Greg Stevenson lays out five actions for executives aiming at CEO roles: be specific about the job, build an external profile, nurture relationships, do personal development work, and find an "Honest Mirror"—a trusted mentor who has been CEO and will tell you what you're missing. Most executives fail because they lack this unbiased feedback.
This is the 5th thing, and in some ways the most important. It is to find someone who will give you completely honest feedback on where you actually are. That's not your manager. It's not your peers. It's not the people whose careers depend on staying on your good side. It's someone with no agenda. Someone who's been where you're trying to get to. Someone who can tell you the truth about the gap between where you are and genuinely ready. Most executives don't have that person in their world, and as a result, they arrive at the CEO threshold with blind spots they don't know they have. They perform well in the interview, they feel ready, and they don't get the role, and they don't know why. The Honest Mirror is the thing that closes that gap. It's the most valuable investment you can make in the next 24 months. So there they are, the 5 things. Get specific about what you want. Build your external profile now. Activate the right relationships. Do the interior work. And find an honest mirror. None of these are complicated. All of them require deliberate effort. And the executives who are doing all 5 consistently over the next 12 months are the ones who will be in the conversation when the right role comes up. So if you're a senior executive who's serious about the CEO role and you want to talk about what this actually looks like for you, your specific situation, there's a link below. 30-minute discussion, no pitch, just an honest conversation. I'm Greg Stevenson, and this is what I do.
