At this level, many leaders are still running plays from the layer below and feel stretched rather than elevated. The work has changed. It’s less about this quarter’s number and more about what you’re building and why: strategy, influence, alignment and culture.

It can also be a lonely place. You’re too senior to work through problems openly with your team, and you don’t always want to raise them with the executive team.

Sound familiar?

• You’re accountable for outcomes that depend on teams you don’t control.

• Marketing, RevOps, Customer Success and partners each run their own version of the plan.

• A restructure or change has landed, and your team didn’t ask for it.

• You’re building an operating model across countries or segments, and what works in one market doesn’t translate to another.

• Your executive stakeholders expect strategy, but your week is spent on escalations.

Alignment through influence

Growth at this level comes from alignment, not individual heroics. The best senior leaders bring the functions around them into one rhythm:

• RevOps as a co-designer of the go-to-market model, not just a reporting function

• Marketing co-owning pipeline against shared targets, rather than arguing about lead quality

• BDRs measured on pipeline value and treated as your sensors in the market

• Customer Success as a partner in growth, with joint account planning, not a handoff

• Partners and alliances treated as an extension of your sales force, with clear rules of engagement and shared goals

None of this can be imposed. It’s earned through a shared story about where the business is going, listening before leading, and making the wins visible.

Directors manage the way they’re managed

If the first question you ask your directors each week is about a deal, they’ll spend the week in deals. Ask instead how strong their managers are and where they’re developing. What you ask about shapes what your organisation pays attention to.

What we work on

• An operating model that balances a common spine with local judgment

• Leading change and communicating it well

• Influencing executives, boards and peers across functions

• Defining a vision and purpose your organisation can get behind

• Your tone as the culture multiplier: what spreads from you through every layer