Your first C-level role

The following is a summary of a conversation amongst some fellow product leaders around stepping into the C-suite for the first time.

You’re already doing the role
- You are already the de facto leader at Exec and Board level
- You are running major cross-functional initiatives at a company level
- You have established peer relationships with the rest of the Exec team
You have the skills
- Self awareness
- Growth mindset
- Functional credentials
- Soft skills to negotiate, influence and communicate at the right level
You feel ready
- You want to embrace a new challenge
- You have an appetite for making different types of decisions within the company
- Some people may never feel ready - sometimes you have to jump and figure it out along the way.

Major learnings
- A lot of the problems go beyond your areas of functional expertise e.g. CPO overseeing customer support
- Your audience changes - you now interact a lot with Exec and Board level audience who often don’t understand product and may not make the effort to
- Collaboration is key - the Exec team is now your primary team, so you need to build deep collaborative relationships across that entire team
- You are judged entirely on results - people don’t care about the how, they just want to be able to trust that you’ll get shit done.
- Your relationship with your Product team changes
- You have greater autonomy in decision-making (in the right environments)
- Your head will be the first to roll if things aren’t going well
Things to watch out for
- Are you set up for success in the role?
- What are the power dynamics like at the Exec level?
- Are there other C-level Execs with product understanding?
- How can you keep learning and growing if you’re the most senior person in your function? It can be lonely at the top!
- Managing your wellbeing and work-life balance

Useful resources: