After over twenty years placing executives, I’m now witnessing how the business world is being completely transformed.
The world got faster. Boards got impatient. The bar got higher.
Image by Ryoji Iwata
External forces are hitting execution hard:
AI is disrupting entire business models.
Digital platforms are reshaping what customers expect.
Geopolitics are breaking markets.
Regulations are shifting faster than strategy.
And capital? It’s getting harder to find, and even harder to justify.
Internal pressures aren’t letting up either:
Teams are still navigating the realities of hybrid work.
Four generations are trying to collaborate—with wildly different norms and expectations.
Change keeps accelerating, and people are tired.
Burnout is rising. Focus is slipping. Productivity is suffering.
Boards don’t want steady managers anymore. They want leaders who spot threats early, move decisively through uncertainty, and act while competitors freeze.
The New Rules
If you’re an executive right now, here’s what matters:
- Find problems that need your brain. Not just your experience, not your network – your way of thinking. The best executives aren’t chasing titles. They’re chasing problems only they can solve.
- Know your conditions. You have an environment where you’re unstoppable. Figure out what it is. The context, company culture, maturity level, pressure, team size, speed of change. That’s not random, that’s your operating system.
- Stop fixing your weaknesses. Double down on what makes you dangerous. The world has enough well-rounded executives. It needs more exceptional ones who transform things and make the impossible possible.
- Choose your moment. Scale, fix, build, or transform. Pick the fight that fits your strengths.
- Get clear on what you believe. Leadership philosophy in one sentence. If you need a paragraph, you don’t have one.
The executives winning right now aren’t the most experienced ones. They’re the most self-aware, they are leaders who understand their unique value and know exactly where they create exponential impact.
We help executives figure out their next right move.
