I had a manager tell me that midway through my career as I started getting more exposure to the C-suite. He was right.
Every level you move up in an organization the more the heat and pressure rises. It’s just the nature of it. It’s also a big adjustment the first time you experience it. You might even get burned.
As you circle closer in orbit to the CEO the expectations are higher, the pace is faster, the workload is heavier and patience for learning as you go diminishes dramatically.
To do well – be prepared, be proactive, communicate clearly and concisely, find and present solutions to problems, don’t hide, own mistakes and most importantly know your shit.
You have to really know your part of the business, because rest assured they will ask super detailed questions about whatever it is you present and if you don’t have a deep understanding of what’s driving whatever it is your presenting it’s going to be a problem.
That said, it’s also some of the best and most impactful times of your career if you do it right.
