty-something years ago, someone gave me a piece of feedback I still think about every week.  Early in my career, a senior leader gave me a piece of feedback I’d like to give you. I was about five years into a talent acquisition role. Doing well, working hard, raising my hand for everything. I asked…

Most senior candidates discover the bad culture six weeks after they start. The signs were almost always there in the interview process. They just weren’t reading for them. In 20+ years, here’s what I’ve learned to watch for and what I now tell every senior client to read for during interviews. None of these are…

After 20+ years watching senior careers play out, I’ve come to believe something that sounds dramatic but isn’t: Your career is shaped less by the roles you take than by six specific conversations you have along the way. Most senior leaders can’t tell you when they had these conversations, or with whom, because the conversations…

Senior candidates prepare obsessively for their interviews. Almost none of them prepare their references the same way. In 20+ years on the hiring side, I’ve sat through hundreds of reference calls. Here’s what I’ve watched happen, repeatedly:The candidate sailed through the interview process. Got to the offer stage. Provided three references — usually old bosses,…

Most career advice is written for two seasons — the search and the role. Almost nothing is written for the in-between. The season where you’re still in the role but quietly outgrowing it. The months between resigning and starting somewhere new. The stretch where you took the leap and you’re not yet where you’re going.…

In 20+ years of interviewing senior candidates, I’ve watched one question consistently catch even the most polished people off guard: “Tell me about a time you failed.” Senior candidates prepare for the technical questions. They prepare for the leadership questions. They’ve rehearsed their “tell me about yourself.” They have their compensation answer ready. Then “tell…

A director I worked with last quarter said the same thing in three different sentences during our first session: “Sorry, I’m rambling.”“This might not be helpful, but…”“I know I’m probably wrong here…” I asked her if I could share a pattern I was noticing. She nodded. I told her: in the first 15 minutes of…

Senior leaders are told constantly to “be coachable.” I think it’s the wrong frame. “Coachable” suggests being open to whatever someone wants to teach you. Accepting feedback. Adjusting. Improving. That sounds healthy. In practice, at the senior level, it often produces a specific kind of damage: leaders who absorb every piece of feedback indiscriminately and…