The hallmark of an executive is discipline1,2. The discipline to do what the organization needs. The differentiation between a senior manager and an executive is whether they can ensure, and are responsible for, their company function delivers more value than it costs3.
Leadership
Communication
- Executive Presence
- Re-routing the narrative
- Answering a binary, zero-sum question
- Gokul Rajaram has a useful template for the “CEO weekly email”, this might be adaptable to other roles and functions but seems to have a high administrative overhead4.
Organizational Change and Change Management
Strategy
- Metrics
- A counterpoint to rise of managing by metrics is Goodhart’s Law.
- Risk Management
1. Horstman, M. & Auzenne, M. The Hallmark Of the Executive - Part 1 - HOF 2022. (22 AD).
2. Horstman, M. & Auzenne, M. The Hallmark Of the Executive - Part 2 - HOF 2022. (22 AD).
3. Danger, J. Executive Engineering: Practical Engineering Theory for Software Leaders. (The Technical Executive, 2024).
4. Rajaram, G. The weekly CEO e-mail. https://medium.com/@gokulrajaram/the-weekly-ceo-e-mail-b5eaafcee6fa (2018).